IGF 2014

Persons with disabilities and older persons represent an average of 15% of any country's population. Most IGF members involved in promoting Internet usage in their respective countries face challenges of low levels of Internet adoption amongst these groups.  The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is the first Human Rights Treaty of this millennium. A majority of countries participating in IGF have also ratified the CRPD which compels governments to implement policies that promote accessibility and encourage usage of the Internet amongst persons with disabilities.

Global surveys have demonstrated that a critical success factor for implementation is the multi-stakeholder participation in policy making.  Based on those findings and the mandates of the CRPD, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs (G3ict) have just released model policies for ICT accessibility that place strong emphasis and suggest specific processes to developing policies based upon multi-stakeholder engagement.

The joint G3ict/DCAD workshop will be reporting on good practices and global data on multi-stakeholder engagement which demonstrate how such engagement can lead to better planning, implementation and results. The workshop will also discuss how multi-stakeholder engagement can be equally effective at both the international and national level, based upon the experiences of international agencies and standard development organizations such as ITU, G3ict, W3C, WIPO and UNESCO.   

The open Internet enables people from different countries and different cultures, who speak different languages and have different stories to tell, who have different perspectives, understandings and ambitions, to share the content that they create with the global network. Local content development is important and should be encouraged; the social, cultural and economic opportunities available to us are greater if we can search the world’s diversity in creative thought online, as opposed to if we all consume the same content.  

This Best Practice Forum session will focus on how to create an enabling environment for the development of local content. It is the culmination of a two-month online discussion in which a diverse group of stakeholders contributed on-the-ground stories and exchanged views about policies that directly and indirectly encourage the development of local content. The issue is multifaceted and complex, with many different moving parts. To give orientation to the discussion, a three-part framing of the issue emerged, where contributors were asked to share best practices under the following areas:

Internet Infrastructure - The state of the Internet service provision industry, including the presence of Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), data centres, and the status of international and domestic capacity, etc.

Legislative and regulatory landscape - The effect of legislation and policy in the fields of copyright, cultural preservation, telecommunications, etc.

Human capabilities and capacities - The degree of digital literacy in the locale, of web accessibility, and the presence of innovation hubs, etc.

It is considered that the policy initiatives that are designed to encourage local content development will be most successful when they are coordinated across these three areas. 

After several weeks of robust discussion among listserv participants, it became apparent that while there are a number of policies that indirectly contribute to the development of local content — for example a policy requiring all government data to be stored in-country will support the development of local hosting, which in turn will decrease latency and make it easier for people to up and download content — there are not many examples of policies which directly facilitate the development of local content. This session, the success of which will depend on active audience participation, will focus on sharing ideas about these unidentified, and yet-to-be-created, policies. 

The session will be moderated by the two Lead Experts who have led the local content discussion over the past two months, with short presentations provided by a handful of discussion participants. Interactivity with the audience is paramount, and all stakeholders are graciously encouraged to attend.

It will focus on ongoing accelerated developments in the global arena of Internet Governance, with special attention to regional aspirations pertaining to the envisaged global Internet Governance model that would take place after 2015, and to the input of the regional IGFs regarding the ongoing consultation processes that will take place during the next year which will shape the future model.
The global IGF, as well as regional IGFs, played a major role in shaping Internet Governance debate, It is time to revisit the very essence of the IGF as a non-decision, non-output, non-binding platform. Revisiting this does not necessarily mean that IGFs need to change radically, but may mean that enhancements may be introduced in the next decade following 2015.
Panelists of experts and policymakers towards will discuss the following :
• Respective Roles of different subgroups of stakeholders in Internet Governance.
• The global IGF/Arab IGF dialectics: what went well and what went wrong?
• Should the global IGF as well as the regional IGFs (including the Arab IGF) continue to work as a non-decision-based platform, without any binding recommendations? Or is it the time to evolve to something else?
• Can the above evolutions take place before the future IG model takes final shape? In parallel? Or afterwards?
• How can the global and regional IGFs sustain their existing/new roles post 2015?

To map, frame and make accessible the often-confusing tangle of processes underway across the vast number of Internet governance-related issues, an increasing number of initiatives have emerged or are being proposed, including:

• CSTD WGEC Correspondence Group mapping activity;
• GIPO;
• Geneva Internet Platform;
• Internet Policy Observatory; and
• Internet Collaborative Stewardship Framework (ISOC).

With the advent of so many initiatives, some of the possible issues and risks that may emerge include:

• Lack of coordination between initiatives;
• Unnecessary duplication of activities;
• Overlooking good initiatives in “competing” forums; and
• Adding to general IG stakeholder confusion;

This roundtable will bring representatives of initiatives together to explore similarities and synergies and ways to improve communication and coordination, with the ultimate goals of:

• Strengthening support and partnerships between initiatives to avoid a sense of “competition”;
• Enabling initiatives to gain access to stakeholders, information and processes that by themselves, they would not have direct access or knowledge of;
• Sharing best practices between initiatives, such as data conceptualization and visualization;
• Contributing to a more inclusive and collaborative mapping of issues, mechanisms, and gaps in Internet governance;
• Encouraging greater IG stakeholder buy-in for all initiatives; and
• Breaking down barriers, generally, between IG stakeholders.

The roundtable will also encourage representatives from regions or stakeholder groups that don’t have such initiatives to join the roundtable, with a view to helping such representatives ascertain whether or not initiatives are needed for their own regions and stakeholder groups.

Spam continues to be a significant problem for Internet users, creating a burden for developing countries, networks, operators and all end users. High volumes of unsolicited email can cause significant impacts to regions with limited Internet access as well as raise concerns for all regions with the increasing malware infections that come from unwanted email.  Unsolicited email may be magnified in developing countries, where high volumes of incoming and outgoing spam can cause a severe drain on the limited and costly bandwidth that is available in those regions.

Cooperation and partnerships among all stakeholders is needed to develop strategies and approaches to mitigating spam.  For that reason, addressing the problem of spam requires a multistakeholder discussion and a framework of suggested approaches, including the need to engage governments in the discussion of how to reduce the threat and impact of spam globally.

This discussion with a panel of experts will focus on the “Regulation and mitigation of unwanted communications (e.g. "spam") draft outcome document and will include examples of best practices they use to address the proliferation of spam in their regions/country’s that might be useful to include in the draft as possible recommendations.

 Output expected from the session would be review and consensus regarding the draft outcomes document, feedback on the text and indication of support for the for the recommendations and next steps that the report outlines. 

Description
This session is the culmination of intersessional discussions about best practices relating to developing meaningful multistakeholder participation mechanisms which began after the IGF 2013 meeting. Participants should be prepared to share their experiences and knowledge of both successes and failures relating to developing meaningful multistakeholder participation mechanisms. Participant contributions will be compiled with the findings of the intersessional discussions and reported during a best practices wrap-up session at IGF 2014 and published in a report subsequent to the IGF 2014 meeting.

Panelists
Guilherme Almeida, Specialist in Public Policies and Government Management at Brazilian Federal Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management
Sebastien Bellagamba, Regional Bureau Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Internet Society
Guy Berger, UNESCO, Director, Division of Freedom of Expression and Media Development
Norbert Bollow, co-convenor of the Just Net Coalition
Bobby Flaim, Supervisory Special Agent, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Government of the United States of America
Grace Githaiga, Associate at Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet)
Susie Hargreaves, CEO, Internet Watch Foundation Byron Holland, CEO, Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA)Izumi Okutani, Policy Liaison at JPNIC
Others TBC

Remote moderator

Whether it be schoolwork and research, or games, socializing, and inter-continental communication, young people today are constantly connected.  Indeed, kids of the 2000s are literally "growing up online."  And, while technology, mobile devices, and the Internet offer a vast array of benefits, like everything in life, the online world involves some risk.  The Child Online Protection Best Practices Forum will define and frame the most pressing online safety and related issues facing young people today.  It will compare and contrast risks and opportunities based on geography, culture, age, family values, and children's individual maturity levels to name a few.  Representatives from the global child protection community, law enforcement, government, civil society, and the private sector will share their views, as we all seek to make the online world a place where children can grow and thrive more safely in our 21st century world. 

This year, the IGF launched a Best Practices effort on the establishment of CERT teams for Internet Security. Over the last two months, three Lead experts supported by an independent consultant engaged with a community of participants from major stakeholder groups to exchange existing CSIRT development practices and discussed ways to further collaborate. A draft document was developed based on these initial discussions. The topics identified as part of this multi-stakeholder preparatory process will be further discussed and finalized during this 90 minute session.

CERT or CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Teams) are organizations of information security personnel who aim to address security incidents as they arise, whether at an organizational, pan-organizational or even national level.  They follow defined processes, combined with engineering ingenuity, to ensure security incidents are properly identified, contained and remediated. By nature, many incidents have impact beyond the constituency of one CSIRT, and thus teams often partner with other teams, as well as with private sector, government, civil society and the technical community to protect users of the internet.

This round table session will cover the various opportunities and challenges involved in the establishment of Computer Emergency Response Teams to improve internet security. 

Topics to be discussed will include the role of a CSIRT teams in private sector and government, what a “national CSIRT” truly means, and the high level collaboration processes involved in coordinating widespread incidents. As output of this session, a summary document will be published by the IGF, with recommendations and next-steps on topics ripe for further multi-stakeholder debate between the technical community, government, civil society and private sector.

The session will be led by lead experts Cristine Hoepers (of CERT.br), Adli Wahid and Maarten Van Horenbeeck (of FIRST) and supported by UN consultant Wout De Natris. We strongly invite participants from all stakeholder groups to attend the session and contribute. No technical experience in the CSIRT community is required, though we recommend making yourself familiar with the preparatory document shared on the IGF web site to be prepared for the discussion.

Where there is governance, there are citizens. No Internet governance discussion is complete without discussion among citizens about digital citizenship. On today's highly participatory Internet, many of the citizens are youth. This workshop follows our successful Baku workshop in which more than 30 participants spoke, nearly all of them youth from multiple countries. It will be a highly participatory, multidirectional discussion rather than a one-way panel presentation.

Our goal is to move from discussing the concept of digital citizenship to understanding its practices from youth perspectives – how they use digital tools and spaces to promote and support causes, make change and participate in civil society or even political life. With questions from the organizers and other participants, we will uncover how youth use connected media and whether that's changing how they view citizenship; hear the perspectives of those who are advancing digital literacy, participation and citizenship for youth; and examine the effectiveness of current online safety approaches and the role of digital citizenship in them. The workshop will include a roundtable of youth and other experts asking and answering questions such as:

• What are the Internet Governance issues or questions that should be addressed going forward?

• What are young people's approaches to developing a safe digital society that upholds participants' rights?

• Can bullying prevention in the form of respectful treatment of others and standing up for their rights contribute to citizenship online as well as offline?

• What are the most effective ways to teach and model good digital citizenship?

• What role does digital inclusion – supporting and enlisting the support of marginalized and disadvantaged populations – play in digital citizenship?

• Are "trolling" and other forms of anti-social online behavior affecting youth civic engagement and understanding among youth, government, industry, and other communities?

AGENDA:

1. Introductions: 5 min.
2. Overview & Background: 10 min.
3. Open discussion: 60 min.
4. Summarize & wrap up: 15 min.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

* "Changing Citizenship in the Digital Age," by W. Lance Bennett, University of Washington (http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/38360794.pdf)
* "What Makes You Tweet?: Young People's Perspectives on Social Media as an Engagement Tool," by Jen Rose and Lisa Morstyn, Youth Affairs Council of Victoria, Australia (http://apo.org.au/research/what-makes-you-tweet-young-peoples-perspectives-use-social-media-engagement-tool)
* "Youth & Citizenship in the Digital Age: A View from Egypt," by Lisa Herrera of University of Illinois in Harvard Educational Review (http://her.hepg.org/content/88267r117u710300/?p=cac083d7a05044e2a5cf9ac8d57102ae&pi=0)
* From the workshop co-organizer: "Digital citizenship, a lived curriculum," Part 1 (http://www.netfamilynews.org/digital-citizenship-a-lived-curriculum-part-1) and Part 2 (http://www.netfamilynews.org/the-lived-curriculum-part-2-what-that-looks-like); "Digital citizenship in process: Notes from the Baku IGF" (http://www.netfamilynews.org/digital-citizenship-in-process-notes-from-the-baku-igf), by Anne Collier

There are one billion people with disability globally of which 80% live in developing countries according to the World Health Organisation. In many cases, they are the forgotten billion in terms of digital inclusion policies.

This workshop is designed to identify and discuss the key policy drivers to overcome the barriers to participation in the digital economy by people with disability. 2014 is a pivotal year for Internet governance with NETmundial and the transition of the stewardship of the IANA functions. The multistakeholder model is a key part of these Internet governance discussions.

However, if a substantial stakeholder group is forgotten, then do we have a real multistakeholder model?

This workshop will bring together representatives from key international organisations to discuss and debate what the barriers and challenges are but most importantly, how to break through these barriers to bring about significant policy change and to move towards a more inclusive multistakeholder model.

Through this gradual change, people with disability will in future have more opportunities for education, employment and participation through increased accessibility to and affordability of the Internet.

The participants in the workshop will be key representatives from the Internet Society, NETmundial, ICANN, ITU and W3C together with representatives from developing countries.

Inter-governmental and international organisations will bring a high-level perspective on developments and future plans. This will be balanced with reports of actual user issues in India and Pacific Island countries.


Agenda:
Introduction of topic
Introduction of panel members
5-minute key points provided by each panel member
Focused discussion on strategies to involve disability representatives as stakeholders in Internet governance policy development
Summary and suggested actions

This workshop will focus on how government and private sector partnerships combine to build out affordable (UN and A4AI regional pricing benchmarks) and reliable Internet access to more and more of the remaining billions of citizens yet to be connected and how key areas of governance in both regulations and policy have come to the forefront to both help and hinder this process. For example; in the critical area of access pricing such issues as tower sighting fees, right-of-way fees, bandwidth competition, local IXPs , duties and fees on equipment and content all pay a roll in establishing affordable pricing. In the area of content controls evidence shows that countries that do not fix fees on or control content experience more cross boarder data traffic which leads to quicker economic growth through enhanced trade, jobs, tourism, industry, health care and education to name but a few critical areas. So panel speakers and audience participation will inform this discussion and raise additional questions. Additionally, as connectivity is built out what impact do governance issues like mandating the keeping of information about citizens be held inside their home country have on the proven benefits of the free flow of information? All of these governmental issues have profound impacts access and economic growth.

 

IGF 2014 WORKSHOP

Global Access; Connecting the Next Billion Citizens

Technology Education Institute

 September 5, 2014, 9:00am, Room #1

 

Welcoming remarks: Ambassador David A. Gross, Wiley Rein, LLP  (Moderator) (3 minutes) (CONFIRMED)

 

Format: Each panelist having 5 minutes for remarks with remaining time for audience participation. At the end of each panel and following the important audience participation, Ambassador Gross will put his considerable (two decades plus) experience in the Internet governance policy space to work summing up with concise conclusions focused on outcomes and their potential impact on Internet governance policy.

 

Theme Questions:

 

How are developed and developing countries partnering with tech/communications companies to provide robust and affordable (UN/A4AI regional benchmark pricing) Internet Access to their rural citizens?

 

As countries consider their Internet architecture, Open Vs. Closed, how do the economic benefits; job growth, trade, tourism, healthcare, education, stack up for each?

 

Content creation and dissemination comes to the forefront again and again as a key driver of access. What are the best ways to support a healthy content environment?

 

Part 1:  THE BIG PICTURE; Access Challenges in the Northern Hemisphere/Southern Hemisphere (35minutes)

 

• FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, Government (confirmed)
• Mark Summer, NGO, Co-Founder, inveneo (confirmed)

 

Examples of Successful, Sustainable, Affordable and Scalable Broadband Build out Models in Rural areas in developing countries

 

• Robert Pepper, Corporate, VP Global Technology Policy, Cisco (confirmed)
• Paul Mitchell, Corporate, General Manager, Technology Policy, Microsoft (confirmed)
• Dominique Lazanski, Private Sector, Public Policy Director, GSMA (confirmed)
• Nizar Zakka, NGO, CEO IJMA3 USA, WITSA Public Policy Chairman (confirmed)
• Audience participation

 

Part 2:  How Economics and Governance issues impact Internet Architecture [25minutes]

• Sam Paltridge, IGO, Directorate, Science, Technology, and Industry, OECD (confirmed)
• Mongi Marzoug, Corporate, Orange, VP Internet Governance/ Digital Development Africa & Middle East (confirmed)
• Alison Gillwald, NGO, ED for Research, ICT Africa (confirmed)
• Nnenna Nwakanma, NGO, Africa Coordinator, A4AI  (confirmed)
• Audience participation

 

Part 3: THE Internet ACCESS Driver…Content; what are some of the components that make up a healthy content ecosystem?   [20min]

• Thomas Spiller, Corporate, VP Global Public Policy Europe, Di The Walt Disney Company (confirmed)
• Subi Chaturvedi, NGO, Assistant Professor, Lady Shri Ram College for Women University, Delhi University (confirmed).  
• Michael Kende, NGO, Chief Economist, ISOC (confirmed)                                   
• Audience participation

 

Remote Moderator: Roslyn Layton, Aalborg University, PHD fellow

 

Internet intermediaries play a unique role in linking authors of content and audiences. Given their role in capturing, storing, searching, sharing, transferring and processing large amount of information, data and user-generated content, the actions of these actors may either protect or jeopardize end user rights to free expression. This role is particularly prominent in the cases of search engines and Internet-service providers (ISPs), hosting providers, cloud computing services, online social networks and media houses.
This session will be an opportunity to present and discuss the results of a brand new research project on Internet intermediaries, commissioned by UNESCO, Open Society Foundation and the Internet Society. This report is using a case study methodology to provide insights on how Internet intermediaries - including search engines, social media and ISPs – address freedom of expression issues across a range of jurisdictions, circumstances, technologies and business models.
This workshop aims to trigger discussion on the outcomes of this research and to contribute to identifying principles for good practices and processes that are consistent with international standards for free expression. The launch of the UNESCO-OSF-ISOC findings and outcomes of the discussion will inform various actors, including Internet intermediaries and other stakeholders, and will also contribute to developing a set of good practices applicable across different regions.

Agenda

5’ Openning remarks by Chair Mr Guy Berger, Director for Division of Freedom of Expression and Media Development, UNESCO
10’ presentation by Ms Rebecca MacKinnon, commissioned leading author of the research on Internet intermediaries
5’ comment by Mr Jan Malinowski, Head of Information Society Department, CoE
5’ comment by Ms Lillian Nalwoga, researcher of CIPESA, Uganda.
5’ comment by Ms Avri Doria, Research consultant on Internet Architectures and Governance
5’ comment by Mr Patrick Ryan, ‎Public Policy and Government Relations Senior Counsel, Free Expression and International Relations at Google Inc.
5’ comment by Ms Ceren Unal, Bilkent University Faculty of Law, Turkey
5' Mr Jean-Jacques Sahel, vice president of ICANN in Europe
50’ Discussions