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Forwarding with permission.<br>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">Subject:
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<td>[governance] update on NMI</td>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">Date: </th>
<td>Fri, 3 Jul 2015 09:29:01 +1000</td>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">From: </th>
<td>Ian Peter <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ian.peter@ianpeter.com"><ian.peter@ianpeter.com></a></td>
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<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:governance@lists.igcaucus.org">governance@lists.igcaucus.org</a>, Ian Peter
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ian.peter@ianpeter.com"><ian.peter@ianpeter.com></a></td>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">To: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:governance@lists.igcaucus.org">governance@lists.igcaucus.org</a></td>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
13pt"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">This is an update and
some personal reflections <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>on
the NetMundial Initiative, which held its first full
Coordination Council meeting<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>on June 30 in Sao Paulo. As posted
recently by Marilia, the communique document can be found
at <a moz-do-not-send="true" style="href:
"https://www.netmundial.org/blog/secretariat/s%C3%A3o-paulo-communiqu%C3%A9-inaugural-council-meeting""><font
color="#0000ff">https://www.netmundial.org/blog/secretariat/s%C3%A3o-paulo-communiqu%C3%A9-inaugural-council-meeting</font></a>
and summarises most of the discussions. So below are some
more personal comments.</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
13pt"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Please feel free to copy
to other lists.</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
13pt"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">The meeting was held in
the same room as the original NetMundial conference which
many of us attended (but partitioned to create a smaller
room). In addition to the Council members, seats were
available for observers as well as remote participation.
The meeting was hosted and very well organised by CGI.br</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
13pt"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">One feature of the
meeting was the speeches by 2 high profile Chinese
delegates attending for the first time (Lu Wei, Chinese
Minister for Cyberspace, and Jack Ma, head of Alibaba). I
would imagine transcripts as well as other documents will
be available soon at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.netmundial">www.netmundial</a> .org, but some
memories are</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
13pt"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Lu Wei definitely
mentioned support for multistakeholderism, but China
watchers might also want to check the transcript or
recording for nuances of meaning here – he also mentioned
sovereignty of course. This seems to a change of some sort
for China to mention support for multistakeholderism, but
I would imagine their interpretation of what this means
might be somewhere within the wide range of
interpretations <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>already
existing. But what I do read into this is an
acknowledgement by China that it will work with the rest
of the world in addressing internet issues. As always, the
devil will be in the detail.</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
13pt"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><font
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"> </font></span><font
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Lu Wei ( and Jack Ma if my memory
serves me correctly) used the phrase of the internet being
“for the development of humankind” This particular phrase
had a history dating back to the early 1980s and the
Macbride Report of UNESCO (Many Voices One World)
referring to pre-Internet new media – out of which the
NWICO debates emerged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I
was personally pleased to hear the phrase used in this
context.</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
13pt"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">There was an interesting
discussion on human rights and internet governance between
Lu Wei and Eileen Donahoe and Anriette Esterhuysen.</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
13pt"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Jack Ma gave a very
interesting speech as well, referring to development and
engagement of youth in particular.</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
13pt"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">It appears that both
China and Jack Ma on behalf of Alibaba have indicated
strong support at this stage for the initiative.</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
13pt"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Fadi Chehade in his
opening remarks produced some interesting diagrammatic
interpretations of the state of internet governance –
these are also available from <a moz-do-not-send="true"
style="href: "http://www.netmundial.org""><font
color="#0000ff">www.netmundial.org</font></a>. He also
mentioned the role of Edward Snowden as a catalyst for the
original NMI conference in Sao Paulo – remarks which I
later took on board a little more extensively to thank
Edward Snowden for his contribution and to note that,
although there have since been a few small measures here
and there to improve the pervasive nature of mass
surveillance, there was still a lot of improvement needed
in this area. </font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
13pt"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">The meeting adopted a
few procedural documents – including strong support for
consensus decision making. It also, through a fairly messy
process hastily arranged, put in place 5 co-chairs – Jack
Ma, Fadi Chehade, Virgilio Almeida, Eileen Donahoe, and
Marilia Maciel. </font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
13pt"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">There was a lot of
internal obsessive detail which we could discuss if people
want to, but basically the intiative is still pretty new
and raw and learning from its mistakes. Much of the
meeting was devoted to internal process. </font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
13pt"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">There were also some
pretty interesting side discussions – I (and others as
well) deliberately<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>raised
the internet.org issue, particularly to feel out policy
makers from industry and governments. While there were
divided opinions, there were certainly a lot of people who
hadn’t thought about it yet who need to, and some
surprisingly strong opposition to the initiative from some
industry players. I think the discussions were valuable,
with some people having very scant knowledge of the issues
which are being raised and likely to look into them
further.</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
13pt"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Otherwise – my general
impression is that NMI is getting some structure, and
maybe some extra avenues of financial support as well .
The terms of the inaugural council will run out in June
2016, and it is hard to know what will happen after that,
if anything. The loss of product champion Fadi Chehade is
likely to be a factor as well.</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
13pt"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">That’s my initial
reactions. I realise that many within civil society have
strong (and in many cases appropriate) reservations about
this initiative. But at the same time, I am glad that as
these discussions continue civil society does have some
presence in the discussions and the capacity to influence
events via those who are participating.</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
13pt"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
13pt">Ian Peter</p>
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