[Advisors] CIRA elections -- member slate

[michael gurstein]

While I agree that many of the younger folks in this space don't have a
community networking experience I think that there is also a breed of
younger advocates who aren't completely immersed in seeing the net as
exclusively a biz opportunity.  While there may be a (limited) overlap in
interests between open source/civil liberty etc. folks and folks concerned
with digital inclusion for example I think it would be a good idea to test
out Kevin's position on the latter issues since for example one of the
strongest recent advocates for "net neutrality" in the US is Ron Paul and
his libertarian supporters.

I think the litmus test should be however, what sort of a role he sees for
CIRA.  At the moment CIRA (like ICANN and a lot of such Internet tax
harvesters) have more money than they know what to do with.  In the case of
CIRA the mandate has been understood extremely narrowly as being to promote
first the technical well being and more recently the commercial well-being
of the Net.  This is by no means the norm and other national governance
bodies--I mentioned NZ, UK, and BR are acting in a rather more pro-active
way in supporting social well being in a digital environment. (Bringing this
to broader attention is the underlying purpose of the IGF Workshop I pointed
to earlier.)

I think at a minimum we should expect Kevin to indicate what position he
would advocate with respect to this issue.

Best,

MG

-----Original Message-----
From: advisors-admin@tc.ca [mailto:advisors-admin@tc.ca] On Behalf Of Marita
Moll
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2012 8:14 PM
To: Garth Graham
Cc: TC Advisors
Subject: Re: [Advisors] CIRA elections -- member slate

Keep in mind that we are talking about a young new breed of Internet
advocate who hasn't been around the pillar and post of community networking
policy for all these many years.  I think this is an opportunity to educate
and build new alliances.  God knows we don't have a lot to lean on.

And thanks for the quote from CIF. I think I used it last year and 
forgot.   I will suggest he turn this back on them.  CIF itself has 
provided the rationale.  But how does this pan out in the actual day to 
day work of CIRA and the CIRA board.   That is the question I am trying 
to find some way of addressing

Marita

On 8/16/2012 12:31 PM, Garth Graham wrote:
> On 2012-08-15, at 8:58 AM, Marita Moll wrote:
>    
>> Tell me what you think about supporting him.  Perhaps there are some
things we would like to see added to this platform in return.
>>      
>    
>>> Original Message --------
>>> Subject:	Re: Thanks for sending some support
>>> Date:	Wed, 15 Aug 2012 11:36:03 -0700
>>> From:	Kevin McArthur<kevin@stormtide.ca>
>>> To:	Marita Moll<mmoll@ca.inter.net>
>>>
>>> Yep, I'd be happy to. How did you see CIRA engaging on this? .. Can you
help me understand what steps you were hoping to see CIRA take towards
community driven broadband? When I talk about it as part of my campaign, I'd
like to be really clear on some concrete steps CIRA can take towards
facilitating and supporting this type of development.
>>>        
> Because of the dominance of a "market-based approach" to "telecom" policy
in Canada, the relationship of the Internet's future to questions of social
development policy has been eliminated from public policy discussion in
Canada.  Lots of people are fully aware that they risk seriously pissing
people off by making that point.  McArthur's "hard" question raises a red
flag for me.  As a "public interest" candidate can/should he answer it
himself and is he just fishing to see what we say?  Or is he making the
point that our interests aren't sufficiently "registration" oriented to get
us elected in that constituency?
>
> By saying as follows, CIRA itself seems to be a bit more open to "our"
issues and concerns than he is:
>    
>> The CIF process also revealed an emerging consensus that there is a 
>> need for a public forum where all stakeholders can help explore and 
>> articulate the public interest in the future development and use of 
>> the Internet in Canada - by considering its impacts; discussing the 
>> opportunities and challenges they present; identifying issues 
>> requiring action by stakeholders in government, the private sector, 
>> and civil society, and raising awareness of these issues among 
>> decision-makers and the general public in Canada and 
>> internationally." 
>> http://cira.ca/assets/Documents/Publications/wp-InternetCIF-CanadaFut
>> ure.pdf
>>      
> I'd be more convinced if he answered along the lines of Mike's
"mechanisms" workshop at IGF.
>
> Your question re Heather is important, because she's been able to foster
discussions of the Internet's future in Canada more effectively than we
have.  CIRA's forum initiative is important.  Without getting to the table
at CIRA, TC lacks an important element that is implicit in our
ICANN/ALAC/NARALO responsibilities to the Canadian constituency we claim we
represent.
>
> GG
>
>    
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