[WSIS CS-Plenary] News from IGF mtg in Geneva: CALL 4 PAPERS

[Robin Gross]

Friends,

Some news from the IGF Advisory Group meeting in Geneva:

The 30 Oct. - 2 Nov. 2006 inaugural meeting of Internet Governance Forum 
(IGF) in Athens will have a lot of opportunities for discussions on a 
wide variety of Internet governance topics.  This is my call for 
participation from civil society for contributions to help shape this 
meeting in a positive way.

The four main themes for the Athens meeting are:
* 1.  OPENNESS*
    - Free flow of information, ideas, and access to knowledge
*
 2.  SECURITY*
    - Building trust online
    - Protecting users from spam, phishing, viruses
    - Maintain security while protecting privacy

* 3.  DIVERSITY*
  -  Multilingualism including IDN and promoting local content
  -  Respecting geographical diversity

* 4.  ACCESS*
  - Internet connectivity, policies and costs

The agenda and schedule is shaping-up as follows:
    http://www.intgovforum.org/table.htm

A call for papers has been issued on these 4 main themes and I'd like to 
encourage people to make submissions.  *THE PLENARY SESSIONS AND 
WORKSHOPS AT THE ATHENS MEETING WILL BE BASED ON THE CONTENT OF THESE 
SUBMISSIONS. *  So, please, contribute to this process and help to shape 
this meeting in a positive way by submitting papers to the IGF.   The 
deadline is 15 July 2006 for your submission to influence how the event 
is programmed.

Here are the details:
  http://www.intgovforum.org/athens_outline.htm

Additionally, there are two over-arching themes that should be taken in 
consideration in each issue that the IGF discusses: (i) development / 
capacity building, and (ii) civil liberties / human rights.

I would suggest contributions on some possible (in no way exhaustive) 
sub-issues within these 4 main themes of openness, security, diversity, 
and access:

 1.  OPENNESS:
- Freedom of expression rights
- Free flow of information
- Access to knowledge
- Impact of intellectual property rights to free expression and free 
flow of info
- Promotion of accessible public domain
- Government censorship on Internet
- Corporate censorship on Internet
- Impact of technological protection measures and anti-circumvention 
laws on free flow of information
- Impact of software patents on freedom of expression


 2.  SECURITY - building trust online, protecting users from spam, 
phishing,
viruses, maintain security while protecting privacy:
- Civil liberties concerns from government surveillance programs
- Privacy rights and consumer trust of Internet
- Role of free and open source software in promoting information security
- Impact on freedom of expression from spam and content filtering
- Publication of WHOIS database on Internet and privacy and consumer trust


 3.  DIVERSITY -  multilinguism through IDN, local content, and 
geographical diversity:
- Ability of ICANN to meet needs of international Internet community
- Role of Creative Commons licenses to promote local content
- Ability of non-proprietary development and licensing schemes to meet 
local needs


 4.  ACCESS - Internet connectivity, policies and costs:
 - Open standards
 - Interoperability of technology
 - Role of free and open source software to provide access

I hope you will consider making a contribution to this dialogue.  Please 
let me know if you have any questions. 

Be sure to check out the IGF website for many more details:
 http://www.intgovforum.org/index.htm

Thank you,
Robin