[Chapter-delegates] Report: ISOC at ITU Telecom World

[Terry Monroe]

Dear Chapter Delegates-
 
The following report summarizes ISOC's activites at the recently concluded
ITU Telecom World.  Thanks to our policy team (Matthew Shears, Constance
Bommelaer) and Drew Dvorshak for representing ISOC at the event and for
preparing this report.

Regards,
Terry Monroe
Director of Development & Membership
 
------------
ISOC, along with ICANN and the NRO, participated in Telecom World 2006 in
Hong Kong from December 4 - 8.  ISOC, ICANN and the NRO implemented an
Internet Pavilion as an outreach tool for business leaders and policy
makers.  ISOC also participated in the Forum and the parallel Youth Forum
activities.  ISOC participated in the event as a part of its ongoing
outreach activities related to policy and to overall visibility in the
Internet space with ICANN and the NRO.

Telecom World occurs every 3 years and comprises two tracks - a trade show
and a Forum in which a range of issues are discussed typically related to
technology, strategy and policy.  Senior business leaders and policy makers
confer and connect - the event is not a pure policy related event but rather
a policy and business environment influencing event.

The Internet pavilion was similar in purpose to that deployed at the WSIS
meeting in Tunis.  In Hong Kong the mix of business interest and policy
interest was similar, contrary to the more policy focus of the WSIS.  The
Hong Kong event proved to be a useful opportunity for the community to
reinforce its messages not only among policy makers but also among industry
leadership.

ISOC participated in the Forum track directly: Matthew Shears spoke in two
sessions, the first on "The future of Internet Governance" and the second on
"New rules and roles in the Digital Age". 

Constance Bommelaer chaired an all-day session on cyber security, entitled
"Countering Spam Cooperation Agenda".  This proved to be a very useful
vehicle for positioning ISOC in the cyber security debate more visibly.
During this session, the OECD and the ITU presented the "StopSpam
Coallition", a recent joint initiative gathering information and resources
on combating spam (www.stopspamalliance.org
<http://www.stopspamalliance.org/>  ). This initiative was launched by APEC,
the EU's CNSA, ITU, the London Action Plan and the Seoul-Melbourne Anti-Spam
Group. It is an open initiative any relevant organization can join. The
overall session description can be found here:
http://www.itu.int/cgi-bin/htsh/TELECOM/scripts/forum/forum.programme?event=
wt2006&_dossierid=758&_languageid=1.

Matthew also participated in the Youth Forum parallel event.  The Youth
Forum is an ITU activity that brings a select group of young leaders in the
ICT area to Telecom World and puts them through a range of sessions that
leverage the main Forum sessions and speakers.  The program details can be
found here:    http://www.itu.int/WORLD2006/forum/youth.html.  Matthew spoke
in a session on "Applications and Technologies for Digital Society" and
participated in a workshop on strategic communications.  ISOC's role was
recognized during the closing Youth Forum plenary.

Drew Dvorshak, ISOC's new Senior Manager of Organizational Membership also
attended, meeting with existing and potential members.   He had
conversations with representatives from roughly 25 prospective member
organizations from around the world including notable telecoms/network
providers, ISPs, equipment manufacturers, government ministries and others.
In addition to that, he made useful contacts within national and regional
economic development organizations such as UBI France, UK Trade & Investment
and OECD.  He expects that as those relationships develop, they will lead to
introductions with representatives from even more prospective organizational
members within their respective spheres of influence.

An overview of ISOC's participation in the event, including supporting
materials, PowerPoints and speaking notes, etc., can be found here:
http://www.isoc.org/pubpolpillar/telecom2006.shtml

The Telecom World 2006 site can be found here:
http://www.itu.int/WORLD2006/index.html and the Forum page here:
http://www.itu.int/WORLD2006/forum/programme_preview.html.  Each of the
sessions was vodcast - but the downloads are very large.

Overall, the event proved to be a very valuable way for ISOC to build on its
continued policy and leadership-related outreach activities, build
relationships with the membership and continue to demonstrate leadership in
the Internet governance space.