December 2011 Blog Posts (21)

Dear colleagues and friends,



I hope you have some time to reflect on an extremely eventful year behind us. Earlier this week, we held a quite dynamic webinar on the 10 main developments in IG in 2011. The webinar discussion naturally evolved into predictions of developments for 2012.  During the week of 9th of January, we plan to held another webinar focusing on the 10 Main Developments in IG in 2012. Please join us for this “crystal ball” exercise. More info will follow via…

I have been following a UK project 'Pathways through Participation' and they just sent me an update. Anyone interested in citizen/civil society participation may find this information helpful.

This is not about ICT, or the governance of the Internet. Nevertheless it deals with an issue frequently discussed in the Internet Governance field - how far domestic law can/should stretch.The link is to an article by Norman Girvan discussing the hasty re-location of a recent meeting held in…

In general, the need for new regulations varies with the situation and condition of a particular market place. While the design and role of a regulatory framework may change with the passage of time, certain critical elements are always integrated including decision-making processes, accountability, consumer protection, dispute resolution, spectrum management, licensing and ensuring quality of service. If we observe last 15 years, regulatory frameworks for telecommunication markets…

I’m not sure whether this is a policy issue, but it seems to me it might be. Wikileaks is back in the news again http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16211977 Many of us applauded the publication of the documents – a bold step towards freedom and the citizen’s right to information. There were even leaked cables about little Saint Lucia where I live. To my knowledge – and please correct me if I’m wrong – no evidence has…

The draft Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is currently being debated by the US legislature, but it has been severely criticised by tech experts and the industry at large. It aims to protect US Intellectual Property, and has been designed with considerable reach that could affect us the Caribbean.

Yesterday, the Judicial House Committee, one of the standing committees of the US House of Representatives held a hearing on the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a…

We're looking back at 2011, a year filled with events and developments that have had a significant impact on Internet governance. Dr Jovan Kurbalija will go through the ten most significant ones during a special end-of-year webinar next week.

A provisional list of the ten most significant events and developments can be found here. Yet, the list is currently a 'draft'. Tuesday's…

The European Union plans to distribute new software to help human rights activists and dissidents in authoritarian regimes circumvent censorship.

"Enabling citizens of authoritarian countries to bypass surveillance and censorship measures depends on two basic conditions: availability of appropriate technologies (in particular software programs that can be installed on one's desktop computer, laptop, smart-phone or other device) and awareness, both of the techniques used by…

Jovan Kurbalija writes: Possibly more boring than watching paint dry is being asked to look around a newly decorated flat. But we have done more than re-design our new site and we are keen to hear if we have interpreted correctly what we have been hearing heard from our communities about the facilities we need to provide. I would highlight three elements in particular:

- we have re-organised and simplified how we present our courses, responding to feedback from our students and…

I began what seems to have become a weekly habit with a quotation from E.M. Forster “Only connect”. That’s what I do, or try to do, all of the time. I think I have been doing it all of my life. I realise that it can be a very irritating habit, but I don’t seem to be able to help it, and what is worse I’m now doing it in public.

In 2009 I wrote a paper for the GIGAnet meeting in Sharm el Sheikh which was accepted for presentation as a poster. The paper was based on Jose Ortega…

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This year i was able to organize a workshop at Internet Governance Forum 2011 on the topic of ' Role of policy makers and regulators in better governance of Internet'. The workshop summary is presented hereby for the interest of readers.

The primary focus of the workshop was to invite a dialogue on role of policy makers and regulators in better governance of Internet. A balance approach was maintained with regards to workshop panelists, belonging to policy maker, regulator, civil…

Although many organisations have established computer security protocols to deal with possible cyber threats and breaches, they could still benefit considerably from the support provided by to a Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT). This post discusses what a CERT is, and some of the benefits of having that resource, especially in the Caribbean.

In today’s society, the value of information is growing at exponential rates. As a result, organisations and even…

Today we on planet earth are enjoying communicating through high-tech devices all around us while the satellites high above the planet are making this instantaneous communication possible. The era of satellite communication started almost 51 years ago with one giant space balloon. Echo 1 was the name given to the world's first communications satellite capable of relaying signals to other points on Earth, flying 1000 miles above the planet. Echo 1 was launched on August 12, 1960 by NASA. It…

I found this BBC article really interesting. Some of you may enjoy it too - especially if you suffer from too many emails at work :-) 

Email in business

The fan in my laptop died. That’s my excuse for a string of broken promises. Not a very good excuse.

I’m still trying to work out the issue of majorities. Getting back to my trapped files didn’t help as much as I expected. The majorities began to trouble me when I was thinking about qualitative and quantitative research a few weeks ago in the policy course. I distrust statistics. I distrust the results from sites like Avaaz and Access. I wonder about the validity of the thousands of…

This post examines multilingualism on the Internet, some of the anticipated benefits and concerns, as well as the impact of this paradigm on English, which traditionally has been the language of the Internet.

Did you know that: -

• Approximately 80% of the world’s population does not speak English?
• In 2000, over 70% of all web pages were in English, but current estimates are that about 50% of all web pages are in English?
• One…

Who owns the cloud? Is my data secure there? Who manages Internet domains and addresses and how? What is network neutrality? How can states provide for Internet security without breaching our basic human rights? Or can they? Can we have an Internet that is both safe and open?

DiploFoundation's Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme 2012 may not have all of the answers, but it will give you a solid base from which to discuss the issues and to work towards policy solutions for…

Posted from http://www.diplomacy.edu/blog/watch-space-new-ig-call-apps-be-announced-soon

Watch this space! New IG call for apps to be announced soon

Ginger Paque writes:

Who owns the cloud? Is my data secure there? Who manages Internet domains and addresses and how? What is network neutrality? How can states provide for Internet security without…

Once again, many companies in the telecoms and information and communications technology (ICT) sector are facing the spectre of …… the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)) regulating critically important aspects of the internet........

….in December 2012, the ITU will be holding a major treaty-writing conference in Dubai......(World Conference on International Telecommunications…