Report (Part 2): Third World Summit on the Internet and Multimedia

Internet Governance: the Challenge of Balance, Fairness and Equity

Time: 9 October 2002, 10:00-12:00 Location: A 450 Chair: Richard Delmas (Principal Administrator, European Commission, Advisor to GAC, France) Presenters/ Participants: Greg Jones (Counselor, International Telecommunications Union, USA)
Demi Getschko (Member of Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, Brazil)
YJ Park (Board Member, Multilingual Internet Names Consortium, Korea) Reporter: Clara Gámiz (ICVolunteers) Languages: English Key words: Digital divide Internet multimedia underdeveloped developed

Internet governance is at a turning point. ICANN (International Corporation for Assigned Names), the organization responsible for managing the Internet domain name and address system, is in the midst of a reform exercise. This will lead to greater international government representation but reduces f the general Internet public to a traditional participant in the decision making-process. Another issue of contention discussed was the technical capacity of the Internet to deal with multilingual and multicultural differences between countries. The objective of this session was to see how to ensure that these reforms lead to an Internet that works for the benefit of all, and how a model of new Internet governance can lead to a fair and equitable administration of Internet traffic that is decentralized and inclusive.

Structure and Functioning of ITU-T
The first panelist, Mr. Greg Jones, Counselor of the International Telecommunications Union, USA, based his presentation on the structure and functioning of ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector. He stated its mission, which is to provide global telecommunications standards for technical, operating and tariff questions. He then continued with a description of its members: 189 member states and 493 sector members and associates. It is composed of the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly, the TS Advisory group and study groups. Its working methods are based on WTSA resolutions, contributions and reports. The approval time for an ITU-T recommendation has been reduced in the last few years, ranging from four weeks to nine months. The organization has a great interest in cooperation on common subjects with other partners and provides draft texts and other documents to SDOs to post for public consultation. Mr. Jones gave examples of recent cooperation, special projects and meetings with workshops in other regions. Finally, he pointed out some technical trends, such as:

• Digitalization in the storage, processing and transmission of information;
• Increasing computer and signal processing power;
• Convergence between technologies;
• Increasing overlap of home and business markets;
• More rapid product launch times and reducing product lifecycles.

Mr. Demi Getschko, Member of Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, Brazil, talked about the Internet in Brazil. After introducing some historical background-Brazil had its first international network connections in 1988-he mentioned the great Internet expansion in Brazil in the past few years. The .br Domain Name System was included in the Internet in April of 1989. It was built up as a hierarchical structure, maintaining the first, second and (in some cases) third level under the control of the Brazilian Registry, a nonprofit operation. The .br domain is managed by the Brazilian Steering Committee, created by the Ministry of Science and the Ministry of Communications. Mr. Getschko explained the .br-DSN characteristics (domain for institutions, professions, as well as natural persons) and the requirements for registration. He also gave data on the Brazilian telecommunications infrastructure. He finished his presentation by supplying some interesting websites concerning Internet governance in Brazil:

• www.eg.org.br: Brazilian Steering Committee
• www.anatel.gov.br: Brazilian Telecom Regulatory Agency
• www.mct.gov.br: Ministry of Science and Technology
• www.mc.gov.br: Ministry of Communications

Ms. Y.J. Park of the Multilingual Internet Names Consortium, gave a presentation on the Culture-Conscious Internet. She pointed out the importance of cultural awareness on the Internet and the recognition of multilingual identifiers. There are social and linguistic differences that can become real barriers for the users. The first cyber community (1990-2002) is built around English domain names and keywords (Ms. Park called it the McDonald culture).In her opinion, this produces a lack of cultural diversity, which, from her point of view, is very negative. There is now a challenge to build a second cyber community around other languages such as Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Tamil, etc. There must be an effort to create an interaction between those communities and to set up a global cyber-community coordination body, with the aim of preserving cultural identity in a multi-cultural environment.

Surprising Issues
In August 2002, Brazil had 49,4 million fixed telephony services, 30 million mobile telephony services and 1,4 million public telephony points installed throughout the country.

There are 70 experimental language domain names and keywords available on the Internet market.

Interesting Questions
A delegate from ICANN had a comment regarding the risk of creating large , isolated islands on the Internet, without interconnections, due to language differences. Mr. Greschko pinpointed the technical problems concerning connectivity: how can one have access to a Greek web if one does not have the Greek characters in one's computer and keyboard? A delegate from India asked whether the US government could exclude Iraq from the Internet, because of the conflict. Chair Mr. Delmas said that ICANN does not have the right to do so.

Conclusions
There must be a balance between Internet governance, which is in private hands due to lack of competition and the requirements of regulation due to public interest in such an important tool. Much needs to be done to eliminate social and linguistic barriers that increase the digital divide and deny Internet access to non-English speaking communities.