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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?
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.
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".
Out of the way for who?! The "nations of the world" are attending, not just the US [I'm guess you're from the US with your rather parochial ways]. Dubai seems pretty central to me.
I am bald
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.
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.
Glad that my tax money is being spent on sending government employees to such an out-of-the-way place.
Your gasoline money paid for the place so what's a few airplane tickets?
No sig today...
"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".
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....
Why not a map weighted by GDP? Why not a map weighted by number of internet users? Why not a map weighted by bytes per capita? Why not a location that reduces the total amount of travel? I'll bet you're from somewhere that doesn't give a shit about carbon footprint. But since this is a Telecommunications Conference, why don't they try teleconferencing?
Kinda like Cleveland.
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.