[chapter-delegates] my speaking this morning

[Veni Markovski]

What I said in Geneva (part 1 of 2) during the WGIG open consultations, 
Geneva, June 14th, 2005

Dear Mr. Desai, Dear Mr. Kummer,
Thank you, and once again √ thanks to the ITU for their hospitality and all 
logistic support behind the WSIS/WGIG.

Dear colleagues and friends,


Brian Carpenter quoted the famous (now) phrase, ⌠if it ain't broken, don't 
fix it■, but I want to return you to the real life, that is, the 
Easteuropean saying: ⌠If it's working, don't touch it■. That's a 
fundamental difference in the approaches towards any work.

The very fact that so many stakeholders want to ⌠touch it■ - what does it 
mean? Does it mean it's not working? I guess not, as we are here, using 
Internet even while we listen to the different statements. But what is that 
they want to ⌠touch■?

So, what does it mean that there are some stakeholders, who want to ⌠touch 
it■, or to fix it? And what's that they see as ⌠broken■?

Perhaps there are some of the stakeholders, who think that the ⌠broken■ is 
that they are not actively involved in the governance of the Internet √ the 
way they see it: be it the root management, the IP address allocation, or 
as some mentioned today √ spam, content control, .xxx release, etc. 
However, no one has mentioned another big problem, much bigger the ones 
discussed: how to combat cybercrime. And do you know why? Because the 
majority of the countries and users do not suffer from cybercrime √ they 
have not recognized it as a danger for the society, they have not accepted 
adequate legislature. But the US, and the Western countries suffer annually 
billions of dollars of losses from cyber-criminals √ credit card fraud, id 
thefts, etc. If we don't try to find a solution to this problem, the 
Internet will be over as soon as cybercrime affects all countries and 
users, not only the most developed countries and the most advanced users 
(or the ones with credit cards).

One can participate in every single aspect of the Internet policy making 
today. However, there are three requirements to do so:
    * 1. to want,
    * 2. to can, and
    * 3. to do it
So, the feeling one can have from the discussion is that there are two 
groups of people speaking here √ one, which feels quite happy with the 
current situation. And one, which feels quite unhappy with the status quo.

The task of the WGIG is not to make both groups happy, but to give some 
guidelines as to what is the road towards finding the cross point where all 
interests will meet, and a common, mutually acceptable solution to be 
found, which should include all stakeholders √ not only governments, but 
also civil society, the UN agencies, esp. the ITU, individual users.

In searching for this common solution, Bulgaria can positively contribute 
with its own experience. We have managed to build a public private 
partnership that served the interests of the society through in depth work 
with the government, the Parliament and the Office of the President. We are 
ready to share this experience, and we'll do so in writing, after the 
publication of the WGIG report on July 18th, and during the time until the 
PrepCom-2 in Geneva in September.

IN the 21st Century while we still can, but we shouldn't work the old way. 
The new way of work is to use all available resources, and put together all 
stakeholders. This, so far, is one of the main achievements of the whole 
WSIS process, and the work of the WGIG.