[governance] Effective participation ....

Sat Oct 7 02:09:55 EDT 2006

Howzit Anriette,

On 10/6/06, Anriette Esterhuysen wrote:

>
> Why are there so few participants from national IG communities in this
> space, and it appears, going to the IGF?
  ####################

  The problem of participation from developing countries goes beyond funding. There a number of issues involved, among which are:

  1. Very few people know about IG, ISOC, ICANN, etc. and most of those who know about them (including government officials, IT professionals, academics, those working or doing business in the IT industry, etc.) don't even understand them or the issues involved.

  2. They don't know about these conferences, discussions, meetings, cyberspaces, etc. and they don't even know they can attend.

  3. Local Chapters of ISOC exist on web pages, when you even send an e-mail enquiry you don't get response

  4. Those who are supposed to know don't even know and/ or understand ccTLDs. Some company claims to be sponsoring ccTLDs but doesn't even respond to e-mail enquiries. dot gh for instance is far more expensive than a dot uk and you ask yourself why. Besides no one seems to care.

  5. Most of the folks who get to attend these IG related conferences and meetings and represent developing countries probably don't understand the issues - some of them are businessmen and government officials who stand to gain by the status quo.

  2. The average person can't get visa to attend these meetings; we are living in a situation where being allowed to travel depends on the whims and caprices of some entry clearance official who doesn't even know about ICANN and probably doesn't even care.

  3. The average person can't even afford to fully participate in these online spaces; he cannot afford Internet connection at home and can't pay for a decent Internet access. Internet access is more expensive in developing countries; universities, colleges, schools, can't afford them. Academics as a result don't have them.

  5. I have come to live in the UK for 5 years and I'm dreading going back because of Internet access. In the UK regardless of how low your income is you can afford it, in Ghana, it is a luxury and sometimes a status symbol. I work 15 hours a week (my visa allows me to work a max. of 20 hours, as an International student) but I can afford broadband Internet access.

  6. Government officials can afford this luxury so why bother

  7. ICANN held a general meeting in 2001 in Ghana and local IT professionals didn't know about it; those who knew didn't understand what was going on neither were they aware they could participate.

  These, in my opinion, are just a few of the issues we are plagued with.

  ...Kwasi

McTim <dogwallah at gmail.com> wrote:
  Howzit Anriette,

On 10/6/06, Anriette Esterhuysen wrote:

>
> Why are there so few participants from national IG communities in this
> space, and it appears, going to the IGF?

perhaps because they participate in their own little ponds and not so
much on a global scale?

I think that is the case here in UG, where we have a large-ish group
of folk interested in these issues. Seminars and meetings have been
sponsored by ISOC in the distant past, recent past by IICD and most
recently APC/CIPESA have joined in. Despite this, there is years of
capacity building to do to bring most of these folk to the level of
discussions on this list or "in this space".

>
> APC has been talking with ISOC ZA (South African chapter) and the local
> ISPA as we would really like someone to talk about content regulation from
> a southern internet service provider's perspective at one of our workshops in
> Athens.
>
> As far as I found out no one from the South African ISP association or ISOC
> chapter was planning to go. With a bit of luck and lots of good will I think we
> will be able to bring someone from here (SA) to Athens who has a long track
> record in working on IG issues as well as on content regulation as it impacts
> on ISPs.
>
> But the question remains. Why is ISOC not making it possible for more
> participants from their national chapters to make it to these global events?

0) Why single out ISOC? Neither Ken nor Nana mentioned them.

1) You should ask ISOC this via the public policy discussion list or
via Chapter delegates list:

Chapter-delegates mailing list
Chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
http://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/chapter-delegates

_______________________________________________
Memberpubpol mailing list
Memberpubpol at elists.isoc.org
http://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/memberpubpol

2) They certainly did make it possible for more ISOC folks to go to to WSIS.

3) AFAIK, it is more the chapters job to send their folk to the IGF,
not the Geneva/Reston HQ task. I count 8 ISOC chapter delegations, so
the chapters are somewhat active in this area, tho it may be out of
scope for some chapters.

4) ISOC already devotes a great deal of time and money on bottom up IG
fora, IETF in particuar, so perhaps that remains the focus.

>
> And what is it the that IGF is doing, or not doing, that renders it not all that
> interesting to national registries or operators?

I see a number of ccTLD folk and a few large providers, tho not many
of either, on the participant list.

I would suggest that it is because these fok already participate in
the current IG system via bottom up processes, and this non-binding
forum may be a bridge too far for many. I know it is not even on the
radar for the ISPs I work with. They are far too busy with
AfriNIC/AfrISPA/AfNOG etc to spend any cycles, let alone resources on
the IGF.

>
> The value of global ICT policy forums peaks when they interact with national
> and regional processes (and actors) to support change that increases rights
> and access, and lowers costs and barriers to users and operators at local
> level.

That may be, but apparently the vast majority of perators/registries
don't see the value of the IGF in re: to the above issues. I can't say
I blame them.

> Or am I wrong and will local actors (e.g. local/national consumer groups,
> regulators, internet lawyers, operators, registries etc.) be there and I just
> don't know about it?

http://www.intgovforum.org/PLP.html shows some of all of the above,
except consumer groups.

http://info.intgovforum.org/PL.php seems to be a later version.

-- 
Cheers,

McTim
$ whois -h whois.afrinic.net mctim
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