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<a href="http://www.idg.com.sg/idgwww.nsf/0/89C7423D6CED239B48256EC8000DE973?OpenDocument" eudora="autourl">http://www.idg.com.sg/idgwww.nsf/0/89C7423D6CED239B48256EC8000DE973?OpenDocument<br>
</a>Early row signals challenges for next Net summit<br>
By John Blau<br>
IDG News Service, Düsseldorf Bureau<br>
05-07-2004<br>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>Tempers flared briefly during a recent
meeting designed to define the structure of next year's follow-up global
Net summit in Tunis, Tunisia, and what the assembly should deliver in the
way of action. <br>
An unexpected human rights row on June 26 at the first preparatory
meeting (Prepcom-1) for the second World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS) in November 2005 signalled the many challenges the world
faces in bridging the digital divide and giving people, particularly in
developing countries, access to information and knowledge.<br><br>
Representatives of the Tunisian government, which will host WSIS II,
tried to block Tunisian human rights activist Souhayr Belhassen of the
Civil Society Human Rights Caucus from delivering a slightly critical
statement on the government's position on freedom of speech and the right
to privacy. In the end, a formal protest by the European Union (E.U.),
pointing to the active role of Civil Society groups in the Net talks,
forced the Tunisian government delegation to back off and let Belhassen
speak. <br><br>
If blood pressures rose briefly over human rights at the first meeting,
they could easily soar at the next two prepcoms or at the final summit
when delegates meet to decide on the prickly issues of Internet
governance and infrastructure funding -- both of which were shelved at
the first Net summit in Geneva at the end of last year -- and on how to
implement the agreed upon action plan.<br><br>
"The human rights row showed how sensitive many of the issues
are," said Ralph Bendrath, a Civil Society representative from the
German Heinrich Böll Foundation. "Some tough negotiating lies
ahead."<br><br>
The two special task forces approved at WSIS I to focus on Internet
governance and funding task forces are expected to make preliminary
reports at Prepcom-3 in September 2005, said Bendrath, who attended the
first preparatory meeting.<br><br>
Internet governance is a term that has evolved from its early technical
focus on names, numbers and protocols to include policy issues. And it's
the policy aspect that has led to a divide between the E.U., U.S. and
many other industrialized countries in the one camp and Brazil, China and
numerous other developing countries in the other. While the U.S.-led bloc
favors the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN),
based in Marina del Rey, California, the other bloc seeks strong
government intervention.<br><br>
The other battle to be fought from now until WSIS II is funding expansion
of the Internet to the billions of people without access. Pleas by
developing nations such as Senegal to set up a "digital solidarity
fund" were largely rejected at the first summit by developed
countries, notably the U.S. and the 15 members of the E.U. before
enlargement, which favor using existing funding programs and voluntary
contributions.<br><br>
Even if funding and Net governance are high on the agenda, other issues,
such as security and open-source software, will continue to draw
attention. Viruses, worms and various forms of fraud, which are already
nibbling away at the security of the Internet in industrialized nations,
will come to developing countries as well. And although the U.S.
successfully lobbied to have proprietary software added to the WSIS
declaration of principle, numerous poor countries view open source as a
means to develop their own technology instead of having to import it at a
price many can't afford.<br><br>
In Geneva, delegates agreed to achieve certain goals, such as ensuring
that more than half of the world's population has access to the Web,
telephone lines or some other form of electronic media by 2015. How to
implement these goals as part of the agreed action plan and monitor
performance, however, is still an unanswered question, according to
Bendrath. "What was agreed in Geneva was more a good draft than a
real action plan," Bendrath said. "There wasn't a lot of time
to put together the plan. Now there is."<br><br>
The next meeting, Prepcom-2, is scheduled for Feb. 17 in Geneva.</font>
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