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The Most Important Meeting You've Never Heard of
An anonymous reader writes "In December the nations of the world will gather in Dubai for the UN-convened World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT – pronounced 'wicket'). The topic of the meeting is nothing less than the regulation of the Internet. Under the auspices of the International Telecommunications Union the governments of the world will review the international treaty known as the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITR). The last review of the ITR was in 1988 when the Internet was just aborning. The remarkable and reshaping growth of the Internet provides the excuse for the new review. What's really afoot, however, is an effort by some nations to rebalance the Internet in their favor by reinstituting telecom regulatory concepts from the last century." At least it's being held in a hotbed of unfettered online communication.
All I ever read about is slavery. Is Dubai just a metaphor for "the rich can control everybody else" or is it a real country?
Supplies will be limited in December.
there's no free internet...
I hear it is nice. Pretty expensive too. Glad that my tax money is being spent on sending government employees to such an out-of-the-way place. After all, if they don't deserve it, who does?
If we survive WCIT, we then have WPTF in 2013
(http://www.itu.int/en/wtpf-13/Pages/default.aspx)
The good folks at ISOC (http://www.internetsociety.org/) along with other influential policy people in the industry are working hard on both of these.
The internet became what it is and revolutionized human communication precisely because it was not regulated. It was an anarchy, and should remain one.
I would have said, "in its formative years"..
That said, thanks for the new word.. it's well cromulous.
He tried to kill me with a forklift!
I read through the very early draft: http://www.itu.int/en/wcit-12/Documents/draft-future-itrs-public.pdf
It seems like the focus is mainly compensation structure and what obligations exist for telcos passing traffic through. Content provisions are light. For example
This is a crucial treaty in the way the public water system is crucial to public welfare. Its existence is a matter of public interest, the details of implementation not so much. Most people want their messages to pass but don't really care how telcos pass expenses around.
and i just lost a TB of movies! Cmon guys, gimme a year to replace, and no more questions, aight?
think not. Maybe this is what these new NSA telecom centers are really for.
~dangling prop
Gandolf: "No! You must understand... I would use this ring from a desire to do good, but through me, it would wield a power too great and terrible to imagine".
You're slipping mate. I'm worried. There's no mention of dog smoochers or horse pigs. I guess it's the shock of actually being an Italian or is Laura keeping you busy?
Discussing Unfettered communication" in the UAE is like discussing celibacy in a brothel.
As a non US citizen, I hope this fails completely and the US maintains control.
As far as I can see, the US can be pretty crap, but they are by far the least worst option. if you think the US is bad look at the free speech protections of every single other country in the world.
Presumably, this meeting won't actually mean anything unuless America decides to cede control. I don't se why they would actually do that.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicket this way comes.
"If you agree to censor blasphemy and other anti-religious screeds, I'll agree to censor psychics, Scientologists, and anti-global warming claims."
"Ok, but let's also require IDs for Intertube access so -1 Troll downmods will follow people everywhere they go."
"Deal!"
Beware the Ides of Peaceful Negotiation.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
(WCIT – pronounced 'wicket'). The topic of the meeting is nothing less than the regulation of the Internet.
That should be pronounced "wicked".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_%28Doctor_Who%29
Not quite Timey-Wimey, but definitely Wibbly-Wobbly.
In December the nations of the world will gather in Dubai for the UN-convened World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT – pronounced 'wicket').
It is pronounced wicked despite the T in the acronym to reflect the evil intentions and ulterior motives of them. And also to pretentiously sound like some organization that is the mortal enemy of some super hero.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
To avoid wealthy-elite/government domination of communications, you'll need an open source, wireless mesh internet, sort of like these guys (http://www.shareable.net/blog/afghans-build-open-source-internet-from-trash-0), to create an "underground" internet, perhaps literally (http://www.borderlands.com/newstuff/research/FelixRadio/FelixRadio.htm).
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
THAT will be the Most Important Meeting I Will Ever Hear.
Your puny human meddlings will not hold a candle to that.
An international "wicket" meeting to regulate the Interwebs. - Wicket Gate? Now all we need are white robots showing up to free their Krikkit masters...
hijack the internet connection and start censoring it. speed up the discussion a bit!
A blog I run for the wealth
internet will be divided, with different kinds of restrictions from different countries, it's now happening everywhere - in some places it's political, in some it's about copyright and another 'illegal' content, it is happening. It will be like this - from China you can see this part, from Europe this part, from Iran this another part of a used to be global network. We will have to live with it and find a ways around it, and, as a geeks, show the ways to the people. Get used to so called darknets - tor, i2p, and a likes. Get used to it and show people around you how to navigate it, share some resources for darknet operations - this is our future, free from censorship, politics, copyright or anything else. Because this battle is lost, casual internet WILL be censored and divided.
Try this! http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/index.php/silkroad/category/12
in business class.
"In one of the most extreme cases, it [Dubai] reported a man being held after poppy seeds from a bread roll were found on his clothes."
Dubai wants tourism and convention business, but their draconian drug paranoia makes this aspiration ridiculous. How many of the attendees to this conference will be harassed or even imprisoned I wonder? I know this is old news, but any chance I get I take the opportunity to share this BBC article concerning Dubai's absurd reactionary jailing of innocent visitors. I have been there (It's nothing special, people.) But now I shudder to think that I had my OTC allergy medicine with me. I would not go back to Dubai on a bet.
The idea of having an internet conference there is like planning a human rights conference in Damascus. But, I guess since the organizers want anything but transparency, it makes for a terrible logic.
"No fear. No envy. No meanness." Liam Clancy
"ISO will replace TCP/IP in 5 years" was a real thing. After 10 years the phrase became a joke. Now it isn't even that.
Ever wondered why the L in LDAP stands for "Lightweight"? It started as a radically simplified version of ISO directory services.
Almost nobody used ISO (including ITU, which at the time preferred paper over networks internally) but ITU really pushed it over that toy internet thing. They also charged a lot of money to buy the bookshelf-meters of ISO documentation...only available on paper for the most part.
It is probably completely unfair to the ITU of 2012 but I find myself worried whenever they are mentioned in the same breath as "internet".
It's pronounced 'wicked'
What's the new Most Important Meeting I've Never Heard Of?
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
WCIT – pronounced 'wicket'. Wicket as in Wicket Wystri Warrick? - "Starcruiser go CRISH CRISH!" CRISH CRISH as in the internet plummeting to it's doom? I see what they've done here....
...the fact that an organization that has human rights worldwide as core functions is hosting something in a known hotbed of human trafficking and slavery?
$Deity what a fucking farce.
Convening in Dubai. Your petrodollars at work.
We could have been on the way to the stars by now. Instead the whole world is on the way a highway to hell. Morlocks and Eloi, etc. None free.
Fuck these bastards. Fuck the UN.
So this must be what the Mayans where talking all along!
"The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." -John Gilmore That said, governments of the world gathering to discuss peanut butter scares me for some reason. Gatherings to discuss the internet is absolutely horrifying...
Kinda like Cleveland.
I've never heard of the Bilderberg group or its annual meetings. Honest!
If 5% of the wealthy contain 97% of the wealth, they should be paying 97% of the taxes (hint: that number is wrong, its less). One penny less should be a crime.
The people that get the most out of government money are the ones that own businesses. Those roads your trucks go down: Tax money. Those police that keep your riches safe: Tax money. Those laws that forbid mere private citizens from participating in the arbitrage that made the wealthy and keep them so: Tax money.
There is no respect to be found being an apologist. You don't deserve it.
'cause ICANN hasn't done shit - other than find new ways to line their own pockets (while patting themselves on the back) - in a very, very, long time.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
The TAV alone is more than 3% of the government budget, so your 5% pay 97% I am guessing you are making a hand waving somewhere and not telling the truth.
Shouldn't it be pronounced like Ice Cube intended?
...that allowed these organisations to become masters of our internet? Business? Politicians? Or was it self-proclamation?
To put it simply, the system has to change radically.
But the entire point of language is to communicate your ideas in an understandable manner to whomever your audience is,
That's true but, if you speak to a level slightly above your audience you also improve the ability to communicate in the future by being able to use some more abstract vocabulary terms.
I think it's better to aim slightly high than to try and write for an imagined lowest common denominator. The audience will get the gist even if they don't quite know a word or two.
It's not about one-upping, it's about improving everyone.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley