Internet Governance and WSIS
Internet Governance:
A Review in the Context of the WSIS Process
by Carlos A. Afonso.
Document prepared for
Instituto del Tercer Mundo (ITeM).
July 2005.
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is a UN sponsored
conference organized by the UN’s International Telecommunication Union
(ITU). Its mission is to address both “The Digital Revolution” as well
as “The Digital Divide” and
“to develop and foster a clear statement of political will and take
concrete steps to establish the foundations for an Information Society
for all.”
One of the key issues the summit will address is Internet
governance which includes “significant
public policy issues, such as critical Internet resources, the security and safety of
the Internet, and developmental aspects and issues pertaining to the use of the
Internet.” These issues will set the context within which libraries
operate, defining intellectual property rights,
international trade,
and what information people can get and use.
This new paper by Carlos Afonso helps sort through the issues, provides useful historical background on the current Internet global governance system, and
looks at how the battles for control of the Internet are shaping up.
Afonso is strategy director at the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and head of technological development at RITS (the Rede de informa¨‹oes para o Terceiro Setor — Information Network for the Third Sector) and member of the UN-convened working group on Internet governance.
For more information see:
- Report from the Working Group on Internet Governance Document
WSIS-II/PC-3/DOC/5-E (3 August 2005) - Declaration of Principles and a Plan of
Action adopted at the first phase of the
summit in 2003 - All documents for “PrepCom 3″ (the
intergovernmental Preparatory Committee) that define the agenda of the
Summit. These include the agenda, working documents,
outcomes of meetings, contributions from participants including country
governments, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental
organizations, businesses (such as VeriSign), Internet Corporation
for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and interested
groups (such as ALA:
comments on the recent Report of the Working Group on Internet
Governance, August 1, 2005).