1
July
2006
IP Justice Call for
Participation at
UN Internet Governance Forum:
2 Aug Deadline for
Contribution to IGF "Synthesis Papers"
24 Aug Deadline for Athens Workshop
Proposals
Deadline extended until 2 August for written contributions
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.
IGF's Four Main Themes
in
Athens: Openness, Security, Diversity, Access
Overall Theme: "Internet Governance for Development"
with capacity building as a
cross-cutting priority
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.
New
Deadline: 2 August 2006 – Deadline for
submitting written contributions to be included in synthesis papers.
Papers submitted after the 2 August 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:
- Internet as tool to promote Freedom
of Expression
- Internet as tool to enable free flow of information and ideas
- Barriers to free flow of information
on Internet
- Role of Internet to promote Access to Knowledge (A2K) and development
- Appropriate balance of intellectual property rights for protecting
free expression and free flow of information
- Role of Internet in promoting accessible public domain
- Government censorship on Internet
- Corporate censorship on Internet
- Governments and corporations working together to censor Internet or
punish online behavior
- Impact of digital locks and anti-circumvention
laws on the free flow of information
- Impact of software patents on freedom of expression
- What should an "Internet Bill of Rights" aim to protect?
- Role of Internet to promote a "Development Agenda" at WIPO
- Threat to liberty of online journalists for critical speech
- Role of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) software to encourage exchange of
information
- Role of online libraries and open access journals to archive and
preserve culture and information
- Open Document Formats (ODF)
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
and online trust
- Balance between need for security with need to protect privacy and
other civil liberties
- Impact on freedom of expression from spam and content filtering
- How anti-circumvention laws and Digital Rights Management (DRM)
weaken computer security
- Privacy right violations from online publication of ICANN's "WHOIS"
database
- Privacy issues related to "Trusted" computing and "Broadcast Flag"
hardware mandate
- Impact of online freedom from government spying under the US Patriot
Act
- Voluntary code of conduct for online behavior of businesses
- Privacy enhancing tools for Voice Over IP (VOIP)
3. DIVERSITY - Promoting
multi-lingualism, local content, and
geographical diversity:
- Ability of ICANN to meet needs of
international Internet community
- Diversity of participation for accountability in Internet Governance
- 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
- Overcoming barriers to local content
- Appropriate role of US government in oversight of Internet root
- Role of Internet to promote democratic participation
- Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs)
- Role of Internet to promote independent press and provide media
outlet for minority views
- Role of national governments to establish an enabling environment for
Internet
4. ACCESS - Internet connectivity,
policies and costs:
- Open standards
- Interoperability of technology
- Role of free and open source software to provide increased access
- "Network Neutrality" policies and costs
- Impact of software patents on interoperability
- Importance of open standards and interoperability to build stable and
secure Internet
- Role of free and open source software to lower costs