Hi Taran, Leaving for now your two questions on the overall value of Internet Governance, some thoughts on your observations from an Australian perspective:
(1) Telecentres all have communications equipment - YES (2) Community, even when people don't physically socialize in the Telecentre itself, is at the core - YES (3) The information, or, the Knowledge (Sensible Communication and Information) is the reason Telecentres exist - NO (4) Telecentes in the context of the WGIG relate to internet access, but are not limited to Internet Access - YES (usually) (5) Capabilities of Telecentres can be positively and negatively affected by proper and improper internet governance (respectively) - Undefined use of 'proper and improper' - A qualified NO with political & cultural ramifications. (6) Domain names? Bah, that's not relevant to any Telecentres I know of - NO (7) Access to content; languages, licensing, Standards being conformed to - YES & NO Comments on the points with a NO response: (3) Many Telecentre's exist for reasons of enhancing community economic development. Access to information and knowledge are frequently secondary considerations, and in some cases non-existent. The priorities of many Telecentre's is to generate local employment and wealth through the sale of services; to foster market creation; as vessels used in support of specific community development initiatives that may or may not involve access to knowledge. Of course a great many Telecentre's do exist for reasons of information and knowledge, however this is far from universal. (5) US anti-Spam laws are considered 'proper' by many US citizens however these laws fall far short of Australian anti-Spam law. 'Proper Governance' is a matter of democracy and will not be constant across international boundaries despite the fact these laws impact across international boundaries (98% of Spam received in Australia is sent by US Spammers acting in accord with US law), hence we cannot state that 'proper governance' is of itself an influencing factor because 'proper governance' is a matter of democracy. An ability or otherwise to enforce domestic governance and law has far more influence and impact on Telecentre's than Internet governance. (6) Telecentre's frequently operate as ISP's or local POP's meaning domain name management has a high impact on business operations. Some also provide hosting and content services also meaning domain names play a vital part in operations (My involvement with AuDA a few years ago was a direct result of my involvement with Telecentre's) (7) I don't think you can bundle issues of language, content and standards into a single group. Language is highly relevant, content less so, standards sometimes not at all depending on the role and function of the Telecentre (this of course varies widely from Telecentre to Telecentre). By way of example, some of our Telecentre's operate primarily as business incubation and staff training centers and utilize software and systems specific to the businesses they are working with. Most use software of a type and brand commonly deployed throughout the community. The matter of Standards is not really an issue for these Telecentre's. Content can be provided or received and is arguably one of the biggest issues facing many Telecentre's. I feel this warrants separate analysis. Language is a huge issue for many Telecentre's, a complete non-issue for others. This is probably an area best analyzed by Telecentre's working with language difficulties. Rgds, Don _______________________________________________ telecentres mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/telecentres To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
