Governance
03 August 2007
Why we must close the net by Sir Elton John The Sun
Pop legend Sir Elton John wants the internet CLOSED DOWN. Never one to keep his opinions to himself, the Rocket Man has waded into cyberspace with all guns blazing. He claims it is destroying good music, saying: "The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff. "Instead they sit at home and make their own records, which is sometimes OK but it doesn't bode well for long-term artistic vision. "It's just a means to an end.
02 August 2007
How do you build a new internet? The Guardian
How do you cut online crime, tackle child pornography, halt crippling viruses and get rid of spam? The answers could lie in a £200m successor to the internet that computer experts are already referring to as the next rendition of the virtual world. Researchers in the US want at least US$350m (£175m) to build the Global Environment for Network Innovations (Geni), touted by some as the possible replacement for today's internet. In Europe, similar projects are under way as part of the EU's Future and Internet Research (Fire) programme, which is expected to cost at least £27m.
26 July 2007
Vint Cerf on Google spectrum and the new "Die Hard" Seattle Times
The Internet can sometimes feel intimidating and even dangerous, but I'm glad to report that the guy who got the thing started is very nice and approachable. Vint Cerf is also funny -- early on he had a T-shirt made that said "IP on everything." Cerf, a key architect of the network and its military predecessor, now works at Google as a telecom policy expert and traveling sage who regularly visits the company's offices around the world. (Technically, he's vice president and "chief Internet evangelist.")
Internet Core Neutrality: Drawing a Line in the Sand at ICANN by Dan Krimm Toward Freedom
Dan Krimm writes on ICANN mission-creep saying "ICANN has expanded its reach well beyond that narrow technical realm and into the world of general public policy. Current policy deliberations at ICANN are increasingly touching upon broad issues like personal privacy, crime-fighting, trademark enforcement, and morality and public order in general."
16 July 2007
Money and Advice for the Internet Governance Forum: The structure of the MAG and financing the IGF Secretariat by John Mathiason Internet Governance blog
The Internet Governance Forum is now moving through its second year and two institutional issues have emerged in the open-ended consultations and in the discussions among stakeholders: how is the Multi-stakeholder Advisory Group that is supposed to provide advice on management of the IGF to be structured and how is stable, long-term financing of the IGF Secretariat to be arranged.
14 July 2007
Consultation meeting on Parliaments in the Information Age Global Centre for ICT in Parliament
A meeting on Parliaments in the Information Age: mobilizing stakeholders around concrete initiatives was held on 24 May, at the Palais des Nations, in Geneva, as part of a cluster of events related to the implementation of WSIS. The purpose of the meeting was to bring together stakeholders undertaking activities in the area of ICT and Parliaments to exchange experiences, create synergies and facilitate collaboration. Special attention was placed on Open Source in Parliament and on Africa, as well as on the preparation of a Global Report on ICT in Parliament. A final session was dedicated to presentations of ongoing initiatives and technical assistance programmes. Presentations are available.
IGP Proposal Highlights Global Nature of Digital Security eContent Mag
The Internet Governance Project has worked since 2004 to advance the discussion of global internet governance. Its work took a public turn in May when the IGP released a proposal to decentralize authority over DNS authority.
12 July 2007
The future of the Web - interview with Tim Berners-Lee InterGovWorld
The Internet of the future is being built on symbols: what they represent and the relationships between them. Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented the World Wide Web in 1989 at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, is developing the Semantic Web, otherwise known as Web 3.0.
10 July 2007
IETF DNS Working Group defines DNS as "critical infrastructure" by Brenden Kuerbis Internet Governance blog
The IETF's DNS Working Group has defined the DNS as "a critical Internet infrastructure" according to this article by Brenden Kuerbis. However following the discussion on the mailing list where this was reported, there was also a comment that "'critical Internet infrastructure' is an heavily loaded buzzword, specially in governance contexts (ICANN, IGF, etc) which can even trigger legal consequences." The follow-up posting instead suggests "The DNS is, in practice, a mandatory component of most Internet services?" Kuerbis suggests, "One can read the Working Group's action as an indication from the prominent Internet standards body that the DNS (and technology which impacts it like DNSSEC and root signing) is on the table for discussion at the upcoming" IGF.
05 July 2007
Internet Governance Forum still searching for something to govern by Burke Hansen The Register
Burke Hansen questions the relevance of the IGF following the internet governance workshop at San Juan. He says nobody attending the meeting seemed sure of what the IGF does. While the workshop was about IGF, Hansen says it seemed to be “about the extent to which the IGF and ICANN serve overlapping or even contradictory purposes.” He concludes “it's clear that the IGF has a lot of work to do if it is to be considered anything more than a highly vocal yet castrated version of ICANN” and compares the IGF, disparagingly, to the UN General Assembly.
01 July 2007
DARPA wants to rebuild the internet DARPA
DARPA has issued a request for "revolutionary ideas" to reinvent the internet. The DARPA announcement notes the internet was "designed and developed when memory and processing power were limiting factors rather than plentiful and generally ubiquitous throughout the network." DARPA is looking to "re-think and potentially redesign some of the basic concepts that have shaped today's Internet technology. The goal of any DARPA program in this area is to improve transfer speeds, network routing efficiency, reliability, simplify network configuration, and reduce cost."
18 June 2007
Egyptian jailing of blogger sparks outrage ITP.net
Egypt's decision to jail a blogger has caused international outrage, with groups calling for the UN to abandon plans to hold the 2009 Internet Governance Forum in the country.
15 June 2007
IGF 2007: Rio here we come The Register
The first IGF was widely hailed a success reports The Register, noting it “was an undeniably huge achievement to get the Chinese government in the same room as Amnesty International, and then to get them talking.” Less than one sixth of attendees were from the private sector, with Markus Kummer attributing this to them being “rather reluctant partners. They did not go into this adventure with great enthusiasm, it was more 'ok, let's go for a damage limitation agenda', but they came out of it more enthusiastically." While support from the private sector, such as from Microsoft and Google, is reluctant, if at all, there is some support from government – the UK has given £23,000 and the Swiss have donated $500,000. In the UK Nominet has been the biggest supporter with their "Best Practice Challenge". This “encourages firms to compete for Nominet to showcase their work on openness, access, diversity, and security.”
China aims to top U.S. in cyberspace: U.S. general CNet
China is seeking to unseat the United States as the dominant power in cyberspace, a U.S. Air Force general leading a new push in this area said this week. "They're the only nation that has been quite that blatant about saying, 'We're looking to do that,'" 8th Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. Robert Elder told reporters reports Reuters. Elder is to head a new three-star cybercommand being set up at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, whose “focus is to control the cyberdomain, critical to everything from communications to surveillance to infrastructure security.”
08 June 2007
China to raise key Internet issues at IGF meeting InfoWorld
“China is seeking to put technical Internet management issues on the agenda of the next IGF meeting” reports InfoWorld and other IDG outlets. InfoWorld reports that this could lead to some conflict with the US, who, the article says, has consistently criticized the US for wielding too much influence over the Internet. But Markus Kummer says there are no specific plans for how the issues raised by China may be addressed. The article reports “a Chinese representative asserted about two weeks ago that last year's IGF meeting in Athens missed discussion of key issues.” The Chinese believed key issues such as DNS root servers and IP address were not addressed. The article also notes due to the ever increasing number of internet users, China is also seeking to increase its allocation of IP addresses.
02 June 2007
Discussion at the Internet Governance Forum in Geneva by Patrik Fältström Circle ID
Patrik Fältström asks questions on the relationship between a ccTLD and a Country. He also asks "will for example any (none?) of ccTLD operators (servers) sustain a denial of service attack of a scale similar to the attack on the root servers? What can ccTLD operators do to resist the malicious attacks? Should this be discussed?" Fältström notes while many ccTLD (and TLD) operators can withstand a denial of service attack, those lower down the DNS hierarchy are not so well placed to withstand such an attack and that maybe we shouldn't be worried that the root servers can't withstand an attack.
Nominet launches UK web best practice challenge IT Pro
The UK's internet movers and shakers will descend on the Houses of Commons next week as part of Nominet's best practice challenge.
31 May 2007
Informal consultation between ITU and civil society on the participation of all relevant stakeholders ITU
An informal consultation between ITU and civil society on the participation of all relevant stakeholders, took place at ITU Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on Friday May 18 2007. The meeting was opened by Dr Hamadoun TOURE, Secretary-General of ITU and Ms. Renate BLOEM, CONGO President, and it was chaired by Mr Thomas Schneider, BAKOM, Switzerland. This meeting was undertaken as part of the cluster of WSIS-related meetings in Geneva from 14-25 May 2007. Background documents, official contributions and meeting documents are all available.
27 May 2007
IGF Preparatory Meeting: A Score Draw in Geneva Circle ID
Wednesday was the open public consultation preparing for the second meeting of the Internet Governance Forum, which will take place in Rio de Janaeiro on 12th-15th November. Although the inaugural Athens meeting was widely deemed a success, having largely stayed off the dread topics of wresting control of DNS from ICANN and IP addressing from the RIRs, the usual suspects were back demanding that these topics be added to the agenda.
26 May 2007
Internet Governance Forum in November to Address Access, Security Issues UN Press Centre
The next meeting of the Internet Governance Forum in November will focus on access, openness, security and diversity, a top United Nations official said today at a press conference in Geneva. Speaking after today's preparatory consultations for the Forum's second meeting, which will take place in Rio de Janeiro from 12 to 15 November, Markus Kummer, Executive Coordinator of the Forum's secretariat, told reporters that the Rio meeting would advance the discussion that had taken place at the first Forum meeting in Athens last November.
22 May 2007
ITU: Launch of the World Information Society Report 2007 ITU
ITU and UNCTAD are delighted to announce the publication of the World Information Society Report 2007, published on 16 May 2007. The Report seeks to benchmark progress in meeting the WSIS targets, to be achieved by 2015 at the latest, and evaluates the evolution of the digital divide. It presents 200 pages of analysis of the latest trends in ICTs, exploring whether consumers are 'cutting the cord', the death of dial-up and growth in broadband and 3G. It evaluates the digital divide using a variety of techniques and finds that the strong growth of mobile telephony offers the greatest potential to bridge the digital divide.
18 May 2007
Create an open, inclusive, development-oriented information society - Ban Ki-Moon Islamic Republican News Agency
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in his message on World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, May 17, 2007, called for creation of a truly open, inclusive and development-oriented information society. According to a press release issued by the UN Information Center, the full text of his message reads: "Since the advent of the telegraph in the mid-19th century, the International Telecommunication Union has been among the key players in helping the world to communicate. Today, from traditional telecommunications to the latest advances in cyberspace, ITU continues to provide governments, the private sector and civil society with expert guidance and assistance in addressing issues related to information and communication technologies. And following the successful conclusion of the two phases of the World Summit on the Information Society, the entire UN system is committed to the plan of action strongly linking ICT with development.
25 April 2007
The best way to give the poor a real voice is through a world parliament The Guardian
[This article doesn't deal with internet governance, but for those interested in governance, this article could be interesting.] Global governance as it stands is tyranny speaking the language of democracy. We need a directly elected assembly says George Monbiot. It was first proposed, as far as I can discover, in 1842, by Alfred Tennyson. Since then the idea has broken the surface and sunk again at least a dozen times. But this time it could start to swim. The demand for a world parliament is at last acquiring some serious political muscle. The campaign for a UN parliamentary assembly is being launched this week on five continents. It is backed by nearly 400 MPs from 70 countries, a long and eclectic list of artists and intellectuals.
24 April 2007
Cluster of WSIS-related events, 14-25 May 2007, Geneva, Switzerland ITU
The tenth session of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) will take place in Geneva from 21-25 May 2007. In parallel, a cluster of WSIS-related events, such as Action Line Facilitation meetings, will take place from 15-25 May 2007 in Geneva.
17 April 2007
us: Net reaches out to final frontier BBC
The Department of Defense's Iris project will put an internet router in space by the start of 2009.
