Rio IGF: Call for New Internet Regulatory Body

Jim Hock, Rio de Janeiro -- I am in Rio for the second Internet Governance Forum (lucky me, although it’s raining cats and dogs in the land of the Bossa Nova) and am disappointed to report that the Italian representative speaking at the opening session called for a new regulatory body to oversee the Internet.  Did I miss something?  Is the Internet broken and need to be overhauled under a bureaucratic regime? 

Seems to me that this debate is yesterday’s news.  Instead, we should be talking about how to best work within the current institutions such as ICANN and others to help connect the rest of developing world to the Internet. 

One random thought:   I am listening to a panel presentation on open standards featuring Thomas Vinje, a lawyer who founded ECIS.  The irony of ironies is that when Vinje started talking after three others, his microphone cut off with the very earnest IGF tech folks trying to fix the problem.  At that very moment these capable folks were trying to fix the problem, a very quick flash of the Microsoft logo appeared on the screen.  Too funny.  When talking about the EU competition ruling in September, Vinje had this money quote:  “Governments can do things to ensure that standards survive and thrive, even in a sector dominated by a single company.”

Andrew Noyes from Tech Daily is also providing IGF updates.  Web casts of sessions here.