FYI--Interesting and potentially very useful development. Philip S. Corwin, Founding Principal Virtualaw LLC 1155 F Street, NW Suite 1050 Washington, DC 20004 202-559-8597/Direct 202-559-8750/Fax 202-255-6172/cell Twitter: @VlawDC "Luck is the residue of design" -- Branch Rickey From: Andrea.GLORIOSO@ec.europa.eu [mailto:Andrea.GLORIOSO@ec.europa.eu] Sent: Monday, May 13, 2013 11:06 AM To: Andrea.GLORIOSO@ec.europa.eu Subject: Announcement / Global Internet Policy Observatory / Commission plans guide through global Internet policy labyrinth [ Apologies if you receive this message more than once ] Dear all, Please see below an announcement from the European Commission, for your information. Please share this among all your contacts, as appropriate. http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/commission-plans-guide-through-gl... Commission plans guide through global Internet policy labyrinth News: 2013-05-13 02:00 The Commission today unveiled plans for the Global Internet Policy Observatory (GIPO), an online platform to improve knowledge of and participation of all stakeholders across the world in debates and decisions on Internet policies. GIPO will be developed by the Commission and a core alliance of countries and Non Governmental Organisations involved in Internet governance. Brazil, the African Union, Switzerland, the Association for Progressive Communication, Diplo Foundation and the Internet Society have agreed to cooperate or have expressed their interest to be involved in the project. The Global Internet Policy Observatory will act as a clearinghouse for monitoring Internet policy, regulatory and technological developments across the world. It will: · automatically monitor Internet-related policy developments at the global level, making full use of "big data" technologies; · identify links between different fora and discussions, with the objective to overcome "policy silos"; · help contextualise information, for example by collecting existing academic information on a specific topic, highlighting the historical and current position of the main actors on a particular issue, identifying the interests of different actors in various policy fields; · identify policy trends, via quantitative and qualitative methods such as semantic and sentiment analysis; · provide easy-to-use briefings and reports by incorporating modern visualisation techniques; The objective of GIPO is to increase expertise and understanding among all actors, including countries, NGOs and interest groups which may have so far been marginalised in Internet debates and decisions. The Commission fears that the vast range of policy areas impacted by the Internet, combined with a highly complex institutional framework, may cause disengagement from these discussions, which must be truly inclusive in order to ensure a globally legitimate and sustainable governance framework for the Internet. GIPO will not replace existing mechanisms and fora where global Internet governance is discussed, such as the Internet Governance Forum. To the contrary, its objective is to be a tool-box for stakeholders and an instrument to strengthen existing Internet policy-making processes, making full use of modern technology. The European Commission is 100% committed to supporting the open internet. It hopes to safeguard the open nature of global internet governance, including a model which is more inclusive of the needs and priorities of all actors, including those from the developing world. (see SPEECH/13/167<http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-13-167_en.htm>). In the coming months, the Commission will carry out a feasibility study into GIPO, and pending those results, the development of the online platform could commence in 2014. Best -- Andrea Glorioso (Mr) European Commission - DG Communication Networks, Content and Technology Unit D1 (International relations) + Task Force on Internet Policy Development Avenue de Beaulieu 25 (4/64) / B-1049 / Brussels / Belgium T: +32-2-29-97682 M: +32-460-797-682 E: Andrea.Glorioso@ec.europa.eu<mailto:Andrea.Glorioso@ec.europa.eu> Twitter: @andreaglorioso Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andrea.glorioso LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=1749288&trk=tab_pro The views expressed above are purely those of the writer and may not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European Commission. Les opinions exprimées ci-dessus n'engagent que leur auteur et ne sauraient en aucun cas être assimilées à une position officielle de la Commission européenne. Be transparent - Sign up to the European Commission's Register of Interest Representatives http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regrin ________________________________ No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com<http://www.avg.com> Version: 2013.0.3272 / Virus Database: 3162/6308 - Release Date: 05/08/13