[governance] Re: Separate statement on themes for Vilnius

[Ian Peter]

I¹d certainly like to see network neutrality/ open internet advanced as a
theme, and seeing net neutrality can be so confusing I¹d like to see open
Internet added after it.

IGC co sponsored a very successful three hour workshop on this at Sharm with
Diplo. There are many issues, content neutrality probably sitting highest in
my mind. Its worthy of a main session as the current main session themes we
have repeated for some years are getting a little tired.

And yes we should continue to support the human rights and development
agendas. We need to find a way to overcome the block on rights discussions
which was evident last year ­ if anyone has suggestions on how we might
achieve this I would be interested.





From: Jeremy Malcolm <jeremy at ciroap.org>
Reply-To: <governance at lists.cpsr.org>, Jeremy Malcolm <jeremy at ciroap.org>
Date: Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:40:27 +0800
To: <governance at lists.cpsr.org>
Subject: [governance] Re: Separate statement on themes for Vilnius

On 29/01/2010, at 6:47 PM, Jeremy Malcolm wrote:

> So, let's get to work on such a statement now.  I don't think it needs to be
> very long, and indeed we could just put forward some bullet points for Ginger
> to elaborate upon on the day.  So far we have on the table the following
> substantive themes:
> 
> * Human rights
> * Development agenda
> * Network neutrality/Open Internet
> 
> Comments, please, particularly on the last of these which Parminder has just
> introduced?

With just over a week to go there have still been no comments on this thread
so far, so I will try to summarise some of the arguments that are usually
made for and against this theme, as a way of kick-starting discussion:

FOR:

Network neutrality (or "open Internet") emphasises the interest of Internet
users in being able, by default, to access content, services and
applications free from corporate or governmental interference (though there
are cases in which compelling interests may require exceptions to this
general principle).  Network neutrality also stands for the treatment of
intermediaries (again, by default) as conduits for information, rather than
gatekeepers who bear liability for the content they carry.

AGAINST:

Network neutrality is a confusing phrase with many different meanings to
different people.  For example it is still wrongly thought of as preventing
individual network operators from managing their bandwidth, which will only
lead to misunderstandings in Vilnius (like the arguments over whether
"critical Internet resources" includes electricity).  On the other hand
"Open Internet" doesn't seem to add anything to the existing "Openness"
theme, so why not just keep using that existing theme instead?
-- 
Jeremy Malcolm
Project Coordinator
Consumers International
Kuala Lumpur Office for Asia Pacific and the Middle East
Lot 5-1 Wisma WIM, 7 Jalan Abang Haji Openg, TTDI, 60000 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia
Tel: +60 3 7726 1599
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