On NN workshop RE: Re: [governance] Three IGC workshops ) NN FYI DIPLO

Mon Apr 18 10:30:00 EDT 2011

Colleagues,

As the other discussion thread (Milton, McTim) well outlined, *there are two
dimensions of threats to the openness*:

1)       governments (censorship) and

2)       business (inappropriate management for business advantage).

The former (1) is more of an issue in developing world, where there are
trends of some governments to misuse the network management for censorship;
it is less or no issue in developed countries (or, is it?).

The latter (2) is a clear issue in developed countries, from where the
debate started: most of the business trends (as well as global services
capacities) are coming from developed countries, and it comes as no
surprise. In developing countries, there is lack of understanding of the
issue still, since the primary problems relate to the infrastructure and
pricing, and there is no much space/human capacity with regulators to follow
the advanced business models. Nevertheless, the business in developing world
does have capacity to follow such trends and introduce managed services, as
we have seen in India and elsewhere.

*Regarding the workshop proposal*, I would suggest that the two dimensions
are treated separately, possibly within different sessions:

The former (*censorship*) has much to do with freedom of speech and level of
democracy in the country; the practice of network management is used
sometimes to reach the goal of censorship. Regulators are usually not the
ones that can help, but rather the governments only. To me, this is an issue
of openness and democracy.

The latter (*business advantage*) is, however, an issue in both developing
and developed countries. It has to do with regulatory environment and
awareness of various consequences – and in developing world it also
sometimes has to do with competition and liberalisation of the market, which
is commonly a political decision. Thus, this discussion is of interest of
both developing and developed countries: while developed ones have more to
say on various business models coming from their world (as they are “trend
setters” commonly), the developing countries have much to say on possible
implications having in mind weak infrastructure and unfair economic models
of Internet etc. Thus the “west-driven” debate on NN has to be transferred
to “south” and “east” as well, and discussed together.

The IGF workshops on NN since Hyderabad have helped a lot to clarify what NN
means to different actors, what differences are in various terms, what
common ground of agreement is and what are the opened issues. The much
missing component that should be encouraged now is the reflection of
developing countries (business, users and regulators) on open issues, and a
dialogue with leading global business on forthcoming trends (wireless,
managed services) and the impact to both developed and developing countries
access and openness.

*Number of resources* collected on NN since then are available at:
http://www.diplomacy.edu/ig/nn/

Please feel free to suggest more.

I think the *proper format of the workshop* on NN for Nairobi would now be a
(big) roundtable instead of a panel-audience approach. The discussion (and
understanding, at least among IGF participating parties) have grown since
Hyderabad and there are many actors that would have an equal meaningful say
(neutrality of the panel :o)

*Regarding the capacity building*, I agree with Fouad there is a great need
for capacity building with regulators in developing countries on NN. Diplo
has introduced NN chapter within its annual online capacity building
programme, and will put more focus on it within its advanced online
programmes starting in June. We also deliver a session on NN within every
training workshop for higher level officials of developing countries we do
(as we did now for AU, UNECA and NEPAD under our ACP programme supported by
EC, or previously with NTRA of Egypt, even for Council of Europe). The
experience shows it is firstly needed to analyse and explain well the way
the Internet works, the layers, infrastructure and business models, in order
to dive deeper into the issue of management and unfair practices. It is not
simple, it takes time, and commonly it is not a top issue of concern by the
policy makers.

I would be happy to hear what other initiatives in capacity building on NN
are, and how we can further enhance the outreach to the regulators and
officials of developing countries.

Best,

            Vlada

On 16 April 2011 18:26, Jean-Louis FULLSACK <jlfullsack at orange.fr> wrote:

> Dear members of the list
>
> Network neutrality was very high on the agenda of the list some time ago
> and it would be interesting to have a retro-look on the rich exchanges that
> took place at that time.
>
> More concretely,I fully agree Fouad's proposal for a better balance of
> perspectives. The US reference isn't universally valid for a lot of reasons
> and even lesser in DCs. Therefore inputs from emerging countries (Brazil,
> India? ...) are far more appropriate to the debate.
> May be that some interesting ideas and general concepts are to be found in
> the work undertaken under the auspices of the Council of Europe.  Please see
> the attached document as one example for "dealing with NN".
>
> Best regards
>
> Jean-Louis Fullsack
> CSDPTT France
>
>
>
>
>
> > Message du 15/04/11 14:57
> > De : "Fouad Bajwa"
> > A : "Ivar A. M. Hartmann"
> > Copie à : governance at lists.cpsr.org
> > Objet : Re: On NN workshop RE: Re: [governance] Three IGC workshops ) NN
> FYI DIPLO
>
> >
> > I would propose to have a balance of perspectives then. If there was
> > one member from each, say one from the FCC, one from Corporations or
> > like Vint Cerf and Milton Mueller from Civil Society from the US and
> > then on the developing country bench, one from the Brazilian Govt, one
> > from Corporate Sector in Africa and Parminder from IGC, then we would
> > have a strong debate and equal contribution. I would then propose
> > going for a super workshop of 3 hours straight so that the
> > participants can also have two minutes.
> >
> > On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 5:28 PM, Ivar A. M. Hartmann
> > wrote:
> > > Fouad,
> > > how about using whatever knowledge and experience on NN that is
> available in
> > > the US to improve the discussion on what NN means in developing
> countries?
> > > What if one or two NN experts from the US exposed the context and
> important
> > > details of the issue in their country to another two panelists from
> > > developing countries who then pitch in and comment on what aspects of
> NN are
> > > indeed relevant for developing countries. And then everyone - and
> hopefully
> > > (active) workshop participants from developing countries - will take
> the
> > > discussion on from there.
> > > This way the workgroup can benefit from this experience and knowledge
> while
> > > also preventing the debate from being steered by a developed-country
> > > interest on the subject.
> > > I do think we can meet in the middle on this.
> > > Best, Ivar
> > >
> > > On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 04:42, Fouad Bajwa wrote:
> > >>
> > >> Typo:
> > >>
> > >> sorry, the last paragraph had a typo: can has to be read as can't as
> > >> follows:
> > >>
> > >> "Secondly, my generation comes in with a different perspective and it
> > >> can't be changed or improved by failed perceptions"
> > >>
> > >>  -- Fouad
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> ____________________________________________________________
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> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Regards.
> > --------------------------
> > Fouad Bajwa
> > ____________________________________________________________
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>
>
> ____________________________________________________________
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