[ncdnhc-discuss] Election results (fwd)

[Joop Teernstra]

At 12:04 p.m. 4/10/2002 -0500, Alejandro Pisanty - DGSCA y FQ, UNAM wrote:
>t,
>
>the free time you have in your hands!

And you, Alejandro, for having the time to reply. :-)


Seriously, you are touching on a point that needs  consideration.
One of my own very hard lessons in this ICANN process has been  that 
unmoderated mailing lists are a very anarchistic medium that empowers the 
bully and the manipulator more than those who "have a life".

It tends to favour the expression of the opinions of those with time on 
their hands, either those who are unpaid who simply have decided that ICANN 
is a priority issue for the world or for themselves, or professionals who 
are well paid to give time to their presence on such mailing lists.
The lurkers stand by and often by mere silence due to lack of time, are 
supposed to approve what is being said.

Discussion tends to favour those who try to manipulate the lists' content 
by trying to provoke.
None of this kind of dominance is democratic.

It is for this reason that I have tried a webforum on the icannatlarge.com 
website, a place where posters can fit their postings into a structured 
model.  A webforum has much less attraction for bullies and cranks as their 
postings are not pushed into  the participants' inboxes and are less able 
to provoke reactions.
There can be structure and usefulness without censorship.

The Greeks had their mechanism of ostracism to deal with the un-democratic 
character who were equally "empowered" by public meetings of citizens.  We 
needs these too.
But is someone who wants to participate for the "fun" of it all 
un-democratic per se?
One person's fun can be another participant's reason to leave; but it does 
not need to be so.  Those who are unpaid but work hard on a constructive 
posting must have their satisfaction in some way.

After 4 years of trying I have come to the conclusion that Cyberspace 
"governance" by cyperspace presences is not going to get anywhere, unless 
universally accepted rules about how to dampen  the anti-social and 
anti-democratic element can be legislated and implemented.




--Joop Teernstra LL.M.--
   initial webmaster
www.icannatlarge.com
Sign up and spread the word.