Toni Alatalo: Internet Soc. Task Force (ISTF)

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Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 21:59:54 +0300 (EEST)
From: Toni Alatalo <antont@an.org>
To: nettime-l@Desk.nl
cc: tietotekniikka.wow@talentum.fi, editor@isoc.org, idea@netppl.fi,
        tol@rieska.oulu.fi, foo-l@lists.netppl.fi, kiasmapro@fng.fi
Subject: Internet Soc. Task Force (ISTF)

The Internet Society (ISOC) - actually Vint Cerf himself - will announce
tomorrow on Friday the ISTF: Internet Social/ety/ietal (not decided yet)
Task Force for the public here at the Inet'99 conference in San Jose,
Silicon Valley.

First time I was discussing the issue was 1997 in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur,
when it had become evident that most of the problems the Internet fas
facing were - and are to even wider extent today - other than technical.

Yet people from the engineering community, like Vint himself and late Jon
Postel of IANA, where even forced to deal with social/economical/political
and regulatory and law issues .. which many of them really didn't like.

Back then in Malaysia, right after the Inet'97 conference, there was a
session where some politician from Malta (I think the former Minister of
Forreign Affairs or something - have unfortunately forgot his name) and
some other serious people presented what they'd found out after studying
the political structures of the Internet and essentially how the IETF
works (RFCs, working groups, the principle of "rough concensus and running
code" etc.) and if that could serve as a model for other international
organizations as well (instead of, say, the UN model and governments).

On Tuesday I asked Vint was happened to all this. We were in the press
lunch, in front of the new ISOC Board Members and all the reporters from
New York Times, Wired and who knows what, and he didn't answer much.
YEsterday (on Wednesday) the board told me, that they couldn't answer
then, 'cause they hadn't finished discussing the issue yet. But now they
have decided to support it and Vint himself is in charge. Yesterday when I
asked him about what's happening on Friday he encouraged me to write about
this when I'd feel like it and that is now.

For me this is the best news in ages. I've had trouble relating to ISOC
'cause of the engineering centricm, altough back home in Finland I've used
to working with engineers in the ISP business all the time and the Inets
are crowded with all kinds of people - even artists lately which I find
great! - but the board and the IETF itself have been very dominating. I
think with the ISTF the Internet Society will be better balanced and have
much more energy to deal with te issues it has to.

So I encourage you all to take a close look at this. What I'm looking
forward to receicing from the nettime/waag/rewired/v2/relab/name.space
etc. communities is criticism. 

I'm to close to see if anything might be wrong in this. Quite the opposite
.. I'm still an-Internet believer .. at least during the Inets and long
after them every year. Altough we are dealing here with heavy issues, like
using the Internet as a form a new imperialism in developing countries and
the danger of secret agencies monitorin/controlling Kosovar refugees with
the help of modern IT - I still believe in the power of the net to do good
if we manage to handle it well. (gee)

Hm. Something started to trouble my mind. I guess I head for a walk.
http://www.isoc.org/inet99/ should be informative and http://an.org/
something else. Thanks for interest (in case the moderators let this
through ;)

+ an +				~ Toni ~ 		: (t	.	!