Internet Governance: Progress Since Geneva

1
Internet Governance Progress Since Geneva

• Adam Peake
• Center for Global Communications, International
  University of Japan

2
My task today meetings during 2004

• ITU Workshop on Internet Governance, February
  26-27, Geneva http//www.itu.int/osg/spu/forum/in
  tgov04/index.html
• UN ICT Task Force, Global Forum on Internet
  Governance, 25-26 March, New York
  http//www.unicttaskforce.org/sixthmeeting/
• More . . . very much and ongoing process

3
China 10 Years of Internet

• Historic week of Internet anniversaries
• 17 May 1994 first IP connection
• 21 May 1994 .CN server moved to China
• 24 May 1994 first IP connection to Internet
  backbone
• Today 10 Years of Internet Governance

4
Internet Governance before and at the Summit

• Contentious issues
• Digital Solidarity Fund
• Internet Governance
• Internet Governance multiple views and confused
• Strong role for governments and international
  organizations
• Continued private sector leadership
• Reaction against perception of US domination of
  the Internet

5
Summit Outcome Working Group on Internet
Governance

• No Agreement UN Secretary General to setup a
  working group to
• Develop a working definition of Internet
  Governance
• Identify the public policy issues relevant to
  Internet Governance
• Develop a common understanding of the respective
  roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders
• Report findings to the Tunis Summit

6
Summit Principles for Internet Governance

• The Internet is a "global facility" (facility
  platform?)
• Principles about Internet Governance and Internet
  Governance regimes
• Multilateral
• Transparent
• Democratic
• And open to the full participation by
  governments, private sector and civil society
• Internet Governance test? (does a policy process
  meet these criteria?)

7
ITU Workshop The Summit Explained

• February 26-27, Geneva, 30 expert presentations
• Markus Kummer (chaired Summit negotiations)
  explained what happened
• 2 Camps on 2 issues in the final negotiations
• Scope
• Narrow Definition of the Internet (ICANN and
  technical issues)
• Broad Definition on the Internet (Internet
  pricing and interconnection, spam, network
  security, privacy and trust, etc.)

8
ITU Workshop The Summit Explained

• Responsibility
• Internet Governance should be handled by an
  Inter-governmental Organization under the UN
  (ITU?)
• supported by mainly developing nations
• Status quo, the current system works
• supported by mainly developed nations
• Positions haven't changed very much
• Why the working group? WSIS to closed, UN gives
  the authority of governmental process

9
Developing Nation Participation

• Recommendation from the Workshop keynote was to
  add a new task for the SG's Working Group
• Enabling the meaningful and effective
  participation of developing nations in ICT policy
  processes
• An underlying problem, essential policy is being
  made, and developing nations are largely absent

10
UNICT Task Force Global Forum

• ITU expert meeting, 30 presentations
• UNICT TF focused on discussion
• New York, March 25-26, 300 people (150?)
• SG Annan we need to develop inclusive and
  participatory models of governance
• Breakout sessions discussing issues from
  technical infrastructure to ICANN to frameworks
  on e-trade

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Outcomes of the Global Forum

• If it Ain't Broken, Don't Fix It (North/Private
  Sector)
• Inclusion and Participation (South)
• One reflects the narrow view of Internet
  Governance, the other broad

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Broken?

• If it Ain't Broken, Don't Fix It?
• ICANN's contract to administer the root servers
  specifically prohibits ICANN from making any
  "modifications, additions, or deletions to the
  root zone file or associated information that
  constitute delegation or redelegation of top
  level domains" without permission of the US
  Department of Commerce.
• Implications for appearance of TLDs in the root
  and who runs a ccTLD are significant (my ccTLD
  may disappear, I can't decide who runs it.)

13
Inclusion and Participation

• The legitimacy of policy making processes, broad
  and narrow, is being questioned
• Many developing nations don't recognize
  themselves in those processes and their outcomes
• Enabling effective participation and capacity
  building in ICT policy making processes is
  essential, and has been recognized by Marcus
  Kummer for the working group process

14
More and broader issues

• Internationalized domain names we must be able
  to address each other in our own language
  (implications for the root and its control?)
• Spam - over 60 of all email. A strong call for
  an international effort to combat spam (bottom-up
  not top-down?)
• Internet interconnection and pricing (ITU
  process)
• Cybercrime (model Council of Europe Convention
  on Cybercrime, strong on crime but weak on human
  rights and privacy, can the working group fix
  it?)

15
Process to Tunis How to Get Involved

• Japan (AP region)
• Izumi AIZU, izumi_at_anr.org
• Private Sector
• Ayesha HASSAN (ICC), aha_at_iccwbo.org
• Civil Society (IG Caucus)
• Jeanette HOFMANN, jeanette_at_wz-berlin.de
• Adam PEAKE, ajp_at_glocom.ac.jp
• http//www.net-gov.org

16
Thank You

• ITU Internet Governance Workshop
• http//www.itu.int/osg/spu/forum/intgov04/index.ht
  ml
• UN ICT Task Force, Global Forum
• http//www.unicttaskforce.org/sixthmeeting/