<incom> Nitin Desai: Dialogue Needed on Internet's Future

[Geert Lovink]

Dialogue Needed on Internet's Future

By Nitin Desai
Chair of the Internet Governance Forum organising group

(through Bytes4all list)

The Internet Governance Forum, set up by the United Nations as a 
multi-stakeholder space for dialogue, will meet for the first time on 
30 October in Athens.

The IGF is not designed to take decisions. It is not an attempt to take 
over the management of the internet. It is a forum for dialogue and 
discussion for stimulating voluntary coalitions of the willing rather 
than laying down the law.

The question then is whether such a deliberative forum with no decision 
making powers can make a difference for the better.

The limited central management that the internet requires has been 
provided by a set of institutions set up by the pioneers and by the US 
Government. The issue is not any complaint about how they have 
operated.

It is about the future, the net as it will be some years from now and 
how we can give a voice to all who use it.

The net has outgrown its origins as a network run by and for computer 
specialists:

With a billion plus users world-wide it is no longer the preserve of 
scientists and technologists.

The big expansion now is taking place in the non-English speaking 
developing world.

It is now becoming a central part of public administration, business 
operations, telecommunications, news dissemination and entertainment.

The big developments in the technologies for the use of the Internet 
are now taking place in the private sector.
The users of the net are no longer just receiving information but 
creating and disseminating it with new Web 2.0 sites, citizen 
journalism and similar peer-to-peer initiatives.

The convergence with telephony, television, films and music is bringing 
the Internet within the ambit of law and regulatory structures in these 
areas.

That is why a whole lot of stake-holders want to be involved in the 
processes of internet governance - governments, corporations, 
development agencies, human rights activists and many others.

At the same time no one wants to disrupt a system that is clearly 
working well as the phenomenal growth of net use shows. The IGF must be 
seen as one part of an effort to respond to this challenge of orderly 
engagement and change.

Important dimension

An important dimension of this effort is to secure a greater engagement 
of developing country individuals and institutions in internet 
governance.

The greatest challenge in making the IGF work is the potential culture 
clash.

That is where the number of users is growing. Much of the use there is 
for public purposes like education, health and public administration.

This and the low representation of developing country specialists in 
the present processes of governance is why governments from these 
countries are so much more insistent on gaining a role in the 
management of the internet.

Innovation in the internet takes place at the edges. Someone works out 
a way of using the protocols to develop an application that opens up 
new possibilities.

The world wide web, web-based e-mail systems, search engines, 
innovations in peer-to-peer file sharing, voice-over-internet protocols 
are examples.

Smaller scale

There are others with a smaller scale of impact. One thing the IGF can 
do is to raise awareness about such successes and spread the beneficial 
impacts of the internet.

It will give voice to the citizens of the global net and help to 
identify emerging issues which need to be tackled in the formal 
processes. The IGF can do more. In certain areas like preventing 
child-abuse there is a widespread consensus among users and the IGF, by 
show casing good and successful efforts can help to set a standard of 
good practice.

But the IGF has to be more than an exercise in education and awareness. 
The contact between stakeholders can lead to new partnerships for 
sharing knowledge and experience and, where relevant, to joint action.

This will not come from any legislative authority but from the direct 
contact between practitioners from different parts of the world and 
from a diversity of sectors.

The IGF is a bit like a village or town meeting. The preparatory work 
for the Tunis Summit in the Working Group on Internet Governance 
revealed the varied perspectives on internet governance, which covers 
not just what ICANN manages but a whole raft of issues involving 
security and stability, access, diversity and openness.

The IGF is intended to give voice to this wide range of views. That is 
why it is designed as an open-door multi-stakeholder forum.

Town meeting

The IGF relates to the established processes of Internet management as 
a village or town meeting relates to municipal governance.

It will give voice to the citizens of the global net and help to 
identify emerging issues which need to be tackled in the formal 
processes.

It also provides these processes with a sounding board which connects 
the internet technical community with a wide class of users and 
stakeholders.

The greatest challenge in making the IGF work is the potential culture 
clash.

Public authorities with regulatory responsibilities, private 
corporations concerned about commercial potential, development 
activists who focus on ease of access and public service applications, 
media and rights proponents who seek to preserve free expression and 
internet technicians who want to minimize political interference must 
talk with one another rather than at one another.

We need a dialogue in good faith with as much listening as talking.

The IGF meeting in Athens can be considered a success if a fair 
proportion of those attending go away with some preconception changed, 
or, better still, some ideas about how they will work differently in 
their area of responsibility.

The measure of success would be a notch higher if some practical 
partnerships emerge in the interstices of the meetings.

But the best measure of success is if those who come to Athens choose 
to come again to the 2007 IGF in Brazil, the 2008 IGF in India and the 
2009 IGF in Egypt.

The Internet Governance Forum, set up by the UN as a multi-stakeholder 
space for dialogue, will meet for the first time from 30 October to 2 
November, 2006 at Athens.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/6081440.stm

Published: 2006/10/30 00:01:36 GMT