[governance] Internet G8 meeting

[parminder]

As many of you may know that France, in its role as chair of G8, plans a 
G8 meeting on the Internet later this month.

The French rep at the recent CoE meeting indicated that France is 
interested in some kind of a treaty or something. BTW, the US rep 
present also declared that President Obama plans to come up with some 
kind of framework on cyberspace....

Anyway, please read the only available information on the proposed G8 
Internet meeting which seems to be in the public domain. Gives a good 
indication where multistakeholderism is headed, and how is it 
conveniently used , especially the civil society actors, to legitimize 
processes that are grossly undemocratic, and are clear movements towards 
much larger political role of big business in our political affairs then 
one could evne think just a few years ago. especially see the parts of 
the quote below that is in bold.

from 
http://www.telecompaper.com/news/internet-g8-to-be-held-in-paris-on-24-25-may 


/*Internet G8 to be held in Paris on 24-25 May Tuesday 19 April 2011 | 
19:43 CET */
The "Internet G8", a conference to be held in Paris on 24-25 May before 
the official G8 summit in Deauville, has been conceived to generate 
debate and ultimately a set of proposals from private sector 
stakeholders for the consideration of the eight heads of government, 
Maurice Levy, the chairman of advertising group Publicis, told Les 
Echos. Levy, who was tasked with organising the event by French 
president Nicolas Sarkozy, describes its overall objectives as fomenting 
economic growth and international collaboration. Talks will address the 
internet, digital technology and mobile communications. The first theme 
will be "internet and economic growth" and then "internet and people 
power" ("Pouvoir du citoyen"). Sessions will cover innovation, cloud 
computing, new financing, research efforts, stimulating 
entrepreneurship, protecting intellectual property, developing the 
mobile internet, medias and social networks. Attendees will also be 
urged to focus on the protection of rights and freedoms, personal data 
and minors, as well as the value chain and how to share it equitably. 
*Invitations have already been sent and a list of attendees will be 
published in one or two weeks, Levy said. He wants major actors such as 
Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Intel, Cisco, Apple, Nokia, Samsung and 
Alcatel to be represented, as well as major telecom operators such as 
Orange and ATT, emerging market representatives, smaller players and 
content producers, media companies, studios, music labels, publishing 
houses... The Internet G8 will be entirely funded by the private sector 
and will be open to the press. *

Quote ends.

So this is the multistakeholderism that developed country reps were so 
valiantly defending at various IGF meetings, including the Dec CSTD 
inter-sessional??? Can we, of the civil society, at least now wake up to 
what we are being co-opted into, and rethink our orientations and 
strategies to more specifically centre on global pulbic interest 
(Milton, if you have a better term, pl do suggest), and to representing 
the interests of those who are otherwise marginalized, rather then allow 
ourselves to be a convenient  vehicle for facilitating further 
entrenchment in power of those already most powerful.

First it was Verizon and Google who practically wrote the network 
neutrality law for the US, which because of the centrality of the US in 
global digital space and structure will likely seep into every country's 
systems. Now the global biggies will propose the ways and means of 
international cooperation regarding the Internet. This kind of thing was 
unthinkable a few years back. The digital is indeed the Trojan horse 
for  We indeed are shaping a new world, a most dreadful one for anyone 
who has any belief in democracy and justice.

We wrote to the UN asking for more spaces for civil society for the Dec 
consultations on enhanced cooperation. What about this G8 Internet meeting?

Parminder

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