Hi Klaus,

I'm glad you brought this topic up because it's something I've been 
thinking about a lot lately. Let us assume that all the stakeholders 
want what they believes is "best" for IG, what is the definition of "best"?

For example, there are those of us in the "liberty" crowd who fell 
strongly about the importance of liberty. There are others who are in it 
to make money, who would point out (correctly) that profit, jobs, the 
free market, incentives to innovate are essential. Someone has to pay 
for the hardware. So when we argue these different values, who is to say 
that my liberty is more important than your money? Where does the 
concept of right and wrong come from i a universal context? We all want 
to make the "right choice" - but how do we know it when we make it? By 
what standard of universal values can we apply to even define the 
concept of "right choice"?

Fortunately - I've been working on this and in the last 6 months I think 
I've solved this problem. :)

The way I see it - it's all about the future of humanity. I see the 
future of humanity as a choice between 2 paths. We are either evolving 
in a positive direction, or we are on the path to extinction. I can make 
a long argument here that existence is better than extinction but it 
sort of seems intuitively obvious and I'm going to just ask for 
consensus on this. Positive evolution is good - extinction is bad. Agreed?

I see humanity as evolving very fast right now through our technology 
and humanity is totally dependent on the Internet. I think we would all 
agree that if someone turned the Internet off today that there would be 
total chaos, no internet, no phones, no power grid, no food 
distribution, water, sewer, everything down. Millions of people would 
die. This would be bad.

So - if the NSA for example creates a single point of failure for the 
Internet (Since the NSA has hacked the world, whoever hacks the NSA 
hacks the world.) that is bad. So the NSA can't do what they are doing 
because it puts the future of humanity at risk. If the NSA creates the 
infrastructure for an Orwellian government (N. Korea as example) then 
Orwellian governments
inhibit innovation and that's bad for business and bad for the 
commercial constituency. I'm sure Google, Microsoft, and Apple are not 
happy about being required by law to lie to their customers.

I think that the Internet is the most important event in human evolution 
since writing was invented and that the future of humanity is dependent 
on the internet governance decisions we make today. If we make the right 
choices we evolve into something wonderful. If we make the wrong choices 
then we evolve into something terrible or we go extinct.

So - I offer this idea.

Let us recognize that the Internet has a universal purpose to all humans 
on the planet in that it is the infrastructure to humanity's collective 
mind and it is the nervous system for human civilization. Then from that 
perspective of what the Internet is and how it relates to humanity's 
future, we have a way of determining what "better" is because we have 
established a contextual framework for determining right choices from 
wrong choices.

Thoughts?

On 6/30/2013 1:18 AM, Klaus Stoll wrote:
> Dear Robin, Dear Friends
>
> Greetings. I want to propose the topic of IG for All Outreach for the 
> discussion with the ICANN Board of Directors and the ICANN Public 
> Forum. I know this is a very wide topic and not on the top of the 
> agenda, but I hope the following rationale will explain the need and 
> urgency:
>
> Internet Governance today resembles a country where 1% of the 
> population governs 99% of the population and 98% of these don’t even 
> know that the 1% exist!
>
> In the past IG could be sustained through the engagement and action of 
> a few. What fundamentally changed is that IG today concerns and 
> affects everybody, everywhere, connected or not! Today, everybody has 
> a vital interest and stake in the IG processes. IG as a multi 
> stakeholder process today is only sustainable when it is based on the 
> awareness, knowledge and informed participation of all its 
> stakeholders. IG as an open, legitimate and functioning multi 
> stakeholder process is under threat if it has not a global general 
> awareness about its function and issues at its root.
>
> A broad involvement of all in IG is in the vital self interest of all 
> stakeholders in the Internet ecosystem today. As more people engage 
> and participate in IG as more the existing governance structures will 
> have to reevaluate and reform themselves in an organic ongoing 
> process. The processes of renewal of IG will not be a revolutionary 
> one but as an ongoing process of evaluation and reform.
> IG has to make the awareness and involvement of the general public a 
> priority. An INFORMED global public, will participate in the making of 
> INFORMED choices that will result in INFORMED policy making, 
> resulting  in the sustained development of the common good we call the 
> Internet and Information technologies. IG has to become a topic of 
> common debate and interest for everybody like peace, the environment 
> and climate change are.
>
> It can only become so, through a joint outreach, information and 
> capacity building campaign by all those currently involved in IG. No 
> single organization, including ICANN, can and should implement such a 
> campaign on its own. A joint initiative, that is based on the creation 
> of win/win situation and the respect of all stakeholders needs and 
> abilities will also open up much needed spaces and opportunities of 
> exchange and collaboration.
>
> Thank you for your consideration
>
> Yours
>
> Klaus
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Robin Gross
> Sent: Monday, June 24, 2013 6:08 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Please propose discussion topics for NCSG's meetings at next 
> month's ICANN Meeting in Durban
>
> As we prepare for the Durban ICANN Meeting next month, we need to come 
> up with proposed discussion topics for the following meetings in 
> Durban. (Remember, we've got remote participation, so you don't have 
> to be in South Africa to participate at the meeting).  Please send 
> your suggested topics to this list or me directly asap so we can build 
> the various discussion agendas accordingly.  Thank you! - Robin
>
> PROPOSE TOPICS FOR THESE MEETINGS:
> 1.  NCSG discussion with ICANN Board of Directors
> 2.  NCSG discussion with At-Large community
> 3.  NCSG proposed topics for ICANN Public Forum
> 4.  NCSG proposed topics for GNSO Council discussion with Board of 
> Directors