Internet Governance for Development on Agenda for UN Meeting
GENEVA -- Internet governance for development will be a main theme for the November Internet Governance Forum meeting in Rio de Janeiro, but opinions varied on how the talks will incorporate them, officials said Sunday at a consultation on the agenda. With the event less than ten weeks off, organizers are scrambling to flesh out a program, find speakers and increase telecom and developing country involvement.
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The Internet Governance Forum emerged from accord among 172 nations at the World Summit on the Information Society on the need for public discussion on policy and other concerns. The Forum is an open-ended outlet whose organizers try to stage events meaningful to Internet management, said Nitin Desai, special adviser on Internet governance to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Critical Internet resources were added to the agenda since the last Forum, officials said. (WID May 24 p2). Five other agreed-upon topics are access, diversity, openness, security and emerging issues, Desai said. Internet resources aren’t being taken up to tell others how to do their job, but rather to discuss concerns and competencies, Desai said.
China wants talks to include capacity-building in handling critical Internet resources, more government participation in critical Internet resources, allocation of Internet Protocol addresses during the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 and global principles for administration of generic top-level domains. The Russian Federation agreed, saying it’s key to discuss administration of the domain name system, IP addresses, root servers and transition to IPv6 protocols.
The European Telecommunications Network Operators Association raised concerns over including critical Internet resources, a representative said. It wants to define which aspects of critical Internet resources will be included in the program. The association of 41 telecom network operators in Europe proposed including the domain name system, security, international domain names, new generic top-level domains and IPv4 exhaustion.
Talks on critical Internet resources should aim to clarify the resources, their use and management in the context of Internet development, facilities and access, said Matthew Shears of the Internet Society.
The Forum should focus on the handling of the domain name system and Internet protocol addresses, how the root server systems is run, technical standards, peering and interconnection, telecom facilities and script issues, said Ayesha Hassan, senior policy manager at the International Chamber of Commerce. Discussion on critical Internet resources should be guided by the report of the Working Group on Internet Governance, she said.
Also on the agenda should be the roles of the backbone providers, Internet service providers, the domain name system, IPv6, security and stability of the root server system, multiculturalism, internationalized domain names and domain names, said Marilyn Cade, speaking for the Information Technology Association of America and the World Information Technology Services Alliance.
Brazil and Argentina want the Forum to evolve into a results-oriented body, basing recommendations on its findings and on the future of Internet governance, they said. China wants the Forum to be more than a talk shop, suggesting it come up with concrete and practical results. A concern during the consultation is the IGF’s changing so it’s not repetitive, Desai said.
More private sector involvement is needed at the Brazil meeting, said Masanobu Katoh, speaking for a Japanese industry association of 1,600 companies. Developing countries lacked sufficient representation at last year’s Forum, he said. More involvement from Internet service providers is crucial, Desai said.
Brazil is lobbying developing countries’ businesses, governments and civil society groups to attend, said Hadil da Rocha-Vianna, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Brazil. Latin America and the Caribbean are expected to make a strong showing in Brazil, said Markus Kummer, executive coordinator of the Forum’s secretariat.
Brazil will spend more than a million euros on the Forum and is sponsoring participation by Portuguese-speaking African countries, officials said. Canada contributed $200,000 to increase developing country involvement, said da Rocha-Vianna, recently appointed co-chair of the Internet Governance Forum Advisory Group by the U.N. secretary general. The U.N. doesn’t finance the Forum, officials said. Japan put $87,000 into the pot. The Number Resource Organization added $25,000.
Accommodating all 120 requests for meeting rooms would be tough on organizers and participants, Kummer said. A middle ground could be to schedule 60 to 70 meetings over the 4 days, Kummer said. Applying standards to requests for meeting space would make the forum more functional, officials said.
About 2,000 participants are expected at the Nov. 12 to 15 Forum meeting. Brazil expects to webcast 10 to 15 events and will have a 180 Mbps Internet connection for participants, officials said.
By Wednesday, the advisory group expects to complete recommendations on organizing the event. The U.N. Secretary General has final say. The next Forum meetings likely will be in India in 2008 and Egypt in 2009; no host cities have been named. Lithuania and Azerbaijan have bid to host the 2010 meeting.