[bestbits] RE: UNESCO WSIS plus 10

[Andrew Puddephatt]

There's a reception on Tuesday evening at 17:30 - could we find each other there?

Andrew Puddephatt, Director
Global Partners & Associates

Direct: +44 (0)20 7549 0336
Office: +44 (0)20 7549 0350
Mobile: +44 (0)771 339 9597
Email: andrew at global-partners.co.uk<mailto:niamh at global-partners.co.uk>
Address: Development House, 56-64 Leonard St, London EC2A 4LT, UK

www.global-partners.co.uk<http://www.global-partners.co.uk>

From: bestbits-request at lists.igcaucus.org [mailto:bestbits-request at lists.igcaucus.org] On Behalf Of Anriette Esterhuysen
Sent: 19 February 2013 09:33
To: Jeremy Malcolm
Cc: bestbits at lists.igcaucus.org
Subject: Re: [bestbits] RE: UNESCO WSIS plus 10

Dear Jeremy and all

This sounds interesting and important. (Have not read full paper yet). As not all of us can attend the presentation due to prior workshop commitments in that time slot, could the civil society/Best Bits people present in Paris not get together for dinner / lunch or early morning to have some kind of meeting?

Provisionally, can I propose lunch on day 2, Tuesday 26 February, or, dinner that same evening.

Thanks

Anriette

On 18/02/2013 10:06, Jeremy Malcolm wrote:

Here is a shorter version of the presentation that I'll be giving at the

meeting:



http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/insights/internet-freedom-in-a-world-of-states



and here is a longer, serialised version on my IGF Watch blog:



http://igfwatch.org/discussion-board/three-false-assumptions-internet-freedom-in-a-world-of-states-part-1



Apologies for "spoilers" for next week, but the presentation will include some

content that you won't see above!



Here is an abstract, which also appears in neither of the Web versions:



Last year's ITU WCIT conference inflamed the community's fears of the

extension of intergovernmental control over the Internet. Whilst this fear was

legitimate, an over-emphasis on the ITU can obscure the fact that the Internet

is already controlled in undemocratic ways - often by governments, through

both national and global processes, but also by corporate interests. It also

obscures the fact that government action is sometimes necessary to uphold the

rights of Internet users, just as government inaction can sometimes support

their freedoms.



This is no less true at the global level than at the national level, although

the appropriate mechanisms of governance at each level differ. Specifically,

there are some areas in which developing globally-applicable principles for

the governance of the Internet could be valuable and important. Despite

popular belief, there is no network of global multi-stakeholder processes or

institutions that covers all of the important public policy areas in which

such global principles could be useful. However, with the convening of a new

CSTD Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation, we now have the opportunity to

fill that gap.



To date, civil society has been very reluctant to participate in the

development of such a positive agenda for the evolution of Internet governance

arrangements. But if we do not, either the status quo will prevail or less

democratic and multi-stakeholder alternatives (such as the ITU) will come to

the fore. This paper suggests one possible format for operationalising the

enhanced cooperation mandate from WSIS, but its principal message is that

regardless of the format adopted, now is the time for civil society to

seriously consider the merits of a more formal institutional platform for the

protection of the rights and freedoms of Internet users.





--

------------------------------------------------------

anriette esterhuysen anriette at apc.org<mailto:anriette at apc.org>

executive director, association for progressive communications

www.apc.org<http://www.apc.org>

po box 29755, melville 2109

south africa

tel/fax +27 11 726 1692
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/bestbits/attachments/20130219/f3b503e8/attachment.htm>