[WSIS CS-Plenary] (Fwd) InfoWorld - Tough issues face Information Society summit

[natasha at womensnet.org.za]

if you havent seen this, another article. .. quotes, karen, ralf and 
georg. 

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Tough issues face Information Society summit
Major clash expected

By John Blau, IDG News Service October 01, 2003


Delegates attending the World Summit on the Information Society 
(WSIS)in Geneva in December can look forward to another major clash 
overseveral contentious issues that blocked agreement of two key 
documents during a critical round of negotiations in the Alpine city 
last month.

WSIS is an attempt to bridge what many governments view as a widening
gap between people who have access to modern communication services
and information, and thus knowledge, and those who don't, according 
to Yoshio Utsumi, secretary general of the International 
Telecommunication Union (ITU), the U.N. agency responsible for the
summit. The importance of communications and access to networks "is 
no longer just a technical matter, but a fundamental policy goal for
every nation," Utsumi said in a statement.

At September's Prepcom-3, the final preparatory conference before the
summit, government representatives and members of the private and
civil sectors, including the media, met to agree on final drafts of
two core documents, the Declaration of Principles and the Action 
Plan. Despite some progress, they failed to produce documents ready 
for signing at the world's first Information Society summit.

Now the ITU is hastily trying to organize at least one
"intersessional" meeting, if not two, in an effort to build a
consensus before heads of state from at least 50 countries -- both
developed and developing -- meet at the summit from Dec. 10-12, said
Gary Fowlie, an ITU spokesman. The first intersessional meeting is
planned for Nov. 11-14, "pending resources," he said. The second,
depending on the outcome of the first, could take place directly
before the summit from Dec. 7-9.

The expectations of the summit are high if the Declaration of
Principles is any indication. The document seeks "a commitment to
build an inclusive Information Society where everyone can create,
access, utilize and share information and knowledge, enabling
individuals and communities to achieve their full potential and
improve their quality of life in a sustainable manner."

The document, representing a framework of fundamental principles, is
intrinsically linked with the second, the Action Plan, which contains
more than 140 items to achieve them. Copies of the draft documents 
are available on the ITU-sponsored WSIS Web site: www.itu.int/wsis.

Both, however, are riddled with contentious issues, such as who will
finance the development of the Information Society and govern the
Internet, not to mention intellectual property rights, open-source
software and freedom of expression.

"This is the first time that issues like financing, Internet 
governance and security and even spam have ever been discussed at a
global level," Fowlie said. "Because they're so broad and some of 
them so new, it's definitely a challenge to address them all."

For sure, money is one of the biggest sticking points, according to
the spokesman. Demands by several developing countries to create a
"digital solidarity fund" have met strong resistance by developed
countries, which argue that existing financing mechanisms could be
better leveraged, he said.

Another prickly subject, almost on par with financing, is Internet
governance, Fowlie said. China and Brazil are among several countries
calling for one or more global bodies to manage Internet resources,
such as domain names, root servers and IP (Internet Protocol)
addresses -- an area heavily controlled by the U.S. Hardly a 
surprise, the idea has fallen upon deaf ears in the U.S. delegation, 
which continues to back ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned 
Names and Numbers). Delegates from the European Union (EU) likewise 
support a private model, along the line of the U.S.-backed ICANN, 
preferring not to see the ITU become involved.

Also, the role of different software models in ensuring access to
information and knowledge has raised heated debate, according to the
ITU spokesman. Many countries, and not just developing ones, feel 
that proprietary software, like that developed and marketed by 
Microsoft Corp., doesn't meet all users' needs optimally in terms of 
cost and usage.

Earlier language in the August draft of the Action Plan, advocating
wide use of open-source software, is toned down in the September
draft, largely because of demands by U.S. and EU delegates that
commercial software interests receive fair representation in the 
plan. The language now speaks of "striking a balance" among the 
different software models, including proprietary, open source and 
free software.

The fact that free software is listed in the latest draft in addition
to open source is the result of intensive lobbying by several groups,
including the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Europe.

"Free software doesn't have to be free of charge; it can be sold
commercially," said FSF Europe President Georg Greve. "What
distinguishes free software from the other software models is
basically the freedom it gives users to modify, distribute and use 
the software in an unlimited way. Open source is a term that even
Microsoft is now using when it talks about opening its code for
governments to view. Microsoft software is proprietary software."

Perhaps less contentious, but an issue nonetheless, is the protection
of intellectual property rights (IPR), according to Fowlie. "We have
to look at how IPR, patents and copyrights are affected by a global
communications network," he said. "There's been a lot of debate on
this."

Freedom of expression is another sensitive topic and one that must be
addressed if communication services are to extend to the masses 
around the globe, the spokesman said.

With so many issues still on the negotiating table and with so little
time and money to resolve them, some participants in the negotiations
wonder how successful the December summit will be.

"Consensus building is very difficult to begin with," said Karen
Banks, a spokeswoman for the Association for Progressive
Communications, one of the nongovernmental organizations observing 
the negotiations as a member of the "Civil Society" group of 
participants. "But add to that the fact that this whole effort is 
incredibly under-resourced. It's primarily a U.S.-EU affair. They 
have resources to send delegates who can argue their cases. Many of 
the developing countries don't have these resources."

Other Civil Society members have been even more outspoken in their
criticism. Governments should "listen or leave us alone in the
Information Age," said Ralf Bendrath, a Civil Society representative
associated with Germany's Heinrich Böll Foundation, in a statement
posted on the organization's Web site, www.worldsummit2003.org.

The Civil Society, representing about 500 groups, has begun drafting 
a "vision paper," which it plans to submit in December, according to 
a statement.

Should heads of state in December sign documents that fall short of
the expectations of the Civil Society and others, they will have an
opportunity to make corrections in two years, Fowlie said. "We are
blessed with the fact that this is a two-phase summit," he said. 
"When we meet again in Tunisia in two years, we can measure what 
success has been made and, if necessary, re-evaluate the Action Plan 
and make adjustments. This is the beginning of a process; it's not 
the end."

The follow-up summit is scheduled for Nov. 16-18, 2005, in Tunis,
Tunisia.

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