On 8/11/08, Brian Munyao Longwe <brian@caret.net> wrote:

Good intro Walu. I will add a few points:

Besides the concern that other governments had/have over USA's
control over the numbering and naming mechanisms of the Internet,
there are also a number of themes that have arisen within the
Internet Governance debate that have prompted many countries to start
seriously considering measures that relate to governance of the
Internet within as well as without their borders. Some of these follow:
1) Cyber-Crime: Due to the vast nature of the network, the Internet
can be used as a medium for electronic crime or computer assisted
crime/fraud without the perpetrator ever physically stepping into the
"victim" countries territory. Investigations have shown that in many
cases, multiple computer and network systems in multiple
jurisdictions have been compromised and used as part of elaborate
schemes that either target a particular system or series of systems.
a good example here is the Nigeria "419" scams which in the recent
past seem to be originating more from the USA/Europe than from
Nigeria itself.
2) Cyber-Warfare: also known as "information warfare" it is defined
in Wikipedia as "... the use and management of information in pursuit
of a competitive advantage over an opponent. Information warfare may
involve collection of tactical information, assurance that one's own
information is valid, spreading of propaganda or disinformation to
demoralize the enemy and the public, undermining the quality of
opposing force information and denial of information collection
opportunities to opposing forces." - the Internet plays a key role in
many country's cyber-warfare strategies. An excerpt from a USA
department of Defense report says this about China's Peoples
Liberation Army "The PLA is investing in electronic countermeasures,
defenses against electronic attack (e.g., electronic and infrared
decoys, angle reflectors, and false target generators), and computer
network operations (CNO). China's CNO concepts include computer
network attack, computer network defense, and computer network
exploitation. The PLA sees CNO as critical to achieving
"electromagnetic dominance" early in a conflict. "
3) Child Pornography: Among other evils that plague the Internet,
this is probably the most disturbing. Law enforcement agencies across
the globe have been stretched beyond their limits in trying to catch
and shut down producers and propagators of these illicit materials.
Once again, the vastly international nature of these networks makes
it very hard to deal with cross-jurisdictional issues, laws on
evidence, privacy and the like. While there have been cases where
multi-national networks have been busted and entire child-porn rings
dismantled, there is still great concern in this area
4) Spam: it has been reported that unsolicited commercial email and
more recently malicious, meaningless email garbage constitutes almost
80% of all email transmitted over the internet. This carries
incredible implications especially for the end users who pay a high
price for their connectivity. Once again, a largely multi-national
phenomenon - spam is clearly an issue that will need many countries,
network, techies etc to sit together and figure out a way of dealing.

I could keep going on but will rest my case here - hope that the
discussions find time to discuss/shed light on some of the above
areas....

Regards,

Brian

On Aug 11, 2008, at 9:56 AM, John Walubengo wrote:
> Greetings all,
>
> Today we just want to get upto speed with the genesis and rationale
> for Internet Governance.  Internet Governance issues arose from the
> increasing  use of the Internet during the mid and late 1990s.
> Most countries were surprised at the increasing role the internet
> was having on their Socio-economic as well as Political landscape.
> They then realised that lacked the oversight power the US
> government unilatery enjoyed over the development and use of the
> Internet resources.
>
> Indeed one of the Key questions then as it is now, was why should
> one Government influence the direction of a global resource without
> reference to other governments?  The way the Internet was governed
> was definitely not commensurate with its global reach or nature. A
> lot of lobbying and pressure particularly from Latin America, Asia
> Pacific and ITU started agitating for a change in the oversight
> role the US government had and continues to have over the
> Internet.  The anti-change proponents however maintained that the
> current governance structure through the US Dept of Commerce and
> ICANN is what has given the Internet this phenomenal growth – hence
> the famous cliché – "If it ain't broken, why try to fix it?"
>
> The World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) process was
> commissioned by UN in the late 1990s to look into this and other
> emerging issues of the Internet such as the legal, economic and
> social-cultural dimensions of the Internet. The WSIS process
> concluded in Tunis, 2005, give no definite rulings on these issues
> but recommended instead the creation of a multi-stakeholder forum,
> the IGF – the Internet Governance Forum which continues to study
> and deliberate on these issues to date. WSIS also supplied the
> working definition for Internet Governance as:- the development and
> application by Stakeholders of the rules, norms, procedures and
> practices that influence the evolution and use of the Internet.
>
> The Stakeholders (States, Civil Society, Academia, Media,
> Businesses, etc) are all actively involved in the Internet
> Governance Forum with the sole objective of ensuring that their
> interests are catered for as the Internet continues to evolve. The
> IGF has so far held two summits, Greece, and Brazil with a 3rd due
> at the end of this year in India.  The stakeholders propose
> positions on the emerging and contentious issues that are used to
> somewhat inform the direction the Internet takes. However, most of
> Africa continues to sleep as Nations and other stakeholders
> scramble to claim a stake and positions on what is becoming the
> most important battle of the 21st Century – the battle for the
> Information Superhighway.
>
> Those with experiences, comments, clarifications, observations or
> objections have 1day to say something on today's Introductory theme.
>
> walu.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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