Ref: The Internet and Global Governance: Principles and Norms for a New Regime, by Milton Mueller, John Mathiason, and Hans Klein

1. Definition of Internet governance:

Internet governance is the development and application by Governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet – UN WGIG (United Nation, Working group on Internet Governance)

vs.

Internet governance is collective decision making by owners, operators, developers, and users of the networks connected by Internet protocols to establish policies, rules, and dispute resolution procedures about technical standards, resource allocations, and/or the conduct of people engaged in global internet working activities. – The Internet and Global Governance: Principles and Norms for a New Regime, by Milton Mueller, John Mathiason, and Hans Klein

The rationality behind the definitions: What are the differences? Why?

2. UN Governmental approach to the Internet governance

2.1. UN process

Private sector and civil society
- the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) 1998
- the Internet Society 1992
- the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

UN bodies:
- the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
- the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
- the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) – a working group on internet governance (WGIG) – the creation of a multistakeholder Internet Governance Forum (IGF)

Before 1998
domain and IP distribution is arranged by a computer scientist Jon Postel in University of Southern California and a company called Network Solutions (VeriSign).

Failed attempt: the the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) had worked with the Internet Society and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in an attempt to create their own privatized domain name administration regime: the Generic Top Level Domain Name Memorandum of Understanding” (gTLD-MoU)

1998
ICANN, a non-profitable public service company (private sector) – Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) – global (rather than territorial) regulation of the domain name system (DNS)

2003
the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) – Geneva Dec 2003 and Tunisia Nov 2005 – a Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG).

July 2005
the Controversial WGIG report

A. Working definition of Internet governance (ref to top quotation)

B. Identifying public policy issues that are relevant to Internet governance and assessing the adequacy of existing governance arrangements
- Administration of the root zone files and system – U.S
- Interconnection costs – uneven distribution
- Internet stability, security and cybercrime
- Spam
- Meaningful participation in global policy development – governance mechanism
- Capacity-building
- allocation of domain names
- IP addressing
- Intellectual property rights (IPR)
- Freedom of expression
- Data protection and privacy rights
- Consumer rights
- Multilingualism

C. Developing a common understanding of the respective roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders from both developed and developing countries
- Government – Private sector – civil society

D. Recommendations related to Internet governance mechanisms
- the creation of a multi-stakeholder Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
- Global public policy and oversight – 4 models
a. replace the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) by a Global Internet Council (GIC), consisting of members from Governments with appropriate representation from each region and with involvement of other stakeholders.
b. enhance the role of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), IGF as recommendation body.
c. set up an International Internet Council (IIC) to lead ICANN.
d. the setting up of – The Global Internet Policy Council (GIPC); – World Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (WICANN) replacing ICANN; – The Global Internet Governance Forum (GIGF).

2.2. Critique to the UN proposal and Normative approach to the Internet governance

Definition of the internet (neutrality):

The Internet is the global data communication capability realized by the interconnection of public and private telecommunication networks using Internet Protocol (IP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), and the other protocols required to implement IP internetworking on a global scale, such as DNS and packet routing protocols.

Norms and facts

Internet Standards Create a Global Commons
The Internet Is Largely Composed of Private Networks
The Internet Incorporates an End-to-End Design: neutral
The Internet Requires Exclusive and Coordinated Resource Assignment (distinctive DNS)
The Internet Is Non-territorial

Governmental or Regime approach VS. Normative approach
Lawrence Lessig’s regulation model: Law (Hierarchy), Market (Competition), Norms (Culture), Architecture (Technology)

3 Hong Kong Internet governance

3.1 Policy history

1998 (minimal-intervention approach):
E-Privacy: A Policy Approach to Building Trust and Confidence in E-business (2001)
Code of Practice: Practice Statement on Regulation of Obscene and Indecent Material – self-governance of the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association (HKISPA) 2002
E-transaction ordinance (2004)
Computer crime based on existing criminal ordinance
Anti-spam campaign and ordinance (Dec 2007)

3.2 Recent debates on internet governance: censorship

Digital Copyrights:
- Criminalization of downloading
- Privacy and I.P information
- Format shifting, Filtering
- Statutory damages (issue of harm)

Application of Obscene Articles Ordinance – Indecent hyperlink – Flickr censorship – Flickr censorship protest (youtube)

Other criminal law into virtual space
- Association Ordinance – freedom of expression

Questions:
- internet (global) norms or social norms;
- border and jurisdiction;
- virtual expressive space or real;
- issue of harm, intension and victim;
- stake-holders involvement

Future Move:
- Communications Authority: the merger of the Telecom Authority (TA) and Broadcasting Authority (BA)

4. Hong Kong Government and development of internet

Digital 21 consultation 2006

4.1 E-government, e-governance and e-democracy
Definition: (Comparing e-government and e-governance)

E-government is the applications of information technology (IT) to public sector operations – which involve G2G, G2C, G2B relations.

E-governance: public sector use of IT to deliver to all citizens improved services, reliable information and greater knowledge in order to facilitate access to the governing process and encourage deeper citizen participation. i.e. – change of power relation operation.

E-government                                           E-governance
- electronic service delivery                    – electronic consultation
- electronic workflow                                – electronic controllership
- electronic voting                                     – electronic engagement
- electronic productivity                          – networked societal guidance

e-government governance framework – an U.S example

4.2 Hong Kong E-government

Infastructure

- Equipped external telecommunications capacity: 1,152 Gbps (March 2006)
- Mobile phone penetration rate: 125% in 2006 (104% in 2003)
- Household PC penetration: 70% in 2005 (68% in 2003)
- Broadband household Internet penetration 66% in 2006 (50% in 2003)
- PC penetration in business: 60% in 2005 (55% in 2003)
- Internet penetration in business: 55% in 2005 (48% in 2003)
- Over 50% of businesses adopted some form of e-business in 2005

4.3. Digital 21 Consultation: Government’s role in digital development

- facilitating a digital economy – outsourcing – R&D – facilitating convergence – CEPA
- promoting advanced technology and innovation – cyberport – university R&D (Science park) e.g digital media center, 3G, DRM, etc.
- Hong Kong as a Hub for technological cooperation and trade – Mainland integration – education – business environment, IPR – communication authority
- Public service upgrade – e procurement (work flow and communication), health record, transport
- building an inclusive, knowledge-based society – digital divide fund and DRM

4.4. Hong Kong E-government Strategy VS. The Commonwealth Center for E-governance

Hong Kong

- New strategy for e-government services delivery
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Channel Management Strategy (e.g email)
- E procurement
- Measuring the benefits of e-government initiatives
Examples: ESDlife 2001, GovHK and Youth.gov.hk

Ref: Governance in the information age: building e-government in Hong Kong by Ian Holliday and Rebecca Kwok, CTU – skeptical about change in governance.

VS.

Commonwealth model

Changing nature of government in electronic age e-democracy

- e-voting, e-participating, e-consulation

As with all public sector programs good governance is the lynchpin for success. Accountability, transparency, ethical financial practices, citizen-centric programs and workable programs are important if e-Democracy is to work. In the case of e-Consultations it is important to have trust in the citizen, allow a wide range of comments and also ensure anonymity when needed. This is often required because the citizen might be disclosing personal information, might feel more secure imparting views in an anonymous setting, might need anonymity for professional reasons and might be more frank in stating views and opinions.

4.5. Bottom-Up challenge to governance – e.g. citizen media (PLA Berth), obscene article ordinance

1. Different approaches to Power

Ref: Cyberpower: The culture and politics of cyberspace and the Internet, Chapter I, by Tim Jordan, Routledge 1999.

Max Weber: Power as a possession

- it imposes effect onto others
- it receives resistance
- it says “no”

Barry Barnes: Power as a social order

- it makes you conform (a set of rule, such as traffic light)
- underlying sanction / punishment
- collective knowledge / consensus / legitimacy
(similar to Pierre Bourdieu’s habitus)

Michel Foucalt: Power as domination

- discursive knowledge: both repressive and productive (constitutive of subjectivities, e.g student)
- governance – institutional, daily tactics, knowledge backup

Example: Censorship as a state power – Max Weber; as a common sense regulation – Barry Burnes; and as subject constitution via knowledge and back up by institution (e.g. Chineseness) – Foucalt

2. Operation of power online and offline

2.1. Individual

- transgression myth: extension of self and identity fluidities
- individual possession: PC, internet access, knowledge, rights, etc.
- individualized management: email – traces: cuhk.edu.hk
- class and education background via interaction, e.g language in cybersex
- Avatar (online identity) – Second Life research by Choi Chu Wai, Lai Ka Chun

2.2. Elite and virtual social order

- Technopower: infrastructure for online social interaction: hierarchical and virtual social (online harassment, bullying)
- Technopower spiral and techno elites

2.3. Social

- virtual communities
- Fan’s club research 2003 virtual community and its political implications (A drafted Paper)
- Nationalism – imagined community, nation across border – Al Qaede or virtual police, e.g 強國論壇 or 香港網上獨立運動研究 by 馮建瑋, 薛健鋒, 何健豪

- Social relation: Cyberfeminism
A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s – Donna Haraway (1991)
- challenges to bio-determined gender construction
- public vs private
- how about gender inequality, internet pornography (youtube), cyber-rape, etc?
- Woman’s resource (新婦女協進會 – 婦女資源網)and (En)gendering digital body via language and practice

- other social minority, e.g. 互聯網與香港同性戀社群研究 by 楊達祺

2.4. Resistance

- states and grassroots confrontation in different forms
- censorship vs freedom of expression
- copyright
- Internet crime

2.4. Production setting / economic infrastructure

- Financial Capital into cyberspace: youtube (google 1.65 billion), facebook (microsoft $240 million for 1.6%), Alibaba (P.E 100)
- global production and consumption

2.5. Myth and desire

(Ref: Myth-ing links: Power and Community in Information Highway, by Vincent Mosco)

- Ohmynews’ success: US10,000 in its micro payment system, Fund raising
- Stock price
- New media mobilization
- Networking effect
- etc.

2.6. Discourse and subjectivities

e.g. citizen reporter as a new social actor based on the myth and knowledge about information technology

3. Case: Digital Divide

- Digital divide is defined as the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographical areas at different social-economic levels in respect of their opportunities to access IT and the use of the Internet for a wide variety of activities. (Not Power Law)
- Beyond ICT (internet communication technology)
- Developing countries VS. developed countries
(Internet world statistic 2007)
(Internet penetration rate within Asia 2007)
- Class, race, gender, age, rural vs urban
- Language, skill, time
- Attempts in bridging digital divide – e.g. One Laptop per Child

- Hong Kong: Digital 21 strategy
- Discussion: Highest broadband penetration, no digital divide in Hong Kong? What are the aspects of our digital divide?

Free Software

• Brief History: GNU (GNU’s Not Unix) as a response to close sourcing
  • Copyright Act of 1976 – Late 1970s, software compaines stopped to distribute sources code with software.
  • Xerox Printer – When Richard Stallmans (a MIT AI lab hacker) want to change the function of the printer driver, the request was refused because the sources code is not open
  • Decline of MIT Hacker Culture – When the policy change, Richard Stallmans refused to sign non-disclosure agreements not to share source code or technical information. Because he think that software should always be free, and user should be able to change it as they need
  • Founded the GNU Project – Build a operating system which is “free”.
• Definition:
  • GNU Manifesto
  • Free Software
    • You have the freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
    • You have the freedom to modify the program to suit your needs.
    • You have the freedom to redistribute copies, either gratis or for a fee.
    • You have the freedom to distribute modified versions of the program, so that the community can benefit from your improvements.
  • Free Speech, not Free Beer
• What GNU do:
  • An alternative – GNU is a new computer system, alternative to Unix
  • Raise Awareness – A lot of public speaking
  • Legislation – Political campaign against software patent, copyright, etc…

  Open Sources Movement

• Brief History: “Open Sources” as a marketing buzzword (1990s) – Free means cheap, and cheap is no good
• “Marriage” with Free Software Movement
  • When Linus developed a Unix-competiable operating system kernel (Linux), but lacking of a system libraries; And Richard Stallman developed a Unix-competiable system libraries (GNU Project), but lacking of a system kernel. GNU / Linux
• “Break up” with Free Software Movement
  • Alan Cox – “Majority of the kernel developers don’t buy the FSF political agenda” / Eric Raymond – “If you want to change the world, you have to co-opt the people who write the big-checks”
  • GPLv3 – Should we accept DRM hardware?
• Why Open Sources?
  • Technical-Superiority – Open sources model lead to software
  • Persuasive to business
• How business model integrate with open sources model?
  • Redhat, MySQL, JBoss – Sale of services or “Side-product”
  • IBM, Sun – Open sources to encourage Open Standard as a way to break the Network Effect
  • HP, Router Manufactuor – Open sources as a way to cut-cost, cheap way to produce products
  • Innovation Happens Elsewhere

Open Sources Development Model — Democratizations?

• Technical Tools
  • Mailing List
  • IRC
  • Wiki
• Characteristics
  • No Hierarchy
  • Micro contribution
  • Lengthy Discussion
  • Forking
• Case Studies
  • Wikipedia (“Too many rules” Problem, Hierarchy and Rewards)
  • Linux (Charismatic Leader — Linus)

  Copyleft

  • Different Level of Copyleft:
  • Strong / Weak Copyleft (GPL / LGPL) – Strong Copyleft License always impose its license to all derivated work, while Weak Copyleft do not. GPL is a Strong Copyleft License since any code used “GPLed” code have to be released in GPL license too. While LGPL have an exemption of when new code is dynamically linked with “LGPLed” code, the new code do not have to be licensed under LGPL. Application of Strong Copyleft work includes Wikipedia.
  • Full / Partial Copyleft
• Copyleft vs “BSD-style” license
  • BSD-style – Some time refer as “Permissive Free Software License”, close to public domain. Except: (some example, such as old BSD license require attribution of Berekely University)
  • Cristism: Both side claim that the other side is not as “free”.
• Copyleft vs Public Domain
  • Public Domain – No right reserved.
  • Cristism: How about the atomcity of art work?
• Discussion: What is “free”? GPL / BSD / Public Domain?

Related Movements