Is There A Third Way For The Internet: Neither The US Nor The UN But Independence?

On Tuesday November 12 2013 the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) hosted an e-conference on Internet Governance titled: "Is There A Third Way For The Internet: Neither The US Nor The UN But Independence?" The conference asked the question "Are there models of internet governance that establish internet independence from the US without the UN or other governments expanding their influence or control? What are their advantages and disadvantages?" Speakers included:Eli Noam, Director, CITI; John Curran, President and CEO, American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN); Alejandro Pisanty, Director of Computing Academic Services, National Autonomous University of Mexico, ICANN Board Member; Fred Goldstein, Interisle Consulting Group, Senior Member of the IEEE; Milton Mueller, Professor, Syracuse University; Lorenzo Pupillo, Economist, Telecom Italia; Fred Golstein, Interisle Consulting Group, Senior member of the IEEE; and Robert Atkinson of CITI. Moderator was Dave Burstein of ISOC-NY.

http://isoc-ny.org/p2/6092

[Lorenzo Pupillo] This Lorenzo Puillo, can you hear me?

[Jason Buckweitz] Yes, Hi Lorenzo.

[John Curran] This is John Curran. I'm here.

[Robert Atkinson] We've got the list going, so..

everybody could chime in, although I guess the ISOC

people who are viewing through Isoc, we don't know them, or..

[Dave Burstein] I think we have a distinguished guest,

I see Bob Hinden, who's the current chair of ISOC, is here,

so we should give him a recognition, and on that point

[Eli Noam] OK [Dave Burstein].. mentionable.

[Eli Noam] Alright, let's get started. Here it's 12 o clock.

We want to do this in 2 hours or less.

So, welcome, can you see me?

Alright. I'm Eli Noam. I'm the Drirector of the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information

and I also hear a lot of muting, of echoes.

Um, I'm a Professor at the Columbia Business School, um, and, a host,

a kind of host. Dave, who is the organizer, sitting right next to me,

is the front end. We are bookended, perhaps by Milton Mueller,

who's article on Montevideo got us started on thinking and discussing this

Thank you very much, Milton, and thank you in particular Dave who put the program together.

Dave tried very hard to have a balanced participation, so if you are missing

somebody, an organization, a perspective - it's not from lack of trying.

We wanted everyone here, within reason of course, but not everyone

wanted to go public.

So, here we are, and we're going to talk about:

There've been a lot of meetings - US, UN, Dubai, Bali, Baku - there's a

whole Internet Governance industry out there.

At Columbia we've had Hamadoun Toure 2 years in a row,

we've had Larry Strickling.

You know all the arguments. Some are reputable,

some are conventional, some are anti-American with a tech-veneer.

I've heard Robert Mugabe extol Internet Freedom - Freedom from America.

And, on the other side, are those who think the status quo is just fine, thankyou.

So we're determined here not to repeat those arguments, or at least to minimize them,

instead we want to brainstorm to see what the new ideas are,

what the new options are, and we'll discuss them here today,

or at least, try to discuss them.

So I'd like to pass on the microphone to DAve Burstein who put this together.

Thank you very much, Dave.

[Dave Burstein] Ya. Milton Mueller is the one that got this started,

Bob Atkinson saw his note there and said we should do something about it,

and I agreed. Eli looked at me and said

"Would you do it?", and I said

and I think we've got some interesting people here.

Are my slides up? Yes they are.

Is there a third way for the Internet, neither the US not the UN but independent?

How do I advance the slide Jason? [Jason Buckweitz] Slide advance, right there.

[Dave Burstein] OK. We're going to open up with Eli Noam.

Uh, I look around the room. I'm in here at CITI, and all I seem to see

are books with Eli Noam's name on it. The odds are that

anything you've thought of, and wondered in this field, Eli discussed