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<DIV><SPAN class=125023515-21042005>Frannie,</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=125023515-21042005></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=125023515-21042005>Thanks for the detailed
summary. Useful to hear about the US perspective.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=125023515-21042005></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=125023515-21042005>Best regards,</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=125023515-21042005></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=125023515-21042005>
<DIV><SPAN class=609463500-20042005>Elizabeth</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=609463500-20042005></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=609463500-20042005>
<DIV><SPAN class=890353618-19042005>Dr. Elizabeth Carll<BR>Focal Point to
WSIS<BR>International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies;<BR>Chair, Media/ICT
Working Group<BR><SPAN class=125023515-21042005>UN </SPAN>NGO Committee on
Mental Health<SPAN class=609463500-20042005>, New York;</SPAN><BR>Vice
President<BR>Communications Coordination Committee for the UN<BR>Tel:
631-754-2424<BR>Fax: 631-754-5032<BR><A
href="mailto:ecarll@optonline.net">ecarll@optonline.net</A></SPAN></DIV></SPAN></DIV></SPAN></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> plenary-admin@wsis-cs.org
[mailto:plenary-admin@wsis-cs.org]<B>On Behalf Of </B>Frannie
Wellings<BR><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, April 20, 2005 2:51 PM<BR><B>To:</B>
governance@lists.cpsr.org; plenary@wsis-cs.org; CRISusa@comunica.org;
mh@wacc.org.uk<BR><B>Subject:</B> [WSIS CS-Plenary] Notes from US State Dept
WSIS Briefing of April 19th<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>Hi all,<BR><BR>Yesterday the
US Department of State held a public briefing on WSIS. My notes are
below.<BR><BR>Best,<BR><BR>Frannie<BR><BR>***<BR>Frannie Wellings<BR>Free
Press<BR><A class=moz-txt-link-freetext
href="http://freepress.net">http://freepress.net</A><BR><BR><BR><BR>---------------------------------------------<BR><BR>US
International Telecommunication Advisory Committee Information Meeting on the
WSIS<BR>National Academy of Science Building<BR>Washington, DC<BR>April 19,
2005<BR><BR><BR>Ambassador David Gross:<BR><BR>Digital Solidarity
Fund<BR>Ambassador Gross said that the Digital Solidarity Fund exists and they
must now deal with it - he stated that he'd worked to get the word "voluntary"
inserted into multiple places in the text. He continued to overemphasize
their preference for a fund of a voluntary nature. He stated, "As a
proud member of the Bush Administration, my position is predictable - there
should be no international taxation. All funding should be
voluntary."<BR><BR>WGIG<BR>Gross encouraged industry, NGO's and academia to
provide input to the WGIG. He said the State Department is not
interested in negotiating multiple times in multiple venues and would not be
responding much more. He's concerned that the positions of the US
community (which I took to mean industry) would not be articulated if everyone
assumed others were submitting positions. He explained that the report
would be issued on July 18th and that there would be a 1 month comment
period. The State Dept is going to issue a notice soliciting comments to
be filed through the WGIG when the comment period opens. Open issues
from the WGIG report will be dealt with at prepcom III.<BR><BR>Gross is
concerned by the Council of the European Union's submission to the WGIG
consultation. He said the EU statement calls for a new model of
governance for the core resources of the Internet, building on existing
organizations, founded on a multilateral basis taking into account the public
policy interests of governments. The State Department is concerned that
the European Union position substantially differs from the US, which prefers
that the private sector leads. (Below, I've copied the European Union
statement from the April 18th transcript for reference.)<BR><BR>Political
Chapeau<BR>The State Dept is concerned by the efforts to create and shape the
Political Chapeau. They felt that the Declaration of Principles and the
Plan of Action were good and they say their concern is over the possibility of
inconsistencies between the Political Chapeau and the older documents.
Ambassador Gross said he's been traveling a lot recently having bilateral
discussions regarding the Chapeau to explain his point of view (which I took
to mean lobby).<BR><BR><BR>----------------<BR><BR>Sally Shipman:<BR><BR>Basic
Overview of Documents<BR>Prepcom I - Idea for Political Chapeau and
Operational Part<BR>Prepcom II - Draft Political Chapeau: compilation of
proposals by governments in Prepcom II. The debate will take place in Prepcom
III. The Operational Part has four chapters: 1) Implementation [US on
page 15], 2) Financing [mostly stable text], 3) Internet Governance [blank
until after WGIG report/comment/debate], 4) The path ahead [will debate at
Prepcom III].<BR><BR>Organization of Prepcom III<BR>There will be two
subcommittees: 1) Internet Governance and 2) Everything else<BR><BR>WGIG
Report<BR>She encouraged everyone to submit comments on the WGIG report -
deadline is August 15th.<BR><BR>--------------<BR><BR>Questions<BR><BR>Patrice
Lyons, Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI)<BR>Q: Patrice is
concerned with the approach she sees in the latest WGIG documents that assume
a fixation in the Internet, particularly what she sees as too much emphasis on
the end-to-end principle. She thinks this could prevent the Internet
from evolving. <BR>A: Ambassador Gross - Gross agrees.<BR><BR>Mike Nelson, IBM
and Internet Society<BR>Q: He thinks the report on financing is a good
product, but was shelved, and he thinks the early papers of the WGIG were
good, but were also shelved and ignored in the development of the cluster
papers. He thinks the cluster papers are not very good and finds them
frustrating. <BR>A: Ambassador Gross - Gross encourages him to submit
his statement so it is recorded.<BR><BR>Q: Mike asks what they know about the
number of Heads of State going to Tunis. He says many will be in NY in
September for the Millennium Summit and he thinks the action might take place
there. <BR>A: Ambassador Gross - Gross says that the Tunisians are
saying many more Heads of State will participate, though he doesn't know if
this is true. Gross adds that Heads of State are unlikely to discuss
tech issues in a fluid discussion at the Millennium Summit.<BR><BR>Audience
member question<BR>Q: In terms of Internet Governance, what is the best and
worse case scenario in your opinion? Ambassador Gross answers that this
ought to be a positive experience. It's a job for all of us to focus it on
stability, flexibility, robustness. He's struck by the comments of the EU,
that to him it suggests a preference for an outcome with more governmental
control than the US had articulated. <BR>A: Ambassador Gross - Gross
says that the State Department doesn't want to maintain the status quo, but
wants to build on the successes. The best case scenario, he says, is
that everyone agrees with the State Department.<BR><BR>Paula (Internet
Society?)<BR>Q: What will happen to the UN ICT Task Force and the Global
Alliance proposal? <BR>A: Ambassador Gross - Gross describes the
proposal put forward by the Secretary of the UN ICT Task Force for the Global
Alliance and the history of the TF. He said there's been a robust discussion
about the Global Alliance proposal as a follow up organization. Some have said
there's no need and others would like the UN ICT Task Force to continue under
this different name. There are questions about how it would fit and relate to
existing organizations and what would be the value added? The US has
said that the task force ought not to be the vehicle post-wsis, that
traditional mechanisms/existing organizations are better
suited.<BR><BR><BR>---------------------<BR><BR>European Union Statement at
the <BR>OPEN CONSULTATIONS OF THE THIRD MEETING OF THE WORKING GROUP ON
INTERNET GOVERNANCE<BR>18 APRIL 2005 [morning session]<BR><A
class=moz-txt-link-freetext
href="http://www.wgig.org/April-scriptmorning.html">http://www.wgig.org/April-scriptmorning.html</A><BR><BR>Note:
The following is the output of the real-time captioning taken during the
morning session of the WGIG open Consultations held 18 April in Geneva,
Switzerland. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete
or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted
as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the session, but should not be
treated as an authoritative record. <BR><BR>>>Chairman Desai:
Luxembourg.<BR>>>Luxembourg: thank you, chair. I speak on behalf of the
presidency on the council of the European Union.<BR>The E.U. would like to
thank the WGIG for its ongoing work on key issues related to the stable and
secure functioning of the internet.<BR>Among these, the question of
internationalization of the management of the internet's core resources;
namely the domain names systems, ip addresses, and the root server system,
appears as one of the main issues in this debate.<BR>The E.U. believes that a
new cooperation is needed in order to confer the WSIS principles regarding the
crucial role of all actors within internet governance. Including governance,
the private sector, civil society, and international organizations.<BR>We
think that the existing internet governance mechanisms should be founded on a
more solid, democratic, transparent, and multilateral basis, with a stronger
emphasis on the public policy interests of all governments.<BR>This new model
should be based on the following principles.<BR>It should not replace existing
mechanism or institutions, but should build on the existing structures of
internet governance, with a special emphasis on the complementarity between
all the actors in this process. Governments, and, recognizing the importance
of national responsibilities and roles. Second the new public/private
cooperation model, should contribute to the sustainable stability and
robustness of the internet by addressing appropriately public policy issues
related to key elements of internet governance.<BR>The E.U. believes that
governments do have a specific mission and responsibility vis-a-vis their
citizens and their role within this new corporation model should be mainly
focused on issues of public policy excluding any involvement in the day-to-day
operations.<BR>Furthermore, the E.U. strongly reaffirms its attachment to the
architectural principles of the internet including interoperability, openness
and the end-to-end principle.<BR>We therefore support the WGIG in its paper on
the root zone file and the root zone management when it states proposals for
improvements need to consider in general the existing system has functioned
properly from the technical point of view for more than two decades and that
adjustments were needed first for technical and political reasons have to be
made in a proper and adequate way related to the functioning, stability,
security and further development of the internet. End of quote.<BR>This is why
we encourage the WGIG to present balanced options for a true
internationalization of the management of the internet's core resources in its
final report.<BR>While this statement is limited to the issue of
internationalization, the E.U. reiterates the importance it attaches to the
stability, dependability and robustness of the internet, including spam and
network security.<BR>Thank you, Chairman.<BR><BR><BR>
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