IGF 2014

The prevailing myth that the Internet is akin to the “Wild West”, unruly and unmanageable, and that this is somehow a virtue, is outdated, at odds with the objective of creating a ubiquitous and trusted environment which everybody can use with confidence. We all want the online world to be safe just as we do the offline.

The needs and interests of a range of vulnerable groups, perhaps particularly our children, are of major concern in this context but in truth this matters to all of us both as citizens and consumers. To date, too often anyone who proposes new approaches to addressing risks and challenges on the Internet is tagged with the unjustified moniker of “censor” or as someone who wants to hamper or restrict innovation. Freedom of expression, the rule of law, and rational approaches to promote a safe, secure and sustainable Internet are mutually reinforcing, and as time moves on they have to be reconciled.

This session will discuss these challenges and look at how all stakeholders, including Internet intermediaries, have a role to play in addressing them while advancing trust in the Internet so that it can continue to flourish. Among other things specifically the meeting will address:

1. Personal data theft 

2. The consumer harm associated with counterfeit and pirate sites

3. The distribution of child abuse images online

The Pal-DC meeting at the 2014 IGF will concentrate on the intersection of public access to ICTs and development. Building on feedback from workshops held at the African Internet Governance Forum and the WSIS+10 HLE, as well as experiences gained at the meetings of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals in New York during 2014, the DC will look at the prospects for ICTs within the post-2015 framework, and the way that the framework could create new realities for Internet Governance. The meeting will also review two new policy briefs on public access launched by coalition members during 2014, discuss the importance of public access for women and girls, and assess the progress of the Beyond Access and Global Libraries projects funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The network neutrality debate is gaining great political momentum. Several countries have already implemented network neutrality laws, while many others are currently elaborating or scrutinising the opportunity to elaborate network neutrality legislation. Yet, we are witnessing today the emergence of a variety of divergent (and somewhat incompatible) approaches towards whether or not network neutrality is enshrined in law.

Over the last months, in the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced the elaboration of new Open Internet rules after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeal invalidated the Open Internet Order; at the European Union level net-neutrality is going to be enshrined into legislation but the outcome of this latter process seem currently difficult to predict; whilst the Brazilian National Congress adopted the Marco Civil an Internet Bill of Rights containing strong network neutrality provisions.

While the network neutrality debate continues, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) may enter into opaque interconnection-arrangements (peering agreements) that might include provision compelling Content and Applications Providers to pay ISPs for a direct connection to their consumers (so called “sender-pays” model).

These and many other issues will be presented by some of the contributors to the annual Report of the meeting of the Dynamic Coalition on Network Neutrality that will engage in an interactive debate during the DC NN meeting.

Meeting Format

The meeting will be introduced by a keynote delivered by Mr Vint Cerf, Vice-president and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google, followed by an interactive debate, prompted by the interventions of the various authors of the 2014 Report of the DC NN.

The authors/panellists will engage in an collaborative discussion aimed at jointly analysing their findings and proposals.

The Seed Alliance is a collaboration established between the FIRE, FRIDA and ISIF Asia grants and awards programs, who together support Internet development across the global south.

The award package consists of a cash prize plus travel grants to IGF events (regional and/or global) to support the award winners to showcase their projects, expand their network of contacts and actively participate in the discussions about the future of the Internet. The Seed Alliance regional partners joint efforts and conducted their awards ceremony together at the IGF since 2012.

Meet the winners:

-FIRE winners 2014 
-FRIDA winners 2014 
-ISIF Asia winners 2014 

This a follow up to session 202 from 2013 where we explored the conflict between child protection and child rights. Now it's time to move on to show how both rights and safety can be protected. It is relevant to Internet governance because children are stakeholders who are often left out of discussions.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child requires that children "shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds." Yet, it is generally agreed that some information, such as pornography, can be harmful to some children. But some efforts to protect children may go too far, such as blocking access to social media as is the case in many schools and some entire countries. This workshop will explore how governments, schools, NGOs and companies can find way to protect children from harm while also protecting their civil rights and right of free expression.

The economic and public policy impacts of Internet blocking by state actors has been well studied. Receiving less study to date are the economic and public policy impacts of Internet policing by third party non-state actors. The systemic impossibility of a common definition of “due process” or a common policy framework has led to occasional collateral damage that undermines the security and stability of the Internet. This is a form of “digital culture clash”

This workshop will explore the state of play in third party Internet blockades and boycotts by non-state actors such as Internet reputation systems, whether commercially motivated or not. Examples of collateral damage will be drawn from the record, including the impact of SPAMHAUS’s blockade of Sweden in early 2014. We will engage leading experts from both the technology and policy arenas to debate and discuss questions like “at what limit does a blockade or boycott do more harm than good to the organizer’s own values, due to foreseeable collateral damage, lack of care, or lack of investigatory resources?”

The panel hopes to reach a common understanding and brief set of recommendations for those who might organize Internet blockades and boycotts, for those who might participate in such events – perhaps by subscribing to an Internet reputation system, for those who might be targeted by such moves, and also for policy makers and shapers who need to know the powers and risks of collective third party action in Cyberspace.

The proposal of training workshop relates to demonstrate and empower participants in the platform used by civil society in the last NETMundial, which occurred in April 2014 in Brazil. Initially, a public consultation raised hundreds of ideas and more than a hundred thousand votes on Internet Governance through the methodology of AllOurIdeas, by voting in pairs (allourideas.org). Fifteen proposals that served as a guide to the HUB São Paulo, which also used a separate platform of systematization were elected. People were able to attend using social networks and a collective interface and transparent preparation of public input, which guided the intervention on the floor of the HUB at NETMundial. This material was also used as input to a letter delivered to the demands of Internet Forum in Brazil. Our goal is to demonstrate in practice these platforms and make it available for other events of governance. All the code is published and tools are licensed under GPL v.3.

Governance problem/question/challenged to be addressed.
This workshop discusses the technologies and policies needed to enable access for the next five billion. It will cover some of the most promising Internet technologies and the areas where they should be deployed. For instance, the workshop will discuss the need for wireless platforms in rural markets and other areas that will benefit greatly from a high degree of shared infrastructure, particularly with an electrical powering solution. It will also discuss the need, over time, for fiber-based networks to gradually fill across the network, migrating from the core to the edge.
Along with those technologies, a certain set of policies (many of which may not require laws) can facilitate the prompt and efficient deployment of broadband infrastructure. These policies include (1) promoting shared infrastructure, (2) liberalizing spectrum policy, (3) facilitating access and interconnection through Internet exchange points (“IXPs”), (4) creating an ecosystem that stimulates demand for broadband (and associated innovation, entrepreneurship, and technical experimentation), and (5) sharing information and discussing best practices among parties with common interests within geographical regions.

This session brings together policy makers, business and civil society to discuss how to best enable the Internet of Things (IoT). In the coming decade billions of devices in homes and businesses will be connected.

The workshop will enable an interactive exchange and discussion in six areas:

• Openness: The development and deployment of IoT needs to be inclusive, innovation promoted and the role of competition underlined.
• Trust: IoT devices and systems will collect and store enormous amounts of public and private data often in new realms of our daily lives. This should be subject to the highest standards and good practices that enable the protection of personal privacy and the exploitation of public goods that such data may enable for economic and social development.
• Access to (public sector) information: Public sector actors need to view sharing data as a key function. Private sector actors may need new frameworks in which they can share data, which could be beneficial to society as a whole.
• Numbering: The deployment of IPv6 is essential to the IoT as well as the role of other identifiers that extends to the numbers in mobile networks, such as telephone and IMSI-numbers.
• Spectrum: Many IoT devices will require wireless connections. Access to spectrum is therefore critical.
• Jobs and skills: IoT will push a further revolution in manufacturing, transport and many other fields with implications for skills and employment.

It is critical that all stakeholders identify the governance issues and share best practices.

While lack of appropriate laws, inefficient implementation of the laws and lack of available financial resources can delay investment in fibre optic, there are other reasons that can be added to the list of impediments when it comes to some regions. Sanctions, political decisions, war, geographical condition, to name a few are the impediments that some regions are facing. However, while the regional needs are different there might be some commonalities among them and sharing these solutions may be to the benefit of policy makers. This workshop focusses on different regions such as Europe, Middle East, Pacific and Africa and addresses the following questions in order to provide policy solutions for facilitating access to the Internet through fiber optic: What investment indicators should be considered to encourage the investment in fiber optic? What policies should be in place for decision makers to make investment in fiber optic high on the agenda? What is the role of different stakeholder groups in making effective policies for investing in fiber optic? Which global policy shaping venus are available to discuss this ? What are the different regional and national best practices?

Different actors have different responsibilities when it comes to establishing trust in the digital world. In government, trust is what you have, or do not have towards other governments. It is also how well you protect your citizens from threats (both foreign and domestic), and maintain rule of law. Establishing trust in the digital world is a complex task for states because national borders become indistinct.

When the state seeks to enforce its jurisdiction within its own borders, that exercise (at least in liberal democracies) is constrained by human rights, reasonable limits and judicial oversight – all of these taken together to be the rule of law. However, difficulties arise when states exercise their jurisdiction extraterritoriality by intercepting communications taking place within the territory of other states, or by combating cybercrime.

Most actors would articulate a view that the NSA went too far in their pursuit of national security; however, large scale cybercrime activities demonstrate a need for states to exercise jurisdiction extraterritoriality, to secure evidence and punish offenders located in different states. This creates a paradox: if states do too much in the digital world (i.e. overly aggressive bulk data collection) it can erode digital trust, and if they do too little (i.e. cooperation on cybercrime) it also erodes digital trust.

This panel seeks to address this paradox by asking: how we, as a digital society, should draw the lines around what activities should be permitted by states in name of national security and those that should be considered offensive? This panel hopes to identify principles that guide how lines are drawn around surveillance. These principles will reflect the diverse range of views in the Internet community.


Agenda
Panel introduction by the moderator
Introductory remarks by each panelist
Panel moderator to pose a set of questions to the panel
Moderator will open the floor to questions from attendees and remote participants
Concluding remarks by the panelists
Moderator to conclude the panel

The Alliance for Affordable Internet’s Affordability Index of 2013 shows that the UN Broadband Commission target of entry-level broadband services priced at less than 5 percent of average monthly income is far from attainable at present. In the 46 developing countries A4AI studied, the cost of entry-level broadband exceeds on average 40 percent of monthly income for people living on $2/day, and in many countries exceeds 80 percent or even 100 percent of monthly income.

Technological solutions to this challenge are progressing apace, but the best technologies in the world will be rendered useless if policies and regulations governing access keep prices artificially high. Drawing upon the expertise of A4AI’s 55+ diverse members, this proposed workshop will explore and debate concrete policy examples that are designed to enhance affordability in emerging and developing countries and invite perspectives from diverse actors. What is working, what isn’t and how do we adapt some universal lessons and apply these to unique jurisdictions?

The workshop will also spur debate by sharing interim research results of the Affordability Index 2014. We hope that participants will help to shape the discourse and A4AI’s current and future policy recommendations towards greater access for the billions – three in five people globally - that are yet to be connected by broadband.

This panel will launch the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms. Building on the Windhoek Declaration, the African Broadcasting Charter, the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and, most recently, the African Platform on Access to Information, the Declaration is an initiative which aims to define and strengthen standards for the Internet in Africa. It aims to galvanize a movement in support of an Internet environment which is accessible, locally relevant and which supports development.
Already more than 20 civil society organisations are involved in the initiative. A draft Declaration will be launched for public consultation in May 2014, and over the summer there will be a range of multi-stakeholder consultations across Africa. The final Declaration will be launched in September at the IGF and the Highway Africa – the launch is an opportunity to share the Declaration, invite new endorsements and build a wider conversation about how it can be used.

Agenda
5 Mins: Welcome and Opening Remarks by Stephanie Muchai, Article 19 (chair).
10 Mins: Presentation – “Where are we, and where are we going: An African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms” By Edetean Ojo, Media Rights Agenda and Anriette Esterhuysen, Association for Progressive Communications
5 Mins: Comment on the Initiative By Getachew Engida, UNESCO
5 Mins: Comment on the Initiative By Towela Nyirenda Jere, Nepad
5 Mins: Comment on the Initiative By Auguste K. Yankey, African Union Commission
5 Mins: Comment on the Initiative By Ali Hussein Kassim, 3mice interactive media
50 Mins: Audience reactions and discussion. Key Questions are:
**What are the key Internet rights challenges in Africa? Are there elements of the Internet rights struggle that are uniquely African?
**How can we use the Declaration to develop a strong culture of rights and freedoms for the Internet in Africa?
**What are the next steps to institutionalising the Declaration?
5 Mins: Wrap up and invitation to endorse Declaration by Stephanie Muchai

People around the world increasingly depend on digitally networked products and services, from broadband and mobile data services, to devices, to social networks, to cloud computing. These “intermediaries” mediate relationships between individuals and their communities, economies, and governments. It is thus vital that they operate in a manner compatible with the realization of human rights online as well as offline.
Meanwhile the fallout of the Snowden revelations has amplified stakeholder distrust, prompting governments to push for domestic solutions that are not interoperable while the Internet governance ecosystem itself is going through a period of uncertainty. The creation of mechanisms that will allow intermediaries to act in a constructive way for the fostering of human rights is key to improving trust across the global Internet.
The proposed workshop will map and debate the impacts of different kinds of initiatives created to improve the level of accountability of intermediaries relating to human rights concerns, particularly regarding users’ rights to privacy and freedom of expression. From drafting human rights commitments into national legislation, to the creation of multistakeholder groups to propose soft law models, to self-regulatory initiatives, to mechanisms for ranking human rights policies and practices, to transparency reporting frameworks, the workshop will invite speakers and audience to debate the different methodologies from each kind of initiative, as well as their challenges, enforcement models and results.
The workshop aims to achieve a better understanding among stakeholders of how such initiatives may interact with each other and what are their advantages and disadvantages.

Agenda:

1. Panel introductions
Panelists speak briefly about different initiatives and methods for promoting ICT companies’ respect for human rights, highlighting successes, potential opportunities, obstacles and pitfalls of such efforts.

2. Audience input
Audience members and remote participants have an opportunity to highlight other initiatives and to ask questions about the initiatives presented.

3. Follow-up
Fostering comparisons between the initiatives, exploring their peculiarities and impacts, identifying other un- or underdeveloped options.

Many actors and stakeholders are keen to understand the socioeconomic development effects of the Internet and how it can effectively be used as an engine for growth and development. Various initiatives are working on capturing how the Internet is supporting education and health services, enabling entrepreneurship, and facilitating citizens’ access to information. These initiatives are using different methods and mechanisms to capture and document these effects. There are however very few opportunities for these stakeholders to come together to share experiences, challenges in data collection and dissemination and speak about the strategies they use to effectively leverage the collected data to inform policy making or to support practice. 
This panel will bring together actors involved in developing tools and methods to measure the effects of the Internet. this panel will be a space to discuss effective measurements, particular gaps, areas of collaboration.