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Internet
Society's Participation in:
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
Geneva, 2003 | Tunis, 2005
Comments
of the Internet Society on the World Summit
on the Information Society (WSIS)
Draft Declaration of Principles and Action Plan
(Based on discussions in the Working Group of Sub-Committee 2)
1.
Purpose
This document is in response to the WSIS Draft Declaration of Principles
(Document WSIS/PCIP/DT/1-E) and Action Plan (WSIS/PCIP/DT/2-E) released:
21 March 2003
Representatives
of the Internet Society (ISOC) have attended WSIS events since July
2001 and were part of the original Preparatory session in Coppet in
December 2001 as well as being invited to speak at the "Informal
Meetings on Topics" held in Geneva in September 2002. ISOC will
continue its participation with the aim of providing advice to WSIS
participants on Internet technology, IT and telecommunications policy,
and Internet applications.
2.
Internet SOCiety (ISOC)
ISOC, a not-for-profit organization, is a professional membership society
with more than 150 organizations, 15,000 individual members in over
182 countries and 80 chapters. Members comprise companies, government
agencies, individuals, organizations, and foundations.
ISOC's
mission consists in ensuring the open development, evolution, and use
of the Internet for the benefit of all people throughout the world.
This can be summarized in the motto, "Internet is for Everyone."
Our programs are built around three main pillars: Internet standards,
education, and policy
Since
1992 ISOC has been the organizational home for the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF), which develops the standards that ensure the stability,
reliability, security, and scalability of the Internet. ISOC has provided
technical training on Internet technologies to thousands of individuals
and also provides valuable advice to governments on key Internet-related
policy decisions to ensure the continued rapid growth of the Internet
and the Information Society. Many ISOC members have introduced the Internet
in their own countries and have played a pioneering role in the development
of e-business, e-government, and other Internet applications.
In
addition to its annual INET conferences, which bring together a broad
cross-section of the Internet community, ISOC has organized Internet
training workshops in several regions of the globe for more than ten
year. Every year, full programme workshops are held in Latin America
(WALC) in Spanish and Portuguese and in Africa in French and English,
with international, high-level instructors. These workshops are mainly
addressed to developing and emerging countries in order create a critical
mass of highly qualified and skilled specialists worldwide. Since 2001,
ISOC has also organized a training programme on Next Generation Internet
Protocol (IPv6).
ISOC
strengths
-
Pioneering
reputation - the brightest technical minds in the Internet community
-
Understanding
of leading-edge Internet technologies
-
Involvement
in the standards process both at the IETF and elsewhere
-
Global
perspective
3.
The Internet
Internet is fast becoming a mass medium and as result there is increasing
pressure on policy makers to regulate it like radio, television, or
other mass media. The spread of broadband technologies is enabling new
powerful uses of the Internet, Grid computing, peer-to-peer applications,
and Web Services. The Internet is more than just a means for communications
(through e-mail and instant messaging) and content distribution (through
the World Wide Web). It is becoming a platform for collaboration and
distributed computing. The continued development of the Internet is
creating new technical, policy and societal challenges, and even more
need for the kind of applications and education that the ISOC can provide.
4.
ISOC's position
The Internet Society believes that the World Summit on Information Society
can provide a valuable forum for discussion of policies and initiatives
that can accelerate the deployment of the Internet and promote its use
in countries throughout the world. ISOC is committed to working with
governments, industry, and Internet users around the world to ensure
that the Internet develops in a way that ensures that all Internet users
can harness the full power of the Internet.
The
first and overarching goal of the Internet Society is to ensure the
continued health and stability of the Internet. Accordingly, members
of the Internet Society, working at the Internet Engineering Task Force
and other Internet standards-setting bodies, have sought to develop
standards that will make the Internet more reliable, more secure, more
robust, and more versatile. They have also sought to provide better
technologies for enhancing privacy, providing authentication, and reducing
the cost of Internet access. The Internet Society has also organized
several major conferences and workshops on Internet security.
In
addition, the Internet Society seeks to promote Internet policies and
standards that ensure that Internet users around the world enjoy the
following:
1)
The Ability to Connect -- We must preserve the essential, end-to-end
nature of the Internet and avoid establishing standards or practices
that would make it difficult or impossible for some users of the Internet
to use the full range of applications being developed for Internet users.
If Internet service providers or software providers build and provide
Internet applications based on proprietary standards it could lead to
the fragmentation of the Internet into hundreds of disconnected "walled
gardens," in which users are limited in the applications they can
use.
2)
The Ability to Speak -- The Internet offers a powerful tool for
self-expression and is becoming a new mass medium. Governments should
work to ensure that the Internet will continue to allow private and
where appropriate, anonymous, means of communication and collaboration.
3)
The Ability to Innovate -- The explosive growth of the Internet
and the incredible variety of Internet applications are a direct result
of the fact that the key standards for the Internet and the Web are
open. Any company, regardless of size or location, has been able to
develop and distribute its new "killer application" for the
Internet. Governments and others should avoid actions that would restrict
how technology can evolve in the future. The Internet can foster innovation,
create new business opportunities for SMEs, and improve health and education,
especially in the less-developed areas. The Internet Society is committed
to the promotion of IPv6, new wireless technologies, and e-applications
(e-learning, e-health, e-government, e-working), to support social and
economic development. Furthermore, we have on-going education programs
to help spur the use of such technologies and applications in countries
throughout the world.
4)
The Ability to Share -- The many-to-many nature of the Internet
makes it a powerful tool for sharing, education, and collaboration.
It has enabled the global, open source community that developed many
of the key technological components of the Internet, such as the Domain
Name System, the Web, and Apache (the most common Web server software).
The Internet has also made the vision of digital libraries a reality.
Accordingly, governments should foster the development of open source
software and oppose new technologies and legislation that would limit
the well-established concept of fair use, which is essential to scholarship,
education, and collaboration.
5)
The Ability to Choose -- The growth of the Internet has been fastest
where markets are the most free and open. Unfortunately, in too many
countries, particularly many less developed countries that could most
benefit from the power of the Internet, government regulation and the
economic power of incumbent telecom monopolies severely limit the ability
of new competitors to provide new, better, cheaper, and innovative Internet-related
services. Government policies should foster competition in telecommunication
services, Internet service provision, Internet-related software, and
e-commerce applications. Where this has been done, the cost of telecommunications
services and Internet access has dropped dramatically, helping to bridge
the Digital Divide and enable new and innovative uses of the Internet.
To
further these goals, the Internet Society has articulated a number of
specific policy positions:
-
Promotion of IPv6
-
Opposition
to censorship of the Internet
-
Promotion of competition in the telecommunications sector, which can
reduce telecommunications costs and help bridge the Digital Divide
-
Promotion of new wireless technologies (e.g. 802.11)
-
Opposition to new database protection legislation
-
Opposition to some government's restrictions on Voice over IP
-
Opposition to regulatory provisions requiring ISP's to retain user
data
-
Promotion of Accessibility for the Disabled
-
Opposition
to encryption controls
-
Opposition
to legislation dictating Digital Right Management standards
ISOC
Plan of Action in Information Society matters
-
ISOC
will continue providing educational programmes and regional Internet
training workshops, particularly for developing and emerging countries
-
ISOC will continue to raise awareness about new wireless technologies,
IPv6, privacy issues and others topics that ensure the health, security,
and continued rapid expansion of the Internet
-
ISOC will continue working in countries around the world to develop
new mechanisms for informing policy debates and key decision makers
-
ISOC
will continue supporting its national chapters and individual members
worldwide in influencing key policy matters that matter in their own
countries.
-
ISOC will continue working with partners to ensure all people can
enjoy the benefits of the Internet, e-business, e-government, and
other Internet applications
Statement
of Concern
With just over six months left before the Summit, the Internet Society
is concerned that there is not yet a well-defined list of specific actions
and initiatives that might be endorsed at the Summit. The draft Plan
of Action and Declaration of Principles sets out many worthy goals,
but does not make clear how those goals can and will be achieved. In
addition, the draft documents attempt to address almost every aspect
of the Information Society as well and many issues are not directly
related to information technology or telecommunications. We would hope
that the Summit would endorse a much shorter document that instead focuses
on a few specific areas and have the assembled governments commit to
specific actions that they will take to foster the continued growth
of the Internet and the Information Society. In particular, we would
recommend attention be focused on how governments can foster competition
in the IT and telecommunications marketplace, how they can promote the
use of open standards and open source software, how they can ensure
free expression in cyberspace, and how they can foster public sector
applications of the Internet, such as e-government, online education,
and e-health.
We
are very concerned by statements in the draft documents that imply the
need for new, intergovernmental organizations to "manage"
the Internet. In particular, proposals to replace ICANN and create a
new mechanism for managing root servers, domain names and IP addresses
is unnecessary, will lead to significant disruption, and is unlikely
to succeed. The unprecedented growth and innovation that we have seen
in the Internet sector is due in large part to the lack of regulation
and constraints on technology development. In addition, the processes
employed have been open, democratic and inclusive and it's hard to see
how these could be improved by a new intergovernmental body. In 1985,
no one could have predicted or planned the explosive growth of the Internet
and the World Wide Web. Today, as the Grid, Web services, and new wireless
Internet technologies promise to again transform the way we gather,
process, and share information, we should continue to support the decentralized,
bottom-up innovation that has made the Internet the powerful tool it
is today. Non-governmental organizations such as the Internet Engineering
Task Force, ICANN, and the World Wide Web Consortium, have proven very
flexible and nimble and have enabled the global Internet community to
quickly find consensus on how best to adopt and use new Internet technologies.
Individual governments can and should support such organizations and
ensure the full participation of their citizens in their activities.
ISOC's
Contribution for WSIS Summit (Dec 2003)
The Internet Society is ready and willing to provide advice to the organizers
of the World Summit on Information Society on key topics to be discussed,
on potential speakers, and on possible initiatives that might be endorsed
at the Summit. The global nature of the Internet Society and the fact
that it is an individual membership organization means that its goal
is to foster the overall growth of the Internet worldwide and not simply
represent the interests of a handful of countries or companies. If there
is interest, either Lynn St. Amour, the President of the Internet Society,
Michael R. Nelson, ISOC's Vice President for Public Policy or Rosa Delgado,
ISOC's representative to WSIS, would be glad to speak on behalf of the
members of the Internet Society at the Summit.
| The
purpose of the World Summit on the Information Society, as
stated in Resolution (A/RES/56/183), is to develop a "common
vision and understanding of the information society and the
adoption of a declaration and plan of action for implementation
by Governments, international institutions and all sectors
of civil society". |
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About
WSIS
The World
Summit on the Information Society will provide a unique opportunity
for all key stakeholders to assemble at a high-level gathering and to
develop a better understanding of this revolution and its impact on
the international community. It aims to bring together Heads of State,
Executive Heads of United Nations agencies, industry leaders, non-governmental
organizations, media representatives and civil society in a single high-level
event. The roles of the various partners (Member States, UN specialized
agencies, private sector and civil society) in ensuring smooth coordination
of the practical establishment of the information society around the
globe will also be at the heart of the Summit and its preparation.
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