Thank you very much Carlos Carlos Raúl Gutiérrez +506 8837 7176 (New Number) Enviado desde mi iPhone > El feb 21, 2015, a las 9:28, Carlos A. Afonso <[log in to unmask]> escribió: > > Dear people, below is a text based on my statement on the NETmundial > Initiative (NMI), in the Internet Governance session at ICANN 52. > > Your comments would be appreciated. > > frt rgds > > --c.a. > > My view on the NETmundial Initiative (NMI) > > Carlos A. Afonso > > [Derived from my statement in the workshop on Internet governance, on > Feb.12, 2015, at ICANN 52, Singapore] > > As explained in its portal, The NETmundial Initiative is a "bottom-up, > action-focused movement for the global community to organically > operationalize distributed Internet governance, based on the Principles > developed at the NETmundial meeting held in São Paulo, and the > polycentric ecosystem described in President Toomas Ilves’ panel report." > > It is a platform (in construction) to provide mechanisms of support to > concrete initiatives, projects, and research, which will advance the > NETmundial principles and roadmap. It is currently facilitated by ICANN > and CGI.br, which provide infrastructural and secretarial support to the > initiative. In the words of the portal's FAQ: "The NETmundial Initiative > provides an online platform to (i) facilitate ‘crowd-sourcing’ of > enablers and solutions from the global community; and (ii) energize > ‘crowd-funding’ and multistakeholder partnership to support the further > development and wider application of such enablers and solutions." > > In summary, its motivation is to provide an environment for building > upon the principles and roadmap established by NETmundial. ICANN and > CGI.br are its natural initial enablers, as they were among the crucial > instances that enabled NETmundial itself. > > The Initiative is not controlled, managed or overseen by the WEF. The > Forum helps in facilitating the project with CGI.br and ICANN, but has > its own Internet initiative, which has recently been announced. [1] > > Several organizations of stakeholders are involved in collective > initiatives related in one way or another to Internet governance. > Besides the example of the WEF proposal (mentioned above), there is a > call by a group of some civil society organizations called the Just Net > Coalition (JNC) to implement an Internet Social Forum (ISF). The ISF > promises to follow the principles set by the World Social Forum (WSF) > and is restricted to organizations and individuals that adhere to the > JNC and the WSF principles. > > According to JNC, "the ISF will inter alia offer an alternative to the > recently-launched World Economic Forum's 'Net Mundial Initiative' on > global Internet governance. While the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the > 'Net Mundial Initiative' convene global elites, the Internet Social > Forum will be a participatory and bottom-up space for all those who > believe that the global Internet must evolve in the public interest; a > direct parallel to the launch of the WSF in 2001 as a counter initiative > to the WEF." [2] > > Contrary to the view of the JNC, NMI is not "run by the WEF" and is not > a convener of "global elites". None of the above undertakings > invalidates the NETmundial Initiative. It will not replace or compete > with them. NMI is not a forum -- it was never intended to replace or > compete with the UN's Internet Governance Forum (IGF) or any other forum. > > Since January 2015 NMI is run by its inaugural Coordination Council > (CC), constituted after careful consultation with all stakeholders. The > CC is composed of 20 members of civil society, academic/technical > community, business and government, and includes representatives from > ICANN, CGI.br and WEF (as facilitators). As Wolfgang Kleinwächter > explains: "[the Council] started a process to outreach as much as > possible to the broader Internet governance community to stimulate an > open, transparent, inclusive and bottom up discussion process," the > first step of which is to produce the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the > Initiative through a consultative process much similar to the one > carried out by NETmundial to build is final document.[3] > > The result of this consultation will be a draft ToR to be submitted to > the community during March. On the basis of this feedback a final > version of the ToR will be discussed in the first face-to-face meeting > of the CC in Costa Rica at the end of March. The adopted ToR will be > essential to define the procedures and criteria for the platform to > gather relevant proposals. > > Further, the CC is in charge of negotiating sponsorships and funding > sources to support the relevant proposals gathered by the platform. The > only limitations are that the mission of NMI and the mandate and goals > of the CC are not changed in a way to distort the original idea. This is > certainly relevant for ICANN and CGI.br to continue to provide support > for it. > > The NMI, as a supporting platform of projects crafted to advance the > NETmundial principles and roadmap, can be seen as an accelerator, in > which the "start-ups" are initiatives to enhance, better understand > and/or improve on aspects of the Internet governance ecosystem. > > In this spirit, a good idea to spark the process of finding those > potential "start-ups" would be to comb through the many workshops of the > 9th IGF in Istanbul to catch possible ideas for proposals, which could > perhaps be a clear demonstration of projects in this nascent phase. > Certainly the João Pessoa IGF will be a good source of ideas as well, > and this could be thought as a permanent interactive mechanism between > the platform and the IGF. > > This is of course an idea to be submitted to the CC members, who are in > charge of in coordinating this process based on the input provided by > the Internet governance community. > > A last note, after the Singapore meeting, upon reading the recent public > consultation carried out by the Internet Society. Question 10 of the > questionnaire states: > > "10. Do you think the new “NETmundial Initiative” (NMI) that was > launched by the WEF, Brazil and ICANN is needed for effective Internet > governance?" > > This biased question induces the respondent to think that the initiative > is controlled by wEF and the Brazilian government in cahoots with ICANN. > Wrong. NMI has been proposed in a WEF meeting with the initial > participation of ICANN, WEF and CGI.br. As most of you know (but ISOC > seems not to), CGI.br is a multistakeholder commission, the majority of > board members being non-government. > > After an intense public scrutiny, the original proposal was > significantly modified, as I hope to have explained above. NMI in > summary is today a multistakeholder process. > > I encourage NCSGers to contribute to the CC's public consultation here: > > https://www.netmundial.org/community-consultation-terms-reference > > Deadline has been extended to Feb.23 and might be further extended to > Feb.27. > > I can't help but notice another tricky notion in ISOC's question 10: > what does ISOC consider to be "effective" Internet governance? I have no > idea of what they have in mind, but certainly an international > multistakeholder initiative which seeks to support the advancement of > the principles and roadmap of NETmundial cannot be discarded in the name > of a certain "effective" Internet governance. > > Notes: > > [1] > http://www.weforum.org/news/world-economic-forum-launches-future-internet-initiative > > [2] > https://fsm2015.org/en/article/2015/01/25/global-civil-society-launches-internet-social-forum-call-occupy-internet > > [3] > https://www.netmundial.org/blog/secretariat/netmundial-initiative-taking-positive-steps-forward