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Internet Governance

ISOC's blog on IGF 2009

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Youth voice from IGF

I could still clearly remember the talk on Internet Governance with UN member Mr. Markus Kummer in June this year in my university with other NetMission Ambassadors. IGF or Internet Governance, these terms are not unfamiliar to me. But before firsthand experience of IGF, the concept of IGF was still a bit ambiguous in my mind.

First of all, attending the IGF as an Ambassador of ISOC, I felt great honored. Besides this, that the program brings people who are devoted to ICT industry all together and provides a platform for discussion.

Actually what impressed me most during these days was the form in which IGF was conducted. Though having so many interesting workshops at the same time roused a big question for every participant, the IGF do provide people from all over the world with the platform to express their own opinions. Despite voices from some developing countries saying that the none-decision making attribute of IGF and little time to complement in one year gap, however, from my personal opinion, the IGF does provide people with the freedom to voice out and chances to participate.

Besides this, another thing that also touches me a lot is the emphasis and large involvement of youth related issues in the IGF which is very encouraging to me as part of the Young generation. Indeed, the theme of this IGF is to creating opportunities for all and the future of the internet will definitely fall on to our generation. It is of extreme importance to involve youth topics and participants in the IGF. In the IGF daily, we saw special session of youth voices which provides youth to speak out our own opinions towards the conference. At the same time, along with other NetMission Ambassadors who travelled far way from Hong Kong to the IGF village, we altogether promoted our community project regarding on bridging the digital divide, addressing internet governance issues and other internet topics. Indeed, we are more inspired by experts in the IGF and other group like Net Aman in Egypt. And this s I and other NetMission Ambassadors felt do fell in ISOC’s principle of help with the open, unencumbered, beneficial use of the Internet.

Posted: Friday, November 20th, 2009 by nichenyin@gmail.com

Acceso y Diversidad permanece como un tema central para el Foro de Gobernanza de Internet.

Desde el Foro de Gobernanza de Internet en Rio, en donde se estableció el tema de acceso como una prioridad, durante esta versión del Foro se consolidó como un tema muy importante en la agenda. Durante el Foro en Rio se estableció la importancia de la accesibilidad, más aun, cuando de alguna manera todos los seres humanos sufriremos de algún tipo de discapacidad durante nuestras vidas.

“Acceso y Diversidad permanece como un tema central para el Foro de Gobernanza de Internet” con estas palabras Sha Zucang, Subsecretario General de Asuntos Económicos y Sociales de las Naciones Unidas, cierra el Foro de de Gobernanza de Internet.

Y sin duda, este fue un tema que estuvo presente de manera permanente durante los cuatro días de la reunión.

Uno de los mayores avances en temas de accesibilidad se dió con la proclamación del “Mensaje sobre Accesibilidad para personas con Discapacidad de la Coalición Dinámica sobre Accesibilidad y Discapacidad” – DCAD por sus siglas en inglés. El mensaje está estructurado de tal forma que se refiere a los Derechos; Los Estándares de Internet y Soporte para la Accesibilidad; sus Beneficios; sobre el Diseño Universal; Entrenamiento y Pasos Prácticos a Seguir.

Especial atención se da al tema de Diseño Universal en donde el mensaje adopta la definición del diseño universal como se proclama en el artículo 2 de la Convención de Naciones Unidas para los Derechos para Personas con Discapacidad:

“El ‘diseño universal’ se entiende como el diseño de productos, entornos, programas y servicios que puedan utilizar todas las personas, en la mayor medida posible, sin la necesidad de adaptación ni diseño especializado. El ‘diseño universal’ no excluirá las ayudas técnicas para grupos particulares de personas con discapacidad, cuando esto sea necesario.” (traducción no oficial del autor).

En adición a esta referencia, el mensaje presentado establece:

“Además, este mensaje señala que los signatarios de la Convención de la ONU sobre los Derechos de las personas con discapacidad tienen la obligación prevista en el artículo 9 de ‘promover el diseño, desarrollo, producción y distribución de Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación -TIC- accesibles y sistemas en una fase temprana, de modo que estas tecnologías y sistemas sean accesibles a un costo mínimo’”. (traducción no oficial del autor)

Como mensaje final del Mensaje, la Colación propone a los asistentes del Foro de Gobernanza de Internet los siguientes Pasos Prácticos (traducción no oficial del autor):

“A. Proporcionar educación y capacitación sobre las disposiciones de acceso a las TIC de la Convención de las Naciones Unidas sobre los Derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad;

B. Fomentar la aplicación de los estándares de Internet y el apoyo a la accesibilidad;

C. Capacitar a gerentes y personal técnico en la implementación de los lineamientos dados por el Consorcio World Wide Web (W3C – http://www.w3.org/WAI), La iniciativa conjunta de la Union Internacional para las Telecomunicaciones – ITU y G3ict con su Caja de Herramientas en e-Accessibilidad para Responsables de Políticas (http://g3ict.com/resource_center/toolkit), Convesación Total ITU-T Rec 703 (http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/studygroups/com16/accessibility/conversation.html), La Lista de Chequeo en Accesibilidad de las Telecomunicaciones de la ITU (http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/accessibility) y los estándares de DAISY (Sistema de Información Digital Accesible).

D. Consultar los diferentes interesados, incluidas las personas con discapacidad y personas mayores, a través de todas las etapas del diseño y desarrollo de aplicaciones de Internet y productos y servicios basados en las TIC;

E. Asegurar que la información está disponible en formatos accesibles y sea ofrecida a los usuarios por métodos accesibles;

F. Garantizar que las políticas de contratación y las prácticas de contratación contemplen la adquisición de TIC accesibles y que se garantice el mantenimiento de las características de accesibilidad en productos y servicios adquiridos;

G. Garantizar que las reuniones públicas y privadas y las consultas sean accesibles, incluyendo los sistemas de conferencias en línea y sistemas de subtitulación basados en la web para los participantes remotos, y

H. Elevar el perfil de la accesibilidad en la industria, gobierno, educación y productos del sector privado, instalaciones, programas y servicios para que la accesibilidad se integre en toda la sociedad.”

Posted: Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 by julian@colnodo.apc.org

Online Education: Maximizing the Efficiency

I shared the panel with Carolina Rossini from Berkman Center in Harvard who talked about OER (Open Educational Resources).  Priyanthi Daluwatte talked about the learning platform of Diplo Foundation and Pablo Molina of Georgetown University gave his thought on the topic, too.  I worked with Carolina and Priyanthi as tutors for the Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme of Diplo Foundation.  Divina Meigs was the moderator for this event.  We received a lot of questions about online education and a lot of interest on knowing more about the challenges of online education.

I have uploaded my presentation in slideshare for those who are interested.

http://www.slideshare.net/rustan108/open-web-content-education

Posted: Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 by charityg@diplomacy.edu

Improved Internet Interconnection at Lower Cost – An Area of Required Attention

Interconnection is a phenomenal terminology used in telecommunication networks describing the procedure where two operators frame an agreement of traffic trade. An operator interconnects with another operator in order to route its traffic. In the world of Internet where networks of network form baseline infrastructure, interconnect allows a small ISP to transmit its traffic to corresponding bandwidth provider which probably has an interconnect agreement with a TIER 1 International bandwidth provider and it goes on.

A workshop session was held on Monday, 16 November during Internet Governance Forum 2009 meeting on the topic of ‘Public Policies for an improved interconnection at lower cost’. It was workshop # 270, proposed by LACNIC with panelist from Verizon Business, LINX (Internet Exchange Point, London), ECLAC – UN (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) and ISP sector of South Africa.

Interconnection is a considerable part of overall OPEX of an ISP and has a deep impact on service cost paid by the Internet end-user. The primary purpose of the workshop was to discuss the present interconnection scenario over Internet which has changed with the passage of time and also propose public policy issues linked with bringing the cost down.

Interconnection inside Internet was one of the main topics during WSIS and it is much more complex topic to discuss. Internet Interconnection 5-10 years ago was primarily based on International link, content was web and e-mail where TIER 1 operator was the main service providers having a mutual settlement with each other. At that time no interconnection was experienced inside a country with service providers paying a very high cost to reach a transit provider.

However with the growing development of Internet services and applications, the scenario has changed now with much more complex interconnection environment. TIER 1 providers still exist but now we have other competitors with improved regional networks working close to global network transmitting traffic. With enriched multimedia and entertainment content being communicated over Internet, content provider have shaped their own CDNs (Content Distribution Networks) enabling local presence of content to the end-user, providing a local access, as an example now while watching a video we experience a smooth streaming rather than buffering stopovers. The scenario not only improves the user experience but enhances QoS (Quality of Service) as well. We now observe renowned companies like Google, Yahoo and YouTube investing immensely towards deploying regional CDNs.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) are another network infrastructure changing the Internet interconnection scenario; they are enabling an excellent platform to offer mutual sharing of Internet traffic at a low cost, reducing average bit delivery cost of an ISP. The CDN operators are trying to put up their own IXPs which in result are reducing ISPs dependencies on TEIR 1 operators. Probably as a personal view, I think this is a reason why major opponents of network neutrality concept revolve around the TIER1 service providers losing revenue as a result of these cheap Interconnection methodologies.

At the same level, importance of International bandwidth providers remains there as far as Internet interconnection is concerned. Since you require an International connectivity to transmit traffic over the Internet as a whole. Improving the international bandwidth connectivity situation is what could help in lowering overall Internet service cost as it provides more competition in International interconnection regime of a particular country.
The session was concluded with the following set of suggestions for operators and policy makers:

• Increase data center infrastructure.
• Host major content providers.
• Revisit Internet tax policies.
• Stimulate regional traffic exchange.
• Facilitate access to submarine cable by promoting competition.
• Devise cost based models for IPLC (International Private Leased Circuit)

Posted: Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 by Naveed Ul Haq

ccTLD Governance Session provides real enlightenment

The panelists selected for Workshop 204: The Governance issues of Country Code Top Level Domains held at 4.30 p.m. on November 16th proved to be perhaps one of the most suited to discuss the salient issues surrounding the topic under review.

In particular, Dr. Y.J. Park, Senior Research Fellow of the Delft University of Technology (TUDelft) in the Netherlands was able to convey some very key points, based on empirical research, relating to ccTLD redelgation and the challenges encountered therein.

Matthew Weill of AFNIC gave an honest interpretation and viewpoint relating to the renewed interests by world governments in the use of the ccTLD assets and the desire of several governments to have this asset, if not returned to the state for redistribution, at least regulated by the state or quasi-state apparatus.

The ITU’s position on this was also most enlightening, and may be considered by some actors in this sector to be somewhat controversial – if the response from the audience was anything to be guided by.

The meaty susbstance of this Workshop is truly difficult to capture in a blog such as this, and I strongly recommend that all interested, head on over to the on-demand section of the UN IGF Webcast at http://www.un.org/webcast/igf/ and take a listen to the on-demand audiocast of Workshop 204.

Posted: Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 by hackshawt@mpa.gov.tt

An IGF within an IGF? The Commonwealth Internet Governance Forum

An IGF within the IGF? That’s what happend on Monday with the hosting of the Commonwealth Internet Governance Forum.

In two separate sessions, at 9:00 – 10.30 a.m. and at 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.  and in two separate rooms, for the first time, the Commonwealth attempted to bring the 53 nations of the Commonwealth together to discuss IG issues in as inclusive a manner as possible.

Sepakers from states within the East Africa, West Africa, Asia/Pacific and Caribbean regions and the UK all spoke to the need to work towards building a relevant and workable Commonwealth IGF Agenda recognizing the quite disparate but, at the same time, very similar needs of the soverign states within the Commonwealth.

Noting that several Commonwealth groupings (East Africa, West Africa and the Caribbean) also had their preparatory IGFs, Commonwealth IGF Chairman, Joseph Tabone atttempted to the move the speakers from the panel and the floor away from a “what if” and a “coulda, woulda, shoulda” platform towards one which is focused on the specific areas where the Commonwealth Secretariat and/or its member nations could provide directed assistance.

One speaker from Trinidad & Tobago even provided the very insightful view that what might be needed was not assistance on the business-as-usual “best practices”, per se, but on what was coined “worst practices” – in that what the states of the Commonwealth can possibly share were their very real experiences in attempts to treat with IG areas such as e-legislation, cybercrime strategies etc. What went wrong, what were the challenges, what were the good areas, and what they have learned in the painful process of moving forward, in spite of.  In other words, how not to do things, or put another way, how to avoid the mistakes that some states would have made so that states who were now attempting to implement or re-implement programmes, projects and other initiatives relating to IG would be well-informed and be able utilize ”leapfrog methodologies”.

As indicated on their comprehensive website, www.commonwealthigf.org, the Commonwealth Internet Governance Forum (CIGF) seeks to encourage greater participation from Commonwealth member states on policy issues and discussions related to Internet Governance, with a view to coming up with informed solutions or the pooling of good practice to address their needs more directly.

You can read more on the outcome of Commonwealth IGF and ongoing developments at http://www.commonwealthigf.org/cms/index.php/all-news

Posted: Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 by hackshawt@mpa.gov.tt

SOCIAL MEDIA AND INTERNET GOVERNANCE – LEGAL ISSUES & CHALLENGES

Today the Internet has seen a radical dramatic shift. In many senses, this dramatic shift is symbolized by the emergent new social media revolution. Social networking websites have taken the imagination of the netizens by storm. Constantly, more and more numbers are thronging on to various established and new social networking sites not only to give vent to their own thought process, ideas, viwe points and perspectives but also to interact with other friends, acquaintances, business partners and similar minded persons. The emergence Internet after the advent of the World Wide Web and te email.

However the emergence of social media networks have demonstrated that there are a lot of complicated legal issues pertaining to the said social networking platforms. These legal issues pertain to a variety of distinct yet diverse subjects.

• There are complicated and technical legal issues not only relating to user generated content or third-party data that is generated by subscribers on the social networking sites but also with other related apsects.
• Issues pertaining to the ownership of the said  data is still not clear.
• There are issues pertaining to data protection as also violation of privacy.
• Further, social networking sites are today increasingly being thronged by cyber criminals and cyber terrorists not only to help facilitate and execute their criminal intentions but also to intermingle with the masses and the huge internet traffic existing on the websites to identify more about the psyche and thinking of the netizen community.

As time passes by, the legal issues surrounding social media shall be of tremendous significance. These legal issues are currently beginning to emerge but are likely to consume sufficient attention and time of the relevant stakeholders over  a period of time. At the IGF 4 meeting in Egypt, it has been discussed and decided to set up a ‘Dynamic Coalition on Social Media and Legal Issues’, in a bid to generate discussions, debates, analysis and awareness about the various legal issues surrounding the use of social media, social networking websites and social media plarforms as also data and information residing therein. The Coalition’s objectives are;

1. To help identify existing legal challenges and issues pertaining to social media.
2. To identify existing and potential legal responses to complicated legalities of social media.  
3. To help provide a global platform for discussion and debate on the nuances and technicalities of legalities surrounding social media.
4. To provide a fertile ground for providing debate discussion and analysis of legalities surrounding social media for the relevant stakeholders of social media.

Posted: Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 by kabogojn@gmail.com

Workshop 93 : The Global Path for ensuring Online Child Protection and Safety: Effective Strategies and Specific Actions

Also a newbie in the IGF ambassadors’ role, I’ve tried to organise my agenda of participation in workshops based on the topic I will be involved in a workshop on Wednesday. The  workshop focused on the global path for ensuring on-line child protection and safety with a bunch of high qualified speakers in the panel. The room was well crowed and many interventions took place.

Some of the topics of the debate where the education of parents and children in the use of the emerging technology. Many samples were given, quite some interesting input and samples from the senior chief prosecutor of Egypt, demonstrating the efforts spend to get the child better protected when accessing information on the net. However, from the point of view of some organisation, such as eNasco represented by the well know John Carr there is still a long way to go to establish a viable platform where children can still take profit of the richness of information on the internet without being captured by harmful content or illegal behavior online.

It is interesting to see that in this type of workshops we see more female than male participants, something I already experienced in other conferences. It looks like male or less concerned which is probably a false perception, still they lack to interact except a few highly motivated and existed persons like John Carr.

Posted: Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 by rudi.vansnick@isoc.be

Multistakeholderism at the IGF – Assessing Impact on Participation

Just the gist of this session – basically reviewing inclusive participation at the IGF.   The introduction, conveyed by Parmindeer Jeet Singh of IT for Change, mentioned open model of the IGF, the real impact of participation, and how this experience can be improved.

Talking in general here about  participation per se, the procedural and substantive participation covered the IGF’’s inclusive participation principles that actually resulted in diverse participation from developing countries and an increased voice in annual forums. The strategic involvement of participants showed obvious results and by looking at the results (which will be mentioned a bit in the next paragraph) we can look back on how inclusive participation can be improved. By participation,  we can make positive discrimination, how best to prioritize, proactively identify that there are several sectors involved.  From what I gathered, everything is still a working progress but what we want is to present initial trends.

A study was presented about  the different variables used to assess substantive participation. It seems like participants from the IGF Brazil and IGF Egypt were profiled. The indicator used for participation and dialogue is the analysis of and calculating volume of texts spoken by delegates.  The study basically showed how representation from developed countries was still higher. There were higher representation in the NGO sector (whether ICT or non-ICT), specifically from the academic community, which in part shows intellectual engagement by developed countries.

Karen Banks of APC (Association of Progressive Communication) spoke about providing civil society with the tools, information and the  capacities they need to participate in the decision making process that will affect their lives. According to Ms. Banks, one point to focus is to see the IGF more as a “process” if we are to increase participation in constituencies and groups. People should be provided with capacities to start in order to begin discussions in their own countries, as well as to begin building a mutilstakeholder culture in their country.

Posted: Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 by charityg@diplomacy.edu

ICT development in Egypt

Sharm el Sheikh has been created through the wealth of the culture that Egypt can offer  to its tourism industry. At the opening ceremony the Prime Minister of Egypt acknowledged that they still have some way to go to address the poverty and digital divide issues that exist in their country but for which they have a long term strategic plans. In the past, like other developing countries, the Egyptian government has relied on Aid funding to address its social, economic and environmental issues. Today, the government has committed to prioritizing ICT to help address the issues of poverty and lack of access to the internet by a major section of its population. This commitment has been demonstrated by the appointment of a new Minister of ICT and a Ministry whose role will be to develop and support projects and policies that will address Millennium Development Goals using ICT. The profile of this Ministry and the focus of growth of access to the internet by more of their country’s population were raised by both the Prime Minister and the Minister of ICT at the opening ceremony and reinforced by the head of Egypt’s Telecom at the Gala Dinner. A recent development was officially launched at an event to which ISOC personnel were invited. This is a new initiative where UNESCO has partnered with a major Egyptian private sector company to collaboratively support local development projects.

Posted: Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 by hilyard@oyster.net.ck