[governance] Statement for Feb 13, version 2

[mgurst at vcn.bc.ca]

Colleagues,

I think it is well to recognize that all of these discussions are taking
place "in real time", that is, the Internet world is evolving in its own
ways and at its own speed irrespective of the deliberations of the IGF
etc. and that these discussions would be well advised to take account of
these developments and adjust themselves accordingly.

I've been travelling/conferencing in Asia for the last several weeks and
have had an opportunity to sit in on a variety of
discussions/presentations concerning the plans/programs which are emerging
in many of the countries in the region.

What is evident from these, and what wasn't evident even as recently as
WSIS is the degree to which the governments in South Asia (and one would
expect similar developments in other LDC's where there is sufficient
infrastructure) are moving into electronically enabled e-Government
service delivery as significant elements in overall government service
(and economic and social development) programming and planning.

>From the stupendously ambitious e-services program in India (one
e-services centre for every 5000 rural residents--80% of India's (1.2
billion) population is rural), to counterpart programs in Bangla Desh and
Sri Lanka and what appear on first glance to be even more pro-active and
ambitious programs in Malaysia and the Philippines, major Internet (ICT)
enabled developments (of profound local/national significance) are afoot
in the region.

Issues of data integrity, security and privacy come immediately to mind
but perhaps even more important the (perhaps accidental) ambiguity of the
term "Internet Governance" comes to the fore.  Most of the folks on this
list and in the IGF in general seem to have understood that "Internet
Governance" referred to the "governance of the Internet". My guess is that
in the very near future at least numerically, the issues of "Internet
Governance" as "governance by/through the Internet" (and all that that
implies) will be of equal or greater importance.

The agenda for a forum on "Internet Governance" defined in this latter way
would necessarily include issues of for example:
  * democratic and grassroots participation
  * multi-lingualism
  * access/digital/physical/literacy divides
  * quality standards and controls
  * evaluation and feedback and ensuring/enforcing accountability and
transparency
...among others...

These issues are one's which have traditionally engaged civil society and
notably civil society is emerging as partners in the variety of these
national initiatives (Parminder's home organization, IT for Change being
one among a vast number of national NGO players in India, as an example).

Any space on the agenda in Rio (or in the caucus statement) for a
discussion of any of the multitude of issues arising from any of this?

Mike Gurstein





Best to all,

Mike Gurstein

> All,
>
> this is the second version of the statement, incorporating all
> suggestions that were made (the ODT version has notes with the
> sources... and OpenOffice couldn't produce a working RTF so I used PDF).
>
> There are a couple of further notes:
>
> - I kept the original laundry list approach for themes, adding the
> "meta-governance" one, and for AG composition (where specifying which CS
> groups should be represented was objected to).
>
> - In the end, there were several objections to our recognition of the
> fourth stakeholder group, so I didn't add it.
>
> - I still don't know what to do about ICANN; I was waiting to see some
> discussion about the message by Carlos (noted again by Milton) but there
> was none. I would suggest that those who are strongly "for" or strongly
> "against" the IGC explicitly supporting "the nature of ICANN" as one of
> the themes for Rio just say it here, now, and Parminder and I will do a
> last minute consensus call on Monday. For the moment, I left the
> original text (which anyway calls for our inclusion in the "enhanced
> cooperation" process).
>
> In the meantime, I remind everyone that we are meeting as a caucus right
> at the end of the afternoon session (about 6pm) on Tuesday, with "Next
> steps to Rio" as the agenda. (BTW - does anyone know how could we get a
> room in the Palais? Otherwise we'll just move to the bar.)
>
> Thanks,
> --
> vb.                   Vittorio Bertola - vb [a] bertola.eu   <--------
> -------->  finally with a new website at http://bertola.eu/  <--------
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