Internet Governance Forum to Focus on Scalability, Environment
GENEVA -- Preparations for the December Internet Governance Forum largely concern getting the next billion users online and broadening the concepts of running and using the Internet, officials said during a preparatory meeting Tuesday. The importance of the Internet to sustainable development, technology’s rising appetite for energy and e- waste are gaining interest as topics. National preparations are building steam in the lead-up to the third Internet Governance Forum, Dec. 3 to 6 in Hyderabad, India.
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A proposed area for discussion is expanding Internet use to the next billion people, said Nitin Desai, special adviser for Internet governance to the U.N. secretary-general (WID Feb 26 p3). Talks could focus on problems created by doubling or tripling the size of the Internet, said Desai, who chaired the preparatory meeting.
A second area is managing and using the Internet, Desai said: Stability, security, access, cybercrime, spam and other areas. Openness was a priority for speakers, Desai said. The free flow of information, capacity building, expanded Internet access, cybersecurity, spam, and privacy should be high on the meeting’s agenda, the U.S. said. The European Union wants the forum to focus on development and the future, Slovenia said, representing the presidency.
Discussions over creating a stable, safe and uninterrupted Internet must come ahead of everything else, the Russian Federation said. The political infrastructure, management of the domain name system, addresses, root zone file and internationalization of Internet management and governance are of the highest importance, the Russian Federation said.
Russian concerns are focused on minimizing the risk that the Internet could fragment, on preserving interoperability and on enabling the Internet’s evolution, said a Russian Federation preparatory document. The organization, and the management of the Internet, should be many-sided, open and democratic, with governments, business, private organizations and international organizations taking part, the Russian Federation said.
Proposed discussion on critical Internet resources is too focused on IP addressing, said the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association. Moving from IPv4 to IPv6 is becoming extremely important and greater awareness is needed, the association said. Talks on IP address management should build on the current bottom-up approach, ETNO said. Governance issues in promoting adoption of IPv6 and topics beyond IP addressing could be aired, the preparatory report said.
Power consumption, e-waste and similar dimensions should be taken up in the Internet Governance Forum because they won’t be tackled elsewhere, Desai said. Talks would focus on issues that are falling through the cracks, Desai said. Connections between the Internet and sustainable development are an emerging theme among speakers, Desai said.
Contentious debates are possible over intellectual property rights and innovation for development, privacy and protection of children or security and privacy, the preparatory report said. Debate suggests taking sides rather than exchanging views, said Marilyn Cade, chair of the global public policy committee at the Information Technology Association of America.
Talks on expanding Internet use should cover universal- service obligations, said IT for Change. Most countries have obligations in telecom policies that relate directly to the Internet, it said.
The idea of national Internet Governance Forum meetings is picking up, said Wolfgang Kleinwachter, professor of international communication policy and regulation at the University of Aarhus. The U.K. and Germany have started the practice, he said. France has started an IGF preparation process, a representative said. The European Parliament suggested holding a European Internet Governance Forum before mid-2009.
The advisory group meets Wednesday in a closed session to flesh out more of the forum’s program. Talks are expected on rotating in new advisers ahead of a May 21 deadline for nominations. Previous discussions have focused on changing about one-quarter of the IGF advisers, but few have indicated they will step aside, an official said. -- Scott Billquist
IGF Notebook…
The ITU and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization are developing together an internationalized country code top-level domain reference table, the ITU said during Tuesday’s Internet Governance Forum preparatory meeting. It will promote development of internationalized Internet domain names, said the ITU. The organizations are continuing work on accessibility and disability, the ITU said. Workshops on multilingualism and accessibility are proposed for Hyderabad, the ITU said. The organizations have started a coalition on the Internet and climate change, the ITU said.
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Excessive intellectual-property rights can hurt the Internet’s development as a global communications platform, said Rishab Ghosh from a United Nations University and Maastrict University training center. The 1996 Internet treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization have been used to impose anti-development policies on nations by requiring bans on bypassing technological restrictions that control use of digital content and prevent the free flow of information - digital rights management, Ghosh said during Tuesday’s IGF preparatory meeting. A crucial strategy has been to promote a WIPO access-to-knowledge treaty, Ghosh said.