[discuss] FW: [governance] FW: Towards an Internet Social Forum

Sun Jan 25 16:26:34 UTC 2015

Thank you Mike for the IGF - ISF explanation.

What about the NM São Paulo statement? Valid? Building on it? Or just forgotten?

Carlos Raúl Gutiérrez
+506 8837 7176 (New Number)
Enviado desde mi iPhone

> El ene 25, 2015, a las 9:41 AM, michael gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com> escribió:
> 
> Hi Wolfgang,
> 
> I think that Parminder gave you a quite extensive answer which I won't even
> attempt to repeat...
> 
> My own (and personal take) is that the ISF will give prominence to issues
> related to the Internet and social justice, something which has been more or
> less completely ignored in the context of the IGF and other Internet
> Governance processes.
> 
> For me, my work in the context of community informatics and my activities in
> linking the Community Informatics network to the JNC (and in future (I
> expect) to the ISF) is about how the Internet (and ICTs overall) can be used
> to promote social justice and how various kinds of interventions may be
> needed to overcome the massive amounts of economic (and thus social)
> inequalities which are emerging (one can assume causatively) as a more or
> less direct result of the interventions of the Internet.
> 
> That civil society in Internet Governance has ignored these issues of social
> justice and has allowed the various processes concerning Internet Governance
> equally to ignore (including dare I say, allowing for and enabling the high
> degree of selectivity in the choices of which Human Rights to promote and
> which to avoid), is to my mind scandalous and a serious dereliction of their
> responsibilities to the point where it is laughable and a fairly serious
> category mistake to refer to most of the individuals and groups involved as
> civil society at all.
> 
> So, to answer your question my own activities in relation to the ISF will be
> to ensure that questions of social justice and economic and social
> inequality in the context of the Internet, of Internet governance, and of
> governance of and with the Internet are front and centre in our discussions.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Mike
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Kleinwächter, Wolfgang"
> [mailto:wolfgang.kleinwaechter at medienkomm.uni-halle.de]
> Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2015 4:59 AM
> To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org; michael gurstein;
> governance at lists.igcaucus.org
> Subject: AW: [governance] FW: Towards an Internet Social Forum
> 
> Hi Michael,
> 
> I asked already Parminder how the ISF is linked to the IGF and I did not get
> an answer. Can you reply? 
> 
> Wolfgang
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org im Auftrag von michael gurstein
> Gesendet: So 25.01.2015 13:19
> An: governance at lists.igcaucus.org
> Betreff: [governance] FW: Towards an Internet Social Forum
> 
> Coverage of the ISF in an Indian daily
> 
> M
> 
> http://www.deccanherald.com/content/455369/towards-democratic-internet-gover
> nance.html
> 
> 
> Towards democratic Internet governance
> 
> 
> *    1 min read 
> *     
> 
> Shruthi H M, Bengaluru, Jan 24, 2015, DHNS:
> 
> The Internet might have pervaded the common man's life but its governance
> still remains in the hands of a few corporate giants. To counter this, civil
> society organisations propose democratic Internet governance. 
> 
> Though Google's Eric Schmidt predicts the "disappearance of Internet into
> the background", a group of organisations have set out to bring to fore
> voices that have remained in the background in spite of the Internet's all
> pervasive nature.As the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2015 is in progress in
> Davos (Jan 21-24), civil society organisations have come together to create
> a global 'Internet Social Forum' countering the WEF's NETmundial initiative
> for Internet governance. The organisations aim to create an Internet space
> governed in public interest. 
> 
> Bengaluru-based organisation IT for Change will be an active part of this
> global forum, along with five other Indian organisations: Society For
> Knowledge Commons, All India Peoples Science Network, Free Software Movement
> of India, SLFC.in and Digital Empowrment Foundation. 
> 
> The Internet Social Forum will consist of civil society organisations from
> across the globe who believe that Internet governance should not be limited
> to the vested interests of corporate giants. Their endeavour is to put in
> place a "bottom's up" approach, where grassroots groups can have their say
> in regulating Internet space.
> 
> Civil organisations feel that the WEF's global internet policy making and
> governance initiative the 'NETmundial', restricts itself to the voices of
> the global elite. The concept of WEF itself has been countered by the "World
> Social Forum" and the Internet Social Forum draws inspiration from it. In
> fact, the "preparatory process" of the forum is likely to be held in March
> 2015 in Tunis, during the World Social Forum meet.
> 
> When one searches for something on the Internet, the most popular links
> related to the subject appear at the top of the list. 
> 
> However, more often links that appear first are not guided by popularity but
> by the money invested by interested parties to ensure they are displayed on
> top. In this regard, the Internet Social Forum will fight for "Net
> neutrality". 
> 
> IT For Change Executive Director Parminder Jeet Singh said, "In its current
> form, internet governance has not yet become a people's movement. The
> Internet is increasingly controlled by corporates." 
> 
> Community owned broadband, data ownership, limits to copyright and including
> rural communities in the dialogue process are some of the issues that the
> forum seeks to address.
> 
> Rishab Bailey, Director (legal), Society For Knowledge Commons, added that
> such an initiative was significant as, at present, a lot of thought is going
> into setting up institutions for Internet governance. "We have to ensure a
> representative and democratic Internet governance. Internet is a global
> construct and it touches all our lives. As of now there are no concrete
> mechanisms to deal with issues pertaining to Internet governance. We have to
> make sure that Internet governance is a true bottoms up approach." 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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