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<DIV>Dear Friends,</DIV>
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<DIV>Please see this urgent message, and contact Michael Gurstein directly, at <A href="mailto:gurstein@gmail.com">gurstein@gmail.com</A>. Thanks and best wishes, Janet (Feldman, <A href="mailto:kaippg@earthlink.net">kaippg@earthlink.net</A>) </DIV>
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<DIV>---------- Forwarded message ----------<BR>From: michael gurstein <A href="mailto:gurstein@gmail.com">gurstein@gmail.com</A> <BR>Date: Sep 16, 2007 7:05 AM <BR>Subject: [gta] URGENT: Is anyone from this group (or in associated groups) likely to be attending the Internet Governance Forum in Rio?<BR><BR><BR>As most of you know the major follow-on activity to the World Summit on<BR>the Information Society (WSIS) is the Internet Governance Forum which<BR>met last year in Athens and is meeting this year in Rio de Janeiro. <BR><A href="http://www.intgovforum.org">http://www.intgovforum.org</A> <BR><BR>Civil society is a quite active player in this forum and has the<BR>opportunity to nominate speakers for various of the sessions which will<BR>be held.<BR><BR>I've been fairly vocal in arguing that those such as folks involved with<BR>the Telecentre movement i.e. with grass roots experience and interests<BR>should have a role to play in these discussions and I've now been roped <BR>into being on the Civil Society (actually the CS Internet Governance<BR>Caucus) nominating committee for CS participation in the forum.<BR><BR>A major problem and one that I and others have been complaining about<BR>quite strenuously is that there is NO funding for participation by CS in <BR>the IGF.<BR><BR>What I'm asking is whether any of you folks (or people that you know as<BR>Telecentre colleagues or collaborators) either will be attending the Rio<BR>conference or could attend the Rio conference even in the absence of any <BR>financial support.<BR><BR>If there are such persons on this list or that you know of I need to<BR>have an indication of your/their interest in participating more or less<BR>immediately (the committee is meeting starting late tomorrow for two <BR>days) to come up with a list of names to send forward to the IGF<BR>Management Committee.<BR><BR>If you do send an indication of interest please also include a brief<BR>resume and if possible a statement of what areas would be of particular <BR>interest/expertise for you to contribute on.<BR><BR>The subject matter areas on which sessions will be held are as follows:<BR><BR>Critical Internet Resources:<BR>Starting point for the discussion is the definition contained in the <BR>WGIG report (Para 13 a):<BR>"Issues relating to infrastructure and the management of critical<BR>Internet resources, including administration of the domain name system<BR>and Internet protocol addresses (IP addresses), administration of the <BR>root server system, technical standards, peering and interconnection,<BR>telecommunications infrastructure, including innovative and convergent<BR>technologies, as well as multilingualization."<BR><BR>The session will use a baseline approach, taking into account WSIS <BR>principles. The purpose of the discussion is to bring out information<BR>and opinion.<BR><BR>There will be a balanced panel of five to seven experts, including the<BR>major players, reflecting a range of views<BR><BR>Access:<BR>- Special connectivity problems faced by Africa, land-locked,<BR>island and least developed countries.<BR>- Access challenges in rural areas.<BR>- Skills development, training and capacity building in the use of <BR>technology.<BR>- Low cost access solutions.<BR>- Mobile and wireless access.<BR>- International infrastructure reliability, connectivity policy<BR>and costs.<BR>- Local and regional interconnection and cross-border regulation. <BR>- Economic impact of access.<BR>- Issues related to net neutrality.<BR><BR>Diversity:<BR>- Building support and stimulating demand for locally developed<BR>content. This includes content that is not commercially viable, <BR>software support and the role of audio-visual communication.<BR>- The role of open standards in promoting diversity.<BR>- The involvement of language communities in developing<BR>internationalized domain names (IDN) and in developing multi-lingual <BR>content, including content in indigenous and minority languages.<BR>- Technologies, policies, and capacity building to reduce<BR>illiteracy and to provide access and accessible content for marginalized<BR>and vulnerable groups of society, including older persons and persons <BR>with disabilities.<BR>- Public policies concerned with user generated content.<BR><BR>Openness:<BR>- Freedom of expression and the role of governments to protect<BR>that right.<BR>- Protection of privacy and its relation to freedom of expression. <BR>- The relationship between national regulations on freedom of<BR>expression and the border-free Internet.<BR>- The relationship between private enterprise, human rights, and<BR>compliance with national law. <BR>- The balance between citizens' rights, and the rights of IPR<BR>holders.<BR>- Innovative business models, made possible by the Internet, for<BR>dealing with digital content and their application in development. <BR>- Open source software, proprietary software and open standards.<BR>- The challenges to access to information and knowledge and what<BR>can be done to overcome them.<BR>- Maximizing access to content. <BR><BR>Security:<BR>- Security threats to countries, companies, and individuals as<BR>users of the Internet and to the Internet itself<BR>- The definition of security threats, international security<BR>cooperation, including such issues as cybercrime, cyber-terrorism and <BR>cyber-warfare.<BR>- The relationship between national implementation and<BR>international cooperation.<BR>- Cooperation across national boundaries, taking into account<BR>different legal policies on privacy, combating crime and security. <BR>- The role of all stakeholders in the implementation of security<BR>measures, including security in relation to behaviour and uses.<BR>- Security of internet resources.<BR>- Authentication and identification <BR>- Authentication and identification and their role in fostering<BR>trust online and their relation to the protection of privacy.<BR>- Challenges to privacy in a security environment.<BR>- Respecting freedom of expression. <BR>- Privacy and identity.<BR>- Privacy and development.<BR>- Security issues related to the protection of children.<BR>- Protecting children from abuse and exploitation in the online<BR>environment. <BR><BR>Emerging issues<BR>- Emerging pervasive nature of the Internet in a political,<BR>economic, and social context.<BR>- Policy implication of rapid spread wireless and mobile Internet.<BR>- Policy implications of user generated content. <BR>- Implications of competition policy.<BR><BR>Best,<BR><BR>MG<BR><BR><BR>Michael Gurstein, Ph.D.<BR>Centre for Community Informatics Research, Training and Development<BR>Ste. 2101-989 Nelson St.<BR>Vancouver BC CANADA v6z 2s1 <BR><A href="http://www.communityinformatics.net">http://www.communityinformatics.net</A> <BR>tel./fax +1-604-602-0624<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>