Nick is right. WSIS didn´t create it. What WSIS did - as recommended by the WGIG - was to enhance the already existing model beyond the management of names and numbers and to include also internet related public policy issues into the multistakeholder approach, excersiced since the 1990s by ICANN, RIRs, IETF (in different formats). Each of the I* organisations are different, but they are based on the same principles as bottom up PDP, transparency, inclusion, rough consensus (partly) etc. If you re-read the Tunis IG definition, it was much more than "ICANN" and "names and numbers". The last sentence of the IG definition, which refers to the "evolution and the use of the Internet" includes both the technical and the political layers/aspects, or, as some people have said later, the "Governance OF the Internet" and the "Governance ON the Internet." This is what we called the needed "holistic approach" for policy making in the digital age. The two aspects are different, but interlinked. The unresolved conflict in Tunis was, that some governments wanted to have a top down PDP with exclusiv negotiations behind close doors for governments only. This was stopped in Tunis, but it was not totalle removed from the negotiation table. It survived in the poisened language of "a process enhanced cooperation". EC was never defined, but it was understood by a substantial number of governments as a process, where at the end of the day an intergovernmental Internet body would emerge out of this undefined process of "enhanced cooperation". Two UNCSTD Working Groups (WGEC I&II) tried unsuccesfully to produce any reasonable results in the 2010s. But the problem will be probably back in the WSIS+20 negotiations, if they follow the 79th UNGA Resolution on ICT and Development. And even today, some governments would be happy to transform ICANNs "Governmental Advisory Committee" into a "Governmental Oversight Committee". Wolfgang
Ashton-Hart, Nick via wsis20 <wsis20@icann.org> hat am 19.02.2025 17:16 CET geschrieben:
Very true, it didn't create it, but it ensured it wasn't disrupted as some states wanted it all moved to the ITU.
Nick Ashton-Hart Senior Director, Digital Economy Policy
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--------------------------------------------- From: Fiona Alexander via wsis20 <wsis20@icann.org> Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2025 11:05:52 AM To: wsis20@icann.org <wsis20@icann.org>; Sebas Ricciardi <sebasricciardi@gmail.com> Subject: [wsis20] Re: Updated GPD WSIS Explainer & ITU WSIS submissions
Agree.
I think it is important people are disabused of the idea that current CIR ecosystem of actors was somehow created by the WSIS process. I have seen these concepts in many academic papers and civil society presentations. Sometimes it is just awkward wording, but other times it is just not factually correct.
Fiona
--------------------------------------------- From: Sebas Ricciardi via wsis20 <wsis20@icann.org> Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2025 10:48 AM To: wsis20@icann.org <wsis20@icann.org> Subject: [wsis20] Re: Updated GPD WSIS Explainer & ITU WSIS submissions
External Email: Use caution with links and attachments.
I second Nick's comment, about the critical internet resources.
Moreover, I dont share this view: "The Tunis Agenda, agreed in 2005, set out a vision for a distributed, multistakeholder approach to Internet governance which has since underpinned the work of other global forums like the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)"
From my perspective, ICANN and the IETF (along with RIRs) were using, with quite success, a "distributed multistkaholder approach" long before the Tunis Agenda.
That aside, I found the explainer very useful!!
Best regards,
Sebastian
El mié, 19 de feb de 2025, 10:21, Ashton-Hart, Nick via wsis20 <wsis20@icann.org mailto:wsis20@icann.org> escribió:
Dear Ellie, thanks for sending these along!
The explainer is very good – but it is missing a profoundly important piece, which is the governance of critical Internet resources. Major member-states want to change this. I would argue that this is actually the crown jewel of WSIS: without it, we wouldn’t have the Internet we have today because member-states would be deciding what services can be put online through control of IP addresses, the DNS and other unique identifiers.
I’d be interested in hearing views on this, but it seems to me that while it is not practical to ‘unwind’ the WSIS language in this respect, the review resolution could make clear that the commitment to it is lessened, or in some other way imply that the member-states intend to have more to do with CIRs. This would be very dangerous and highly damaging – and be used to undermine stakeholder-based decision-making for other areas of Internet policy too, like AI – which is also being negotiated now in New York
Best, Nick
Nick Ashton-Hart APCO (m) +1 202 779 1072 tel:+12027791072
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On 2/19/25, 6:46 AM, "Ellie McDonald via wsis20" <wsis20@icann.org mailto:wsis20@icann.org> wrote:
Dear all (apologies for some cross-posting),
We recently updated GPD's explainer blog on the WSIS+20 process (Everything you need to know about the WSIS+20 Review https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.gp-digital.org/everything-you-need-t...) and associated calendar https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.gp-digital.org/digital-technology-go... to reflect developments to the timeline following the publication of the intergovernmental consultation process https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.un.org/pga/79/2025/02/07/letter-from... to finalise the modalities of the review process. We would like to be a useful and "live" resource for the community and will continue to update it.
At the same time, I wanted to share two inputs recently submitted to the ITU Council Working Group on WSIS & SDGs call for inputs on the WSIS+20. The first is GPD's individual submission https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.gp-digital.org/wp-content/uploads/20.... The second is a joint civil society submission https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.gp-digital.org/wp-content/uploads/20..., submitted by ARTICLE 19, APC, Data Privacy Brazil, Derechos Digitales, ECNL, GPD, ICNL, Paradigm Initiative, Research ICT Africa and the Wikimedia Foundation.
We hope the above may be useful and would welcome any feedback or questions about the submissions.
Best wishes,
Ellie
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