after a message i sent to nettime,[1] about activists interest in the upcoming WSIS process, got bounced around various lists, a few people wrote some informative responses; it seemed worthwhile to pass them back to nettime. in doing so, i'm not *endorsing* them -- fwiw, their assessments of the ITU's openness seems overly optimistic -- but they certainly present quite a bit of specific information. for those in- terested more generally in telco/ITU news, bob shaw's blog is quite useful.[2]
[1] http://amsterdam.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0301/msg00057.html [2] http://radio.weblogs.com/0108486/ cheers, t - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - From: Geoffrey R Daniell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, January 24, 2003 6:44 AM Subject: RE: [dotforce-wsis] Ted Byfield: ominous rumbling about global net regulations Mike, Yes the fees are high and yes, the ITU is geared towards memberships by Telcos other operators and governments. This has however never stopped me getting involved when I felt that I can make a positive contribution. There are many ways to obtain ITU information without having to 'buy' their publications, which very often are out of date by the time the printed versions are available in any case. I obtain most of my information by regular trips to the libraries maintained by the Ministry and the regulator (ICASA) in SA. Surely the same facilities are available in other places, ESP in the developed world? I have also never had any difficulty whatsoever in convincing these libraries to obtain documents from the ITU when these are needed, because in most cases the issues that I get involved in are open for public debate at the time and many parties then call for access to the information. Access to working groups is restricted to Big "M" and little "m" members in most cases, but then the way in is by indirectly supporting those that are involved in a study group at the time. So in a small way, one is able to influence decisions occasionally. I am involved in ITU-R activities and I do this by contributing to position papers that are submitted by our Ministry. Participation in this local process is possible because local industry is almost always (sometimes we have to prod the system into action however) involved as that is where the expertise resides in any case. The result of this is that those that do get involved are provided with the information relevant to the questions under study, including extracts from ITU documents when needed. ITU-T activities are similar to the ITU-R (radio). Both the ITU-R and the ITU-T are very technically oriented. I am not sure if the same is possible in the ITU-D (the development sector) but I am sure that the same would apply. However this is precisely where NGO's should get involved because neither the suppliers nor the incumbent Telcos or other operators are very bothered about the social aspects of the game. Articles 16 17 and 18 of the constitution of the ITU deal with matters relating to ITU-D. In short the focus is on developmental aspects of telecommunications and more and more on ICT because telecommunications is simply one aspect of modern communication systems. Afterall, in the end ICT exists because "People" want to communicate, interact and debate! Article 19 deals with "Participation of Entities and Organisations, Other than Administrations in the Unions' activities" A process thus exists whereby organisations can show an interest in the activities of the ITU and get themselves recognised and authorised to participate. The overall proviso is that organisations must have an interest in telecommunications (ICT) in the first place and their involvement must carry the blessing of the "Home" Member State, The Member State is thus the sponsor, who processes an application by an entity to become involved in the activities of a sector of the ITU. ( Does anyone have problems with this as it is nothing but an element of good governance practices?). Member States can also authorise entities to apply directly to the ITU for permission to become involved. A process is also in place to denounce rights of entities if the need arises. A successful "application" will detail how the entity can become involved. However Article 19 and 33 form the basis of the "conditions of participation". The ITU assembly or even a Sector conference can decide to admit entities or organisations to participate as Associates in the work of given study groups or subgroups. In all cases the process allows for the evaluation of the entity based in criteria such as size, influence, special knowledge of the issue under study etc. Clauses 248B and 483A of the constitution detail the conditions governing participation in a study group by Associates. The issue of fees is always the most sensitive. Article 33 of the constitution deals with these aspects. The aim is for those that are involved to help defray the costs associated with the operation of the ITU. An entity that is approved to become involved can expect to be asked to make some sort of a contribution based on an evaluation of the entity as described above. Associate membership of a study group implies sharing in the costs of the activities of the study group as well. The ITU council determines this contribution during the original application stage. The administrative regulations deal with charges and free services. Remember always that the ITU is a consensus organisation, dedicated to encouraging participation (meaningful participation) and not there to block those that want to participate. Financial issues are almost always cited as to why entities do not get involved and to this end resolution 91 of the Plenary in Minneapolis 1998) was passed. Essentially this resolution deals with defining what products and services should be provided on a cost recovery basis. NGO's should get and read Resolution 31 (Kyoto 1994) because this deals with the importance of ICT to development and commits the ITU to foster and support activities that deal with the relationship of ICT and development, which includes the encouragement of NGO's to get involved in the activities of the ITU. Another is Res 71 (1998), clauses, 26.5 and 29.3 that specifically deal with co-operation with NGO's regarding ICT matters, projects, reports, investigations etc,etc. Incidentally, this resolution deals with the Strategic Plan of the ITU (1999-2003). Thus new involvement NOW by NGO's would be particularly significant as the ITU needs a new plan for the next period! Res 100, (1998) deals with the ITU acting as repository for MoU's and information on ICT that can be made available to anyone looking for that type of info. Res 101 (1998) deals with the ITU and Internet Protocol and the Internet in general and this should be of interest to Ted who triggered off this complete debate. Finally, the message is: Get involved in the ITU, the door is open and they are waiting for entities and even individuals to show interest. Mechanisms are in place to get access and be authorised to get involved in any ITU activities, but those that want to must do their homework! Best regards Geoff Daniell - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [wsis-prep1] FW: [dotforce-wsis] Ted Byfield: ominous rumblin g about global net regulations Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 17:26:48 +0100 Hello, Mr Daniell's ITU overview is very good and much appreciated. I certainly can understand how the ITU can seem very much to be a mystery to many. Even after working here for 20 years, there are still some parts of it that I barely understand. To get some sense of the wide range of ITU activities, take a look at today's list of upcoming meetings and events at http://www.itu.int/events/upcomingevents.asp?lang=en The ITU's "ultimate" governing body is its Plenipotentiary Conference where all its 189 Member States meet and which is held every four years. The last "Plenipot" was held in Marrakesh in Sept-Oct 2002. For a sense of where ITU Member States see ITU's focus and direction, it's interesting to read the policy statements made at the conference (http://www.itu.int/plenipotentiary/policystatements/). As you can see, almost all governments are concerned about fostering the build-out of ICTs for their citizens. You can also get a sense of a number of common themes that are the concerns of governments - which I imagine would be echoed by them in the WSIS process. Mr. Daniell is also correct in noting that unfortunately there are often many "rumours" circulating about the ITU like "Global net regulation coming!". This reflects one of the most common and persistent myths that the ITU is a global "regulator" in the sense of a super FCC or OFTEL or ICASA. With some qualified exceptions (e.g., the ITU-R "Radio Regulations"), this is an incorrect characterization. Likewise, a lot of people think that the ITU only deals with telephony which also is an incorrect characterization. The purpose of the ITU, according to its Constitution, is "to maintain and extend international cooperation between all Members of the Union for the improvement and rational use of telecommunications of all kinds". The ITU does coordinate the global telephony system, but it also coordinates many other aspects of telecommunications, which includes many global Internet and IP networks services and technologies, as well as spectrum and satellite slot allocations. It also provides assistance in fostering telecommunications and IP networks development to developing countries. Today, a large part of ITU's activities relate to IP-based networks and the Internet and this includes the overall architecture of global networks, interworking between IP-based and switched-circuit networks, access and optical transport networks, multimedia applications, numbering and addressing including IPv6 support, signalling, routing services, wireless networks, quality of service, traffic engineering and security. For a simple technical overview of ITU-T related IP standardization activities, see http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/studygroups/com13/ip/documents/IPprojV7.pdf. As Mr. Daniell notes, much of the work of the ITU is extremely technical in nature. As one small example, ITU-T Study Group 15 who deal with topics such as xDSL and optical networks are meeting this week here. You can find a list of acronym-rich "delayed contributions" into the meeting at http://www.itu.int/md/meetingdoc.asp?lang=&type=mfolders&parent=T01-SG15-030 120-D to get a sense of the very technical work going on in that one Study Group. Some of the ITU's "policy related" research and publications can be found at http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/. As an example, free country case studies on various topics (e.g., fostering Internet diffusion) can be found at http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/casestudies/index.html. There are literally thousands of other free "ICT resources/studies" on the ITU web site. There is such a wide range of activities going on at the ITU, the first thing one should do before deciding to join or not is to decide what it is you want to accomplish or participate in - the development assistance activities, as noted below, are in the ITU-D (see http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/index.html). The ITU's general membership information pages are at http://www.itu.int/members/index.html. The "cheapest" class of Membership is an Associate which is described at http://www.itu.int/members/associates/rights.html. The fees for associates are at http://www.itu.int/members/associates/fees.html. As you can see, an Associate member from a developing country can participate for as little as 1'968,75 Swiss Francs per year (about US$ 1450). I might also mention that the ITU allows the free download of up to 3 ITU-T, ITU-R or ITU-D Recommendations. Details are at http://www.itu.int/publications/ I'd be glad to attempt to answer any other questions people might have or point you off to the person at the ITU who might be able to assist you. I hope this perhaps helps...? Robert Shaw -- Robert Shaw <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ITU Internet Strategy and Policy Advisor Strategy and Policy Unit <http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
