[kictanet] URGENT: Anyone Attending the Internet Governance Forum in Rio?

[Janet Feldman]

Dear Friends,

Please see this urgent message, and contact Michael Gurstein directly, at gurstein at gmail.com. Thanks and best wishes, Janet (Feldman, kaippg at earthlink.net) 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: michael gurstein  gurstein at gmail.com 
Date: Sep 16, 2007 7:05 AM 
Subject: [gta] URGENT: Is anyone from this group (or in associated groups) likely to be attending the Internet Governance Forum in Rio?


As most of you know the major follow-on activity to the World Summit on
the Information Society (WSIS) is the Internet Governance Forum which
met last year in Athens and is meeting this year in Rio de Janeiro. 
http://www.intgovforum.org 

Civil society is a quite active player in this forum and has the
opportunity to nominate speakers for various of the sessions which will
be held.

I've been fairly vocal in arguing that those such as folks involved with
the Telecentre movement i.e. with grass roots experience and interests
should have a role to play in these discussions and I've now been roped 
into being on the Civil Society (actually the CS Internet Governance
Caucus) nominating committee for CS participation in the forum.

A major problem and one that I and others have been complaining about
quite strenuously is that there is NO funding for participation by CS in 
the IGF.

What I'm asking is whether any of you folks (or people that you know as
Telecentre colleagues or collaborators) either will be attending the Rio
conference or could attend the Rio conference even in the absence of any 
financial support.

If there are such persons on this list or that you know of I need to
have an indication of your/their interest in participating more or less
immediately (the committee is meeting starting late tomorrow for two 
days) to come up with a list of names to send forward to the IGF
Management Committee.

If you do send an indication of interest please also include a brief
resume and if possible a statement of what areas would be of particular 
interest/expertise for you to contribute on.

The subject matter areas on which sessions will be held are as follows:

Critical Internet Resources:
Starting point for the discussion is the definition contained in the 
WGIG report (Para 13 a):
"Issues relating to infrastructure and the management of critical
Internet resources, including administration of the domain name system
and Internet protocol addresses (IP addresses), administration of the 
root server system, technical standards, peering and interconnection,
telecommunications infrastructure, including innovative and convergent
technologies, as well as multilingualization."

The session will use a baseline approach, taking into account WSIS 
principles. The purpose of the discussion is to bring out information
and opinion.

There will be a balanced panel of five to seven experts, including the
major players, reflecting a range of views

Access:
-       Special connectivity problems faced by Africa, land-locked,
island and least developed countries.
-       Access challenges in rural areas.
-       Skills development, training and capacity building in the use of 
technology.
-       Low cost access solutions.
-       Mobile and wireless access.
-       International infrastructure reliability, connectivity policy
and costs.
-       Local and regional interconnection and cross-border regulation. 
-       Economic impact of access.
-       Issues related to net neutrality.

Diversity:
-       Building support and stimulating demand for locally developed
content.   This includes content that is not commercially viable, 
software support and the role of audio-visual communication.
-       The role of open standards in promoting diversity.
-       The involvement of language communities in developing
internationalized domain names (IDN) and in developing multi-lingual 
content, including content in indigenous and minority languages.
-       Technologies, policies, and capacity building to reduce
illiteracy and to provide access and accessible content for marginalized
and vulnerable groups of society, including older persons and persons 
with disabilities.
-       Public policies concerned with user generated content.

Openness:
-       Freedom of expression and the role of governments to protect
that right.
-       Protection of privacy and its relation to freedom of expression. 
-       The relationship between national regulations on freedom of
expression and the border-free Internet.
-       The relationship between private enterprise, human rights, and
compliance with national law. 
-       The balance between citizens' rights, and the rights of IPR
holders.
-       Innovative business models, made possible by the Internet, for
dealing with digital content and their application in development. 
-       Open source software, proprietary software and open standards.
-       The challenges to access to information and knowledge and what
can be done to overcome them.
-       Maximizing access to content. 

Security:
-       Security threats to countries, companies, and individuals as
users of the Internet and to the Internet itself
-       The definition of security threats, international security
cooperation, including such issues as cybercrime, cyber-terrorism and 
cyber-warfare.
-       The relationship between national implementation and
international cooperation.
-       Cooperation across national boundaries, taking into account
different legal policies on privacy, combating crime and security. 
-       The role of all stakeholders in the implementation of security
measures, including security in relation to behaviour and uses.
-       Security of internet resources.
-       Authentication and identification 
-       Authentication and identification and their role in fostering
trust online and their relation to the protection of privacy.
-       Challenges to privacy in a security environment.
-       Respecting freedom of expression. 
-       Privacy and identity.
-       Privacy and development.
-       Security issues related to the protection of children.
-       Protecting children from abuse and exploitation in the online
environment. 

Emerging issues
-       Emerging pervasive nature of the Internet in a political,
economic, and social context.
-       Policy implication of rapid spread wireless and mobile Internet.
-       Policy implications of user generated content. 
-       Implications of competition policy.

Best,

MG


Michael Gurstein, Ph.D.
Centre for Community Informatics Research, Training and Development
Ste. 2101-989 Nelson St.
Vancouver BC CANADA v6z 2s1 
http://www.communityinformatics.net 
tel./fax +1-604-602-0624
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