[governance] How can civil society help the Internet to assist development?

[George Sadowsky]

All,

Below is the combined list of a set of issues (from previous posts) 
that Suresh an I seem to feel would be worthy of discussion, and 
better yet, action, by members of the group.  This is clearly a 
subset of such issues, but it's an important subset.

Suresh has responded with a bunch of initiatives that he has been 
involved in along these lines.  I've been involved in a variety of 
others; see for example http://www.internetpolicy.net/.  It could be 
useful to appreciate contributions that others have made.

* Last mile unbundling

* Monopoly internet service and its pitfalls

* Regulators who favor the government owned telco over private players

* Monopoly suppliers of international bandwidth who fleece local ISPs
   (how many satellites or cables would the typical LDC have access to)

* Local ISPs who need capacity building to use their existing resources
   (And who don't trust each other enough to peer at an exchange point)

- Appropriate policies for consumer protection for Internet
   transactions, both national an international

- Fair and equitable licensing regimes for ISPs consistent with
   general business licensing processes at the national level

- Regulation that encourages, or better yet, requires cost based
   pricing of Internet access

- A level playing field between incumbent telcos and international
   Internet gateway providers on the one hand and independent ISPs
   on the other hand

- Ability of ISPs to form their own international gateway connections

- Issues of filtering content at the national level

- Permissive policies for anonymous communication

- Acceptability of tools (such as encryption tools) for
   protecting confidentiality of communication

- Net neutrality with respect to traffic type, e.g. VoIP

- Strong anti-spam legislation, effective implementation and
   vigorous prosecution, including enabling national authorities
   through training and facilities the ability to identify
   prosecute and convict spammers

I commented earlier that these are issues that by and large unite 
civil society, the Internet community, and the business community. 
If so, that's a major plus.  They are issues of policy that can be 
addressed in parallel in all countries of the world, and the goal of 
addressing them is to make the Internet available, accessible, 
affordable, useful and more secure than would otherwise be the case. 
IMHO these are the kinds of issues that not only should be discussed 
here, but are directly actionable at the national level.

Is there any disagreement with this?

Is there any interest in this within this group?

Are other members of this group mobilizing action in these directions?

I'm not disputing the value and the strength of words and ideas.  As 
Barack Obama said in one of his earlier speeches when he was accused 
of just giving good speeches, " ... JUST WORDS?! 'We hold all people 
to be created free and equal ....'  JUST WORDS? ... !"  So perhaps it 
would also be useful to know the extent to which the words and the 
discussion expressed internally within this group have had a 
significant effect on Internet governance issues.

It is easy to talk on-line about issues at the international level 
that have little if any connection with the real individual user 
experience in, say, developing countries.  But is it worth doing  -- 
as opposed to really addressing in an actionable manner the issues 
above, and others, that really impact development?

Reactions to the above are welcome.

George
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