Finding positives among a sea of negatives

If you have been following the publicity of WCIT-12 and are at all familiar with the Hedgehog Hosting and our affiliation with the I2Coalition, then you are probably also aware that both of our organizations strongly support the work of the Internet Society (ISOC) and their work leading up to the WCIT.  This should not come as breaking news as the matters under discussion by the ITU will potentially and directly impact my business and our industry.  I will continue to blog and to post about the importance of a multi-stakeholder model of governance rather than the ITU's proposed idea that they should direct the governance of the Internet.  While this will stay on the forefront of my mind and our computer screens during this conference, I know that we will all continue to voice our shared ideas to support an open and free Internet.

With WCIT-12 in full swing, I have been thinking about the United Nations quite a bit.  From my research, I know that the International Telecommunications Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations.  After spending this week weighing my thoughts about the ITU and about the United Nations in general, I found many of my thoughts to be overly negative.  These negative thoughts were exacerbated from reading other's posts, many with the same convictions.  When I get an overwhelmingly negative feeling about something, I usually try to find some positives to help me balance my thoughts.  I try to look at other events, even if in the past, to help me take a step back and reflect a bit deeper. 

So I thought back to this date, December 11, 1946.  That was when the United Nations General Assembly created the United Nations Children's Fund or UNICEF.  UNICEF was created to provide emergency food and healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by World War II.  Now I was not alive for the establishment of UNICEF, but I am fortunate today to work with a division of this group, and it is amazing to me that a small business in Virginia has the ability to help such a global group with certain aspects of their hosted web technologies.

I also think back to just yesterday, December 10, where many of us, along with our friends at the Internet Society supported the United Nations Human Rights Day with focus on inclusion and participation; A tribute to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on that same day in 1948. 

As I think about UNICEF as they gear up for their holiday gift giving season (which I know will be successful) and I reflect on the tremendous support from the online community on Human Rights Day, I try to have faith that certain potentially negative ideas that are being discussed at WCIT-12 will be replaced with positive ideas that will continue to support our shared beliefs in an open and free Internet.   We have said it before and know it to be true.  The Internet has brought nations and people closer together.  Maybe all of us, the Hedgehog Hosting's of the world and the many other infrastructure companies that the I2Coalition represents will be able to convince these decision makers to let us continue to do just that!