RE: [bc-gnso] Secretary Pritzker's Best Quote today

["J. Scott Evans" <jscottevans@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Can I get an amen!!??!!

From: sdelbianco@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: bc-gnso@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bc-gnso] Secretary Pritzker's Best Quote today
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 16:40:09 +0000








In today’s opening ceremony, US Commerce Secretary Pritzker said: 

















WE MUST ENSURE THAT ICANN CAN BUILD ON ITS EFFORTS TO STRENGTHEN THE 
MULTISTAKEHOLDER PROCESS AND BECOME
DIRECTLY ACCOUNTABLE TO THE CUSTOMERS OF THE IANA FUNCTIONS 
AND TO THE BROADER INTERNET COMMUNITY.











Yep, she said DIRECTLY ACCOUNTABLE TO THE COMMUNITY.   That’s our point exactly.
















With her full remarks below
















FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Monday, October 13, 2014


 


News Media Contact:

Office of Public Affairs, 202-482-4883

 


U.S. SECRETARY OF COMMERCE PENNY PRITZKER DELIVERS REMARKS AT THE INTERNET 
CORPORATION FOR ASSIGNED NAMES AND NUMBERS MEETING


 


Remarks As Prepared for Delivery


 


Thank you, Steve Crocker, for your introduction and for your leadership as the 
Chairman of ICANN. I also want to thank you, Fadi Chehade, and the entire Board 
of ICANN for bringing together
 so many leaders in the global internet community and for taking the lead in 
advancing the multistakeholder process. And I want to acknowledge Assistant 
Secretary Larry Strickling and our entire team at the National 
Telecommunications and Information Administration
 (NTIA) for their daily work on Internet policy issues, domain name system 
issues, and protecting the Internet as an engine for innovation and prosperity.

 


We come together at a time when Internet governance is as important as ever. 
The fact is that we must do everything we can to protect and preserve this 
revolutionary platform that is the
 essential connector of people, economies, and communities across the planet. I 
do not have to tell anyone in this room that more people are working, shopping, 
interacting, and learning online than ever before – all because of the work so 
many of you have done
 throughout the years to build and strengthen this system.

 


I hope all of you will read my friend Walter Isaacson’s wonderful new book, The 
Innovators.  In it, Walter says that collaborative creativity is what drives 
technological advancement
 -- and I quote -- that “innovation comes from teams more often than from the 
light bulb moments of lone genius.” Walter is absolutely right. Of course, we 
owe much to those light bulb moments, but innovators are by nature 
collaborators. That is, no one person
 alone can turn a cutting-edge discovery into a world changing product or a 
service without a team. History makes that clear: it is that same collaboration 
that has enabled the Internet to become what it is today. Facilitated initially 
by U.S. government investment
 through DARPA, the Internet as we now know it was built off of one inventive 
leap on top of another -- And through the amazing genius ranging from Vint Cerf 
to Bob Kahn to Steve Crocker to Tim Berners Lee to Marc Andreessen to so many 
others. Their work has
 given us the most dynamic communications and connective platform that the 
world has ever seen.








The Internet indeed improves quality of life for millions and enables people 
from all over the globe to achieve greater economic opportunity. Without the 
Internet, a teenager from a remote
 village in southern India would not have been able to create his own business. 
 Abin Jose Tom was 19 years old when he was given a school assignment to create 
a website. Five years later, Abin’s project is now a global web solutions and 
design company named
 Webandcrafts, with more than 550 clients worldwide. We live in an era when all 
an entrepreneur needs to start, build, and promote a business is a mobile 
device and a Wi-Fi connection. Put simply, the Internet is a fundamental 
gateway to new growth for developing
 nations and continued prosperity for developed nations.
 

The Internet is also a vital platform for free expression and the exchange of 
ideas.  And that is why I stand before you today to make this fundamental 
promise: the United States will protect
 and preserve a free, vibrant and open Internet.
 

At the Department of Commerce, we are proud to call ourselves America’s 
innovation and data agency. As someone who comes from the private sector and 
started five companies, I know first-hand
 the essential role the Internet plays in making sure businesses are able to 
compete globally. I have the privilege of being President Obama’s point person 
on entrepreneurship.  In leading our Presidential Ambassadors for Global 
Entrepreneurship, I get to work
 with some of America’s most successful CEOs to inspire the next generation of 
entrepreneurs at home and abroad. In my 15 months as Secretary, I have visited 
more than 20 countries.  And everywhere we travel—from Ghana to the 
Philippines—the innovators we meet
 make clear that the web is a critical tool needed for success. That is why we 
must all work together to protect the Internet, and to keep it open and free. 
Our global economy and the young entrepreneurs of the world are counting on us.
 

Indeed, the Internet has become a fixture of modern life, not just in the 
United States and the West, but in big cities, rural villages, and small towns 
across the globe. Consider the transformations
 of recent years:
 

·         Twenty years ago, there were 16 million Internet users. Today, that 
number is over 2.5 billion.

·         In 2008, roughly 1.5 billion devices were connected to the Internet. 
Today, there are an estimated 7.5 billion.
 By 2018, experts predict that figure to exceed 18 billion.

·         And the people largely driving this growth are living in developing 
countries, where the number of households
 with Internet access has more than doubled in the past five years.
 


All of this means that we are at a critical moment for ICANN and the important 
work you do. This means that how we govern and use the Internet is of global 
importance. This means that consensus
 decisions related to the Internet domain name system made today in Los Angeles 
can shape lives and livelihoods in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and elsewhere 
not just today but long into the future.
 

All of us are stakeholders in a strong and vibrant, global Internet. The 
Internet has thrived precisely because citizens around the world have a voice 
in how the Internet is governed. That
 is why we -- the United States government -- support multistakeholder 
processes. This is our bedrock principle for Internet governance. Let me be 
clear about this. The United States will not allow the global Internet to be 
coopted by any person, entity, or
 nation seeking to substitute their parochial worldview for the collective 
wisdom of this community – you, the community of stakeholders represented so 
well here today.
 

As such, that is why six months ago NTIA announced the decision to transition 
its stewardship role over the Internet Domain Name System to the global 
multistakeholder communities. From the
 inception of ICANN in 1998, the United States government envisioned that its 
role with respect to the IANA functions would be temporary. Over the years, 
many stakeholders took comfort in the fact that the United States provided some 
level of stewardship over
 ICANN. I have been encouraged by the way the global community and ICANN have 
stepped up to develop the transition proposal. We rally our allies and will 
continue to build international coalitions to support multistakeholder 
governance of the Internet. And
 we are strong supporters of an ICANN that is committed to the idea of 
individual voices coming to consensus decisions.
 

We must all recognize, however, that this was not inevitable, and we should not 
take it for granted. We all know that multistakeholder governance, and 
institutions like ICANN, are under intense
 and unprecedented pressure and scrutiny. Yet we are confident that the 
multistakeholder model offers the greatest assurance that the Internet will 
continue to thrive. And we must work together to ensure that the Internet 
remains an engine for economic growth,
 innovation, and free expression. We must continue to work hard to sustain 
multistakeholder governance, because it has enemies who want to reduce Internet 
governance to a meeting of governmental technocrats promoting narrow national 
interests.
 

We must make clear this approach is the best tool to secure the openness and 
the vibrancy of the Internet. We must ensure that ICANN can build on its 
efforts to strengthen the multistakeholder
 process and can become directly accountable to the customers of the IANA 
functions and to the broader Internet community.
 

Next week, at the International Telecommunication Union Conference in Korea, we 
will see proposals to put governments in charge of Internet governance. You can 
rest assured that the United
 States will oppose these efforts at every turn.

We know that those interested in government control tend to be countries that 
censor content and stifle the free flow of information. We will be clear that 
these steps are contrary to our
 belief in the value of free speech – whether on the Internet, in society, in 
the public sphere – both here at home and abroad. We will remind all players – 
in each instance – that the multistakeholder model will preserve and protect a 
strong and resilient
 Internet.
 

In closing, the world is watching ICANN, and some are waiting for us to fail. 
But we cannot – and must not – let that happen. We have to get this transition 
right. Make no mistake: I stand
 by ICANN. I am “all in” when it comes to the global debate over Internet 
governance.  And we will preserve and protect a free and open internet. >From 
the birth of the Internet through the present day, this community has stood 
together on the cutting edge of
 the drive to extend access to and the reach of the Internet – a key path for 
growth and success in the 21st century. And in every forum, the United States 
will remain a steadfast champion of the Internet, working to ensure that it 
remains an open
 platform for economic opportunity, innovation, and free expression.



But moving forward, all of us need to step up – like my friend Walter likes to 
say:
 

·         We must collaborate to protect and expand the global Internet;

·         We must collaborate to ensure that the Internet continues to flourish;

·         And we must collaborate to guarantee that the Internet remains a 
gateway to prosperity and free expression the
 world over.
 

Thank you all for gathering together today and every day to advance our shared 
vision of a more open, more free, and more accessible Internet.
 

###