[CII] welcome to the public CII

[Andrea Glorioso]

Dear Gadi, dear all,

sorry for the horribly late reply.  The arrival of the new European
Commission is keeping everyone busy. ;)

>>>>> "gadi" == Gadi Evron <ge at linuxbox.org> writes:

    > Andrea Glorioso wrote:
    >> In terms of "what is missing", I think policy-makers have still
    >> a long way to go before they understand what the Internet
    >> actually is and how it is operationally managed.  One
    >> consequence of this is that in some cases they still try to
    >> apply crisis management approaches that will not work.  On the
    >> other hand, the private sector must stop pretending (at least
    >> with us) that we are still in the '80s and that the Internet
    >> infrastructures they operate are not vital for society.

    > Andrea, with your experience at the European Commission, do you
    > think you can advise us on how to turn the results of our
    > conversations here into products that policy makers can
    > understand?

    > For example, the advancing discussion on terminology.

I find the discussion on terminology interesting, although - very
unfortunately - I don't have the time to properly follow it.

The European Union has a number of definitions of what is a Critical
Infrastructure, on what is a European Critical Infrastructure and
should (relatively soon) have developed criteria on how to identify
European Critical Infrastructures in the ICT sector (a.k.a. Critical
Information Infrastructures, which is one of the sectors I deal with
here in Bruxelles).

Whether or not the Internet is a Critical Infrastructures depend very
much on what we mean by "the Internet".  It should not be surprising
to know that EU Member States have very different ideas on what is
"the Internet".  Many of them have a functional way of thinking,
i.e. they identify what is a "vital function" for their society and
then try to understand whether "the Internet" is necessary to provide
that function.

On how to make "products" for policy-makers, based on my experience as
a former-geek-turned-into-a-policy-officer, I would suggest:

(a) be brief.  No policy maker with enough power to make decisions
    will have more than 10 minutes to read (*and* understand) the
    points you want to make.  One can of course provide 1000+ pages of
    annexes, which will be duly dumped onto the bureaucrat (e.g. me).
    But the main message must be clear and concise.

(b) Avoid technical jargon.  Avoid acronyms.  Try to use (with care)
    metaphors that your grandmother (or grandfather) could understand.

(c) Keep in mind that even though you may consider the Internet the
    greatest invention after sliced bread, for many policy makers it
    is only a dossier amongst others that may be equally or even more
    politically relevant (immigration, pensions, healthcare systems,
    terrorism, climate change).

(d) If you have a face-to-face meeting and you don't know your
    policy-maker interlocutor beforehand, wear a tie (if you are a
    male specimen).  If you are really allergic to a tie, avoid
    wearing a t-shirt with obscure geeky messages.  Otherwise you will
    be classified as "weird" and your interlocutor's brain will
    immediately switch to something else (doesn't matter if s/he seems
    to be listening - as I read in one of my colleagues' office, the
    motto here is "smile - it may confuse your interlocutor").

Hope this helps.  I'm happy to discuss the matter of interactions
between technologists and policy-makers at length.

Best,

--
      Andrea Glorioso || http://people.digitalpolicy.it/sama/cv/
          M: +32-488-409-055         F: +39-051-930-31-133
  * Le opinioni espresse in questa mail sono del tutto personali *
      * The opinions expressed here are absolutely personal *

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