Not technical, but does affect the Internet ecosystem:
http://www.internetsociety.org/news/internet-society-statement-netmundial-initiative
Internet Society Statement on the NETmundial Initiative
16 November 2014
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA] – 16 November 2014 – The Internet Society Board of
Trustees today issued the following statement:
Recently, the “I* Group” [1] was invited to participate in the NETmundial
Initiative, which is different from the one-time NETmundial meeting in which we
participated in April 2014; we endorsed the outcomes of that meeting. This new
and different NETmundial Initiative has been organized by the partnership of
the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and the World Economic Forum (WEF) [2].
This announcement has resulted in considerable discussion and concern amongst
various stakeholders regarding the purpose, scope, and nature of the proposed
activity or organization.
The Internet Society Board discussed this proposed NETmundial Initiative in
depth during its meeting November 15 – 16, 2014. As a result, the Internet
Society Board first emphasizes that the main priority facing the Internet
community right now is the IANA Functions’ Stewardship Transition and
recommends that all organizations in the Internet community should be highly
focused on effectuating a successful transition. The Internet Society remains
fully committed to the September 2015 milestone set for completing a plan that
will meet the criteria set by U.S. National Telecommunications & Information
Administration (NTIA).
With respect to the need for new groups, such as the NETmundial Initiative and
its Coordination Council, the Internet Society Board reiterates that the
Internet Society’s longstanding position is that there is no single, global
platform that can serve to coordinate, organize or govern all the Internet
issues that may arise. At its heart, the Internet is a decentralized, loosely
coupled, distributed system that allows policies to be defined by those who
require them for their operations and that ensures that issues can be resolved
at a level closest to their origin. The ecosystem draws its strength from the
involvement of a broad range of actors working through open, transparent, and
collaborative processes to innovate and build the network of networks that is
the cornerstone of the global economy.[3]
Based on the information that we have to date, the Internet Society cannot
agree to participate in or endorse the Coordination Council for the NETmundial
Initiative. We are concerned that the way in which the NETmundial Initiative is
being formed does not appear to be consistent with the Internet Society’s
longstanding principles, including:
• Bottom-up orientation
• Decentralized
• Open
• Transparent
• Accountable
• Multi-stakeholder
The Board has asked the Internet Society’s CEO, Kathryn Brown, to convene a
dialogue within the Internet Society community. This includes Internet Society
Chapters from around the world, Internet Society organization members, the
IETF, the IAB, partners from the Internet technical community, and others. The
dialogue should consider whether any new initiatives or groups are needed at
the current time and, if so, to define the objectives for any such effort.
In addition, Bob Hinden, Chairman of the Internet Society Board of Trustees has
initiated a dialogue with the Chairman of the ICANN Board, given ICANN’s
leading involvement in the NETmundial Initiative.
The Internet Society remains committed to a vision of the Internet that is
open, inclusive, decentralized and for the benefit of all people throughout the
world.
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[1] The I* Group encompasses the Internet Society, IETF, IAB, World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C), Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), ICANN, and the regional
Top Level Domain (TLD) organizations.
[2] https://www.netmundial.org/press-release-1
[3] The Internet Society’s position from the World Summit on Information
Society (WSIS) of 2003 and 2005, is “Many issues cannot be solved by new,
overarching structures at a global level but rather by building on today’s
open, multi-stakeholder and cooperative processes.” And that the community
should “…consider whether new structures will bring truly measurable, positive
change to the functioning, stability, security and openness of the Internet.”
(http://www.internetsociety.org/wsis).
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