[governance] Public Voice call on OECD participation

[Milton L Mueller]

<Here are more detailed notes, thanks to Allison Knight of EPIC>

The Public Voice - Meeting 6
September 20, 2007

1. Civil Society Participation in the Upcoming OECD Forum and
Ministerial

a) OECD Public Consultation
NEW DEADLINE: September 30, 2007
http://www.oecd.org/document/9/0,3343,en_21571361_38415463_38985417_1_1_
1_1,00.html

b) Ottawa Technology Foresight Forum
http://www.oecd.org/futureinternet/participativeweb

Civil Society Speakers - a number of speakers who will be attending the
Technology Foresight Forum in Ottawa on October 3 gave brief overviews
of their presentations, so that other civil society groups can give
feedback or contribute questions to the Forum:

Marc Rotenberg, EPIC: will address the challenge of translating civil
society policy concerns into OECD policy. He explained that the OECD is
generally a good forum, with good principles, and he wants to highlights
the connections between both policy areas.

Manon Ress, CPTech: will address the possibility of a new Web for
consumers, with reference to User-Created Content, and the need for open
standards for databases and data (e.g. free WiFi)

Andres Monroy-Hernandez, Lego and Lifelong Kindergarten Initiative, MIT:
will address User-Created Content and Web 2.0 and their influence on
education. He will also discuss programming language for children.

Roland Schneider, TUAC: a colleague will emphasize the barriers that
remain to public access, highlighting affordability, and Net neutrality

John Lawford, PIAC: will address privacy issues as they relate to
security, or "Privacy 2.0". He will ask: what will privacy look like in
the future? What will consumers need to protect their privacy against
data mining and government surveillance (i.e. control)? What tools can
upgrade the privacy model? What role will anonymity play?

There will be a civil society meeting on October 3, during one of the
breaks at the Technology Foresight Forum in Ottawa. Details to follow at
the Forum.

c) June 2008 Ministerial
http://www.oecd.org/document/19/0,2340,fr_2649_34255_38051667_1_1_1_1,00
.html

Civil Society Contributions: joint issue paper, and workshop
Participants on the call suggested several key policy issues that
could/should be included in a civil society joint paper. 

CS background paper: creation of different "subgroups" which will draft
different portions/subjects.

Possible issues:
- Broadband deployment
- Network neutrality and competition
- Intellectual property
- Privacy and security
- Access to public information (and open standards) freedom of
expression (censorship)
- Privacy and freedom of speech
- Consumer protection
- Social issues - ICT skills, employment, outsourcing

It was suggested that these issues could be grouped under broad themes,
such as:
- Privacy and security
- Consumer protection in ecommerce
- Unfair terms in electronic contracts
- Network Architecture: (regrouping open standards, neutrality...)
- Participation: free speech, IPR protection,

Further discussion on the structure of the paper and its themes/issues
will continue on the Public Voice mailing list, and in future conference
calls.

d) Sourcebook
EPIC will produce a short Sourcebook of relevant OECD and OECD/civil
society-related documents in order to provide a framework and a history
for civil society.
The proposed Table of Contents is as follows:

I. Forward/Introduction
II. OECD - Institution
- History
- Membership
III. OECD - Research Resources
- Summary of Communications Outlook
- Summary of Technology Outlook
IV. OECD - Policy Framework
- Privacy Guidelines
- Cryptography Guidelines
- Security Guidelines
V. NGO Participation
- 1998 Declaration
- Report on Transparency

Several participants suggested additional documents - Allison will
follow up with those individuals. Claudia will circulate the outline for
the sourcebook to the ICCP people, to see if there are other
documents/papers/recommendations that can be added. If anyone else has
suggestions of documents that have not been included, please contact
Allison.

2. Internet Governance Forum
November 12-15, 2007
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
http://www.intgovforum.org
All Dynamic Coalitions will hold a meeting at the Forum. There will also
be workshops on Critical Infrastructure, Access, Diversity, Openness,
Security, and Development, and there will be a Public Discussion space.
The format will follow the Athens meetings last year. A fifth policy
area was added to the IFG focus areas: Critical Internet Infrastructure.
The problem of funding was raised - civil society participation is
encouraged, but there is no funding available to sponsor individuals.

3. Latin America NGO Activity
As the call had already reached one hour in length, it was agreed that
this agenda item would be deferred until the beginning of the October
Public Voice call.

Next conference call - Thursday, October 18, 12-1 pm Eastern Time

Milton Mueller, Professor
Syracuse University 
School of Information Studies
------------------------------
Internet Governance Project:
http://internetgovernance.org
------------------------------
The Convergence Center:
http://www.digitalconvergence.org
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, send any message to:
     governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org

For all list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance