[governance] How can civil society help the Internet to

[wcurrie at apc.org]

Hi George, Suresh, Parminder, Adam and others

What APC has in mind is the presentation of a kind of manifesto of this emerging multi-stakeholder consensus around access to the internet at the IGF in Hyderabad. We discussed this with ISOC and BASIS at the May open consultations on the IGF meetinog in Hyderabad. And we recognised that a number of governments should be brought in. I was in Nairobi a few weeks ago and heard an incredible talk by Dr Bitanga Ndemo, permanent secretary to the Coms ministry  on the very exciting developments around broadband access that the Kenyan government is spearheading with other countries in East Africa like Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.. The initiative is impressive because it has taken on board the history of failure in this area in the past and  is mindful of the chain of connectivity from submarine cables through to the last mile as well as looking at the regional as well as national and local dimensions of broadband access.. Kenya was one of the first African countries to liberalise VoIP, for example.. And if this East African initiative succeeds it could have a knock on effect through Africa. 

I imagine the Indian, Egyptian, Japanese, Brazilian and Swiss governments may also be willing to participate as core partners  to judge from their previous and future participation in the IGF and WSIS processes. The idea is not to make the process unwieldy by bringing on too many partners prior to the announcement, but to try and ensure that a small number of each stakeholder group is involved. 

I think there would be space to address the national levels of implementation and monitoring like a national scorecard as George suggests by using the announcment at the IGF to put this in motion for reportback at the Cairo IGF. As well as the suggestions Suresh, Karl and others have made. The idea is not so much to have a workshop as a multi-stakeholder presentation of the manifesto in a kind of special event at the IGF.. Obviously this manifesto would not be anything the IGF should have to formally endorse. But stakeholders could be asked to add their names to it. 

If the IGC were keen to join this initiative that would be great. Perhaps a small working group of interested participants  from the IGC could work on this offlist and reportback to the main list - to make it more manageable.  I would like to suggest that Karen Banks facilitates this process.

Willie
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

-----Original Message-----
From: George Sadowsky <george.sadowsky at attglobal.net>

Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2008 13:08:35 
To:governance at lists.cpsr.org,"Suresh Ramasubramanian" <suresh at hserus.net>,"'Adam Peake'" <ajp at glocom.ac.jp>
Subject: RE: [governance] How can civil society help the Internet to


I agree that these are local or national issues and demand local 
knowledge.  That implies that they demand local effort to change.

So would it not make sense to concentrate upon collecting and/or 
disseminating information about strategies, i.e. case studies, that 
have worked in places an might be of use to others.  I don't mean 
grand strategies, I mean vignettes that illustrate particular 
successes.  If there were a workshop dedicated to this, I could see 
10 presentations of 5 minutes each, followed by discussion.

We have rough consensus (oops! that's an IETF criterion!) on what 
policies lead to the desired outcome.  Now let's talk about 
implementation strategies an tactics.  Are there ways to organize, or 
use existing organizations, at the national level to move closer to 
these goals?

George


At 10:07 PM +0530 6/5/08, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
>A lot of the competition policy issues (regulator favoring the incumbent
>telco, local telcos colluding to fix prices on one side, and not trusting
>each other to peer on the other etc) do get addressed at a local level by
>
>1. Talking to the telcos and ISPs concerned, engaging with them on
>discussions
>
>2. In some cases, suing in a consumer court, approaching the telecom /
>consumer ombudsman, right to information act filings etc get widely (and
>with varying degrees of effectiveness) used by local groups.  Oh yes, and
>media attention to these issues.
>
>Some other issues are mitigated by capacity building, distribution of free /
>cheap software on CDs (the Australian government was handing out CDs with
>ubuntu linux and some other software back in 2005 - I remember picking one
>up when I was at APRICOT in Perth, just for example..)
>
>But you will agree I hope, that most of these are entirely local issues and
>require local knowledge, local coordination.  Global coordination in these
>areas would be much more valuable in sharing experiences, and developing a
>set of shared best practices (nothing on the grand scale John Perry Barlow's
>declaration of independence of cyberspace)
>
>	Suresh
>
>
>>  -----Original Message-----
>>  From: George Sadowsky [mailto:george.sadowsky at attglobal.net]
>>  Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2008 9:53 PM
>>  To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; Adam Peake
>>  Subject: Re: [governance] How can civil society help the Internet to
>>
>>  Yes, the APC paper addresses many of these
>>  issues, and it is potentially a very useful
>>  document.
>>
>>  I want to go a step further.  Granted that there
>>  is an evolving consensus regarding issues
>>  surrounding access, what is the next step?  Is
>>  this something to start a national scorecard on?
>>  Is it something to be followed up at the national
>>  level in all countries?  I fear that continuing
>>  to stress it at the IGF will result in, for the
>>  most part, the converted preaching to the
>>  converted.
>>
>>  This is an area, where in general you have an
>>  alignment of civil society, the Internet
>>  community, and most of the business community.
>>  On the other side, generally, you have
>>  governments and businesses (often telcos) that
>>  have monopoly or controlling positions.
>>
>>  At some point, words don't go further in an
>>  alignment like that.  What can be done further?
>>
>>  George
>
>
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