Two recent reports I read tend to reinforce my views on the Internet Governance circus. The emphasis below is mine. For example:
After the first day of the two-day internet shindig in SÃo Paulo, Brazil â the Global Multi-stakeholder Meeting on the future of Internet Governance â a sense of resignation was building in those who thought "this time, yes this time, the wrongs will be righted, the walls broken down and internet users will be heard".
It hasn't happened. And the internet governance professionals who spend every other month in a different country repeating the same platitudes until they start to believe them have triumphed again. Despite everyone's best efforts, NetMundial is a damp squib.
But you have to admire the process.
I spent the evening in the top corner of an expensive hotel drinking not-bad Malbec delivered for free by waiters while straining to hear the deliberations of two small groups redrafting the final document of NetMundial.