ICANN do it

Looks like the fireworks have been delayed. The United States and the UN sponsored WSIS conference have reached a compromise on governance of the Internet. ICANN and the US can keep running it as they have been while the UN creates a forum to discuss internet issues that will have no binding authority, in other words typical make work from the UN to make it sound like they matter.

What is saddening is the mission creep that has happened, WSIS was supposed to be focused on eliminating the digital divide for less developed countries. Instead it has morphed into an attempted power grab by the UN/EU over control of the Internet that has narrowly been defeated. I hope all these people gathering in Tunisia will now focus on bringing an unfiltered torrent of information to more people in the world.

"Ahead of the summit, rights watchdogs say, both Tunisian and foreign reporters have been harassed and beaten. Reporters Without Borders says its secretary-general, Robert Menard, has been banned from attending."

Does not seem Tunisia is very friendly to the concept of a free press. But lets remember Tunisia filters what Internet content its people receive so should not be surprised at this.

Some world leaders are attending this conference. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, real champion of capitalism with him giving Fidel Castro free oil while buying from Castro surplus Soviet arms, is attending. So is President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, I have to wonder if a new crop of Nigerian email scams are going out saying 'While President Olusegun Obasanjo is attending the WSIS conference, we need your help is safeguarding these millions of dollars.' I am actually hoping Colonel Mohamer Kadhafi of Libya will inject a voice of sanity in this mess, though if his all female guard detail shows up what ever the good Colonel says will be lost as some of the more sexually repressed loose control. The United States is not sending anyone high up the chain of command so don't have to worry about Chavez doing his Kruschev impersonation about 100 years of war if the US invades, hopefully.

Those interested in a free Internet, even if that means spam email and way too many naughty web-sites, had better stay alert to any possible shenanigans from the kleptocratic UN and repressive EU.