[WSIS CS-Plenary] Notes from US State Dept WSIS Briefing of April 19th

[Elizabeth Carll, PhD]

Frannie,

Thanks for the detailed summary.  Useful to hear about the US perspective.

Best regards,

Elizabeth

Dr. Elizabeth Carll
Focal Point to WSIS
International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies;
Chair, Media/ICT Working Group
UN NGO Committee on Mental Health, New York;
Vice President
Communications Coordination Committee for the UN
Tel: 631-754-2424
Fax: 631-754-5032
ecarll at optonline.net
  -----Original Message-----
  From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org]On
Behalf Of Frannie Wellings
  Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 2:51 PM
  To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; plenary at wsis-cs.org; CRISusa at comunica.org;
mh at wacc.org.uk
  Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Notes from US State Dept WSIS Briefing of April
19th


  Hi all,

  Yesterday the US Department of State held a public briefing on WSIS.  My
notes are below.

  Best,

  Frannie

  ***
  Frannie Wellings
  Free Press
  http://freepress.net



  ---------------------------------------------

  US International Telecommunication Advisory Committee Information Meeting
on the WSIS
  National Academy of Science Building
  Washington, DC
  April 19, 2005


  Ambassador David Gross:

  Digital Solidarity Fund
  Ambassador Gross said that the Digital Solidarity Fund exists and they
must now deal with it - he stated that he'd worked to get the word
"voluntary" inserted into multiple places in the text.  He continued to
overemphasize their preference for a fund of a voluntary nature.  He stated,
"As a proud member of the Bush Administration, my position is predictable -
there should be no international taxation.  All funding should be
voluntary."

  WGIG
  Gross encouraged industry, NGO's and academia to provide input to the
WGIG.  He said the State Department is not interested in negotiating
multiple times in multiple venues and would not be responding much more.
He's concerned that the positions of the US community (which I took to mean
industry) would not be articulated if everyone assumed others were
submitting positions.  He explained that the report would be issued on July
18th and that there would be a 1 month comment period.  The State Dept is
going to issue a notice soliciting comments to be filed through the WGIG
when the comment period opens.  Open issues from the WGIG report will be
dealt with at prepcom III.

  Gross is concerned by the Council of the European Union's submission to
the WGIG consultation.  He said the EU statement calls for a new model of
governance for the core resources of the Internet, building on existing
organizations, founded on a multilateral basis taking into account the
public policy interests of governments.  The State Department is concerned
that the European Union position substantially differs from the US, which
prefers that the private sector leads.  (Below, I've copied the European
Union statement from the April 18th transcript for reference.)

  Political Chapeau
  The State Dept is concerned by the efforts to create and shape the
Political Chapeau.  They felt that the Declaration of Principles and the
Plan of Action were good and they say their concern is over the possibility
of inconsistencies between the Political Chapeau and the older documents.
Ambassador Gross said he's been traveling a lot recently having bilateral
discussions regarding the Chapeau to explain his point of view (which I took
to mean lobby).


  ----------------

  Sally Shipman:

  Basic Overview of Documents
  Prepcom I - Idea for Political Chapeau and Operational Part
  Prepcom II - Draft Political Chapeau: compilation of proposals by
governments in Prepcom II. The debate will take place in Prepcom III.  The
Operational Part has four chapters: 1) Implementation [US on page 15], 2)
Financing [mostly stable text], 3) Internet Governance [blank until after
WGIG report/comment/debate], 4) The path ahead [will debate at Prepcom III].

  Organization of Prepcom III
  There will be two subcommittees: 1) Internet Governance and 2) Everything
else

  WGIG Report
  She encouraged everyone to submit comments on the WGIG report - deadline
is August 15th.

  --------------

  Questions

  Patrice Lyons, Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI)
  Q: Patrice is concerned with the approach she sees in the latest WGIG
documents that assume a fixation in the Internet, particularly what she sees
as too much emphasis on the end-to-end principle.  She thinks this could
prevent the Internet from evolving.
  A: Ambassador Gross - Gross agrees.

  Mike Nelson, IBM and Internet Society
  Q: He thinks the report on financing is a good product, but was shelved,
and he thinks the early papers of the WGIG were good, but were also shelved
and ignored in the development of the cluster papers.  He thinks the cluster
papers are not very good and finds them frustrating.
  A: Ambassador Gross - Gross encourages him to submit his statement so it
is recorded.

  Q: Mike asks what they know about the number of Heads of State going to
Tunis.  He says many will be in NY in September for the Millennium Summit
and he thinks the action might take place there.
  A: Ambassador Gross - Gross says that the Tunisians are saying many more
Heads of State will participate, though he doesn't know if this is true.
Gross adds that Heads of State are unlikely  to discuss tech issues in a
fluid discussion at the Millennium Summit.

  Audience member question
  Q: In terms of Internet Governance, what is the best and worse case
scenario in your opinion?  Ambassador Gross answers that this ought to be a
positive experience. It's a job for all of us to focus it on stability,
flexibility, robustness. He's struck by the comments of the EU, that to him
it suggests a preference for an outcome with more governmental control than
the US had articulated.
  A: Ambassador Gross - Gross says that the State Department doesn't want to
maintain the status quo, but wants to build on the successes.  The best case
scenario, he says, is that everyone agrees with the State Department.

  Paula (Internet Society?)
  Q: What will happen to the UN ICT Task Force and the Global Alliance
proposal?
  A: Ambassador Gross - Gross describes the proposal put forward by the
Secretary of the UN ICT Task Force for the Global Alliance and the history
of the TF. He said there's been a robust discussion about the Global
Alliance proposal as a follow up organization. Some have said there's no
need and others would like the UN ICT Task Force to continue under this
different name. There are questions about how it would fit and relate to
existing organizations and what would be the value added?  The US has said
that the task force ought not to be the vehicle post-wsis, that traditional
mechanisms/existing organizations are better suited.


  ---------------------

  European Union Statement at the
  OPEN CONSULTATIONS OF THE THIRD MEETING OF THE WORKING GROUP ON INTERNET
GOVERNANCE
  18 APRIL 2005 [morning session]
  http://www.wgig.org/April-scriptmorning.html

  Note: The following is the output of the real-time captioning taken during
the morning session of the WGIG open Consultations held 18 April in Geneva,
Switzerland. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete
or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is
posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the session, but should
not be treated as an authoritative record.

  >>Chairman Desai: Luxembourg.
  >>Luxembourg: thank you, chair. I speak on behalf of the presidency on the
council of the European Union.
  The E.U. would like to thank the WGIG for its ongoing work on key issues
related to the stable and secure functioning of the internet.
  Among these, the question of internationalization of the management of the
internet's core resources; namely the domain names systems, ip addresses,
and the root server system, appears as one of the main issues in this
debate.
  The E.U. believes that a new cooperation is needed in order to confer the
WSIS principles regarding the crucial role of all actors within internet
governance. Including governance, the private sector, civil society, and
international organizations.
  We think that the existing internet governance mechanisms should be
founded on a more solid, democratic, transparent, and multilateral basis,
with a stronger emphasis on the public policy interests of all governments.
  This new model should be based on the following principles.
  It should not replace existing mechanism or institutions, but should build
on the existing structures of internet governance, with a special emphasis
on the complementarity between all the actors in this process. Governments,
and, recognizing the importance of national responsibilities and roles.
Second the new public/private cooperation model, should contribute to the
sustainable stability and robustness of the internet by addressing
appropriately public policy issues related to key elements of internet
governance.
  The E.U. believes that governments do have a specific mission and
responsibility vis-a-vis their citizens and their role within this new
corporation model should be mainly focused on issues of public policy
excluding any involvement in the day-to-day operations.
  Furthermore, the E.U. strongly reaffirms its attachment to the
architectural principles of the internet including interoperability,
openness and the end-to-end principle.
  We therefore support the WGIG in its paper on the root zone file and the
root zone management when it states proposals for improvements need to
consider in general the existing system has functioned properly from the
technical point of view for more than two decades and that adjustments were
needed first for technical and political reasons have to be made in a proper
and adequate way related to the functioning, stability, security and further
development of the internet. End of quote.
  This is why we encourage the WGIG to present balanced options for a true
internationalization of the management of the internet's core resources in
its final report.
  While this statement is limited to the issue of internationalization, the
E.U. reiterates the importance it attaches to the stability, dependability
and robustness of the internet, including spam and network security.
  Thank you, Chairman.







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