NetMundial Initiative

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The mission of the NETmundial Initiative (NMI) is to provide a platform that helps catalyze practical cooperation between all global stakeholders in order to address Internet issues and advance the implementation of the NETmundial Principles and Roadmap.[1] NMI connects interested parties with concrete proposals and ideas with others who are willing to supply expertise, funding or other forms of contributions.

Background

The historic NETmundial meeting held in São Paulo, Brazil, in April 2014, which brought together 1,480 stakeholders from 97 countries, provided a reference for governments, private sector, civil society, technical community and academia from around the world to address Internet governance challenges.[2]

Its concluding, non-binding Multistakeholder Statement contained a shared set of Principles and a Roadmap to guide the evolution of Internet cooperation and governance.[3] Many parties to these historic discussions sought to carry forward the cooperative spirit forged in São Paulo and work together to apply the NETmundial Principles to address Internet issues in concrete ways through the NMI.

The NMI was launched in on 6 November 2014 in a partnership between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br) and the World Economic Forum (WEF). Its Inaugural Coordination Council consists of 23 members representing a broad and diverse set of stakeholders from across 4 sectors including Academia, Technical Community and Foundations; Civil Society; Governments and Intergovernmental Organizations; and the Private Sector, and 5 geographies divided into Africa, Asia and Oceania, Europe, Latin America and Caribbean, and North America.

Mission and Scope

The NMI's mission is to "provide a platform that helps catalyze practical cooperation between all stakeholders in order to address Internet issues and advance the implementation of the NETmundial Principles and Roadmap."[4]

The NMI operates according to the NETmundial Internet governance process Principles: democratic, multistakeholder, open, participative, consensus-driven, transparent, accountable, inclusive and equitable, distributed, collaborative and enabling of meaningful participation.[4] The Initiative's Terms of Reference, along with other guiding documents were developed based upon these principles and in consultation with the global Internet community.

The scope of the NMI includes promoting the application, evaluation, and implementation of these principles and operating as an impartial clearinghouse for information about governance issues.[1] The NMI provides a Platform on which diverse actors can present projects, solicit partners and establish collaborative relationships.[5] The Initiative facilitates participation in the Internet governance ecosystem, particularly by stakeholders from the developing world, and advances multistakeholder processes at the global, regional and national levels.[1] The NMI seeks to promote the application, evaluation and implementation of the Initiative's Principles and encourage community reporting efforts.[1]

While the NMI is not a policy-making body, it seeks to complement and support existing Internet governance dialogue, processes and institutions including the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and the global Internet technical community.[1]

Rationale and Commitment

The Multistakeholder Statement generated at the initial NETmundial meeting in São Paulo, Brazil, in April 2014, identified a need to develop "operational solutions for current and future Internet Issues."[1] The NMI vows to operate in a "multistakeholder, open, transparent and inclusive manner, as a part of the Internet governance ecosystem."[1] Capacity building and financing are essential elements of the NMI's commitment to enabling diverse stakeholders to effectively participate in Internet governance development.[1]

Coordination Council

The NMI has an inaugural Coordination Council composed of representatives from all stakeholder groups and geographies.[6] Council nominations were voluntary; the selection process was fully open and transparent.[7] The Council facilitates global support for the NMI by attracting ideas, individuals, organizations and funding enabling interested parties from all over the world to take voluntary actions on the platform.[8]

Members of the inaugural Council include prominent leaders in the Internet governance ecosystem. Nii Narku Quaynor, Jack Ma, Fadi Chehade, Richard Samans, Virgilio Almeida, Jean-François Abramatic, Lu Wei, and Secretary Penny Pritzker are amongst the 23 members.

The inaugural Council is specifically tasked with guiding the development of the initial phases of the NMI. Within its first term, the Council, in consultation with the global Internet community, produced the Terms of Reference, and is expected to design the operational system for the Initiative, to produce outreach and engagement plans and to define criteria for supporting projects that are to be hosted by the NMI's collaboration platform. The inaugural Council will serve through July 2016.

Secretariat

The NMI is currently enabled by a joint secretariat, formed by the three organizing partners: The Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Stanford Working Meeting

At the NMI's first working meeting at Stanford University, which took place March 31, 2015, the Coordination Council produced a draft Terms of Reference for public comment. Coordination Council members and/or their representatives also previewed the NETmundial Solutions Map, as well as projects submitted to the NETmundial platform by Stanford Professor Larry Diamond "Deliberative Poll on Internet Governance"[9] and by Bertrand de la Chapelle Internet and Jurisdiction Project.[10]

The Council set up three working groups covering the following areas: operations and governance; outreach, engagement and communication; and developing projects support criteria. Outputs from the first two groups went out for public comment after the next meeting in São Paulo.

The NMI Council "acknowledged the need to ensure that, as the Initiative develops further, it must adhere to the highest standards of transparency and inclusiveness, as well as expand its global reach."[11] The Council agreed to take steps designed to promote "greater understanding and clarity about the Initiative's organization, role, and activities."[11]

São Paulo Meeting

The inaugural Council meeting took place in São Paulo, Brazil, on June 30, 2015.[12] At this meeting, which was webcast and remote-participation enabled, the Council adopted the Terms of Reference, which "provide[s] a reference for governments, private sector, civil society, technical community, and academia from around the world to address Internet governance challenges."[13]

The Council also adopted the operations and governance framework and the initial approach to providing support for projects that are presented through the online collaboration platform. The Council endorsed the NETmundial Solutions Map and the NETmundial Collaborations Platform and discussed a third proposed activity of establishing a space for sharing best practices on local multistakeholder Internet governance structures in order to support "capacity development efforts for developing-country communities, governments and underserved stakeholders."[13]

Five co-chairs were elected via transparent voting and rough consensus approaches. The co-chairs are Virgilio Almeida, Secretary for Information Technology Policy of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Brazil and chair of the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee; Fadi Chehadé, President and CEO, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN); Eileen Donahoe, Director of Global Affairs, Human Rights Watch; Jack Ma, Founder and Executive Chairman, Alibaba Group; and Marília Maciel, Center for Technology and Society, Rio de Janeiro Law School of the Getulio Vargas Foundation.

Controversy

Leading up to and following the initial scoping meeting of NMI in Geneva, Switzerland in August 2014, several actors in the broader Internet governance ecosystem expressed concerns over NMI's proposed organization and activities. Concerns intensified following the official launch in November of that year. ISOC, the IAB and ICC BASIS published statements outlining their concerns. Discussions in the background were ongoing. A joint statement between ICANN and ISOC, issued on December 19, 2014 read: “We had a very constructive, frank, and candid discussion on Internet Governance that included the NETmundial Initiative (NMI). On NMI we did not resolve all of the outstanding issues. The ISOC attendees, the IAB and IETF chairs would rather see the structure defined after setting the terms of reference and scope of the work. More work needs to be done by NMI and with the various committees involved.”[14]

According to Julia Pohle in the Global Policy Journal, there were three main controversial issues surrounding NMI raised by civil society and the technical community: permanent seats on the NMI Council, potential interference with the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and concern over disproportionate involvement in decision-making by economic and political elite.[15] NMI retracted the notion of permanent seats on the Council, committed to supporting the efforts of the IGF and generated Internet Governance Process Principles[4] to comprehensively address concerns regarding adherence to bottom-up, multistakeholder consensus-driven governance.

References

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  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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