[NCUC-DISCUSS] NCUC involvement ICANN /Internet Governance Initiatives (1): 1Net

[William Drake]

Hi

Thanks to Marilia and Remmy for the replies.  

On Jan 7, 2014, at 11:33 PM, Marilia Maciel <mariliamaciel at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Bill,
> 
> Thank so much for this sequence of messages that help to keep us updated. It has been an immense amount of information, thank you for taking the time to summarize and make key info more palatable. 
> 
> On the 1net discussions, I just would like to make a quick observation. Since Bali, the iStar coalition has framed the debate as "let's do something to preserve the current model, otherwise governments will control the Internet". This idea has been repeated on the list as this multistakeholder x intergov tension you mentioned.

I just want to offer one thought to make sure my intention was understood.  Participating in MS dialogue on the 1net platform doesn’t require that anyone agree with anyone else involved there, so in suggesting that NCUC members consider engaging I wasn’t also suggesting that anyone should leave their views at the door or drink someone else’s Kool Aid.  The platform’s a good place to have it with others on intergovernmentalism and all else.  I myself have been rather frustrated by some of the views expressed by some in the TC on the 1net list, i.e. the governance denial/it’s all just technocratic coordination theme, but I’m happy to see debate across the silos in a way that hasn’t happened on the CS-dominated lists like governance and Best Bits.   And in fact, there are some interesting areas of convergence emerging, at least at the level of principle; globalization of the USG role seems to be one between many in CS and the TC.  Something to build on...

> Nevertheless, I think that it would be important to also include on the dominant narrative three points: 
> 
> a) The IG regime is not perfect. It had disfunctionalities pointed out even before Snowden. So what we should do is not to conservatively try to preserve the regime, but to creatively try to improve it; 
> 
> b) The danger of dominance from governments does not necessarily come from UN fora with potentially enlarged competences. There is a worse problem of securitization of the agenda coupled with massive and pervasive surveillance. The US is doing it efficiently, other countries would like to have the same capabilities. Maybe we are barking at the wrong tree when we focus so much attention at things like plenipot. I am not saying it is not important, but a wiser allocation of energy is maybe needed; 
> 
> c) There is too much focus on the problem of "intergovernamentalization" of the regime, but not much attention on its privatization. De facto regulation of our lives (our privacy, our freedom of expression) by private companies is a problem. Opaque private agreements between network operators and their impact on costs is a problem. Opaque development of standards (which embody policy decisions) is a problem. Increasingly proprietary standards and lack of interoperability as well. So I am not impressed that many private actors are resistant to changes. Maybe non-comercial actors could bring more balance to debate: too much govts can be bad, but too much privatization may be negative as well.
> 
> Thanks again for that. Very useful.

Sure, and thanks for contributing to debate here and in NCUC more generally!

Cheers

BD
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 3:09 PM, William Drake <wjdrake at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi
> 
> As you may know, since the Bali IGF in October and the ICANN meeting in Buenos Aires in November,  there has been an enormous flurry of debate and activity around ICANN's role in global Internet governance processes, occasioned in particular by Fadi's various initiatives.   These are all working on very tight and hysteria-producing time frames and revealing various cross-cutting fissures in the ICANN community.  Broadly speaking, we can say that at present, NCUC/NCSG and At Large/ALAC have been the main supporters of the main lines of these initiatives, e.g. building on the I* organizations Montevideo Declaration calling inter alia for globalization of the USG roles and ICANN http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-07oct13-en.htm, while much of the various business grouping within ICANN remain reluctant or even opposed.   Hopefully through continuing dialogue etc. some minds will change and we can at a minimum get broad agreement on positions supporting 1) the multistakeholder model vs. various Intergovernmental gambits (e.g. three’s much concern about the ITU’s Plenipotentiary Conference in the Autumn); 2) a potential multistakeholder declaration of global IG principles; and 3) structured and forward moving discussion of globalization.  But we’ll see.
> 
> A few minutes ago I forwarded an invite to a webinar on the fourth of Fadi's strategy panels.  Below and in subsequent messages I’ll mention other initiatives in which some NCUC members are currently involved, and in which one would think other members and indeed the constituency as a whole might want to engage.  (And obviously, those of you who are already tuned into all this, feel free to delete.)
> 
> /1Net   www.1net.org
> 
> This is a new platform initiated by the technical community in Bali to foster multistakeholder dialogue between itself and business, civil society, and academia.  The near-term goal is to feed into the upcoming conference in Brazil (see next message)—both positions and people to populate the conference committees.  The longer-term goal is to sustain ongoing MS dialogue, coordination and collaboration geared toward preserving multistakeholderism in the face of intergovernmental challenges etc.  
> 
> 1Net has appointed a Steering Committee (which may be relabeled a Coordination Comm, we’ll see).  Consultations, some of them painful, have been underway within the respective stakeholder groups to select reps to the SC, and yesterday its list went live with the following representatives, which includes multiple NCUC members (in bold)
> 
>> On Jan 6, 2014, at 1:59 PM, Adiel Akplogan <adiel at afrinic.net> wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> So far we have the following people representing Business, Civil Society and Academia on the list:
>>> 
>>> -----< Business >------
>>> Aparna Sridhar 
>>> David Fares 
>>> Marilyn Cade 
>>> Sarah Wynn-Williams
>>> Paul Mitchell
>>> 
>>> ------< Civil Society >-------
>>> Anja Kovacs 
>>> Anriette Esterhuysen 
>>> Vladimir Radunovik 
>>> Rafik Dammak 
>>> Joana Varon 
>>> 
>>> ------< Academia >-------
>>> Angela Daly 
>>> Ramesh Subramanian 
>>> Stefania Milan 
>>> William Drake 
>>> Boubakar Barry 
>>> 
>>> The technical community is still in the process of selecting its representatives and we are expecting them to join us during the second part of January (as per their process timeline).
> 
>> 
> 
> 
> Anyone can join the 1net discuss mailing list, which now has over 600 people and is generating massive amounts of mail, some of it quite interesting, some of it eminently skippable (filters are your friend).  It would be great to see more NCUC members involved in the conversation, and 1net more generally as it takes shape in the months ahead….. http://1net-mail.1net.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> 
> Best
> 
> Bill
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Marília Maciel
> Pesquisadora Gestora
> Centro de Tecnologia e Sociedade - FGV Direito Rio
> 
> Researcher and Coordinator
> Center for Technology & Society - FGV Law School
> http://direitorio.fgv.br/cts
> 
> DiploFoundation associate
> www.diplomacy.edu
> 
> 
> 

***********************************************
William J. Drake
International Fellow & Lecturer
  Media Change & Innovation Division, IPMZ
  University of Zurich, Switzerland
Chair, Noncommercial Users Constituency, 
  ICANN, www.ncuc.org
william.drake at uzh.ch (direct), wjdrake at gmail.com (lists),
  www.williamdrake.org
***********************************************

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