IP Justice Call for Participation at UN Internet Governance Forum: 15 July Deadline for Contribution to IGF "Synthesis Papers"

[Robin Gross]

Apologies for the cross-posting. Available at:
http://www.ipjustice.org/WSIS/IGF_070106.shtml


IP JUSTICE CALL FOR PARTICIPATION AT UN INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM:
15 July Deadline for Contribution to IGF "Synthesis Papers"
24 Aug Deadline for Athens Workshop Proposals

The 30 Oct. - 2 Nov. 2006 inaugural meeting of United Nations Internet 
Governance Forum (IGF) in Athens, Greece provides plenty of opportunity 
for discussion on a wide variety of topics related to “Internet 
governance”.

This is IP Justice’s call for participation for civil society 
contributions to the Athens IGF meeting. Participation at the Athens IGF 
meeting can be through written contributions, workshop proposals, 
prepared video statements, and a “plaza” to showcase institutions and 
projects.

Four Main Themes in Athens: Openness, Security, Diversity, Access

1. OPENNESS
- Freedom of Expression
- Free flow of information and ideas
- Access to knowledge
2. SECURITY
- Building trust online
- Protecting users from spam, phishing, viruses
- Maintain security while protecting privacy
3. DIVERSITY
- Multilingualism including IDN
- promoting local content
- Respecting geographical diversity
4. ACCESS
- Internet connectivity, policies and costs
- Interoperability and open standards


IGF Written Contributions:
The IGF Secretariat has issued a call for contributions on its website. 
Written contributions are intended to shape the discussion at the Athens 
meeting. The IGF Secretariat will prepare synthesis papers of all 
written contributions that will be translated into all UN languages and 
submitted to the Athens meeting as official conference documents.

15 July 2006 – Deadline for submitting written contributions to be 
included in synthesis papers.

Papers submitted after the 15 July deadline will be included on the IGF 
website, but not included in the synthesis papers.

Many more details regarding the submission of written contributions are 
available on the IGF’s website:
http://www.intgovforum.org/athens_outline.htm



IGF Work Shop Proposals:
The IGF Secretariat has issued a call for work shop proposals and 
template for submitting proposals on its website.

24 August 2006 is the final deadline for submitting workshop proposals 
in English. The deadline for submitting proposals in UN languages other 
than English is 31 July 2006.

The Secretariat encourages proposals to be submitted as early as 
possible, as proposals will be accepted on an ongoing basis. The final 
selection of workshops will be made by the IGF Advisory Group at its 
meeting on 7-8 September 2006. All valid proposals will be posted to the 
IGF website.

Many more details and the template for submitting workshop proposals is 
available on the IGF’s website:
http://www.intgovforum.org/workshops.html


IP Justice recommends submitting written contributions and workshop 
proposals on the following sub-issues (non-exhaustive):

1. OPENNESS - Freedom of expression, free flow of information, ideas and 
access to knowledge:
- Freedom of expression rights
- Free flow of information
- Access to knowledge
- Appropriate balance of intellectual property rights for protecting 
free expression and free flow of information
- Promotion of accessible public domain
- Government censorship on Internet
- Corporate censorship on Internet
- Impact of technological protection measures and anti-circumvention 
laws on the 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
- Relationship of protecting privacy rights and promoting consumer trust 
on Internet
- Role of free and open source software in promoting information security
- Impact on freedom of expression from spam and content filtering
- Privacy right violations from publication of ICANN's "WHOIS" database 
on Internet

3. DIVERSITY - Promoting multi-lingualism, 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
- Management of critical Internet infrastructure resources
- Role of Internet to promote democratic participation
- Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs)

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

More Info:

IP Justice Recommendations regarding Substantive Agenda for UN Internet 
Governance Forum <http://www.ipjustice.org/IGF033106.shtml>

UN Press Release Announcing Internet Governance Forum Advisory Group 
<http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2006/sga1006.doc.htm>

IP Justice Statement at UN IGF "Open Consultations" - 19 May 2006 
<http://www.ipjustice.org/WSIS/IGF_051906.shtml>

UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) webpage <http://www.intgovforum.org/>