http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/tunis/viewstory.asp?idnews=360
CONTROVERSIAL CONSENSUS MAINTAINS INTERNET STATUS QUO
Hilmi Toros
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) kicked off Wednesday
with a compromise document approved unanimously after several months of
fruitless negotiations.
The document was hailed late Tuesday with a half-hearted standing ovation.
Nitin Desai, Chairman of the Working Group on Internet Governance
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) kicks off Wednesday
with a compromise document approved unanimously after several months of
fruitless negotiations.
The document was hailed late Tuesday with a half-hearted standing ovation.
The discontent arises because the Internet status quo has been maintained,
allowing the US-based ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers), a non-profit private entity working under an agreement with the
US government, to remain as the main governing body of the global computer
network.
"Very happy with the result," Ambassador David Gross, US coordinator of
International Communications and Information Policy, told Terra Viva.
South Africa's Thembe Phiri, who had pushed for multinational governance
of the Internet, said "a spirit of compromise prevailed", but added that
the South had not given up on its quest for a stronger voice in the future
of the Internet.
The outcome is likely to further upset civil society groups who have
gathered here and have found themselves frustrated by intimidating
security measures which have isolated foreign delegates, journalists and
non governmental organisations from local groups.
Developing countries, the European Union and civil society groups had
wished for a compromise on opening up ICANN to more international control.
The body is widely seen as being under US tutelage.
In the compromise document follow-up discussions on Internet governance --
one of the most fought-over issues since the summit's first leg in Geneva
two years ago -- is left to independent fora, whose decisions will not be
binding. The first such forum is to be held in Greece next year, the US
official said.
Proposed as "the solution", the World Summit on the Information Society is
accentuating the problem: the North-South political impasse in tackling
the North-South Digital Divide. All agree that the Internet has enormous
potential for development in general, including in health, commerce and
governance among a host of critical issues. But, as was in evidence in
arduous preparations for the Summit, the North-South Divide prevailed over
future management of the tool that civil society calls "a global public
space that should be open and accessible to all on a non-discriminatory
basis".
"The internet … must be seen as a global public infrastructure," says The
Association for Progressive Communications (APC), an international network
of civil society organisations. "In this regard we recognise the internet
to be a global public good and access to it is in the public interest, and
must be provided as a public provision."
Yet, on the eve of the 173-nation summit, it became apparent in a morass
of last minute give-and-take among harassed delegates that the South's
viewpoint would not hold sway.
Despite a determined push by South Africa, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil
and others from the developing world, the developed countries, the United
States and Australia in the main, held firm against any action that would
have transferred powers from the US-based ICANN. The corporation manages
"the domain name system" (DNS) enabling millions of computer users around
the world to communicate with each other.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has characterized the Tunis Summit as
"unique," because it will consider "how best to use a new global asset"
rather than focusing on global threats, as most world summits do.
In fact, there is much more to the Summit than Internet governance,
although that topic has overshadowed others.
Scores of companies have come to show off the latest in information and
communication technology. Over 300 "parallel events" and roundtable
debates are being held, and partnerships between private business and
local communities in making Internet access cheaper and more available in
Asia, Africa and South America are being showcased. One project has solar
energy supplying the power for computers in places where electricity
generation is expensive.
Yoshio Utsumi, head of the International Telecommunication Union and
Secretary General of the Summit, is pushing for a $1-billion project
called Connect the World to enable 800,000 villages to access the
Internet.
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