[governance] How can civil society help the Internet to
Parminder
parminder at itforchange.net
Sat Jun 7 07:14:52 EDT 2008
> 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.
Willie/ Karen
I find the APC's paper on 'access' discussions at IGF Rio very good, and
very useful. I should be able to support any manifesto that comes out of
it... I am happy to be of any help in doing an IGC WG on this.
Parminder
> -----Original Message-----
> From: wcurrie at apc.org [mailto:wcurrie at apc.org]
> Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 1:33 AM
> To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; George Sadowsky; Suresh Ramasubramanian;
> 'Adam Peake'
> Subject: Re: [governance] How can civil society help the Internet to
>
> 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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