[governance] FW: Towards an Internet Social Forum

michael gurstein gurstein at gmail.com
Mon Jan 26 19:58:09 EST 2015 

Hi Peter,

Inline…
-------- Original message --------
From: Akinremi Peter Taiwo 
Date:26/01/2015 23:11 (GMT+02:00) 
To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org,michael gurstein 
Subject: Re:[governance] FW: Towards an Internet Social Forum


Hey Michael,

    I can see the passion behind ISF and which is a good idea but....can't these so called issues be address by existing civil society groups. I would say that the issues parmider, and others want to address can be address if the existing civil society groups can agree on a common ground.

[MG>] Yes the issues could probably be addressed in other ways but I’m not sure if there is common ground. Those involved with the JNC are concerned with traditional civil society issues particularly concerning social justice, democratic governance and of course human rights--not just human rights.  Others in CS have chosen for their own reasons to ignore social justice issues and democratic governance in their Internet Governance activities and positions.   

I could see very well that most of the people behind ISF aren't in support of NMI. 

[MG>] yes, and the reason for this is the same as the above in that is it is hard to see how the big business/elite/1% representation coming from the World Economic Forum can be reconciled with a democratically “governed” Internet. 

My questions is aren't we creating complexity for ourselves in the name of not letting WEF from controlling the internet? 

[MG>] possibly… but some degree of “complexity” may be the cost of not allowing the Internet and its profound impacts and influence into the future to be captured by (economic, political and security) elites/the 1% with little evident commitment to the public good, social justice or democratic governance beyond that which supports their own narrow private interests.

Do you think it is possible not allowing them getting involve?

[MG>] perhaps not, but it is necessary to ensure that there is an opportunity for democratic voices to be heard and if we don’t insist on measures towards social justice including (or perhaps particularly) through the Internet, the elites/1% will force us into an economic framework where a very very small elite control everything and the rest of us scramble to survive (the lessons of Greece should be on all of our minds these days…

I believe what we are all striving for is bottom up approach and involvement of every stakeholders participation and that's why we have some civil stakeholders on board to keep the NMI in the direction of bottom up approach.

[MG>] do you really think that one or two civil society representatives will have that kind of influence… that they will be able to withstand the power and wealth of the global economic and political elites and the glitter and enticements of the kind of manipulation that the roughly $1,000,000 start-up slush fund that the elites tossed in so casually, can achieve.  What is the likelihood that they can/would ensure that the Internet is governed in the interests of all of us… what we have already seen from the NMI is backroom dealing, shady and top down manipulation of appointments and representation, a more or less complete lack of transparency and no, even feeble, attempts at a broad base of accountability… The role of the CS representatives in the NMI however well-meaning they may be, is not to influence the outcomes but rather to legitimize the outcomes.

Also forming ISF, how do you intend steering NMI in good hope in favour of every stakeholders?.

[MG>] the ISF is not meant to “steer” the NMI but rather to work towards building a democratic, accountable and transparent framework of governance for the Internet, precisely what the NMI is not.

Hoping to hear from you.

[MG>] Best,

Mike

Peter.

On Jan 25, 2015 1:19 PM, "michael gurstein" <gurstein at gmail.com> wrote:

Coverage of the ISF in an Indian daily

M

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/455369/towards-democratic-internet-governance.html


Towards democratic Internet governance


*	1 min read 
*	 

Shruthi H M, Bengaluru, Jan 24, 2015, DHNS:

The Internet might have pervaded the common man's life but its governance still remains in the hands of a few corporate giants. To counter this, civil society organisations propose democratic Internet governance. 

Though Google’s Eric Schmidt predicts the “disappearance of Internet into the background”, a group of organisations have set out to bring to fore voices that have remained in the background in spite of the Internet’s all pervasive nature.As the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2015 is in progress in Davos (Jan 21-24), civil society organisations have come together to create a global ‘Internet Social Forum’ countering the WEF's NETmundial initiative for Internet governance. The organisations aim to create an Internet space governed in public interest. 

Bengaluru-based organisation IT for Change will be an active part of this global forum, along with five other Indian organisations: Society For Knowledge Commons, All India Peoples Science Network, Free Software Movement of India, SLFC.in and Digital Empowrment Foundation. 

The Internet Social Forum will consist of civil society organisations from across the globe who believe that Internet governance should not be limited to the vested interests of corporate giants. Their endeavour is to put in place a “bottom's up” approach, where grassroots groups can have their say in regulating Internet space.

Civil organisations feel that the WEF’s global internet policy making and governance initiative the ‘NETmundial’, restricts itself to the voices of the global elite. The concept of WEF itself has been countered by the “World Social Forum” and the Internet Social Forum draws inspiration from it. In fact, the “preparatory process” of the forum is likely to be held in March 2015 in Tunis, during the World Social Forum meet.

When one searches for something on the Internet, the most popular links related to the subject appear at the top of the list. 

However, more often links that appear first are not guided by popularity but by the money invested by interested parties to ensure they are displayed on top. In this regard, the Internet Social Forum will fight for “Net neutrality”. 

IT For Change Executive Director Parminder Jeet Singh said, “In its current form, internet governance has not yet become a people's movement. The Internet is increasingly controlled by corporates.” 

Community owned broadband, data ownership, limits to copyright and including rural communities in the dialogue process are some of the issues that the forum seeks to address.

Rishab Bailey, Director (legal), Society For Knowledge Commons, added that such an initiative was significant as, at present, a lot of thought is going into setting up institutions for Internet governance. “We have to ensure a representative and democratic Internet governance. Internet is a global construct and it touches all our lives. As of now there are no concrete mechanisms to deal with issues pertaining to Internet governance. We have to make sure that Internet governance is a true bottoms up approach.” 

 


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