[governance] Yesterday Update from Bali - Pre- IGF 21 October, 2013

Mon Oct 21 20:31:29 EDT 2013

Just a couple more personal observations from HLLM yesterday

UK subtle use of word “proportionate” in their speech was interesting

Fadi Chehade initially took the stage with a slide showing him as CEO of the” International Cesearean Network” (another ICANN I guess). Interesting freudian slip for someone contemplating the changes he is.

Widespread applause when Citizen Lab introduced the E word – Edward Snowden.

Excellent speech by Anja Kovacs. Particularly liked her compelling argument that surveillance actually works counter to security.

Ian Peter

From: Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro 
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2013 10:57 AM
To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org 
Subject: [governance] Yesterday Update from Bali - Pre- IGF 21 October, 2013

Update from Bali – Pre- IGF

This year’s Pre-Internet Governance Forum which was held yesterday set the tone for this week. Today is Day 1 of the IGF! It’s finally here!!! Yesterday was like a barometer testing how stakeholders generally would be engaging in the discussions and dialogue on the diverse issues on Internet Governance. 

Remote participation is available over IPv6! :)

About Indonesia

It was also great to hear the CTO of Telecom Indonesia give a general update on ICT and the Internet in Indonesia. By the way Indonesia is also the world’s second largest biodiversity and the fourth largest country on the earth being home for 250, 588, 688 people. If you are curious about their resource allocations visit: http://bgp.potaroo.net/iso3166/v4cc.html

In 2011, Indonesia ranked 95 on the ICT Development Index, see: http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/publications/mis2012/MIS2012_without_Annex_4.pdf

IGF Schedule

To see today’s Schedule, visit: http://igf2013.or.id/schedule/

Snippets from Yesterday

High Level Leaders Meeting

It was a great meeting for testing the mercury levels of how institutions were feeling about Internet Governance. There seemed to be consensus that there needs to be improvement when it comes to Internet Governance. The meeting was hosted by the Indonesian Government where representatives of public sector, civil society and private sector were invited. 

What I Heard

[There were many speakers but am picking that which stood out]

The nature of improvement is at this stage ambiguous except for the Japanese Government making calls for increased functionality of the Government Advisory Committee (GAC) within ICANN. Brazil’s Government representative wants more democracy on the Internet and advised the delegates that they would be hosting and Internet Governance meeting in Brazil next year. There was overwhelming consensus by governments that cyber security is critical in the wake of vulnerabilities and threats. The US Government representative pointed out those unlawful non state activities that threaten the Internet should be addressed. The Chinese Government advocated social and economic rights. APNIC CEO Paul Wilson, Chair of the Number Registry Organisation (NRO) and MAG member emphasized the need to rebuild trust and leaders to collaborate and have aggressive cooperation. Citizen’s Lab advised that there should be caution in terms of the reaction of stakeholders to recent revelations by Edward Snowden and the threats of excessive regulation by governments. Google representative said that Surveillance was nothing new and done by all and not just the US government.

Jovan Kurbalija, Director of Diplo Foundation said, “Make no mistake, Internet Governance is in crisis”. Kurbalija suggested that there are challenges and there needs to be change and empathy. 

What I Observed [How I interpreted what they were saying]

I won’t go into all of the speakers but just some key snippets that in my view helps set the tone and context for the IGF this year.

US

When the US government made comments about unlawful activity by non-state actors which in my view canvasses stakeholders within the private sector such as when Google had to pay $22.5million in fines for Safari tracking. The US government has to be commended for having machinery that allows for redress when it comes to corporate surveillance. However not countries have policies and laws that enable regulators to address breaches. Google has come under fire by Australian Privacy Commissioner, New Zealand Police – Cyber Crime Unit. There are other commercial stakeholders who exploit big data for commercial purposes. VeriSign reports in its recent quarterly update that Transparency Market Research highlighted that Global Big Data market was worth USD $6.3 billion in 2012 and is expected to reach USD $48.3 billion by 2018, at a compound annual growth rate of 40.5 percent from 

2012 to 2018.

I would have preferred if the US Government representative sat next to other country representatives rather than ICANN and ISOC CEO to be less clique and more global. In diplomacy, even seating arrangements speaks volume. 

China

They are probably relieved to have the spotlight on government surveillance shift from them to the US (tongue in cheek). They highlighted social and economic aspects of human rights over the internet. To me this is diplomatic speak for increase in access and empowering communities to build stronger IP backbones and would include things like culture such as multilingualism and diversity on the Internet in forms of expression as well as through Internationalized Domain Names.

Japan

The suggestion to increase GAC functionality is a cry for more robust representation from governments into the policy processes. Indirectly they were saying that they are happy to have institutions carry on with their administration functions except to instill incremental changes.

Brazil

I am assuming that Brazil wants increased participation and to have forums more democratic. It remains unclear whether they are referring to administration or meaningful participation from other nation states and stakeholders in the coordinating bodies. 

It is helpful to separate this core issue from the other notion that they alluded to in their speech and increasing local Internet Exchange points to avoid local traffic getting routed offshore and being exposed. From an end user perspective having local IXPs have a direct correlation to greater room for increasing local content, lower costs and increasing infrastructure which is in sync with building a vibrant and open internet community.

Civil Society

It would be great for the two speakers from civil society to have invited comments from the rest of civil society as they were developing their speeches. Whilst they identified the security and vulnerabilities, I felt that they could have done more to clearly and concisely highlight the solutions. Throughout this week as, civil society engages in the various workshops, it is critical that we not only raise the issues and vulnerabilities but also suggest solutions.

Today, the IGC is meeting during lunch hour where we will discuss a few things, one of which is how we can coordinate civil society input into workshops aside from administrative matters. For those who wish to skype into the session let us know by emailing: coordinators at igcaucus.org

GigaNet

Apparently for much of the day, there was standing room only. I attended two sessions at the Giganet where a Panelist presented a Study on Transferring Blocks and Routing Information. The other session that I attended was on Surveillance and Snowden. 

Final Thoughts and Wish List

I am personally not worried about the future of the Internet Governance. However, I feel that we need to create a culture where we can openly discuss concerns without retreating into our caves. I find that in the 8th Internet Governance stakeholders need to zero into the core critical issues rather than skirting superficially over the issues. For me, my list is clear:

1.     Meaningful participation:

a.     In Policy processes, representations into various administration 

b.    Capacity Building

c.     Multilingualism – Freedom of Expression, IDNs

2.     Strengthening Integrity of National and Global Standards bodies and building trust in light of the following situations

a.     Patenting things which are RFCs eg. http://www.circleid.com/posts/20121011_perspective_on_verisign_patent_application_on_domain_transfers/

b.    Compromised Algorithms http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/security/can-you-trust-nist/?utm_source=techalert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=101013

(I have been told that the issue was not the standard but the implementation of the standard)

3.     Increasing Accountability and Transparency in the way things are governed and administered both on a global, regional and national scale.

4.     Deliberate and Conscious Strategic Engagement on Shifting Away from Territorialism of Actors and stakeholders in Internet Governance to aggressive collaboration, coordination of resources and energy to create a robust and open internet.

5.     Pursue dialogue using the Internet Governance Human Rights principles as a base for complex policy discussions.

6.     Bug the MAG to arrange for a sports side event where people can just learn to relax and disagree on certain issues and not take it personally where constituencies become insulated instead of porous.

What is your wish list?

Social Media

As per Anriette’s email:

For everything: #IGF2013

Internet as engine for growth - #IG4D

Human Rights, Freedom of Expression - #HR

Security - Legal and other frameworks - #SEC

Principles of Multistakeholder Cooperation - #MS

Internet Governance Principles: #IGP

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