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Andrea,<br>
<br>
Here in New York City hundreds of years of experience with poor and
sometimes disastrous land-uses led to inclusion in the city charter
of a formalized public review process of real estate developments.
It's called the Uniform Land-Use Review Procedure (<a
href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/luproc/ulpro.shtml">see
here</a>). This ULURP provides for the public's engagement as
land-use proposals are reviewed by the affected community boards,
borough boards, the city planning commission, and finally the city
council. But there's no requirement for a similar review of our
digital resources. <br>
<br>
Recently the Bloomberg Administration appointed a .NYC Community
Advisory Board to: Provide feedback on the development of .nyc
including strategies for using, delegating and marketing the top
level domain; Discuss future uses of the domain including public
utilities, smart city ideas and future planning uses such as email
addresses for residents; Act as a community ambassador to provide
updates to your constituency or sector, and relay feedback to the
group; and to Provide input into policy and content for
community.nyc. I'm a member of the Board and our initial meeting is
later this week. While this is a positive step it remains ad hoc,
with no charter mandate and no scope beyond our new TLD review. <br>
<br>
One City Council Member, Gale Brewer, has bemoaned the lack of a
ULURP for the "Internet." There's a city-wide election this year and
it's my hope that candidates will be asked if they support a ULURP
for the Net. I hope similar efforts are underway elsewhere, but am
unaware of same. If anyone knows of city UNETURP (ouch!) efforts ,
please let me know. <br>
<br>
Tom Lowenhaupt<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 4/29/2013 6:10 AM, Andrea Glorioso
wrote:<br>
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<div>Dear all,<br>
<br>
during the discussions concerning a possible
statement by the IGC on the "nature of the Internet"
someone - I think it was Milton - underlined the
need to have a clear "problem definition" and to
assess the impact of different policy options. I
also noted that others - I think it was Mawaki -
pointed out that this is rather high bar for an
"advocacy" statement.<br>
<br>
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I take absolutely no position on the need for analysis
/ assessment before the IGC makes a statement on this,
or other topics. The decision to issue a statement as
the IGC is of course fully the responsibility of IGC
members, which I'm not.<br>
<br>
However, this particular exchange led me to a broader
consideration. As you might know, the European
Commission (similarly to other governments / public
authorities) has a formal obligation to conduct an
"impact assessment" before proposing new initiatives.
In reality, there are some subtleties - not all
"initiatives" require it - but the key concept
remains.<br>
<br>
You can find further information on the European
Commission's approach to impact assessments at <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://ec.europa.eu/governance/impact/index_en.htm">http://ec.europa.eu/governance/impact/index_en.htm</a>.
If you are interesed and have plenty of time at your
disposal, you might also be interested in two recent
papers analysing how well (or not :) the EC has
performed in this particular area (G. Lucchetta,
"Impact Assessment and the Policy Cycle in the EU",
2013, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.ceps.eu/book/impact-assessment-and-policy-cycle-eu">http://www.ceps.eu/book/impact-assessment-and-policy-cycle-eu</a>;
O. Fritsch, C. Radaelli, L. Schrefler, A. Renda,
"Regulatory Quality in the European Commission and the
UK: Old questions and new findings", 2012, <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.ceps.eu/book/regulatory-quality-european-commission-and-uk-old-questions-and-new-findings">http://www.ceps.eu/book/regulatory-quality-european-commission-and-uk-old-questions-and-new-findings</a>).
<br>
<br>
</div>
<div>When conducting impact assessments, there are
certain agreed procedures which are rather generic or
"horizontal", i.e. applying to different policy areas;
but there are also add-on procedures and methodologies
that are used when tackling more specific policy areas
/ impacts. To continue with the example of the
European Commission Impact Assessment procedures,
which are the ones I know best, specific guidelines /
methodologies to assess the impact on SMEs,
administrative simplification and fundamental rights
have been introduced throughout the years.<br>
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<div><br>
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I wonder whether there is a need to introduce specific
guidelines / methodologies to assess the impact of
Internet-related policies (which I define on the fly as
"policies (including regulation, soft law, research
activities) which either impact on, or are impacted by,
the Internet). Questions that come to my mind:<br>
<br>
</div>
- is the Internet an important enough phenomenon /
infrastructure to justify having specific methodologies to
assess the impact of policies on it, and its impact on
policies?<br>
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- are existing methodologies (e.g. concerning the impact on
ICT or telecommunication networks generically) enough to
cover this need?<br>
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- which kind of basic questions should one ask when assessing
the impact of Internet-related policies?<br>
- which kind of methodological tools (and from which
disciplines) should one consider when performing such impact
assessment?<br>
<br>
Food for thought. I'd appreciate all your comments /
reactions, either on the list or also privately.<br>
<br>
</div>
Ciao,<br>
<br>
Andrea<br>
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<div>--<br>
I speak only for myself. Sometimes I do not
even agree with myself. Keep it in mind.<br>
Twitter: @andreaglorioso<br>
Facebook: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.facebook.com/andrea.glorioso"
target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/andrea.glorioso</a><br>
LinkedIn: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=1749288&trk=tab_pro"
target="_blank">http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=1749288&trk=tab_pro</a>
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