[governance] How can civil society help the Internet to
Michael Gurstein
gurstein at gmail.com
Sat Jun 7 22:38:18 EDT 2008
Willie,
I'd be interested in working on this on behalf of the Global Telecentre
Alliance which willed itself into formal existance at a conference in
Budapest a couple of weeks ago.
I'm behind in my follow-up responsibilities in that context (I've been
travelling since the conference) but I'd look to act as a conduit between
this grouping and the GTA at least in the interim.
Best to all,
MG
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeanette Hofmann [mailto:jeanette at wzb.eu]
Sent: June 6, 2008 3:08 AM
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; wcurrie at apc.org
Cc: George Sadowsky; Suresh Ramasubramanian; 'Adam Peake'
Subject: Re: [governance] How can civil society help the Internet to
wcurrie at apc.org wrote:
> 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
>>
>> ____________________________________________________________
>> 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
>
> ____________________________________________________________
> 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
> ____________________________________________________________
> 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
____________________________________________________________
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
____________________________________________________________
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
More information about the Governance
mailing list