Agenda
Internet Governance Forum Chairman' 2 November 2006
Note: The following is the output of the real-time captioning taken during the
The Inaugural Meeting of the IGF, in Athens. Although it is
largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to
inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to
understanding the proceedings at the session, but should not be treated as an
authoritative record.
- Chair's Summing Up - Taking Stock The Way Forward -
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: Good morning. We now come to our session on the summing up
of work in the IGF at this session. And I just want to begin with a word on
what is the nature of the summing up. And then I will ask Markus to give a
certain overview of the whole process, and then we will open the floor up. We
have three hours. We have lots of time. And I would really welcome strong
feedback from all of you on this. And at the end, I will try and see whether we
can bring some thoughts together. The essential point to realize is that this
is a multistakeholder forum. It is an open-door forum. It's not a forum with a
fixed membership. It is open to anybody in the stakeholder groups who has an
interest and a basic bona fide competence in this area to come and enter and
join the meeting. It's in that sense more like an open meeting rather than a
fixed membership group. In that sense, it's not possible to speak of anything
as being a product of this meeting. So it would be misleading to say that there
is any such thing as an agreed conclusion or a product of this meeting in the
strict sense of the term, because there is no defined meeting. The meeting is
the people who are in the room. And -- at any given point, which will vary from
time to time. So I would urge you to keep that in mind, that when we speak of a
summing up, we are not trying to come at some agreement or conclusion on what
came of a report at this meeting. What we have been presenting are essentially
secretariat summaries. And they will remain secretariat summaries, which we do
need for our internal -- just simply for record-keeping. But more than that,
you will have a full verbatim record of the discussions in the main session
available online. You are not dependent on any summary. There's a full verbatim
record which you have been seeing here which is available on the Web site of
the IGF. And will continue to be available. So if you want to go back, refer to
something more specific, the full record is there. So as far as the workshops
are concerned, which were organized by different groups on their own authority,
you have the one-pagers, which are available -- one-page reports, which are
available outside. I wanted to say this so that we recognize that what you are
going to listen to now is just simply a secretariat summary of the IGF, and not
in any way a -- sort of any form of a report which commits any one of you to
what is being said in that. But, hopefully, we, as the secretariat, are
sufficiently sort of objective to be able to reflect a sense of what has
happened here. And you have been hearing reports from Markus on the specific
sessions that we've already had. So this is -- these are my remarks to start
with, so that we know what we are doing in this summing up session. And then we
can move on perhaps in an integrated fashion into the way forward discussion.
So with this, I will now turn to Markus.
>>SECRETARY KUMMER: Thank you, chairman. And I would like to add that this is
a very rough summing up, as we did not have the time to produce a polished
paper. So bear with us if we don't distribute a paper. But you will be able to
read it on our Web site in the transcript taken down by our scribes. We have
had seven sessions so far. We started with an opening ceremony which followed
an initial format. It was inaugurated by the prime minister of Greece, Mr.
Karamanlis. We had a number of different speakers representing all stakeholders
who presented their views. And it would be impossible to summarize these
speeches. And we also listened to the two men known as the fathers of the
Internet, Dr. Vinton G. Cerf, and Dr. Robert E. Khan. A common thread through
all the speeches was the recognition that the Internet is now the backbone
infrastructure of the global information and knowledge society. And also, all
speakers emphasized the importance of multistakeholder cooperation. After the
opening session, we moved into the format we have seen through the past two and
a half days. We had five panel sessions in an innovative format of interactive,
multistakeholder panels with questions and comments from the audience. We also
offered the possibility of remote participation via blogs, chat rooms, and
e-mail. We had some hiccups with the e-mail, with the Internet connection at
the beginning, but I think it -- by now, it works moderately well. And we were
actually overwhelmed with the response, so that our server broke down
yesterday. But also that has been repaired. One of our moderators called the
panel sessions a giant experiment and a giant brainstorming. And he also
recalled the Secretary-General's comment that the IGF entered uncharted waters
in fostering a dialogue among all stakeholders as equals. The innovative format
was generally accepted and well received, and some commentators called it a
true breakthrough in multistakeholder cooperation. In parallel, there were 36
workshops that were held in parallel to the main sessions. And the reports, as
our chairman mentioned, some of them are available in written form. And if
submitted to us, they will all be posted on our Web site. Let me now turn to
the first panel, "setting the scene." It covered a very broad range of issues.
The moderator himself recalled that ten years ago, a similar gathering was
mainly attended by engineers and academics from North America and Europe, while
this meeting now had a much broader range of participation, both in terms of
geography, as well as stakeholder groups. One panelist made the remark that
four years ago, many people assembled in the meeting room would not have spoken
to one another. All of them emphasized the importance of multistakeholder
dialogue. Several speakers noted that the IGF is not the beginning of this
process, but the middle of it. Much has already been achieved in the WSIS and
WGIG processes, and the IGF must build on that. It was remarked that all
stakeholders have roles to play in the IGF and that we need to share
experiences and perspectives, need to talk to one another and listen to one
another and share best practices. Many of the speakers remarked on the fact
that technology moves at a pace that is difficult for policy to match. Those
working in policy areas should be as creative as those who created the
technology. There were also many comments that expressed the hope that the IGF
would not be a sequence of five meetings held in beautiful locations, but the
process where the meetings would serve as a check point in that process.
Perhaps most importantly, the theme of development was emphasized, with several
speakers asking what the IGF could do for the billions who do not yet have
access. The main message maybe was that no single stakeholder could do it
alone, and therefore we all needed to work together on Internet governance
issues in development. And for the IGF to have value, we will have to leave
Athens with a clear view of how to move forward. The second session was devoted
to the theme of openness, with a focus on free flow of information and freedom
of information on the one hand, and access to information and knowledge on the
other. Much of the discussion was devoted to finding the right balance, the
balance between freedom of expression and responsible use of this freedom; and
the balance between openness and protecting copyright. Some panelists pointed
out that the two themes are linked and that for developing countries, issues
such as better access to the Internet and access to knowledge is more of a
priority. One panelist called the possibilities offered by the Internet to
create content "a new form of free speech." He referred to the creative use
made of the new medium by young people, which under today's legislation, can be
illegal. While all panelists emphasized the importance of freedom of
expression, two of them reminded the audience that this freedom is not absolute
and that freedom of speech is not without limitations, and that the Internet is
not above the law. Hate speech, for example, is illegal in both the on- and
offline world. It was generally felt that the Internet has greatly contributed
to the spread of free flow of information and freedom of expression. However,
it has also created an in-built institutional apprehension or fear of new
popular empowerment and the curve on freedom of expression. It was remarked
that freedom of expression can be under threat in all countries. The session
addressed different types of freedom, such as freedom from government
surveillance, free access, and the link to human, social, and economic rights.
The session turned to the role of the private sector and looked at the
relationship between market laws and market forces and human rights and looked
at the responsibility of the private sector. The question was asked whether
major corporations should use their bargaining power to promote freedom of
expression. It was pointed out that many of them do so as a way of engagement.
Some pointed out that systems could be used to encroach on rights and repress
freedom of expression. Others highlighted that many systems are multipurpose
and the same systems can be used for positive purposes, such as the protection
of children and, on the whole, the positive aspects of increasing Internet
access outweighed the negative ones. For instance, the use of the Internet
increases transparency, and this is a value in itself. The session also looked
at the relationship between national regulation on freedom of expression and
the borderless Internet. As its second main theme, the session examined the
balance between openness and protecting rights, the balance between the
citizen's right to information and rights of the copyright holders. There was a
recognition of different treatment for materials created by using public
finance and those created with private financing. There was also a recognition
of different business models. Some business models required copyright fees in
order to continue production. Some speakers called on governments to enable
free access of information on the Internet. They drew a parallel to libraries.
Governments bought books for citizens to allow them to gain access to
information and knowledge. Should governments do the same with the Internet and
remunerate the creators and owners of content? The session discussed various
questions with regard to the effect of businesses protecting their copyrights
and battling piracy. Among these questions were the following: Should
copyright protection take into account different cultural traditions, given
oral cultures and different notions of knowledge? Was there a need to find
business models that work with open information, software and standards? The
third thematic session was devoted to security. There was a generally held view
that the growing significant of the Internet in economic and social activities
raised continuing and complex security issues. One of the key issues here is
the way in which responses to growing security threats are dependent on the
implementation of processes of authentication and identification. Such
processes can only be effective where there is a trusted third party that can
guarantee both authentication and identification. This raised a debate about
who could effectively act as a trusted third party, the state or the private
sector. There was a debate as to whether a bottom-up model centered on the role
of users was more effective than a top-down model driven by formal government
actions. It was widely accepted that the perpetrators of security breaches are
intelligent adversaries, constantly adapting their behavior to advances in
security technologies and processes. There was a shared view that insufficient
attention was being given to proactive and long-term actions to reduce security
threats. There was a broad convergence of views on the need for cooperation at
an international level. However, it was pointed out that one of the main
obstacles to finding solutions was the lack of agreement at the very detailed
level of what is a security threat and who are the key stakeholders. There was
a very broad convergence of views that the best approach to resolving security
issues is based on best practices and multistakeholder cooperation in an
international context. However, there was concern about the degree to which
information was shared in a timely manner and in a common format, and, in
particular, with developing countries. At the same time, concern was expressed
about the extent to which information and exchange was being achieved in a
fully inclusive manner. The role of users and the opportunity to exploit the
intelligent edge of the network was highlighted by many speakers. For some, the
role of users had been undervalued in the implementation of enhanced security
measures. Not only were better educational measures required, user choice
should be respected more clearly. Thus, for example, the setting of clear
expectations and principles, within a public policy framework, could enhance
the power of consumers to address security measures. It was generally felt that
security is a multifaceted issue and therefore it was necessary to involve
coordination between different policy communities and actors. For some, this
coordination needs to include a clear legal framework within which to operate.
One example cited was the Council of Europe's convention on cybercrime.
However, others raised the issue of jurisdiction and the particular need for
intergovernmental coordination. There was a debate as to whether market-based
solutions, which stimulate innovation, or a public goods model, would deliver
better security measures across the Internet. For some, the public goods
approach offered the opportunity for the widespread adoption of best practice
across all countries. A counter view was that innovative solutions were
required, and these could only be provided by market-based activities. There
was a wide ranging but inconclusive debate about the role of open standards in
shaping security solutions. The debate focused on the appropriateness of the
open standards in the security arena. One of the key questions here was the
extent to which free and open source software and standards would enhance the
level of security for all users compared to market-based licenses for
proprietary technology. There was a widely shared view that the IGF could play
a significant and positive role in fostering greater debate and action with
regard to security on the Internet. The role of the IGF in collating Bess
practices, ensuring the widespread dissemination of information, and breaking
down silo approaches to the problem were all highlighted. The ability of the
IGF to support the development of a common language in the policy debate was
seen as very significant. Yesterday's first session was devoted to diversity.
At the outset, one panelist said the event was not about the digital divide,
but called it the linguistic divide. The panelists' views on diversity in the
Internet varied, but there was strong agreement that multilingualism is a
driving requirement for diversity in the Internet. One participant said, like
biodiversity is to nature, diversity on the Internet must reflect, and does
reflect, the whole spectrum of human endeavor, both past and future. There was
also a recognition that diversity extended beyond linguistic diversity, to
cover populations challenged by lack of literacy in the dominating language or
by disability. Audiovisual communication was one of the other forms of
communication mentioned in this context. There was also a discussion on media
for people with visual and other disabilities. Another theme that was mentioned
involved the use of the Internet to relieve and someday eradicate illiteracy.
The meeting guide the participants through a very complex set of distinctions
in subjects covered by diversity. It was generally recognized that the WSIS
outcome had put the issue of multilingualism on the agenda of international
cooperation. There was a right to a multilingual Internet that preserved and
enabled the diversity of cultures, including indigenous cultures. A number of
panelists highlighted the many success stories about diversity, while also
drawing attention to areas where improvements were needed. The representative
from UNESCO drew our attention to the universal declaration on cultural
diversity, mentioning that the purpose of this convention was to support the
expressions of culture and identity through the diversity of languages. In
terms of content, multilingual and local content were widely seen as necessary
to bring all people into the Internet. When talking about local content, a
distinction was made between international content that is translated into
local languages and content developed locally. There are issues with both. For
translated content, there are royalty or copyright fees as well as import fees.
For truly local content, there are sometimes difficulties with finding the way
to express that content. There is also a need to protect that content. The
discussion also touched on the value of audiovisual applications available on
the Net, especially in communities where cultures are not recorded in written
language. There was a recognition of the importance of content that supports
those who are not literate and those who are not illiterate in the dominant
language. Participants raised the issue of software, pointing out that market
forces were sometimes not strong enough to provide countries with software in
the languages they required. During the discussion on Internationalized Domain
Names, it was generally felt that internationalizing these domain names without
endangering the stability and security of the Internet remained one of the
biggest challenges. Part of the discussion related to the technical details of
IDNs. The discussion included an explanation of Unicode character sets and how
language communities need to be involved in making decisions about the code
points. The session also looked at the work being done in the technical bodies
on improving IDN and on testing IDN in the root zone file. There was a general
understanding that the support of IDN involved more than the DNS. It was noted
as a positive development by participants that all browsers now supported
Internationalized Domain Names. There was a discussion of what the follow-up to
the meeting could be. One suggestion was to establish multistakeholder
cooperation between the various institutions dealing with these issues, such as
UNESCO, ITU, ICANN, and others. Another suggestion related to support of
multilingual content that is not commercially viable. Many techniques were
suggested and may be explored in initiatives emerging from the Athens meeting.
The last session yesterday afternoon looked at the issue of access. Many
interlocutors said, pointed out that access maybe was the single most important
issue to many participants in developing countries. And the debate, in general,
accepted the idea that access remains one of the great challenges facing the
Internet community. The last session yesterday afternoon looked at the issue of
access. Many interlocutors as said, pointed out that access maybe was the
single most important issue to many participants in developing countries. And
the debate in general accepted the idea that access remains one of the great
challenges facing the Internet community. The nature of the Digital Divide was
seen as being multifaceted and the focal point for public policy responses. A
wider range of policy initiatives was discussed but the strong theme was that
the introduction of competition and the removal of blocks to competition were
of fundamental importance. It was recognized that Africa faced particularly
complex problems with regard to access to the Internet. It was also stressed by
many speakers that the issue of access was not solved by a specific and narrow
focus on telecommunications sector reform. However, it was recognized that
telecommunications sector reform was a necessary condition to establish the
appropriate framework for increasing access. Key issues highlighted in the
debate over telecommunications sector reform included independence and
transparency, removal of monopolies, and licensing of new players; competition
as a key issues, and what are the barriers to competition and the removal of
these barriers; the need to establish interconnection regimes that reinforce
the competitive market; the need to develop innovative policy measures such as
universal access regimes, through, for example, reverse auctions, to harness
market-based solutions to structural issues. For some, the emphasis was not on
the detail of regulatory frameworks but on the need to establish market
structures which would stimulate investment, especially from local capital, and
the construction of local solutions, such as peer-to-peer interconnection
arrangements through Internet exchange points. It was also observed that
increased local-based activity would increase reliability and integrity of the
network. Several examples from Kenya and Senegal were quoted how local IXPs
and local routing enhanced Internet connectivity, access and reliability. The
comment was made that it was important not to simply import regulatory
frameworks from OECD countries but to focus on frameworks that were tailored to
local conditions. Hence it was stressed the need in many countries is not
local loop unbundling but the building of local loops and ensuring adequate
power supplies. The issue of interoperability and adaptability was debated. It
was recognized that the plug and play facilitated greater access. Likewise, it
was widely recognized that open standards are critical to underpinning greater
access for all communities. It was stressed that open standards are, for
example, critical in allowing those with disabilities to reformat material into
more accessible format. Actions by governments and firms could lead to a
reduction in access for key groups in society. The role of enhanced capacity
building was discussed extensively. In the debate, the issue was not just
focused on the needs of policymakers but in enhancing the level of skills
within a country. The debate reinforced the key messages of the Tunis Agenda.
For some, the investment in ICT capacity building within an Information Society
is tantamount to investing in basic training and education. Without such an
investment, the issues of access can never be addressed. There was broad
agreement that the most appropriate level to address issues of access is the
national level. It was suggested that key stakeholders and the main locus for
policy development and implements was at the national level. The debate focused
on the role of governments arcs the key stakeholders in ensuring and enabling
environment for greater access. The debate highlighted the role of governments
as the single largest customer in any given country, and the stakeholder with
the ability to link across many policy debates, such as the provision of other
infrastructure services such as electricity or access to other government
services -- for example, health care and education. Linking policy debates and
creating enabling environments was seen as critical for increasing access to
the Internet. There was some discussion on the role of new emerging wireless
technologies in providing increased access. It was widely accepted -- expected
that wireless technologies could change the access market landscape. But for
this change in the landscape to become a reality, some of the appropriate
spectrum regulatory and wireless technology standards issues need to be
addressed. Many speakers raised the topic of rural access and the problems
associated with it. It was emphasized that there is no "one size fits all"
solution, but knowing the best practice cases would help increasing access in
rural areas across the world. The debate also focused on the role of government
policies in facilitating increasing access in rural areas. For example,
encouraging investment or the government playing a role as a key enabler. The
speakers emphasized the issue of affordability from two perspectives, end user
and carrier perspective. Many speakers commented that for the end user, the
affordability of access device is decisive in using a service. Many
contributors highlighted the discrepancy in initial connectivity charges. The
relative high prices for international connectivity were noted. For example,
the prices on the London/New York route, the most intensely competitive and
largest market for international connectivity in the world. Several speakers
gave indicative examples such as the price of north-south traffic in the
Americas that is 60 times more expensive than London/New York. And last but not
least, the session turned to the role of the IGF. It was felt that the
significance of the IGF as an initial initiative to put on the table the
multistakeholder debates surrounding issues of access and the Digital Divide
was of some importance. The ability of the IGF to exchange best practices in
promoting access between various stakeholders should help address the issues of
inequalities of access. With this I conclude my report, and I apologize if it
was a bit on the long side.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: It was long meetings [ Applause ]
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: That is Markus's report, and a Secretariat report, which as
we have come to expect from Markus, is fair, balanced, and you don't have to
debate it, but if you have comments, I'm sure Markus would welcome them. I
think that what we should do now is to really open up and let there be a
certain feedback. A couple of things I thought I would put before you, before
you -- suggestions as to how we should proceed. One, Markus has covered, of
course, the ground on the main sessions that we have had. We have heard from
people in the workshops during the morning sessions, 9:00 to 10:00, yesterday
and today. But I also understand that there are certain cases where groups of
people have come together in order to continue the work of the IGF. In order,
in certain cases, to prepare for the next meeting. And I would actually welcome
any of them who wish to take the floor and would like to say a little bit on
what are the types of the coalition of the willing. But before that, I need to
give the floor to two country representatives who wish to make an announcement.
First I would give the floor to Lithuania. Can somebody please -- There's no
mike here. Can somebody please bring a mike here? Then I will give the floor
to Azerbaijan, and then we will come to the others.
>>Thank you, Mr. Chairman, distinguished guests. First of all, on the name of
all the Lithuanian delegation, I want to thank to the Greek government for the
hospitality of the Internet Governance Forum and also I want to thank to the
United Nations and all stakeholders and speakers for valuable discussions
during this forum. Ladies and gentlemen, I have a big pleasure and honor in the
name of Lithuanian government to announce that Lithuania recognizes the
importance of outcomes of World Summit on Information Society in Geneva and
Tunis. Recognizing the importance of Internet Governance Forum, decided to
host the Internet Governance Forum in 2010 in Lithuania. We hope in such way
we will contribute to the development of Information Society. We will
contribute to the discussions on development on e-governance issues. And I
want to say that Lithuania is ready to host IGF in the year 2010. Thank you.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: Thank you very much [ Applause ]
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: As the chairman of the advisory group for the IGF, I thank
you very much for your generous offer. May I now give the floor to the --
someone from the delegation of Azerbaijan. Yes.
>>ILYAS NAIBOV-AYLISLI: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, distinguished
participants, as the government of Azerbaijan officially offers to hold the
Internet Governance Forum in the year 2010 in Baku. [ Laughter ]
>>ILYAS NAIBOV-AYLISLI: Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is recognized internationally
as a major oil and gas producer. However, ICT is the second biggest priority
for the country. We see ICT as the main economic and social driver in the
post-oil era. In a recent major ICT event held in Baku, Azerbaijan in October,
where some of the participants also were present, the president of Azerbaijan,
Ilham Aliyev, stressed that the commitment to hosting major international ICT
fora in the country. Azerbaijan is a country at crossroads of civilization,
connecting east and west, south and north. Azerbaijan is famous for its
traditions of hospitality. And I can assure you that Azerbaijan will spare no
effort to organize the IGF meeting at the highest international standard this
distinguished forum duly deserves. Once again, on behalf of the government of
Azerbaijan, I would like to offer holding IGF meeting in Azerbaijan in 2010.
And please allow may to use this opportunity to thank the hosts for the warm
hospitality and congratulate the organizers and all the participants for
success of this very complex multistakeholder forum. Thank you. [ Applause ]
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: Again, on behalf of as the chairman of the advisory group, I
thank Azerbaijan for its generous offer. I must say, when we began the meeting,
the children who had posed questions to us, the first question they posed was
what will the Internet be like five years from now? I have been asking people.
Nobody has a reply. But now one bit after reply I can give them, five years
from now we will either be meeting in Lithuania or Azerbaijan. So at least one
bit of the reply I do have for the children. But clearly, this is something
not to decide here. It is a long way off, 2010, and I'm sure the United
Nations and the advisory group will look at both options and come to a suitable
conclusion. We have time for this. Now let's open up particularly for the
statements -- Can I first ask the people who wish to say something about some
new initiatives, like coalitions of the willing which they are proposing to
launch, because we should get that out of the way before we get into the
discussion. I understand there's three or five. There is one there. Is yours
also one of the initiatives or general comment? If it's a general comment,
just wait. It won't take more than a few minutes. One there. You also wanted
to mention something on an initiative? Or a comment? Then we'll come to that.
We just require a few minutes. Will you do that 1234. Are there others?
>>RALF BEUDRATH: Thank you very much. My name is Ralf Beudrath. I am with
the University of Bremen in Germany, and I am happy to announce that a diverse
group of stakeholders has agreed over the last few days to launch a dynamic
coalition on privacy which will address emerging issues on Internet privacy
protection such as digital identities, the link between privacy and
development, and the importance of privacy and anonymity for freedom of
expression. We will initiate an open process to further development, clarify
the public policy aspects of privacy in Internet Governance in perspective of
the next IGF meeting and further on. Participants here in Athens in particular
agreed that there's a need for greater public participation in technical and
legal standardization processes that have a global public policy impact on
privacy. They also emphasized that it's important to better include
perspectives from developing countries in these processes. This dynamic
coalition on privacy is a direct outcome of the two workshops on privacy we had
on Tuesday that were jointly organized by the University of Bremen and the LSE
information systems group, but it also reflects discussions here in the main
session on security in the workshops on the Internet bill of rights and on
freedom of expression and anonymity. And it builds upon several months of
preparations among a lot of stakeholders. We have more than 30 entities who
have endorsed or expressed interest in joining this coalition now, which is
really impressive to me, just within a few days. Just to name a few --
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: I don't think you need to. You can probably put something
out there because that will take us much too long. You put a piece of paper out
there on naming them. Was there -- do you want to say something? Yes. Can a
mike come here, please. Wolfgang, while you are waiting.
>>WOLFGANG KLEINWAECHTER: I want to announce or make known that we have
established already on the eve of the forum an academic network which is called
GIGAnet, Global internet Governance Academic Network. The "A" is for academic,
and that's a big "A." The offer of the research community is to produce serious
material which can then be considered in the meetings of the forthcoming gives.
We had the symposium with 120 participants. We get a lot of -- got a lot of
encouragement by different groups here in the forum, and I will announce that
we will have the second GIGAnet symposium on the eve of the Rio meeting in the
year 2007. In between, we are going to have some smaller initiatives, like
summer schools, small regional seminars, and we also plan to have publications
areas and we will use the Igloo Web site as the communication platform for the
discussion among the researchers. And researchers are invited to join.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: Are there any other for this specific announcements?
Specific announcements. Yes, here.
>>RAFI: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am Rafi from Malaysia. We will be hosting
the world Congress on I.T. in May 2008. That will be a platform where industry
players are supposed to converge and therefore provide solution. Our intention
is to complement that Congress with a development initiative to address
solution-oriented services and applications for development communities. So we
hope that people will come in and participate or partner with us to be able to
build that as a platform of solutions, and, therefore, provide that sort of
tool kit that I talked about yesterday. Second announcement, we are also trying
to start up another initiative and partnership on something we call cyber
development co-op among the model of a Peace Corps but also linked to policy
formulation. So that's an initiative they're trying to promote help catch up
development through concrete action and activities, linking communities'
activities to policy formulation. Thank you. Those interested can always
contact me.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: Sure. I would prefer that announcements are of things which
have already taken shape. Because I think we start getting into broader issue.
Can the mike go there, please, and then to Parminder at the end.
>>NORBERT BOLLOW: This is Norbert Bollow of Swiss Internet user group. There
are some people here who are interested in making the web accessible to persons
with disabilities, and we have a meeting tonight at 6:30 at the panorama
restaurant. Everyone is welcome to join in, but please let me know after this
meeting so that I can tell the restaurant how big the table must be. And this
should result in some work, and then at the Rio meeting that we can present
what has been achieved in the meantime. Thank you.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: I'd request people to be snappy in their comments because we
need to get into the main discussion fast. I really have to cut this off in
another five, seven minutes.
>>PARMINDER JEET SINGH: I have a very short announcement. Some stakeholders
at the workshop day before yesterday on exploring a framework convention on the
Internet, a workshop report is available on the Web site but it's available
outside the room. And many of the participants agreed to get together to form
a dynamic coalition on frameworks of principles for Internet Governance, and we
are talking with other workshops which are held around similar issues like one
on bill of rights. One on open standards which is going on, and content
regulation, and progressive communications bill of rights on the Internet. So
we are all getting together to form a coalition and we will be working from now
until Rio on this issue. And everybody is welcome, of course, to participate.
Thanks.
>>VITTORIO BERTOLA: Hello. I just wanted to reiterate the announcement that
after yesterday's announcement on the Internet bill of rights, a group of
stakeholders have formed a dynamic coalition on the Internet bill of rights to
further the discussion and come with some advances. So I am inviting all of you
who are interested to join this coalition. Thank you.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: There is a lady standing there.
>> Good morning, I would like to announce and invite everyone, yesterday we had
a meeting of gender advocates and we are setting up a dynamic, the most dynamic
coalition that will come out of this IGF of gender advocates. We have observed
that -- we had a panel yesterday and a contribution to the discussion will add
value to the discussions around the forum. We would like to call on more parity
in the level of participation in the IGF. We are willing and able to provide
expertise, to contribute to setting the agenda of the IGF. Following on to Rio
we have gender advocates who met in Costa Rica who are willing to contribute to
the process, women and communication activists and we hope this will be open
and we invite people to come and join news the gender coalition. Thank you.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: Thank you very much. I see we certainly added a new term to
the debate, the "dynamic coalition." I come from a country where there are a
lot of coalition governments, and it's a good concept. Any further
announcements? Thank you. So I think we can get down to business. I have a
gentleman there from Saudi Arabia, and then Adama Samassekou. I had Mr.
Subenat, I think you wanted the floor. We will go three at a time. We have
time. We have two hours.
>> Thank you very much. I am (saying name) from Islamic Republic of Iran, not
from Saudi Arabia. Although both nations are brother to each other, but I
should say the truth according to. Okay. According to -- thank you very much
for the government of Greece for preparing this kind of room for its
hospitality. And thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and hose who are panelists
and those who are moderator during these four days. And also, I should mention
that if we want to regard to the concept of multiculturism, it is good for IGF
to pay more attention to the values of other cultures according to the concept
I have mentioned. Because if we want to come to an agreement, it should be a
kind of respective, to respect the other values of the other nations. I am from
Islamic Republic of Iran, one of my colleagues from Indonesia and the other
colleagues and I have discussed during these days, mentioned that during that
we have values that not pay attention to them, so many in this room,
unfortunately, because the panelists who were selected by secretary-general,
they are not so shared by the other countries, like Iran and Indonesia and the
other countries. I would like to ask the IGF group and the countries who are
coming from the other conferences and other rooms to take share more from the
countries who has some kind of values, maybe very special values for the other
nation. We don't want to push the other to accept our point of view, but we
would like to have the opportunity to introduce our point of view and introduce
that special values which we, as a culture, as a big culture, as a culture who
many countries accept that and encourage us to introduce that kind of values to
the others. We were supposed to be one of the panelists in the IGF, but
unfortunately, we missed it, and I would love somebody to explain for us what
does this point happens. And I also -- this criticism doesn't mean that I --
that I do not appreciate the efforts that has been made up to now, but I should
add this point and ask the others, especially secretary-general of U.N. and the
other parties who chaired the IGF to, according to multiculturism, to pay at
mention more to these kind of values. Thank you very much.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: Thank you [ Applause ]
>>ADAMA SAMASSEKOU: Good morning, everybody. I'm going to speak in French,
chairman, secretary-general. First of all, I would like to thank the government
of Greece for the very warm hospitality extended to us over the few days we
have been here, and that, of course, comes as know surprise since we are in
Greece, after all, in this country which goes back to ancient times, a country
of openness and contacts. I also would like to thank UNESCO for having invited
me to participate in this forum and to thank the Secretariat of the forum for
involving me in the overall debate in the forum. I would also, before I
actually come to my proposal, to say that I find that the forum in its
structure does dovetail with what we basically wanted to have the world summit
on telecommunications and information to be. It is, in fact, a
multistakeholder approach which I think would enable us in the future to try to
have government partnership and to be able to have regional and perhaps world
partnership. I think we have to bear this in mind and to remember of what other
people have said at the world summit of the fact that when dreaming, we can
move towards reality and to have a multistakeholder world partnership. I don't
want to be too long on this but I do have a proposal. I thank Markus Kummer
for his report, and I would like to also specify here that the proposal that
you have made as concerns multilingualism should, in the report, include those
various bodies that were cited, instead of just saying "others," for example, I
think you to in fact to say this is the world network for multilingualism.
It's a world partnership including UNESCO. All of those other organizations
which, in fact, have been involved in this, especially the world association
for multilingualism. Now, you have said yourself, chairman, that we may not
have resolutions, but we may look at the reports again. Sometimes there are
terms they are in where it was said "it was agreed that." But therein, perhaps
there is a question of wording that should be revised in the report somewhat.
Having said that, and I will finish on this, chairman, by your leave, I was
just wondering as to the actual format of the forum in terms of overall
results. Now, I do understand that the Tunis mandate has been discussed, and I
am wondering today whether we ought to be looking towards 2010, -11, -12, -13,
but I do want the actual spirit of the summit to take place within a format,
with a formula whereby you would be able to come up with specific, with
tangible results. After the wonderful discussions we've had, why shouldn't we
have something specific come out of it, after all of these wonderful
discussions? And I don't want this simply to be an event and just a meeting and
looking at different aspects, but really to think here about the international
that dreamed of the summit, and see this as a success in the spirit of
international partnerships, to be able, thereby, to find a follow-up mechanism
for the summit in order for us to say this was not just yet another summit
meeting. Sometimes one tends to think of that, maybe if you did not come to
Geneva, but many came to Tunis. So I think that's important. And certainly the
United Nations should take this opportunity to make sure that the various
elements in terms of specific actions that would actually change how one
interacts between governments, NGOs, and other organizations. There have been
directions and orientations given. In Geneva, in fact, we were in the course of
actually, in reality, experiencing a real partnership. I'm sorry to have been
so long. But I do think that this ought to have been heard. And I think that
until Rio, we should see how we can make specific use of the outcomes of such
meetings and to be moving towards more specific and real interactions between
the various bodies here. And as we say in my language, sympathy, or being able
to move together is what we need. Thank you. [ Applause ]
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: I was generous because he is the person who started all of
this as the chairman of the PrepCom for the Geneva summit. And he has a certain
responsibility for the whole process, which justifies a little relaxation. But
I would urge the others to be a little sharper and quicker.
>>KHALED FATTEL: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For these who don't know me, my name
is Khaled Fattel, chairman of MINC, the Multilingual Internet Names Consortium.
I would like to pay a attribute to you, Mr. Chairman. For a forum that is meant
to be nonbinding, nonnegotiating, I can tell you, you have achieved or at
least allowed for a lot to be achieved, far beyond what you may have expected.
And I'll tell what you that is. And secondly, I would like to pay tribute to
Greece, its people, its government, its warm hospitality, and for making this
possible. The success that I think has happened is -- pertains to something
that many years ago, when MINC used to call for a multilingual Internet, a
lonely voice in cyberspace, there were many who didn't understand what that
meant or its implications were. But also, there were some who said, no, go
teach them English. Look where we were. Look where we are today. As a matter of
fact, you may recall a couple of years ago at the U.N., one of my interventions
was that multilingual Internet is actually a prerequisite to any form of good
governance, because without the participation of the local people in their own
local language on issues that pertains to them, their language, their culture,
chances are, we're not going to be able to have the type of Internet governance
that is necessary for it to be democratic and expressive of the local
community. In that sense, I think this achievement that the IGF has made
possible is that today, we have a new faith that everybody has adopted. And
that new faith is called multilingual Internet and information society. And I
think only through the Internet are we able to achieve this kind of success in
such a short period of time. But now we have a new challenge, and this is where
originally my point was not a proposal, but also thought-provoking and a
challenge. The challenge is the following. What kind of multilingual Internet
are we talking about that we want? Some may dress it up in new designer
clothes, some may want it to actually do a lot more. The challenge I present is
the following: Do we want a multilingual Internet that helps local community
become empowered, to become representative, to harness their identity, their
language, and their culture? Or do we just want it to be a forum or a mechanism
for selling products and services? With that in mind, and without further ado,
I will leave that challenge in your hands, in your wise hands and the wise
hands of the -- the participants, and leave you with this last initiative,
which is, MINC will be calling for a charter for this multilingual Internet, so
at least we all start discussing what needs to be agreed on what is supposed to
be its objectives and its goals. Thank you very much for the time, Mr.
Chairman.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: May we have the -- ambassador. May I suggest we just keep --
(inaudible) (No audio.)
>>JEAN-JACQUES SUBRENAT: Thank you. I have one comment and one question. My
name is Jean-Jacques Subrenat, a former ambassador, now a consultant. My
comment: Over the last two days, in the plenary, I have said that because of
its nature, this IGF should be able to provide a specific added value. And I
think that's now the case. We are moving towards the next stage, Brazil, which
is going to be very important. So my question is specifically related to this.
And it is the following: In order to best prepare, from a technical point of
view, and also in terms of the content for the meeting in Brazil, I would like
to ask if it will be possible for the various workshops which have met over the
last few days, maybe not for all the workshops, but at least for the ones where
the organizers think it would be feasible and desirable, and this brings me
back to what I heard and saw in this summary of yesterday's work. I think it
was Dr. Chung talking on behalf of this group on the question of cybersecurity.
He took things a little bit further, because on behalf of yesterday's group, he
announced the preparation, the drawing up of standards, a document. Now, I am
aware in saying this that it's not the job of this forum to step into
government's shoes and substitute them. But having said that, I think it's all
well and good that various different IGF bodies should be able to come up with
some form of a document. Here, we were talking about standards. Well, it could
also refer to issues from other workshops which have dealt with some very
important questions. I would like to hear the views of the organizers on this.
Thank you.
>> Thank you, chairman. Just to follow suit all the previous speakers, first of
all, from Malaysia, we thank you, the Greek government, and, of course, the
organizer, for having this event and this opportunity to speak. I will be very
specific in terms of what I think (inaudible) is appropriate and also the
secretariat, to consider moving forward. Number one, I think we may be looking
at imposing a conventional structure into a new model. That's my assumption. As
a result, I think one of the things as an outcome of this sort of forum like
this, where we get input on framework and structural review, maybe one of the
output from this is a global institutional reform that we could suggest, an
existing institution could consider. I know ITU and all the various bodies are
going through reform. Those input from here could be useful so that they can
guide into their own reform, which would result in regional (No audio). Okay.
So I think that will be useful, because we are thinking of a new model of
development based on knowledge-driven economy. We should be thinking
differently and maybe are suggesting existing conventional structures and
legacy systems to be dismantled. That's number one. So it's a bit dangerous. I
thought maybe this is one step forward you could consider, instead of just
talking, making a concrete suggestion on institutional reform. Second is what I
suggested yesterday, was a bit more structure in our discussion besides just
policy debate. Maybe we put some sort of a structure in terms of specific
recommendation. And I use the model of Internet engineering task force or the
IETF, as a way for us to think about how to structure the discussion in
specific areas, whether it's multilingualism, security, or even policy issues.
So maybe we can adapt that, but we don't overlap with them, such that their
effort will also be strengthening what we are doing. Maybe a group called the
Internet task force and will fill in the gaps. And therefore use the RFC or
request for comments, as a mechanism for implementation and adoption,
especially for application on the business side for which it will be useful for
them to be able to -- The third one was to consider the iNet or ISOC program
that evolved, in particular, the developing country workshop, for which every
time we attend a forum like this, there is a specific takeaway on best
practices or tool kit, and also hand-holding for these countries to come and
catch up instead of just discussing about the issues. Some of them are very raw
and they need more hand-holding. So we may want to do this as a result of these
workshop outcome. The fourth one is for us to consider the promotion of
creating a global project, a global infrastructure, that seems to be lacking
today, maybe to suggest where we can projectize programs, where there's a
global Internet gateway for Africa, for Egypt, for central Asia, so some of
those programs can get along where IGF can be the seeding organization or
seeding programs. And, finally, I think we should not forget that the key
issues that we started all of this was about DNS. And maybe the roadmap to
really realize our aspiration of what we want to globalize the DNS is being
suggested all the way to 2010. So at the end of the day, we will know we will
get the thing that we started off delivering anyway. So thank you.
>> Thank you very much, indeed. My name is Agrabi, and I am an NGO coordinator
in Africa. I come from Tunisia. Now, I would first and foremost like to very
warmly and respectfully thank the government and the people and the civil
society of Greece for having hosted this forum. I would also like to thank the
United Nations and the United Nations bodies for having chosen the subject and
content of this forum. In the course of our discussions, we have seen that a
large number of participants were not invited, for various different reasons.
And I do hope that in the future, these stakeholders will be represented. I
hope that their participation will be encouraged. I'm talking here about women,
people with disabilities, and those with special needs. Now, as a
representative of civil society in Tunisia and in Africa, we have together put
forward two recommendations. We asked the UNESCO and the African Academy for
Multilingualism to come up with a dictionary to simplify I.T. terminology. And
also, with an eye to involving all of those stakeholders who were in Tunis, we
feel that they should be invited to be able to cover, to take part in all of
these events following on from the World Summit. Thank you.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: May I clarify -- may I clarify one thing. There is no
individualized invitation to this meeting. There is an open door. Anybody is
free to attend. Nobody needs an invitation to attend this meeting. The real
issue, however, is the capacity to attend, where will the resources come from.
And I think that is something that we will have to address. It's not enough to
say that the door is open. We also have to address the question of how do
people actually get here to be able to attend such a meeting. But I would like
to just confirm that this is an open-door meeting. There is no need for an
invitation to come to this meeting. I have a string of names here. I'm going to
read them out in sequence, four of them. And there is (saying name) from the --
wants to say something on behalf of -- from the economic commission for Africa.
Simon Qobo from south Africa. I have -- and then ambassador Lansipuro of
Finland. Can I first have (saying name) from the Economic Commission for
Africa. Where is he? Please stand up, because we can't find you unless you
stand up. Where are you? Ah, there you are.
>> Thank you very much, gentlemen. I will speak in French. I wanted to inform
you of the outcome of the African group's meeting, which took place in the
course of the work of this forum. And the presidency of the Egyptian minister,
the president of the conference of African ministers responsible for ICT
matters. A preparatory meeting was held in the African region in Egypt last
September. And the aim of the meeting we had here in Athens was to get all of
the African representatives and participants together to see what we could
implement in order to ensure that Africa's concerns could be taken on board
within this fora. Two major decisions stemmed from this. Firstly, the setting
up of an African regional forum, which will be got up and running in February
2007. The list of subjects for discussion will be opened within the economic
commission for Africa to try to define the subjects, the resources, and the
priorities for Africa so that we can best prepare the ground, technically
speaking, so that we can come up with the best possible results, similar to
what we heard from Brazil. Another decision that was taken was to draw up a
letter on Internet governance behavior for Africa for the coming five years.
That was the major outcome from the African group meeting. Before I close, I
would like to thank all of those bodies which supported the participation of
delegates from Africa in this forum, particularly the Francophonie
organization. Thank you very much, indeed.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: For now, may I, on behalf of our Greek hosts, accept your
thanks, without your having to state them. And certainly on behalf of the U.N.,
accept your thanks without your having to state them. That will save us a
little bit of time. Because we need -- we have a lot of speakers, and I think
it's very important we hear as many people as possible in the course of the
morning. So I had Simon QOBO from south Africa. Simon, please, can I request
that people stand up rather fast, quickly, so that the mikes can get to them.
Simon QOBO.
>> Simon QOBO: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. In fact, I wanted to make an
observation with regard to the composition of the panelists, in particular,
access, connectivity, policy, and cost. I think we should have been, in fact,
included. Perhaps (inaudible) institutions in the panel. Because they deal also
with matters of development. For an example, most of the representatives from
the developing countries spoke about the bread and butter issues of
infrastructure development, which is very important for us. And also, in this
regard, if we had them represented in the panel, we would have perhaps gotten
an opportunity to explore how, perhaps, the poverty reduction strategy papers
could be used in terms of mainstreaming the ICT infrastructure. And also, there
is -- there is (inaudible) from these institutions, including the (inaudible)
outcome with some kind of conditionalities and regulations. So perhaps we would
have asked them, how do we deal with that to deregularize or deconditionalize
these particular resources in order to mainstream infrastructure development.
Lastly, I would like to also major an observation. I think with regard to
policy and -- yesterday, most of the proponents focused on the policy
formulation and design at the national and the local level. And I think for the
future meeting, we need to spend a lot of time looking at the policy perhaps
formulation and kind of design with regard to international resources. How do
we begin to harness the international resources for infrastructure development,
in particular, to the developing countries? Thank you very much.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: After that, I had ambassador (saying name).
>> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to share with you some impressions we have
discussed among colleagues from the E.U. member countries here in Athens. The
IGF has been a new type of experience, and it will take some time to digest
them and come to conclusions of what it achieved and what the way ahead should
be. Nevertheless, let me offer some preliminary conclusions. With its variety
of themes and topics, IGF was a good demonstration of the fact that Internet
governance covers, really, a vast area of issues. One of the questions to
ponder when we go forward is whether it will be time to go deeper on fewer
issues. This has been a good example of genuine multistakeholder dialogue, a
free-flowing discussion among stakeholders who just a few years ago would
hardly talk to each other. But this didn't happen by itself. This is a result
of four years of the WSIS process, from Geneva to Tunis to Athens. Now, when
the road continues from Athens to Rio, on the road, we already see these groups
traveling together, building dynamic coalitions, and forming partnerships built
on synergies found here at the first IGF. So let's hope that in Rio, in
addition to continuing the discussions, we also see and evaluate perhaps the
first practical results of these partnerships that were begun in Athens. Thank
you very much, Mr. Chairman.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: I think that's an interesting thought, which is that certain
coalitions, et cetera, are being announced, there are partnerships of some
sort. And one thing we could do is to simply, one year from now, ask
ourselves, okay, what did we do over the past year. Can I, I before I move, I
have a gentleman who's within waiting for the floor for a long time.
>> JEREMY MALCOLM: It's great to hear about all these dynamic -- Jeremy
Malcolm is my name, by the way. And one possible danger is that we might lose
track of them all. A facility that is available for all of the dynamic
coalitions that are forming to make the information available in a central
location is on the IGF 2006.info Web site. There's a new main link on the
left-hand side of the page called "dynamic coalitions." And by simply clicking
on that and then editing the page that you see, you can add information about
your dynamic coalition there. It doesn't mean that you can't have your own Web
site somewhere else, and your own mailing lists and so on. But at least you can
link to them from that page. That would be a good thing if you did that,
because rather than asking the secretariat to add it to the official Web site,
the secretariat is very busy, and you can do it much quicker yourself from the
IGF2006.info Web site, which is not a -- an official site, but it is endorsed
by the secretariat as a place for the community to come together and discuss
and post information. So that's the first point. The second point is that
another way for all of us to keep in touch after we go home is via a mailing
list, an official mailing list has been created, which is
plenary@intgovforum.org. The link is also available via the IGF2006.info Web
site. If you click on forums, you'll see a number of forums listed there. One
of them links to the official plenary mailing list, which I would encourage you
to join, no matter which stakeholder group you're from. A third point is,
regarding the dynamic coalitions, there isn't yet any clear understanding of
their relationship with the IGF. In a sense, they're totally independent. And
yet, there's been comments from the floor today that we want to see some
tangible outcomes going forward from what we've been discussing in our
workshops and what we will be discussing in our dynamic coalitions. So I
suggest that we might want to think about criteria by which the dynamic
coalitions can attain an affiliation with the IGF, something like a formal
affiliation with the IGF, what might those criteria be. They would have to be
multistakeholder composition, openness, things like that, so that we know that
the output of a dynamic coalition corresponds to the values of the IGF as a
whole, of its multistakeholder process. I would suggest that if those criteria
are agreed upon, it would then be possible for the output of a dynamic
coalition to be formally relayed back to a session of the IGF as a whole and
thereby attained some sort of concrete status. So that's just an idea for
people to think about. It would tie in the output of the dynamic coalitions to
the group as a whole, and thereby give their output a more solid status. Thank
you very much.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: Thank you. [ Applause ]
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: That's very helpful. I have Raul Echeberria from LACNIC, and
then Mr. Tariq (saying name) from the government -- Let me just announce three
at a time. Raul Echeberria, followed by Tariq (saying name), government of
Pakistan. And then Mr. David olive, the WITSA policy chairman.
>>RAUL ECHEBERRIA: Is this working? Well, I'm going to speak Spanish. I have
to say that the first thing that comes to mind is that we've been working very
hard at the IGF here, and we also worked very hard at the working party in the
chateau outside of Geneva, well, I can't remember the name, but we also worked
very hard there. And it makes me very happy to see that the ideas from there
are now being put into practice. We have a proposal, and it was heard at the
Tunis summit as well. Because after that, at the conclusion of that summit, we
thought we had achieved what had been possible at that time. And I think that
things have evolved since then, because at the working party outside Geneva, we
thought, "Let's go for something more. Let's set up a forum for dialogue on an
international level. Let's try and move forward." So I was here for the opening
session, and our chairman said something very important which I've been
thinking about since. And he said up till now, we've been working in parallel
worlds. On the one side, we have governments, businesses. And then on the other
side, we have civil society, NGOs. So this was a completely different meeting.
We've had the opportunity to meet people we hadn't known, people who had never
heard of us, met us. And since Monday, every day, I've realized that what Mr.
Desai said was really quite correct. Over these few days, we've managed to find
what the important themes are right now, because governance is of crucial
importance for the majority of users and people. So I have to say that we all
have different motivation. But we still have the same objectives. Our objective
is to give a solution to the problems arising from the governance or lack of
governance in the Net, and also to give a voice to developing countries. So
what shall we aim for in Rio de Janeiro? We should discuss the themes that
we've decided are very important: Freedom of expression, interoperability,
access, local content, as our African colleague said. I think they are very
important. Protect privacy, security. These are the issues which will be of
importance for the future. There are other things as well we should be
discussing. But I think that these are the main points. Now, what is the main
challenge for us? It's to go back home and continue and prepare texts and go to
various fora. And then when we go to Rio, we should do it having sort of ample
-- broad scale of possibilities to offer. So it all depends on what we do. We
need to take all key elements from this meeting in Athens and prepare them over
the next year and, actually, go to Rio with concrete proposals. We need to
forge consensus. And that's the only way to move forward over the next few
years, because the consensus we've had since Tunis has allowed us to achieve
results here. So I'd like to thank everyone and congratulate the secretariat
and the chairman for their excellent work. Thank you.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: And we thank Raul. As you know, it was not just the work of
the chairman and the secretariat. It was also very much the work of the
advisory group, which has become a support group. Which has actually taken on
tasks and responsibilities surrounding this meeting. So I really want people to
understand that the so-called advisory group has actually become a very
practical support group, and people are doing all sorts of work, including some
very mundane work, pushing chairs around, Xeroxing things, getting coffee for
somebody, et cetera, et cetera. So I really am very -- truly grateful to the
spirit in which the advisory group has pitched in and helping and running the
logistics of this meeting. I have Tariq Badsha, followed by Mr. David olive.
May I request people, I think it's going to be easier if people send slips.
Otherwise it becomes very difficult to keep track of people I spot and people
-- and people who are sending slips. So it would perhaps be prudent if you wish
to take the floor just to send a slip of paper so that I have -- I know that
it's there, and that's much easier than for me to call so that I don't miss
anybody. So I don't miss anybody. Tariq Badsha.
>>TARIQ BADSHA: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, I am Tariq Badsha from the
Ministry of I.T, government of Pakistan. I hope everyone forgives my foot
sitting on the chair. I would like to congratulate the government of Greece. I
would like to use this opportunity to thank the government of Greece for the
hospitality and the IGF Secretariat for the support. It is not easy on the
undertaking to break new ground, and IGF is no different. It is not only due
to the breadth and complexity of the subject at hand but also due to the
diversity of the stakeholders. This poses an interesting challenge. On the one
hand we want to incorporate the views of various stakeholders, which is one of
the fundamental requirements of a multistakeholder forum. On the other hand,
we expect tangible outputs in the form of concrete recommendations, and
implementation guidelines in a limited period of time. Hence, it seems that the
conventional model of operations would not suffice, and we would have to come
up with more creative ways. Perhaps we could build on the philosophy of open
distributed contribution, albeit in a more organized fashion such as the
Internet engineering task force. The idea would be the platform where these
four working groups can work towards a holistic solution. While we recognize
that solutions to Internet Governance issues are not as cut and dry as the
technical problems, there could be a set of solutions to certain issues, giving
choices for implementations. In some rare cases, we may even end up in a
deadlock. However, it is important that the terms of reference for these
working groups would be to come up with recommendations for implementations as
much as possible. Another idea that the role of the IGF could play would be in
capacity building. The idea being IGF would be one-stop-shop was brought up
during the conference. We support this proposal. In addition to the
information generated by IGF, the Web site could have links to other resources.
For instance, the anti-spam tool kit, the open and free software, the
successful models in ICT for development and so on. Mr. Chairman, in the past
three days, some very useful information has been disseminated, and even though
some parts were a reiteration of the Geneva and Tunis principles, it would be
unfair if we walk out with the impression that this seminar has purely been
dealing with highly generalized issues. I think a lot of practical information
has been disseminated. Our delegation has gathered very useful information in
terms of Spam, in terms of security, and some of the other areas. So I would
like to congratulate you and your Secretariat for the contributions that have
been made. In the end, I would also hike to quote what commissioner Viviane
Reding so aptly said in the opening plenary that the IGF would be an important
pillar of the new model of enhanced cooperation between all stakeholders agreed
upon in Tunis last year. It does not replace negotiations between governments
on the enhanced cooperation model, but it is a complementary process. I would
like to reiterate that while the IGF brings a unique value to the Internet
Governance landscape due to its multistakeholder nature, there is still a need
to have a platform for intergovernment negotiations. Thank you very much, sir,
for your attention.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: Thank you. May I now turn to David Olive. After that, if I
may just give a few names. I have Vittorio Bertola who has been waiting a long
time. Miguel (saying name), the deputy representative of Ecuador who has been
waiting quite a long time, and then Bertrand De La Chapelle. Can I turn to
David Olive.
>>DAVID OLIVE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is David Olive, and I am
representing the World Information Technology and Services Alliance, 67
national I.T. associations around the world. Our group works with many other
groups, and yesterday you heard from Robert Rogers, GIIC, about the joint
workshop that we sponsored and the results from that. We would like to make
some comments here. We greatly appreciate the multistakeholder approach of the
IGF. We noted that it is a truly unique forum, very interesting and valued
opportunity for members of WITSA to be a participant. At WITSA I might say we
did not find all totally an opportunity to have multistakeholder interaction so
we came to Athens somewhat cautiously but optimistically. We are pleased with
the outcomes today and all of the sessions. Our optimism, not our caution, was
rewarded, Mr. Chairman. The dialogue among different stakeholders was a very
important and valued contribution for our business members. We also found
important the opportunity to participate in main sessions and workshops, and we
have some ideas on how to contribute perhaps of the evolving nature of these
sessions going forward. Capacity building, information infrastructure access,
and security remain very important to our members. We would like to see more
business participation here and WITSA will be reaching out to all of our
members to be here and part of this. We also host some conferences in 2007 and
'8, the global public policy conference in Cairo in 2007 and our Malaysia
colleagues talked about the world Congress in 2008, and we will use those
forums to promote the elements of the -- elements of the IGF. Finally, we are
committed to the IGF, consistent with the mandate from the WSIS, and we trust
even more in Rio in 2007. Thank you very much.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: May I have Vittorio Bertola followed by (saying name) from
el Salvador and then Bertrand De La Chapelle.
>>VITTORIO BERTOLA: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don't know how to affiliate
myself. I am an engineer, an entrepreneur, I am with civil society. I advise
my government. So I don't really know how I fit into this. But I first wanted
really to congratulate --
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: You are a walking multistakeholder. [ Laughter ]
>>VITTORIO BERTOLA: I think so. I don't know why I am here, perhaps. But....
I think this was really great, actually, so yes, there were maybe some
practical shortcomings, maybe, for example, there should be better way for
online participation, maybe less luxurious setting may have helped more people
to come in. Maybe workshops should have more time for discussion and less for
presentations. These are just random discussions. But these are minor things.
I think that in the end, this was a success because we actually met. Everyone
in the beginning was wondering whether this would work or not, and I think this
has worked. This has worked very well. So I think most of the people, I think
all people here are actually happy about this. Anyway, I just wanted to remind,
however, that there are some parts of our mandate that still need to be
implemented. And specifically, for example, part G of the paragraph 72 of the
Tunis Agenda which was agreed in Tunis and which tells us we do have to -- not
just to identify the issues but also to make recommendations. Those other parts
of the mandate talk about, for example, assessing and embodying these
principles in Internet Governance processes and I was a member of the WGIG, I
was one of the people thinking about this, and these were since the beginning
very important parts of the mandate. I think the reason why we are not doing it
here in Athens is because it is too soon. We still have to understand how all
of this works. I think at the same time we can take it as a commitment to Rio
that we find a way to implement them. And I wanted to reassure the people in
the room, I know there are people in the room that think we should not make
recommendations, or are afraid of the fact that we can actually have some
agreed results of these forums. I think that you have to understand that, first
of all, we are not going to make decisions, because there is no power here, so
we have no power to bind anyone to make anything. The only thing we can do in a
true Internet spirit is to bring everyone at the same table and have an
agreement, in the end, for the way that the Internet works. The agreement is
beneficial to all the people who participate in it. And that's the way the
Internet has been growing since the beginning. The technical standards of the
Internet were never decided, were never formally adopted or binding either.
They are just there and everyone abides by them because it's beneficial for
everyone to be able to talk to everyone. And that's what we can get in this
forum. So I feel a bit like, in Tunis, we saw these uncharted waters, as
someone else called them and now we have put our first foot in the water. And
we have to decide whether we want to swim or not. And I think we should dare to
swim. We should not be afraid and just stay on the beach. And the last point I
wanted to make is a substantive point. I have already said about the work we
are doing on the bill of rights. I want to stress it, because I think it's
symbolic of the value of this forum. I have heard many workshops talking about
security and growth and business, which is fine. Actually, it's very
important. But I think that the real important mandate of this forum is to
build common grounds for the Internet to grow and Information Society to grow.
There is a need in the world for people to start talking to each other and
understanding each other rather than confronting one another, especially
different parts of the world, different cultures, and I take this as a
responsibility. We can actually build common ground. We can build the -- the
idea of the bill of rights is to build a meaningful level of mutual
understanding and respect that allows all of us to talk to each other. And I
think this will be a huge contribution, not just to the Internet but to the
world. And this is why I am committed to this process. And I hope that the
entire forum can commit to this process and to this idea. Because I think it
can really change the world in a way. And the last thing, I remember that when
we started the work in the WGIG, Kofi Annan told us to dare to be creative, to
be imaginative, not to be afraid. And I took that very seriously. I think
this is really a very important thing to do and this is why I am pushing these
things that might seem maybe high level or maybe abstract. But I think they
could be very important, much more important than other things we are doing
here now. Thank you. [ Applause ]
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: Miguel.
>>MIGUEL ALCAINE: Thank you. I am Miguel. I am the attache from the embassy
in El Salvador. The people from the Caribbean and South America would like to
thank the Greek government for their hospitality and also hosting this IGF. We
with would also like to thank the secretary-general of the U.N., Mr. Kofi
Annan, and also his special representative, you, chairman, and also I would
like to thank Mr. Markus Kummer who is the head of the Secretariat, and also
the staff working for him. I would also like to thank the interpreters and all
those who have participated here, and all of the Greek organizers, men and
women. This first IGF became a forum for substantial dialogue, and it followed
a multistakeholder approach. We are convinced that many of the ideas which have
-- which are the result of our discussions will reappear in other fora in order
to fulfill the commitments we have undertaken at the summit in Tunis and also
in Geneva. We believe this first IGF has been a great success, and that we are
following the correct direction. So allow me to conclude saying that we expect
you at the second IGF, which will take place in Latin America in 2007. Thank
you.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: Thank you very much. Can I just read a few more names out?
After Bertrand De La Chapelle, we have (saying name) senior program of the
international women's structure. Mr. (saying name), and Jamie Love.
>>BERTRAND DE LA CHAPELLE: Thank you very much, chairman. I am Bertrand De La
Chapelle. I am special delegate for Information Society in the foreign
ministry. And I'd also just like to make a few comments here. First of all, I
think the format of this four-day meeting is something which would seem to have
been a natural format of all the participants here. But I do think it's been a
success because, as has been said before, we all, of course, have reason to be
happy here. I would like to take up what was said by Mr. Desai and to extend my
compliments and my congratulations both to himself and to the Secretariat, to
all the members of the advisory group who have undertaken this enormous effort
here. The second point is that I'd like to point out that France is very happy
to, in fact, participate in the dynamic coalition and to look at the issue of
personal data and identification and digital identification, I think is one of
the emerging issues, basically, as has been indicated by the Tunis Agenda. And
there is another element on that agenda which hasn't actually been mentioned
very frequently, but Mr. Desai has mentioned it. It's basically important, as
we said, within IGF to look at what's happening in terms of digital identity.
We said that this is something which may affect someone's everyday life, and
France would like to join you in that initiative. Also, we are talking about a
dynamic coalition. We don't have any sort of rules of procedure for this
dynamic process, but methodology as for IGF is something which happens in the
making. We just identified the stakeholders. We identified the events which
are organized by most of you which deal with the issues of personal data and
other issues. And the idea is, of course, to be able to collect information on
that issue and to reach as many people as possible. So France is very happy to
have invited the participants to this dynamic coalition, and we'll meet in
Paris during the course of next year to actually take stock of what is
happening, what can be prepared for Rio, and to make, thereby, our contribution
for the Rio forum. And now, perhaps to move to the suggestions in terms of
methodology, and we can work from now to Rio. This concerns the agenda and the
meetings for next year. I think basically it's going to be a matter of special
sessions which could bridge the plenary and workshop sessions which would
enable the coalition just formed to take stock of what's happening and to
thereby indicate a state of play, how they could advance and what should be
done in the future. Also, two final points very quickly. It's going to be
necessary, and I think that the discussion certainly has (inaudible) over the
past few minutes to perhaps stop and take stock of the forum, to actually take
note of what has been done, what we have accomplished and how we are
functioning. And I understand that at the beginning of next year, or at least
as soon as possible, we are going to have a meeting possibly with members of
the advisory group. And I would be most happy if on that occasion if, as has
been done for the preparation for this forum, to have open consultations had,
so that the individual stakeholders can thereby bring in their proposals as
they see the overall process. And one final point. One final point because I
don't think it's been raised sufficiently and I think it's the time to do so. I
think it's important over the forthcoming months to better study the
articulation between the various subjects that are discussed with the framework
of the forum, and to look at the process of implementation based on decisions
coming out of the summit and how some of the stakeholders can facilitate that
process. And I do think that this articulation is an important issue. We will
be looking at that in the forthcoming months, as I said. And once again, with
my thanks for the remarkable quality of this meeting. Thank you.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: Can I call on Maria (saying name). Where is she? Where is
she? From the international women's -- there you are. Oh, there you are.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am sorry, I didn't hear you very well. I just would
like to stress again the centrality of gender in the discussion on Internet
Governance and all ICT policies in general. There are two key issues that need
to be on the agenda, and these are violence against women and pornography in
the Internet. Without jeopardizing the open boundaryless and free nature of the
Internet, how do we counter violence against women and pornography? These are
issues that concern us all: Governments, private sector, civil society. But
how come that in this forum, only civil society, particularly women's
organizations who are raising these issues? And we're a very small minority in
this forum. I reiterate the call to ensure women's representation and
participation in all upcoming forums, in Rio, in India and in Egypt and on all
discussion spaces on Internet Governance. We are here, we are ready, and we are
more than capable to engage in the dynamic coalition that we have been talking
about. Only with women's active participation that we will be able to move
forward successfully in using the Internet as an effective development tool.
Thank you. Mavic Cabrera-Balleza from the women's center. [ Applause ]
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: Can I turn to (saying name) from the government of Indonesia
and then Jamie Love.
>>MAVIC CABRERA-BALLEZA: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, I think that
as a representative of the government, we see that the objective to have
multistakeholders meetings, the IGF, as mandated by Tunis was achieved here in
ATHENA. I thank the Greek government for hosting this meaning, and I would also
like to thank the secretary-general of the IGF, Mr. Markus Kummer,
secretary-general of the U.N. and special representative Mr. Nitin Desai who
chairs today. And we shouldn't forget by saying last but not least that we also
have to pay tribute to the secretary-general of the ITU, Mr. Utsumi, who
initiate this WSIS Tunis since a couple of years ago. So I believe. This was
very successfully done. And now the challenges we are going to face ahead that
we now as multistakeholders need to be more closer in more sincere and
contributive manners, and better to have a consensus so that we can have an
implementation in this process. So this also will make that what we means to
attend this expensive meetings is useful and productive. Back to the content.
The message is echoed by our distinguished delegate of Iran that we need to
discuss also the cultural aspect in the next IGF meetings, which I believe that
in the couple of three days, in the last three days, we heard that the
discussion on the ethical dimensions will not only cover the area of the local
value and the local rights, and also the other aspect. So this can be discussed
in the future that can link to the aspect of the security and privacy that I
believe, with this aspect of discussion, will help much to reach what's called
accountable and responsible governments. And last but not least, we also
support the statement made by the previous speakers, which we need also to
discuss on the issue of the pornography on this very important forum. And also,
I'd like to support the work of the advisory groups need to be more extensive
in the work to come. And also to suggest that in the future work of the
advisory group, that this group have to -- have to get more reach out to the
multistakeholders, especially in the respective regions. So then this is to
ensure the participatory of all multistakeholders. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: I think that's a very useful thought. We should keep that
in our mind that the advisory group has generally met with -- in open
consultations in Geneva, but I take you to mean that basically these
consultations should also reach out at the regional level. And we have to
figure out how we can do that better. And maybe we can give a little thought
to this, as to how this could be done. Maybe we could have -- maybe the
relevant regional members from that region can do more concentration. That's a
good thought and let's see how we can work it in. May I now turn to Jamie Love.
After that, I have Peter Hellmonds, Steve Ballinger and Vassilev from Russia.
>>JAMIE LOVE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Markus and the Secretariat. I would
like to echo the positive sentiments that other members of this audience have
offered about this event. I think that this -- this format has worked well. I
think that one thing that is on the mind of many people is the connection
between the conversations in the room and the activity in the room and
outcomes. And I think that the -- our understanding is that the early approach
in the Internet Governance Forum is one where the emphasis is on the
self-organized dynamic coalitions to focus on things such as best practice or
areas of consensus or information sharing as opposed to sort of focusing on a
sort of top-level norm setting activity. I think that that's a different
approach for a lot of people that are familiar with the U.N. system, but it has
a certainly amount of value in the context of the Internet and the way a lot of
things -- the Internet has developed. And I think it's early, but I think if
that is the process by which people coming here affect things on the outside
then it's worth spending some time on how these bottom-up, self-organized
dynamic coalitions work, how they fit into the IGF. It was very welcome to
hear from the Secretariat that there be an effort to integrate within the
Secretariat Web page the activities, the dynamic coalition site. I think the
conversations from France about the privacy dynamic coalition I think are very
interesting. I think that there may be some learning process about the sort of
best practices of dynamic coalitions in some of these issues. I think some
people are not quite sure what the limits are. I think many people would be
comfortable with thinking forward, maybe toward Rio, a little more structure on
this process. But I must say the idea you had of starting with almost no
structure at this meeting has its value, because we have a lot of diversity and
experimentation, and I think that's going to be very useful to everyone. So I'm
trying to be as positive as possible about what you are doing now in the
meeting because I feel very good about it. I'm involved in the organizing of
the access to knowledge dynamicdynamic coalition, which I should be at right
now. And the open standards dynamic coalition. The approach in both of these, I
think, is to be inclusive in terms of membership, maybe requiring some
transparency of people who join the coalition to -- as sort of a hurdle, which
I think is a reasonable obligation. And then to create a space so that the
group will seek to reach consensus and best practices in these areas of their
interest, which will be as concrete as possible in terms of things governments
could do, corporate sector could do, and private individuals could do. But then
in areas where there's no agreement, to work toward permitting groups that have
different points of view to also express multiple views within the same dynamic
coalition so that there could be a -- identified with the sort of the endorsers
or the people that more or less approach one approach versus another approach.
It's an inclusive approach. The value is if you get more consensus. But
sometimes forcing consensus can come at the expense of detail and richness of
proposals. So I think if they are going to try and strike a balance between
encouraging as much consensus as possible, but not to the point where they
don't allow different models to be presented and put forward. And also to work
concretely on some of the information sharing in the areas between what
practices are before we get to state practice. So I think that this forum suits
this purpose very well. And we look forward to participating. And I'm sure
that the number of people participating in the next forum will be greater than
this forum, because I think many people were skeptical of the value of this
forum, because they didn't understand it. They were told by many people it
would be all talk and no action, that there was this sort of negative talk that
people said. And I think that what's emerged in this meeting, I think, and the
feedback you'll have outside the room will be very positive, that people see
this as sort of the right thing to do at the right time with the Internet, to
sort of start very inclusive, to start discussions, to start in sort of
relatively soft norm setting. And that's really sort of a confidence-building
step and building the institution. So my thanks for the opportunity to
participate.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: I have Peter Hellmonds, Steve (saying name) and Mr. (saying
name).
>>PETER HELLMONDS: Do we have a microphone? Thank you very much. Thank you
very much, Mr. Chairman. I'm Peter Hellmonds from Siemens in Germany. And I
would like to offer some brief remarks on behalf of the international business
community, organized through ICC, the International Chamber of Commerce, and
BASIS, the Business Action to Support the Information Society. I wanted
originally to thank everyone specifically. But now, for the sake of brevity, I
will just thank everyone all together who has already been mentioned. I would,
however, like to thank the bloggers specifically for bringing the voices from
the outside into this meeting room. That has been one of the experiments that
-- or one of the creative elements of this exercise. It was part of this first
IGF event, which was very experimental in nature. And I must say, that
experiment has worked remarkably well. In fact, much better than expected. We
have had here an experiment of multistakeholder openness and inclusiveness that
probably has not ever been tried before in any other U.N. process. I'd also
like to recognize the various new coalitions that have been announced today,
which, while not being an official part of the IGF, are, however, inspired by
this event. I would like to mention in this respect also our business
initiative, BASIS, the Business Action to Support the Information Society.
BASIS is open to all businesses from around the world, whether they come --
regardless of whether they come from any sector of business or what size they
are. Through BASIS, its members, associations, and companies will be reaching
out and raise awareness among the global business community. And we'll also be
reaching out in cooperative efforts with other stakeholders. I'd like to
emphasize that business is committed both to the WSIS and its callout, in
general, and to the IGF in particular. As to the suggestions to move ahead,
business believes that the following issues will continue to require our
focused attention on a priority basis. Access, well, basically, to connect the
next billion users, which, as we heard quite often here, will come from the
developing world. That means infrastructure, both fixed and mobile, and as a
complement also, the necessary enabling environment. That includes the issues
of competition, liberalization, the rule of law, et cetera. Those things that
promote a positive investment climate which is necessary for infrastructure we
put in place. Also on a priority basis, security, among other things, network
security, which promotes the stability of the Internet. Again, underlying all
of the themes that I just mentioned should be our attempt to further the mutual
understanding and the ability of all people around the world to participate in
activities and organizations and fora related to Internet governance. The goal
should be that we enhance the socioeconomic development through the use of the
Internet. Before stopping here to allow other business representatives to add
to this, I would like to just make a practical suggestion as we move ahead. It
would be useful that we have a schedule for the next event way ahead of time.
So I would respectfully suggest to Mr. Chairman to set and announce a date and
the schedule way in advance for the Rio meeting and solicit written input from
all of the stakeholders around the world. In closing, Mr. Chairman, I would
like to thank you and Mr. Kummer for helping us all to see the benefit in this
inclusive and open process, which I believe can serve as a model for other
similar events. Thank you very much.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: May I just interrupt the list of speakers for one second. I
understand that Brazil is in a position to announce dates. May I request
somebody from Brazil, if they would be willing to announce -- indicate the
dates which you are contemplating.
>> We are suggesting the date of 12th of November of 2007. That's a Monday for
the beginning. And then we have 12, 13, 14 for the days of the meetings. And so
that's the date we are suggesting for the meetings. The location's Rio de
Janeiro. It's on what are called (saying name). It's a very nice place. It's
been prepared -- all of the infrastructure today of the -- the site is prepared
for a big event that has occurred there for the pan-American Olympics in Rio.
And so I think we will have all the necessary infrastructure in hotels and
transportation and security and so on in this area. Thank you.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: Thank you very much. [ Applause ]
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: I just thought since the dates were fixed, it's better for
people to know right now, so you can start planning. It's just about a year
from now. After that, I will get back to the list. I had Steve Ballinger, from
Amnesty, followed by Vladimir Vasilyev, from Russia. Steve.
>> STEVE BALLINGER: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Steve Ballinger from Amnesty
International. There's been a lot of questions raised here at the IGF and
Amnesty International is very pleased to be part of the process that's looking
for the answers. One thing that I wanted to report back from several of the
panels and workshops is the recognition that there is a set of globally agreed
standards that already exist and that can give us guidance and direction when
it comes to the Internet. And that is the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. These would not only protect legitimate free speech, like peaceful
political dissent, but also provide an agreed way to determine which speech is
not protected, the content that causes people so much concern about the
Internet, such as child pornography, incitements to hatred, and violence. And
so in this way, human rights can make a real difference in keeping the Internet
free from unwarranted interference in the future. Thank you.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: (No audio.)
>> VLADIMIR VASILYEV: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to speak Russian.
First of all, I would also like to thank, on behalf of the Russian delegation,
the organizers and the hosting country for this opportunity to exchange
opinions. During this forum, we heard very interesting and positive views. One
of them was, man is always thinking about the future. And we feel that one of
the most important things for the future is international governance for names
and domains. We have talked to lots of delegations from various countries about
this, and it's of interest to all of them, so we would like this issue to be on
the agenda for the forum in Brazil. Security as well is a very important issue.
And a lot was heard at the session devoted to security. So I'll give the floor
to Yliana Batoiva (phonetic) from the foreign ministry to give her view.
>> Good morning. I'm Yliana Batoiva (phonetic) from the ministry, foreign
affairs ministry in Russia. Now, I have a point to make on security, because I
think ICT security should be on the Rio agenda. Perhaps for Rio de Janeiro we
should construct our dialogue on a different basis, because we should see how
Internet users feel about security on the Net. And we should discuss the three
levels of security for the Internet user and also for governments. We have to
find a common language. Because sometimes when we talk about security issues,
we haven't been using one voice. On certain occasions, we have been
understanding each other. But sometimes there's a lot of miscomprehension. In
Athens, we've decided on a lot of matters, and we've heard very interesting
views. But we haven't got a recommendation coming out. So my wish for the
future is, in Rio, the experts on security should try and adopt recommendations
which will be addressed to both the private and the public sector, the
individuals, and governments. Thank you.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: -- followed by ambassador Trevor Clark, and then (saying
name) of Diplo. Can we -- you need to be a little more accessible for the mike,
I think. Sorry. You're running away from the mike.
>>IZUMI AIZU: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Izumi Aizu, I'm a member of
the ICANN at-large advisory committee, among others. It's an ad hoc proposal.
One of the differences we observed between the Tunis summit and here in Athens,
IGF, is, I think, there are less numbers of participants from the developing
countries, even though the overarching theme of this IGF is Internet governance
for development. So I'd like to sort of submit an ad hoc proposal to form a
dynamic coalition, to join the term, on funding of IGF with a special emphasize
or focus on supporting the participation of or from the developing parts of the
world. This includes, of course, the people from the developing countries, but
perhaps also such relatively marginalized people as those having higher
barriers to participate, such as persons with disabilities, youths, or
sometimes NGOs and civil society, even in the developed parts of the world. I
think the -- all efforts should be made -- I know Markus has been working very
hard to get funding of all IGF, not only for the developing countries'
participation. But we call on governments of the north, all the countries,
international organizations, in charge of the development, or in charge of
Internet governance, bodies such as ICANN, ITU, WIPO, or any others, to provide
some adequate funding to bring more people from developing countries to make
this as a real multistakeholder or all stakeholder participation for the next
IGF meeting in Brazil. A number of individuals, mostly within the civil society
groups and Internet governance caucus, have already expressed their interest to
join this. We will be functioning as perhaps a conduit to facilitate this
implementation of the funding to support travels or conducting workshops, which
sometimes includes dirty work as arranging the tickets or arranging the
business in the last minute, or to make selection accountable and transparent.
That is not an easy job. We have done several times for people to come to Asia
for Tokyo meetings and stuff like that. So I have certain experiences with
such. And so, I'd like to again appeal to these governments and the
international organizations to operate your next year's, 2007's budget, so we
have more organizations to support, or the private sector, such as Keidanren in
Japan, or ICC, or Siemens, or Microsoft, or Amazon, or Google, British Telecom,
you name it. But this, we are really trying to make a voluntary dynamic
coalition. So if you can join, please join. Thank you. [ Applause ]
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: As you can see, this is a very welcome -- it's a very
welcome initiative. May I now turn Trevor Clarke. Ambassador Clarke.
Ambassador Clarke? Not here? I don't see him. He's probably just stepped out.
We'll come back to him later. I had the gentleman from Diplo, Lupio Giorginski
(phonetic) where is Mr. Giorginski?
>> Yep, I'm right here. This is another ad hoc recommendation. And it also
addresses funding. It came to me actually yesterday while we had the panel on
Internet governance and the millennium development goals. Within the next few
years, in many countries, and probably the developed countries will do this
first, we'll start adopting IPv6. As we know, IPv6 has 3.4 times 10 to the
power of 38 number of I.P. addresses, which is an unlimited number after the
four billion that we have right now, which also means that the price of that
will fall to almost -- well, to nothing if we keep the same symbolic price that
we have for the package of an I.P. address and a domain name, which is, say,
$10, which it is in most countries. It can be forever, it can anybody a
transition of ten years, and orient that money towards something, either, I
don't know, solving a Millennium Development Goal or getting funding for
Internet governance processes, since we do have a lot of problems to do this.
It could be a very effective way to get funding from very invisible source. I
know the reaction from many is that this is the imposition of a tax, such as
previous propositions from earlier times of a tax on e-mail. But it really
isn't. It doesn't enter into the structure of the network at all. It's actually
just something that we have right now. Everybody still pays $10 for the package
of an I.P. address and a domain name. It will be a continuation of that with
the difference that all of a sudden now you have I.P. addresses which have cost
something until now, because they have been limited, and they will cost nothing
at the moment when IPv6 is addressed. Anyways, it's an idea thrown in the
ground. We will open the discussion on this in Diplo, and you all are welcome
to participate. And perhaps it is something that we can develop within the next
year until Rio. Thanks.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: Ambassador Clarke, I think you're back here. Can I give the
-- the mike can go to Ambassador Clarke, who is right at the back there.
>>TREVOR CLARKE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and apologize for my delinquency,
which is very frequent. Just to share with you and the members a very brief
impression from Barbados. I think we have had a very successful, well-attended
first effort of the IGF. Lots of information has been shared, and, indeed, we
have all learned something. And I would wish to say that we have all learned a
lot. Recognizing, however, that there will be no formal outcome, we hope that
the forum has nevertheless contributed to persuading those who have the
greatest influence on the cost of access problem, which we in the Caribbean
also share. Let me use this opportunity to inform participants that the
Caribbean is today holding an Internet governance dialogue on the island of
Grenada. And some of us here in Athens will be meeting with that group in the
Caribbean online at 1:30 p.m. today. So the people of the Caribbean do take
Internet governance seriously and will continue to make the connection between
the IGF activities and other international dialogue so as to inform our
regional and national processes in the Caribbean. Finally, we do hope that more
of us now better understand that freedom of expression comes with a serious
responsibility. I would implore you in planning for Rio that we continue
dialogue on this particular issue. I thank you.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: Thank you very much, Ambassador Clarke. Can I turn to Paul
Twomey, the president and CEO of ICANN. Is he here? There is Paul.
>>PAUL TWOMEY: Thank you, chairman. I just wanted to first of all say thank
you and congratulations to you for all the great work that you have done, and
to Ambassador Karklins, Ambassador Markus Kummer -- we're full of ambassadors
here -- for the great work that you have done on preparing for this conference.
And as we have gone through the whole WSIS, the IGF, the whole process, I think
this has been a great success. I congratulate you on your work. I wonder if I
can make an observation as someone who has been involved in the founding and
evolution and continued management of one of the world's first multistakeholder
organizations. They're not easy to put together and to manage at all. And one
of the observations I would make, particularly for people who are thinking
about progress between this year and next year is to keep testing the question,
is everybody engaged. And I'll be a little heretical here. I will particularly
challenge business and civil society in the dialogues that many people are
talking about as they go between here and Rio. The test I'll put to you is, are
you sure that the governments are engaged in the dialogue? It's a very
important point. It can be very easy to get involved in what you think are
multistakeholder structures and find that what's happened is it's become a
civil society structure or a civil society and business structure. And so it's
an interesting test in all the discussions that take place between now and Rio.
And I'd ask all people who come to really try to take advantage of this unique
institution under the U.N.'s auspices to keep that test in minds, are all
voices participating, and what do you need to do to ensure that all voices are
participating. Thank you.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: May I now request the people who come to -- there are quite
a few -- to try to be as quick as possible. Because we are running out of time.
I do need to come to some sense of closure on this whole process. So I do need
about ten minutes. But may I just request the people who are now coming in, I
have about -- quite a few, to be sharp, crisp, and I'd like -- you know, like
Paul was, so that we get the essential point. I am Jim Dempsey of CDT and the
global Internet. Delphine Nana, the ACSIS, Malcolm Hutty, of LINX. Can I go to
Jim Dempsey.
>>JIM DEMPSEY: Yes, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Again, congratulations for a very
successful meeting. You've proven here, we have all proven the -- that
multistakeholder dialogue works. And I have a concrete suggestion, which is
that between now and next November, that each of the countries represented here
convene their own national-level Internet Governance Forum. We've heard
reference already to an effort in the Caribbean. And this should be not merely
a one-time meeting, but a series of dialogues locally to build a consensus. And
I think the guiding principle for those local IGFs should be the following:
Think globally, and act locally. You've all heard this expression. And it's
particularly apt to this Internet, where many of the solutions are at the local
level. This is what we've been doing in our GIPI project, and it's a model that
can be proliferated in other developing countries. Specific identification of
barriers, specific identification of solutions, and identification of the
institutions that can implement those solutions. Thank you.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: Can I turn to Delphine Nana.
>>DELPHINE NANA: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Now, I am Delphine Nana,
and I belong to all African countries, president of ACSIS. With your permission
I would like to make a comment to remind you that Africa is, in fact, one of
the largest countries within the ACSIS, and the idea of the Internet governance
forum has been supported by the African countries in general. And of course we
have been involved in the various phases of the WSIS and this forum is very
promising for the future. And we have representatives in the working group in
the IGF, and we also are part of the advisor's group as concerns IGF. But this
is, I think, a reflection of our willingness to take into account all those
issues that we are very concerned with, and to be able, ultimately, to come to
a consensus which will help us worldwide. Looking at the various issues of
governance on the Internet. And we do open that for the Rio phase something
could, in fact, be done in the right direction. ACSIS is also part of the whole
processes and mechanisms which are in place which have been put in place for
the Athens forum. Perhaps we can thank the Greek government on this occasion,
and also the people of Greece who have extended their warmest hospitality to
us. We also would like to thank the United Nations who wanted to actually give
visibility to us today, and I do thank you for that.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: Once again, I have a problem. I have more people than I can
accommodate. So try and be as brief as you can. I'm not sure we will be able
to go through absolutely every single person who wants the floor. I think after
that, I have Malcolm Hutty of LINX, London. Anybody who can be less than a
minute gets a chocolate.
>>MALCOLM HUTTY: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to congratulate you
and Mr. Kummer on what I think is the extraordinary success of the conference
and thank the host for their hospitality and generosity here. I would like to
make a few comments on the distinctions between the workshops we have had here
and the previous intergovernmental processes. And what I would lake to suggest
this means for the process going forward in terms of implementation and the
steps towards Rio. The intergovernmental processes are often, not always but
often very much characterized by the speaker saying this is my problem and this
is what I would like you to do about it. And that inevitably leads to a process
of challenges, difficult negotiations and compromises, and all that has to
happen before there can be any attempt at any form of implementation. I noticed
in the workshops have taken not always but very much a very different form of
conversation the form of conversation the speaker has said this has been my
problem and this is what I have done about it, and if you would like to join me
and take part in that, please come and join me. But if you don't, if you
disagree, if you have another method, then that's okay, you do your thing.
Join me if you can. And that allows us to move to implementation now, and I
have seen the economic coalitions that we have got forming in an
intergovernmental context will be announced today with great fanfare, it's an
achievement to have formed them because we are already moving toward
implementation. What intergovernmental processes can really move as fast
toward implementation as we have already seen at this conference. Moving
towards Rio, Mr. Chairman, I believe you will hear many voices saying we have
had some interesting discussions in Athens, but we need a process for agreeing
universal declarations common consensus global statements. I urge you to resist
those voices because that will retreat towards that tortuous process of
negotiation before implementation. And I suggest you focus on how you can
support and how the organizers can support the dynamic coalitions and make them
more visible. I also would like to agree with a comment made by Mr. Twomey
about bringing governments into this. They need to see, they need the
visibility of what these dynamic coalitions are achieving and I think that is
something that the organizers must focus on rather than changes in structure as
we proceed towards Rio. Thank you for your attention. [ Applause ]
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: Now can I just give a list of names, and let's see. Karen
Banks from EPC, then I have Thomas Schneider from the Swiss government, and
Purcell. Karen.
>>KAREN BANKS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At a workshop on capacity building
which was held this morning, a multistakeholder group of organizations agree
that capacity building is fundamental and that it should not only remain on the
IGF agenda but be given greater priority at the next IGF. These organizations
which represent different stakeholder communities and have a wide range of
complementary competencies agree to explore cooperation in the areas of mutual
interest. The group of organizations consisting of the Internet society, the
international chamber of Commerce and its initiative business action to support
the Information Society, the Association for Progressive Communications, the
DiploFoundation, the Number Resource Organization, Center for International ICT
Policy, (listing names) and collaboration on international ICT policy for East
and Southern Africa. Thank you.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: Can I now turn to Thomas Schneider, and then Ms. Purcell,
then Mr. Riazi.
>>THOMAS SCHNEIDER: Thank you very much, chairman. In fact, it was three years
ago in 2003 that the Swiss team facilitated, in trying to facilitate
negotiations, didn't think that three years later on there would be such an
open discussion on an issue which is a very difficult subject to arrive at a
compromise on. So that's why I would like to join with the others who thanked
you for the organization of this event. I can't go through the whole list of
people for lack of time. But I just want to say for us, too, it's been a
success, chiefly because we have been able to have a multistakeholder
discussion which has been a very open discussion. And also we have touched
upon many different subjects which had to be examined and been able to, on a
number of subjects, actually, got to go into depth. And also, to look at the
format of the forum. I don't think that we should change it too much. I think
perhaps we should not be too formal about the format because I think that
really is one of the reasons for which the discussion was so open, and why
basically people weren't afraid to actually take up a position on the various
situations or the various subjects, as is usually the case within the United
Nations. Now, two things which I think we ought to try and improve as has
already been said by a number of other speakers. I really do think that we
need to improve participation of the developing countries. I'd also like to
support the proposal extended to try and find financing, because the idea,
basically, of perhaps having a nominal amount charged, say $10 per country, but
I do think perhaps we could do this on a voluntary basis. And anybody who
would want to rent a Web site and perhaps sort of hand in some sort of money
for the IGF, and that might just be an idea we could entertain on that. I
think, also, we -- in order to continue, we ought to do three things. First of
all, very importantly, this dynamic coalition that we have been talking about,
here we ought to find links, but not formal links but very narrow links with
the IGF so that everybody can, in fact, really have this reaching government
ears. And I take on board what Cortani {sp?} was saying about the implication
and the involvement of governments and that's important for IGF, but also for
other existing mechanisms, talking about Internet Governance. Also, perhaps I
can just remind you that we ought to try and reinforce our links that we have
between the broad directions being taken, the lines of action, and to avoid any
sort of overlapping what we're doing but to create a synergy by rallying our
forces together between what is being done in the United Nations, UNESCO, and
other central organizations. My final point, I do think that we're very happy
to see the progress within IGF and to hope that there will be further visible
progress for other processes which were started in Tunis. Cooperation which
will be stepped up will reinforce cooperation which we have seen not too much
progress on. Thank you.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: (Saying name). Is she here?
>>FUATAI PURCELL: Thank you very much. I want to first of all congratulate
you, Mr. Nitin Desai and Kummer of the ICT --
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI:Congratulations we take for granted.
>>FUATAI PURCELL: Well, for making this event a reality and it's been very
successful. I have two observations. I wish to make a suggestion, the way
forward to Rio and to the other four IGFs. Paragraph 16 of the WSIS states we
shall continue to pay special attention to small island developing states,
landlocked countries, et cetera, et cetera, and since I am from a small island
developing state, I would like to suggest to please the small islands in the
IGF in Rio, because I notice that during the whole process here, all the
panelists were all from highly populated developing countries and large
organizations. And our needs, and the needs and issues that are unique to
small island developing countries are not heard. So we'd like to promote that.
And secondly, I would like to just remind you that one of the key issues in
developing ICTs in our region is transportation. For example, Kilabat {sp?} is
just above Samoa, but if I want to got to Kilabat I have to go to Fiji,
Australia, (inaudible) and then Kilabat, and that is one of the key issues
regarding participation. So I welcome the suggestion by Izumi. Please, Izumi,
keep in mind that we have a big issue in terms of transportation. For example,
in this forum, there are only two countries being represented here, and that is
Samoa and Fiji. Thank you very much.
>>ABDOLMAJID RIAZI: I want to say thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and
congratulate you for managing the decision, if there is such a thing. We also
commend the government of Greece for hosting the IGF, and appreciate the IGF
Secretariat for the preparation. I had some comments in previous sessions, and
you suggest I emphasize it in this session also. The IGF to catch up with the
key elements of its mandate should opt for a balanced approach toward
addressing all issues of concern during its first five years life span. IGF
should strike that balance. IGF should avoid pushing back exchanges on
particularly issues of priority to its last moments. To meet and to help
stakeholders to get prepared in advance for reflecting on substantive items on
the IGF agenda, we propose that the first IGF to devise a pre-established
multiyear's program of work. (Inaudible) need such a program of work, that we
suppose it is already an effort to answer the question of what should be the
substantive priorities of the IGF for the next meeting, considered for their
decision on the conclusions and the way forward. We therefore, and recalling
the WSIS privileges on the Internet governance as well as developments,
orientation of the whole process, propose the Rio de Janeiro meeting to take up
other things the IGF mandate on issues relating to critical Internet resources
as well as to strengthen and enhance the management of stakeholders in existing
or future Internet Governance mechanisms. Particularly those from developing
countries. We would meanwhile welcome discussions on how to promote and access
to an ongoing basis the embodiment of WSIS principles in Internet Governance
process, which is part of the IGF mandate. We are particularly interested in
the assessment part of the exercise. We remember well that according to the
paragraph 75 and 76 of the Tunis plan of action, the UNSG would report to you
and member states, particularly on the operation of the forum, as well as to
examine the desirability of the continuation of the forum in the formal
(inaudible) which forms participations within five years of its creation. And
to make recommendations to the U.N. membership in this regard. The entire
membership of the IGF to our view would prefer a situation where the U.N.
member state concludes that the report does in a comprehensive way cover
accurately, adequately all items on the IGF mandate. Thus, a truly will
balance substantive agenda for the forum would meet that end. Moreover, we
have taken note with great interest of the recommended outcome for the IGF on
duration dynamic coalition emerging from Athens. For example, a group of
people who agree to pursue and initiative started at the inaugural IGF meeting.
In our view, such coalition, if and when informed and advanced on the
recommended substantive agendas for the next IGF meeting can better contribute
to the discussion. There should be no worry on allowing a well balanced agenda
for the IGF which covers key elements or issues of priority to the Internet
Governance. Thank you.
>>CHAIRMAN DESAI: I'm sorry, there are four or five speakers who are still
left but I do need to stop. It is my responsibility as the chair to put some
sense of closure to the discussions that we have had, and I am afraid I have to
try and rush it through in about five minutes, which is what I have. Let me say
that this session was, as many people have said, an experiment. I will not try
and summarize what -- say much on what it did on substantive grounds. We will
see what Markus's report has said. I can give you my broad sense of what I --
the signals that I got and where I felt that added value. You could say in many
ways this forum that we had could essentially to have been largely about issues
of equity and freedom. In fact, it remarkable. In most international meetings
I have been to you can almost group the discussion around the classic French
revolution heads of liberty, equality and fraternity. On this one, the focus
was very much on equity. And many other things we talked of, Internet users in
developing countries, the questions that were raised about users in remote
areas, the questions that have been raised about gender, about indigenous
people or people with disability, I will say even the discussions that we have
had on local content and IDN so it is more accessible to people whose natural
language is not English, natural script is not Latin, the question of access
cost which came up very sharply. And the frequent references to the 5 billion
who are not yet on the Internet. All of these are essentially discussions
about equity. And the broad message I get is this is a wonderful thing that has
happened, but essentially we do have certain issues of the equity of access to
this fantastic tool of communication that has developed, which we need to
address. And in many cases, there were, of course, suggestions on how they
could be addressed. The second broad theme under which one could put much of
what came out of our discussions is essentially under the freedom head. The
questions about the -- what some would consider to be wrong suppression of
expression in certain cases. But also issues about how do you reconcile these
questions with the issues about digital identity and so on that are a emerging
from the security nexus. These are some of the broad sense of things that we
did discuss with a strong focus on the issues of equity and freedom in the
Internet. In terms of modalities, a great deal of the discussion centered
around this tension between the market -- relying on the market and focusing on
the public good nature of the Internet. I'm not sure that we have resolved this
tension. There was a sense where you could argue that because this is a medium
unlike so many others where the innovation takes place at the edges, you have
to keep a structure and modality of management which allows this innovation at
the edges and does not have an excessive amount of central control. Otherwise,
the media will stop developing. There was also a sense where people would have
argued that this is a low-cost (inaudible) business, anybody can get in, but
because of the nature of the business it's also a winner-takes-all business.
It's something where a particular application which is just, say, 20% better
than every other, because it can reach out to every corner of the Internet at
no cost, can swamp the others. There is this winner takes all issue. And so
there are issues of competition policy which will arise if you were to depend
on the market. And where will that be handled? Where would issues of
competition at the global level be handled? So there are questions which arise
from the way people approach the modalities of management of the net which I
think we still need to look at. There are many other things one could talk
about, but let me focus a little on process. Many of you have focused, spoken
about this today. Very much of the discussion has been on this issue. This
particular session was an experiment. It was an experiment in a
multistakeholder environment. It was an open-door experiment. There is no
membership in this forum as such. And I will say that the broad assessment is
that it has -- in a broad sense it has worked, but we need to do many things to
improve it. Amongst the area of improvement which I think people have been
focusing attention on, I would -- certainly there are the technicalities,
online participation, more time for discussion, et cetera, one could take care
of this. But beyond that, we also may have to look at format and structure,
the balance on the panels as to whether they are really representing all
points. But I would say the most important thing is how do we prepare for this.
We have an advisory group, and one interesting idea which has emerged is the
notion of a network very much like the Internet engineering task force where
you put out a request for comments, people comment on it, there is a procedure
for aggregating these comments, taking them into account and a rough consensus
becomes the basis and basically that's how it proceeds. And I know several
people are thinking in terms of working on this concept and sort of knowing of
a network which prepares for these types of things. And of course as in the
case of IETF, the success of such a network would depend on the extent that the
product gets use. That's really where the success of the network would come.
The real issue here is the policy discussions are more complex than engineering
discussions, and there has to be a certain protocol which has to be observed.
And the protocol that you have to observe is you cannot argue against a
proposition on ad hominem grounds. You cannot say that, "Oh, I reject that
proposition because XX said it" or that particular sector said it. No engineer
dismisses an engineer proposition because the engineer is tall, short, dark,
fair or whatever. It looks at the substance and the content. That basic
protocol of discussion has to be maintained. And I think it's very essential
that you maintain in any such exercise, and most important of all in this forum
itself. Looking at the forum, I would say that it's worked but there have been
issues, if you like, of the three cultures coming together and all three have
to make an adjustment. I speak now as a person who has sympathies with all
three, and I would urge all three to reexamine. We have the world of the U.N.
with its diplomatic culture here, which has certain secretary statements, a
certain protocol about how you talk about other countries and which often is
reactive rather than proactive. You have an NGO culture which at least in the
U.N. context has been an advocacy culture, has been a culture which likes to
state its views strongly, vigorously, because that's the only way they can get
that view heard. And you have a culture of business, which is very
uncomfortable with generalities which still defers to focus on immediate
practical partnership type exercises and applications. I think in all three
cultures we need a little adjustment. I think governments will have to accept
that in a multistakeholder forum will be a little more frank than a normal
democratic conference would be and that they have to participate in it in that
spirit. Equally, I believe civil society has to accept that if the purpose of
this exercise is ultimately to lead to joint action, then a certain degree of
restraint -- they have to approach this in a different way. If you want to work
with somebody, you are not going to be able to work with somebody if you start
calling that somebody names straight away. So you have to also re-think how you
approach an exercise like this whose purpose is at least partly to get people
working together. And equally, industry has to accept that in a new area like
Internet there will be a certain amount -- I apologize to the interpreters. I
will just take a minute more. You have to accept a certain degree of discussion
of principles and so on. These cultural changes are required. Let me just
conclude by saying that this is a very first exercise. In my country, when
people get married, we have arranged marriages, and usually the first meeting
between the boy and the girl, they are scoping each other out, so they tend to
-- the conversation tends to cover everything, you see. And at the second and
the third meeting they start talking about more specific things, what are your
tastes in this area or that area. And it is some time before they actually
start holding hands. So let's just treat this as a first meeting where people
have just gotten to know one another and maybe it will lead to marriage. Thank
you very much, and thank you to the interpreters. [ Applause ]