[governance] RE: [bestbits] Nnenna to Keynote at Netmundial - Civil Society major issues

Wed Apr 16 04:25:30 EDT 2014

I like Anne’s suggestion. I definitely think that a percentage of ICANN revenue (aka taxes) should be set aside for such purposes. 

As regards common good/ public utility; I am very interested to see what others think. I am reminded of the Macbride description of mass media as “a tool for the development of humankind”, and also of the various arguments (Bob Franklin and others) that we should treat Internet as we do footpaths, roads, etc – available to all to use and not restricted on the grounds of affordability. 

As yet, I dont think the internet is a common good or a public utility. Perhaps it should be; an interesting question is what will need to happen before it is a common good or a public utility.

Ian Peter

From: Anne Jellema 
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2014 5:56 PM
To: Joana Varon 
Cc: Ian Peter ; Louis Pouzin (well) ; Nnenna Nwakanma ; Best Bits ; governance at lists.igcaucus.org 
Subject: Re: [governance] RE: [bestbits] Nnenna to Keynote at Netmundial - Civil Society major issues

Hi all 
Resource issues have been mentioned several times in proposals for Nnenna's speech:

- Access issues, closing the digital divide(s)
- Resources needed for civil society to play its part in IG processes on a more equal footing with other 'stakeholders'
- Resources needed for the IGF to function well 

I strongly agree that these issues need to be raised. I think we will be most effective if we also put forward proposals for acting on them. 

I wonder if we want to suggest that a portion of domain name revenue should be set aside in a public benefit fund to help close the above resource gaps. Clearly the design and governance of such a fund would be incredibly hard to get right. But at this stage, it's a matter of pushing for a broad principle: i.e. that a part of the hundreds of millions raised every year in domain name fees (ICANN alone will earn $200m in 2014, according to their 2014 budget statement) should be reinvested in public benefit efforts that would contribute to achieving the admirable rights and principles listed in the outcome document.

Additionally, in tackling the first point (access/digital divide), is there broad consensus among us that the internet should be considered a common good and/or a public utility?

Best
Anne

On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 7:45 AM, Joana Varon <joana at varonferraz.com> wrote:

  Ian has just read my mind: Nnenna, please, thank Mr Snowden, for slightly changing the geopolitics! 

  Also, it seams you will be sharing the stage with our president Dilma! 

  +1 to anriette's and Anja's points + my potpourri from the topics that kept coming in this thread with some additions:

  - Surveillance and the right to privacy

  - digital divide is still an issue

  - net neutrality shall be reinforced

  - IANA transition shall not overcome the debate, but transparency and inclusiveness in this process, beyond ICANN community shall be enforced

  - multistakeholderism is not enough, we need a bottom up democratic participation, which enables balance to the lack of power and influence within stakeholder groups. But also checks and balances, transparency, accountability and eventually sanctions

  - we need to increase meaningful participation from people in developing parts of the world  (I guess at the end we are all very privileged to be able to engage and understand this debate, as well as responsible for the outcome)

  - need for capacity building

  and there was a lot of reference to trust trust trust.. So, I guess, the web we want, is the web we trust. 

  ;)

  On Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 5:25 PM, Ian Peter <ian.peter at ianpeter.com> wrote:

    and thank Edward Snowden for bringing us all together

    From: Louis Pouzin (well) 
    Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2014 6:21 AM
    To: Nnenna Nwakanma 
    Cc: Best Bits ; mailto:governance at lists.igcaucus.org 
    Subject: Re: [governance] RE: [bestbits] Nnenna to Keynote at Netmundial - Civil Society major issues

    Bravo Nnenna, an honour for you, Africa, and the CS.

    some bits

    - linguistic diversity

    - translation in workshop sessions

    - funding for LDC delegates in international events

    - protection of traditional knowledge

    - affordable medicine

    - free educational material
    .

    Louis

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

    ____________________________________________________________
    You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
         bestbits at lists.bestbits.net.
    To unsubscribe or change your settings, visit:
         http://lists.bestbits.net/wws/info/bestbits

    ____________________________________________________________
    You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
         bestbits at lists.bestbits.net.
    To unsubscribe or change your settings, visit:
         http://lists.bestbits.net/wws/info/bestbits

  -- 
  -- 

  Joana Varon Ferraz
  @joana_varon
  PGP 0x016B8E73

  ____________________________________________________________
  You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
       bestbits at lists.bestbits.net.
  To unsubscribe or change your settings, visit:
       http://lists.bestbits.net/wws/info/bestbits

-- 

Anne Jellema 
CEO  
+27 061 36 9352 (ZA) 

+1 202 684 6885 (US)
@afjellema 

World Wide Web Foundation | 1110 Vermont Ave NW, Suite 500, Washington DC, 20005, USA | www.webfoundation.org | Twitter: @webfoundation 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     bestbits at lists.bestbits.net.
To unsubscribe or change your settings, visit:
     http://lists.bestbits.net/wws/info/bestbits
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/bestbits/attachments/20140416/b3449df1/attachment.htm>