[governance] RE: On the process of proposing workshop themes

Sun Mar 29 12:53:19 EDT 2009

Re: [governance] RE: On the process of proposing workshop themes
Dear Divina, hi all

For our French understandig list members :

Divina wrote : 
" A lot of groups and entities are trying to see how the 30 articles apply or can be adapted to internet and other online media, in an ethical perspective. I can refer you to the charter by APC on the civil society side, a model in its genre, but also to UN regional meetings, in Santo Domingo or in Strasbourg."

I'm pleased to inform you that the book entitled Ethique de "la societe de l'information" (Ethics in an "Information society") is available now (see below). In its first part it reports in French on the 2007 Colloquium held in Strasbourg by the CERIME (Centre d'Etudes et de recherches interdisciplinaires sur les medias en Europe) and dealing with this topic. The second part is a researchers' analysis and point of view of the UNESCO Regional European Meeting that was also held in Strasbourg, in September 2007 and which Divina refferred to. It concludes on the necessity of "giving a new dynamic to the process" and of including some missing issues of highest importance such as Ethics in the International and UN bodies and Ethics and Financing for Development.

Best greetings
Lean-Louis Fullsack

Here are the references :

Ethique de la "societe de l'information"
Sous la direction de Jean-Louis Fullsack et Michel Mathien
Preface d'Alain Modoux
Editions Bruylant, Bruxelles (40€) 

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Divina MEIGS 
  To: Lisa Horner governance at lists.cpsr.org, ; governance at lists.cpsr.org 
  Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2009 11:18 AM
  Subject: Re: [governance] RE: On the process of proposing workshop themes

  Hi all

  Thank you Lisa and others for picking the thread of a human-rights based internet. When I reset the theme on the table, I meant it the way you understood it, Lisa, which is to say in relation to the Universal Declaration. 

  A lot of groups and entities are trying to see how the 30 articles apply or can be adapted to internet and other online media, in an ethical perspective. I can refer you to the charter by APC on the civil society side, a model in its genre, but also to UN regional meetings, in Santo Domingo or in Strasbourg. Work is being currently done at the programme Information For All (IFAP) at Unesco along these lines ... I am personnally doing research on how young people perceive and apply (or not) these rights... The important thing is that the discussion should be a multi-stakeholder one, even when considering the perspective of governments ... And IGF is one of the interesting plateforms for this open, and if need be, contradictory debate, it seems to me.  

  So I would strongly support a major proposal from researchers and civil society, for the theme of a human-rights based governance of internet, so as to fit the IGF agenda.  The nicety of the debates, the clarifications that are being discussed on this list and others would then be aired more widely and everybody would benefit from such an open discussion. In the current context of crisis, this could be  a unique opportunity for dealing with ethics, social justice and a people-centered future for the internet. I deeply sense  the clock of the IGF  ticking away...

  Best
  Divina Frau-Meigs

  Le 29/03/09 3:37, « Lisa Horner » <lisa at global-partners.co.uk> a écrit :

    Hi Sivasubramanian and all

    I realise a fairly long thread grew on this before I had a chance to reply, but thought I should answer your question about what I meant...

    Mary's clarification on different legal definitions of rights was very useful, and I should have made clear that I was talking about human rights as defined in the Universal Declaration, rather than a state's sovereign rights. I'm currently working (with others) to explore whether talking about values and policy principles is a useful way forwards in trying to develop the ethical dimensions of internet governance.  There seems to be agreement amongst many people in this field that we don't need to develop new human rights specifically for the internet; rather, the rights defined in the UDHR need to be applied to this new and continually evolving environment. 

    So, we're interested in looking at whether different stakeholders can agree on certain values that they think should underpin internet governance and use, such as open access to information and culture/participatory governance/accessibility.  These values are rooted in the existing human rights framework. If a number of stakeholders can agree that certain values are important, what exact issues need to be addressed to realise those values?  What policy principles can help to do this, both general and specific?  In other words, how can we practically move on from talking about human rights on the internet to actually upholding them, based on multi-stakeholder collaboration?  I think the GNI is an important initiative in this respect, and we're looking at ways of developing this kind of approach.

    So - in answer to your question - we're not thinking in terms of enacting new laws, but rather about developing new approaches to the issues, rooted in the overall mission of expanding human rights.  Some government stakeholders might argue they have a moral right to filter the internet, but others might believe in core values of openness.  I saw that you proposed a workshop or discussion on values for the internet on this list - I suspect we're thinking along similar lines!

    I think an important first step forwards is to understand what different people understand by the terms "rights" and "principles", as the debate in this thread has illustrated!  Max Senges and I are currently looking into this through a research project.  I hope the event on rights and principles in Rome this summer will also help move the discussion and work on, along with other work being done under the umbrella of the "internet rights and principles" dynamic coalition.

    All the best,
    Lisa

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    From: Sivasubramanian Muthusamy [mailto:isolatedn at gmail.com]
    Sent: Wed 25/03/2009 18:12
    To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; Lisa Horner
    Subject: Re: [governance] RE: On the process of proposing workshop themes

    Hello Lisa Horner,

    Perhaps the workshop could address aspects related to the Rights of Governments, apart from focussing on the Rights of the Users?  Governments of the world might want to argue that they have a right to demand certain content removed - You Tube has faced such rights based requests in the recent past and now.

    Governments would like to argue that they have a moral right to filter, and to censor inappropriate content ????

    What is this "rights-based values and principles for internet governance" any way? Define rights, principles and then enact laws according to the agreed values and principles ???

    Sivasubramanian Muthusamy
    India.

    On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 6:58 PM, Lisa Horner <lisa at global-partners.co.uk> wrote:

      Hi Divina and all

      Just a quick note to say that I intend to submit a workshop proposal on "rights and the internet" issues, focussing on the approach of building discussion and agreement around rights-based values and principles for internet governance.  I'm doing some work on this this year in association with other groups, and the workshop would be a way of feeding back on progress and continuing the debate from last year's 'mainstreaming rights' workshop.  Thoughts/comments/collaboration welcome!

      Thanks,
      Lisa Horner

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
      From: Divina MEIGS [mailto:divina.meigs at orange.fr]
      Sent: Wed 25/03/2009 08:46
      To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; mueller at syr.edu
      Cc: Muehlberg, Annette; pimienta at funredes.org
      Subject: Re: [governance] RE: On the process of proposing workshop themes

      Dear all

      I agree very much on Milton’s rationale for putting up themes (as stated below) because they seem essential even though one is not in the best position to organize them.

      I’ll suggest three, picking up on my memory from past exchanges, and because they haven’t re-emerged:
              1) the future of labour in internet governance. That’s a theme that hasn’t emerged and yet it is central to policy-making, not to mention to labour itself. There are different scenarii around cognitive capitalism, individual entrepreneurship, labor value vs. knowledge value... And it is especially timely with the current crisis... But i am not an economist and i am not a trade unionist....

              2) the internet rights or a human rights based internet issue... That remains undecided and in spite of much discussion it seems to have disappeared...

              3) media and information literacy/education in the information society is one close to my heart. It is urgent to propose and develop global policies on the theme, in connection with intellectual property rights, but also open educational ressources on line, the future of universities, sustainable development....

      Hoping some of you will continue the thread,...

      Divina Frau-Meigs

      Le 24/03/09 21:44, « Milton L Mueller » <mueller at syr.edu> a écrit :

          the proposal to call for expressions of interest on themes rather than  full-fledged workshop proposals at that stage (they will naturally come  later). It has the benefit of sensing the level of interest on various themes  but also allows people who do not intend to organize a workshop themselves to  indicate that they think a specific topic should be addressed. This is what I  did last year by putting an early placeholder in favor of a workshop on  "dimensions of cybersecurity" while indicating that I did not intend to  organize it myself. 

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