[Chapter-delegates] [MemberPubPol] User Centric Internet

[Luc Faubert]

Thanks for these documents, Matthew.

It is heartening to see ISOC structure its policy work and define a policy roadmap. Congratulations to you and Constance for your good work.

Here are some comments:

1.
>From a marketing perspective, "User Centric Internet" probably leaves too many stakeholders, namely business and governments, out in the cold. Wouldn't something like "Open Internet" be more appealing to a larger audience?

2.
As far as concrete actions are concerned, I think the proposed two-pronged engagement at the local level through better coordination with chapters and at the global level through existing decisional bodies and influence vortices is good. However, as noted in the "Public policy strategic outlook 2007-2009" document, this will require major investments in terms of time, energy and money.

How can we best leverage these investments? I surmise that one way to achieve this could be to invest in a global coordination facility for Internet policy. As noted in the very interesting presentation by KC Claffy referred to in the document Anne Lord sent to the Chapter Delegates list ("An Internet 2020 Initiative: "The Internet is (still) for Everyone"), one of the obstacles to the resolution of many of Internet's challenges is that "no one owns the problem" (slide 7) and that "no one has oversight for coordination" (slide 13). There is a void here, and everybody looses because of it.

You can see me getting -- again -- to the Internet Policy Task Force (or whatever it's called) idea that I have submitted to the Memberpubpol list a few weeks ago, i.e. a framework for global Internet-related policy building by all stakeholders that, while not having prescriptive powers, would nonetheless become the de facto space where global Internet policy is defined.

While most of the decisions needed to shape the Internet's future were in the past taken by a relatively small group of people working for the US government and the entities it funded, it should be clear to everybody that this is no longer the case. I think we are at a point where we must now evaluate if the risks inherent to the creation of what could become a central "authority" able to and successful in addressing Internet's challenges outweigh the risks we face with the status quo. As the Internet and its uses spread and evolve, I'm not sure that the current structures and decisional frameworks can continue to ensure the proper and legitimate (representing the interests of all stakeholders) development of the Internet. Maybe I'm wrong.

What will the Internet become without central coordination?
What will it become with central coordination?

Working on a global intiative such as the IPTF could turn out to be the most efficient and effective way of achieving some of the goals defined for the "User Centric Internet" program in the following text lifted from your policy strategic outlook:

"Ensuring that this future becomes a reality is no trivial issue given its complexity and breadth, and it will require the highest level of engagement across ISOC, the IETF, IESG and the IAB, our membership, the Internet community and other key stakeholders. Understanding, contributing to and helping to shape the regulatory and policy environment and responses to these pressures on the Internet will be a significant task. Fragmenting or replacing the Internet through commercially and/or politically driven alternatives is something that ISOC must guard against.

Understanding, contributing to and helping to shape the regulatory and policy environment and responses to these pressures will be ISOC's main public policy task for the foreseeable future. It will be no insignificant task. The continuity and evolution of the Internet are fundamental to ISOC's vision and mission. Ensuring that the Internet as we know it with its openness and reach continues to play an essential part of the converged communications environment of the future will be a critical activity. Responding to and anticipating these challenges will necessitate ISOC being front and center in the policy discussion."

Participating in existing bodies is of course crucial, but I think it could be useful for us to evaluate what we will achieve by doing this alone on one hand, and on the other by coupling this with an effort to reshape the whole Internet governance picture by creating something along the lines of the IPTF.

Regards,

- Luc Faubert
ISOC Québec


_________________________________________
Luc Faubert
Conseiller en gouvernance TI et en gestion du changement /
IT governance and change management consulting 
+1 514 236 5129
www.LucFaubert.com
www.isoc.qc.ca
www.ccig.ca
www.maillons.qc.ca 

 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: memberpubpol-bounces at elists.isoc.org 
> [mailto:memberpubpol-bounces at elists.isoc.org] On Behalf Of 
> Matthew Shears
> Sent: 21 mars 2007 11:32
> To: 'ISOC PP'
> Subject: [MemberPubPol] User Centric Internet
> 
> Dear members,
> 
>  
> 
> We have posted the first piece of the User Centric Internet 
> work program, which is a major focus for 2007 and beyond.  
> The purpose of the UCI work is
> to:
> 
> "..reassert, in debates and discussions related to the future 
> of the Internet, the importance of the design values and 
> fundamental principles that have underpinned the Internet's 
> success.  The Internet Society believes that principles such 
> as openness, user choice and control, edge based 
> intelligence, etc., are central to a thriving Internet and, 
> we believe, will be so for the foreseeable future. In 
> focusing on user-centricity the Internet Society is seeking 
> to ensure that the primacy of the user is not forgotten when 
> it comes to new architectures, commercial offerings and 
> policy making."  (From the UCI page on the ISOC site).
> 
> The UCI page is at
> http://www.isoc.org/pubpolpillar/focus/usercentric.shtml.  We 
> have provided a link on the page for comments and feedback on 
> the paper and the evolving work program, and will be 
> increasing the interactivity of the UCI page as we go 
> forward.  We can of course use this list for discussion as well.  
> 
> I would also very much appreciate your thoughts on some of 
> the next steps, such as:
> 
> * Further exploration of the critical design values that 
> underpin a thriving Internet
> 
> * Further exploration of the fundamental principles central 
> to user-centricity
> 
> * The importance of open standards and open standards processes to UCI
> 
> * Innovation and UCI, etc.
> 
> I would also welcome a discussion on what constitute the most 
> important design values-based principles to the future of the 
> Internet and
> user-centricity.   We will likely distribute a survey on this 
> and UCI more
> generally to the membership, but some initial thinking would 
> be very welcome.
> 
> Finally, pointers to other organizations that embrace 
> user-centricity and the fundamental principles that underpin 
> the Internet would be extremely useful - for example, while 
> specifically focused on Network Neutrality, this policy brief 
> captures many of the Internet fundamentals:
> http://www.cdt.org/publications/policyposts/2007/1.
> 
> Many thanks!
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Matthew
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> ----------------------------
> 
> Matthew Shears
> 
> Director of Public Policy 
> 
> Internet Society
> 
> + 45 30 71 74 10
> 
> shears at isoc.org
> 
> www.isoc.org
> 
>  
> 
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