HI Ali,

On Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 11:46 PM, Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke> wrote:

Listers

Apologies for cross-posting.

As the US signals its willingness to give up oversight of the Internet to a global multi-stakeholder constituent I can't seem to help but wonder whether I should repeat the old adage:-

'Be careful what you wish for'.

In the aftermath of Snowdenia it is not unreasonable for us to have had the knee jerk reactions of the kind that erupted all over the world. Now the Multi-stakeholder community must have sober discourse, which must involve private sector for profit and do gooders, governments and the citizenry of the world at large. Even when this discourse degenerates into a Tower of Babel we must not loose sight of the ultimate goal:-

A Free, Borderless Internet where information and commerce flows without the overpowering big brother oversight that the likes of Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran seem to be advocating and which the US has been stealthily practicing behind everyone's back.

Can we rise up to the challenge?

http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303546204579439653103639452?mobile=y

Countries like Kenya have the opportunity to take leadership in this new dispensation.

I'm not so sure Countries as "nation states" do have that opportunity. This is all about the transition to the Private Sector (now called Multi-Stakeholderism) that was envisioned nearly 20 years ago in the White and Green Papers. In other words ICANN will be "floating free" of these USG ties. We already have several activist Kenyans in ICANN circles, perhaps we could focus on more outreach to bring in more?

--
Cheers,

McTim
"A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how we get there." Jon Postel