<p dir="ltr">This report is impressive. If Chinese interpretations of English terms used here to communicate China's positions are actually what the terms mean in English, I think the meeting is pointing to a fruitful direction. </p>
<p dir="ltr">When we read the communiqué document, we'll get to know the "lot of internal obsessive detail". I agree we can discuss them here.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Ian, why was there the "fairly messy process hastily arranged"? Are we to suspect that the installation of the co-chairs was a mastermind toward any biased pursuits?</p>
<p dir="ltr">CPU<br>
______________________________________<br>
Chris Prince Udochukwu Njoku (PhD)<br>
University of Nigeria</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Jul 3, 2015 12:30 AM, "Ian Peter" <<a href="mailto:ian.peter@ianpeter.com">ian.peter@ianpeter.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div style="FONT-SIZE:12pt;FONT-FAMILY:'Calibri';COLOR:#000000">
<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> </span>on the NetMundial Initiative, which held
its first full Coordination Council meeting<span> </span>on June 30 in Sao Paulo. As posted
recently by Marilia, the communique document can be found at <a><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 www.netmundial .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> </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><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> </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><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>
</span>raised the <a href="http://internet.org" target="_blank">internet.org</a> 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></div></div></div>
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