Workshop 50 - Can Internet governance change global futures? Or will global futures change Internet governance? Using scenarios to map the relationship between Internet Governance and other global challenges.
Organizer: International Institute for Sustainable Development
Co-Organizers:
Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Industry Canada and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)
Moderator: Heather Creech, Director of Global Connectivity, IISD
Breakout group facilitators:
Willie Currie, Policy Advisor, Association for Progressive Communications
Don MacLean, Senior Associate, International Institute for Sustainable Development
Maja Andjelkovic, Advisor, International Institute for Sustainable Development
Tony Vetter, Global Connectivity Project Officer, IISD
Expert commentators:
Willie Currie, Policy Advisor, Association for Progressive Communications
Liesyl Franz VP, Info. Sec. Programs & Policy, Commercial Sector, Information Technology
Association of America
Shalini Kala, ENRAP Program Coordinator, International Development Research Centre, New Delhi
Jyrki Kasvi, Vice Chair of the Committee for the Future of the Finnish Parliament
Summary
The workshop drew approximately 50-60 attendees from the government, private sector, civil society and internet technical communities (see Appendix). After welcoming the attendees, Heather Creech of IISD started off the event with the problem statement: will global futures affect the development and deployment of the Internet; will development and deployment of the Internet affect global futures? The workshop participants were then provided with an overview of scenarios, how they are used and examples of major global scenario processes (Shell, United Nations Environment Programme, and the Global Scenario Group). The participants were randomly divided into four breakout groups. Each group was provided with a brief description of one of the four stories of what the Internet might look like in the future, as developed in a previous IISD workshop held in Ottawa, Canada.
Facilitators led the participants in each of the breakout groups to challenge the Ottawa workshop storylines by considering two questions:
1. What impact do you think global crises could have on the management of the Internet?
2. What will happen to your priority Internet concern in this future?
A volunteer from each of the groups reported back with a revised or enhanced story of what the Internet might look like. The four expert commentators were then asked to reflect on the four Internet futures by considering whether they had heard something from one of the stories that either changed their thinking, or reinforced where they thought the Internet should go.
The causality of interactions between the critical Internet uncertainties and the global scenarios was unsolved in this first attempt. In most cases it is plausible that there will be co-evolution between the outcome of critical Internet uncertainties and the resolution of other global challenges. However these integrated scenarios did provide fresh perspectives and insight on Internet futures. One of the most significant outcomes of the Hyderabad workshop was the recognition of the importance of addressing a range of Internet issues together rather than focusing on single challenges in isolation (IPv4/IPv6; net neutrality; security; and so forth).
Further, the emergence of a strong global multistakeholder governance process endorsed by a global citizens’ movement may greatly help to resolve the “process” aspects of Internet governance in a favourable way as described in the Internet Commons Scenario storyline. As well, one could see potential for the emergence of a policy handshake: actions in the realm of advancing sustainable development have important implications for the Internet and decisions within the world of the Internet influence the prospects for sustainable development (“if you care about sustainable development, you should care about the future of the Internet, and vice versa”).
This is a first attempt at making these linkages. It is hoped that the four storylines of the future of the Internet and sustainability will provoke further thinking on necessary and possible decisions about critical Internet uncertainties that will advance the most desired global scenario.
We have established a Web site at http://groups.iisd.org/internetscenarios/ to continue discussion of this work. We look forward to comments.
Appendix: Organizational affiliation of attendees
N.B. This list includes only those organizations who opted to provide their business cards indicating potential interest in collaboration on the subject.
International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
Crescent Engineering College, Chennai, India
Information Technology Association of America (ITAA)
Gobiemo Bolivariano de Venezuela
Parliament of Finland
Institute for European Studies
World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA)
Research In Motion (RIM)
Permanent Mission of Finland
Europe Asia Business School
Information Technology Association of Nigeria (ITAN)