[WSIS CS-Plenary] Summary of Public Voice WSIS call 2/20

[Adam Peake]

Frannie, thanks for this.  Some comments and new information in the text below:

At 2:04 PM -0500 2/26/04, Frannie Wellings wrote:
>Summary of the Public Voice 2nd Teleconference on "WSIS and Civil Society"
>February 20, 2004
>


(text cut)


>
>II. Report from the Plenary
>Rikke discussed the UN ICT Global Forum in New York in March.  (On 
>the Human Rights Plenary list, I read that the February ITU meeting 
>is an internal technical ITU workshop to feed into the UN ICT Task 
>Force Open Forum in New York, 25-27 March, on Internet Governance.


There was a question at the ITU workshop yesterday about the 
relationship between the workshop and the UNICT Global Forum.  Mr. 
Blois, ITU deputy secretary general said "no relation between this 
workshop and the UNICT workshop".

We have to hope there will at least be some informal coordination or 
people will be saying the same stuff twice.


>It is not directly part of the WSIS 2 preparatory process, but its 
>outcome will help determine the Secretary General's appointment of 
>the Internet Governance working group.)  While Saturday's meeting is 
>closed, the 25th and 26th are open to public participation.  Several 
>government delegates will attend, many from Europe and the US. Rikke 
>mentioned frustration with the Bureau family structure, with the 
>involvement of family members rather than caucus members.  The human 
>rights caucus should apply for a formal role in the Internet 
>Governance working group.
>Robert said that the Latin America regional plenary list is very 
>active, though there is a great deal of frustration that so many of 
>the documents are only in English.
>
>
>III. Internet Governance
>Milton Mueller led this very informative discussion of Internet 
>governance and the upcoming UN ICT Task Force forum.  He feels that 
>the only concrete accomplishment of WSIS I was the establishment of 
>an Internet governance working group.  The two documents, the 
>Declaration and the Plan of Action, won't be reopened.  He feels 
>that the broad range of information and communication concerns will 
>have to be, and can be, addressed through the question of Internet 
>governance.  The concept of Internet governance is very broad and 
>can concretely address issues such as Voice Over IP, Spam, and 
>content controls.  We're looking at an International 
>framework/agreement for the governance of the Internet. The ITU 
>meeting will take place on February 26th and 27th with experts 
>presenting, most of whom are critical of ICANN.  Milton will also be 
>presenting.   The UN ICT Task Force will become the secretariat of 
>the working group, which Kofi Annan will select.


Again comments about this at the ITU workshop yesterday. There's some 
indication that the new working group will be run from Geneva. 
Apparently negotiations are underway to set up a small secretariat 
for the working group in Geneva, and (apparently), Mr. Markus Kummer, 
Swiss govt., has been approached to chair the new working group. 
Kummer chaired the working group that negotiated the final text on 
Internet governance just before the Summit.

(text cut)

>
>There is still an Internet Governance civil society caucus list, 
>though most discussion is not on there, but is on the plenary list.


I don't understand this comment. There's a lot of discussion on the 
governance list, at least about governance issues. And anyone 
interested is very much encouraged to join:

<https://ssl.cpsr.org/mailman/listinfo/governance>,
<mailto:governance-request at lists.cpsr.org?subject=subscribe>


>Anyone from civil society who is following the Internet governance 
>working group process can get involved with the Non-Commercial Users 
>Constituency of ICANN.


This is not quite correct.  Constituency membership is open to 
organizations only, and as the constituency list is member only, 
individuals cannot participate.


>The NCUC is civil society's body there.


It's one of two civil society bodies in ICANN.  The NCUC has a 
specific policy development role in the Generic Names Supporting 
Organization <http://gnso.icann.org/>, it's involved in policy 
development for generic top level domain issues, not other policy 
issues. The At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) was set up so anyone 
or any organization could participate and contribute to ICANN on a 
more general basis.  ALAC is taking time to get going. I hope civil 
society organizations will join the NCUC and support ALAC.  We need 
as many civil society voices participating as possible.

(text cut)

>
>The Non-Commercial Users Constituency of ICANN, the civil society 
>representatives, will be meeting in Rome on March 2 at the ICANN 
>conference. More information is available at 
>http://www.ncdnhc.org/meetings/2004/2004_meeting.htm - anyone in 
>Rome at that time should join the meeting, if possible.  The NCUC is 
>another way for NGOs to keep involved in the Internet governance 
>process/discussion.  ICANN's at-large committee will be holding a 
>forum on WSIS on March 4th at the Rome meeting, in cooperation with 
>the business community.


ICANN meeting on WSIS (ALAC, Business constituency and ISP 
constituency seem to be the organizers) 
<http://www.icann.org/meetings/rome/wsis-workshop-04mar04.html>

Thanks,

Adam

Adam Peake
GLOCOM Tokyo

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