[kictanet] The real work starts after WCIT12

[alice at apc.org]

The real work starts after WCIT12

http://www.buddeblog.com.au/frompaulsdesk/the-real-work-starts-after-wcit12/

The really important part of the World Conference on IT (WCIT) is not the
internet battles that have caught the interest of the press – it is what
will happen after the conference has ended.

Membership of WCIT is on a per-country basis and currently 193 countries
will be participating in this international event. Each country is free to
make up its own delegation and these delegations can therefore represent a
large variety of social, economic, business, legal, technical and other
interests – as large and as wide as each country decides its delegation
will be. The responsibility for organising the WCIT rests with the ITU,
which is the oldest UN organisation (1865).

The current media frenzy about the internet, and the false rumours that
the UN or any other organisation is going to take over its governance is
just that – a media beat-up.

As in any international meeting, countries are welcome to bring their
plans, proposals, opinions and views to the conference and to take the
opportunity to present these to the international audience. However
proposals from the USA, or Russia, or China, or the European countries, or
the Arab countries are not automatically accepted simply because they are
presented at the conference. That is not the case in any international
conference – and certainly not at the WCIT, which has a reputation for
consensus-building.

The media frenzy seems to be based on the incorrect assumption that any of
the proposals that have been circulated or rumoured could be, or even will
be, accepted. It is true that some of these proposals and rumours contain
elements that will be unacceptable to other members of the international
communities, and vested interests involved in the debate have used the
well-known FUD strategy (spread fear, uncertainty and doubt) to fuel the
media frenzy.

On the positive side, the interest in WCIT has now moved well beyond the
traditional ICT industry. It has gained an enormous amount of attention
and has brought the internet governance issue to the notice of mainstream
society. This, of course, is a positive development and it also indicates
how important the internet has become for everybody, with non-technical
people starting to take a serious interest in its future.

One of the problems of the internet has been that while it has been
growing into that wider context the governing bodies have not kept up with
the growth of these wider interests and concerns, and there is now a range
of social and economic issues, as well as the technical issues that need
to be addressed. In the current debate, however, all these issues have
been thrown into one pool.

Like it or not, this debate has brought a large number of important issues
to the fore and they will need to be confronted.  What the WCIT has to do
upfront is untangle the various issues and clearly separate them from each
other. The next step will then be to clearly define what can be solved on
a national level and what needs to be addressed internationally – and, if
there are issues that need international attention, who are the best
parties to address those issues.

The most important issue at the WCIT will be how the international
community will manage the current debate so as to move towards a
manageable future.

Most likely what this will mean is that the various international
stakeholders will have to create a (new) platform that can be used to
address these issues, and existing internet bodies such as ICANN, ISOC and
IGF, as well as the UN  and some of its organisations such as the ITU and
others of course, will all need to be part of this.

The internet is there for all. It is an enormous social and economic
enabler and should be used to advance our global society. It clearly has
the potential to do this and it is the responsibility of all involved to
make that happen. WCIT 12 has the enormous opportunity, as a
representation of global society, to play a leadership role in guiding the
future of the internet for the benefit of all.

The new platform that should be the result of this needs to be truly
international, independent; and it needs to be well-funded, so that it can
properly address the issues at hand.

It is, therefore, most unlikely that – apart from some of the purely
technical matters – any of the more contentious issues that are being
addressed in the press will be solved at WCIT. Nor should that be the
case, because WCIT is probably the wrong place to address these issues.
Nevertheless WCIT can be the catalyst and the facilitator to kick-start
the process.

Paul Budde

PS I will be participating in WCIT12 and will report back to you on its
progress.