The following are the outputs of the real-time captioning taken during the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in João Pessoa, Brazil, from 10 to 13 November 2015. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the event, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> TEREZA HOREJSOVA: Hello. Good morning. Thank you very much for coming to this open forum of GIP digital voice. I work for Diplo Foundation and Project of the Internet Platform.
Here with me today I have Mrs. Constance Bommelaer, who is the Senior Director of Global Internet Policy at the Internet Society, and on my left Thomas Schneider, the Deputy Head of the International Affairs Service of the Swiss Federal Office of Communication.
The reason why I have Thomas here and why I have Constance here is that the general platform is initiated -- sorry -- supported by the Swiss authorities and operated by Diplo Foundation.
Another reason why I have Constance here is for the particular project of GIP Digital Watch we have partnered with the Internet Society. This is fairly new initiated. The GIP itself is a fairly new initiative. We are now in our second year closing the second year of our operation, and the GIP Digital Watch online observatory is each younger than this. It was launched at the end of September.
So I will take a few minutes to explain what this is about and how you can possibly benefit from this.
As I have stressed while we partner with the Internet Society all the work that we are doing on GIP Digital Watch, which is a resources on Internet government issues, dynamic updates, information about the extras involved in each issues about the instruments, policy instruments included in all these issues, this is a strictly neutral product, meaning that itch SO does not interfere with the content, the Diplo Foundation and its team of curators are putting this.
The main objective for us is to really create an independent resource that should serve as a one-stop shot mainly for diplomats and other target groups.
We try to do it in an integrated way. There is not only the on line observatory but also other products that try to complement this work.
This slide you can see what are the four main elements or the building blocks of the work that we are doing.
So, first of all if you are online we have the GIP Digital Watch, which you can access free of charge. You can use it as your professional or private interest. If you want, also, in every last Tuesday of the month, you can join us at the same time, always at 1 o'clock CET for a 60-minute briefing on Internet Governance.
In these 60 minutes, either online or in Geneva where the Geneva platform is based, you can get a very concise summary of everything that has mattered in Internet Governance in the previous month and giving Q and A update.
Because our work is Diplo Foundation mainly works with diplomats, they are very busy people and diplomats in Geneva face more challenges because they often cover wide range of issues with Internet Governance being only one of them. It is really important that they can get this service and get up to date and be sure they do not miss the major developments.
We also try to play around a bit with trends in Internet Governance debate. That is why we are also bringing in some more funnel law, something that we call the IG barometer, which looks at some of the major internet governance and tries to see whether the particular issue in the current debate has gone up or down or the debate remained at a stable level. This is something that you can also get on the GIP website and get more information about how we see the trends.
In addition to this, every month we also publish online and in a printed version the so-called Geneva platform digital watch newsletter which is also available here at the front desk. And this newsletter, again, gives you the summary in a printed format with a lot of further additional links that you can refer to through the Internet Governance developments.
This is a screen shot of what the GIP Digital Watch online resource looks like. As you can see, the website is divided new issues. We cover 42 Internet Governance issues based on Diplo foundations taxonomy. It lists all relevant events for internet governance. It lists the actors, all Internet Governance actors, instruments, wide range of instruments starting with reports to treaties. What is really important is while you browse through a specific issue, let's say, you are interested in legal issues, so you go to the legal basket, here we go, and there you have under the basket under the, let's say, wider group of issues that you are interested, you can each go deeper and deeper.
This is what the particular issue page would look like. I have put here the example of multilingualism. What you get there is the up are parts you get dynamic updates. Here you have at least once a week an update, what has happened in this particular issue area. You get a description about the issue that can serve you as a very useful background material. You can also print this in a very printer friendly format, so-called primer that you can take away with you, okay, this is the overview of what multilingualism is and what are the relevant updates in the recent time, who are the actors involved and what are the instruments that are relevant for this particular topic.
Here we have an example of the actor page for the international telecommunication union. It looks like this. Again, for an actor like the ITU you would at one place have an overview of all the issues that are relevant for its work, all the events in which the ITU in this example would be involved in one way or another.
So, why are we actually doing this? And isn't it contradictory to other initiate tiffs being out there? So an eye opener for us has been in our work for diplomats when, let's say, a new diplomat, I will not name who it was from one Country, came to us, the Geneva Internet platform to get some kind of information just basic idea where to start following the issues of digital politics and Internet Governance. She was responsible for cybersecurity and she asked us where is the one place where I can get all I need to know to get started? Where is the one place where I can get the basic overview for what matters for me as a diplomat? What are the treat trees I should actually study? What are the other instruments that are relevant and how do I make sure I don't miss an important event relevant for this topic?
So this is what we were actually trying to do. We were trying to help her and many others to have their job easier, to create this one stop shop on Internet Governance and other issues.
What is very important when we talk about ability but also complementary to other observatory initiatives is that we believe the work or the needs of different communities really differ.
So if you are in a diplomat in Geneva you would have a different way of approaching this than, let's say, a Google person or a Civil Society activist.
Now a few words about how we do it. So, like we did not have to start from the scratch. Diplo Foundation has a lot to build on, a lot of resources that we had available at different places and it was a way to put this together and available for the community.
The content we have on digital watch is cure rated. This is a very important element because it is not just machine searchable information. Everything that gets on GIP Digital Watch goes through human element index. The updates are done by our curators, the selection of events t selection of actors, the selection of instruments, this is all very carefully taken care of.
We also try to experiment with both qualitative and quantitative type of work, so we do have in-house a cognitive scientist that helps us bringing some more visual add-ons to the work with a lot of info graphics and very interesting features.
The layers of the work for the digital GIP Digital Watch is quite complicated. The sources are of a different nature: Academic resources, media which is very important for our data mining exercises, social media, events.
For instance, for an event like the IGF for our work for digital watch we are doing comprehensive reporting from here and that all feeds into the digital watch. Again, done by humans in a curated and contextualized way. So what you see at the presentation layer has a much deeper roots and sources.
Again, one of the famous Diplo illustrations is to always try to take into account that there is a context to everything that we are doing, and this is what we always have at our hearts.
Now, this is a new thing, as I said at the beginning. We are now in the second month and there is a lot more to be done and we do have a lot of plans. What is important for us is also to listen to the needs of the community as such, so feel free to get in touch with us any time to tell us what you would find useful.
We work very closely with other initiate tiffs, including, let's say, GIPO and others. Why? Because we think there is an added value of working together rather than each going its own track and then the community actually being confused which source to refer to.
We are launching today another layer of the corporation with ISOC and GIP Digital Watch where we will be launching call for curators and members to help us bring a bit more of the regional focus to GIP Digital Watch, but I believe Constance will talk about it a bit later. If you are interested in this, I remind you there are leaflets for assistant curators available on the front desk.
Again, for an exercise like this there are a lot of opportunities. The context, for instance, can be localized. So we may, later have GIP Digital Watch Asia, GIP Digital Watch Africa. Because, again, the context is the key. What is an issue that is really important in the US might not be that relevant for the Asian region.
We will be continuing with our research on taxonomy and we were experimenting later with multi lingual content.
One example of our work connected to specific events that I've already briefed you on a bit earlier is the IGF daily. This is an experiment we are undertaking here at the IGF in partnership and with support of the Internet Society. So every day you can get online to GIP Digital Watch to have an update about what has happened in some of the major sessions here at the IGF because it's a challenge to follow all of them off and running simultaneously, but in the morning of each day starting from today you can get your IGF daily printed, summary, looking at the day that has passed.
So, that would be it from my side. And I would like now to ask Constance to tell us a bit more about why ISOC actually went into this exercise and what are the elements that are important for your work many in this.
>> CONSTANCE BOMMELAER: Thank you very much. Thank you for the invitation to speak.
(Inaudible) I'm Constance Bommelaer. Thank you very much for the invitation to speak. I'm not going to add a lot, because I think you've covered it very well. I will just say that the so it was honored to start this partnership with Diplo Foundation, Geneva Internet platform and work more closely with Switzerland, of course, at this occasion.
I will just say very briefly why we decided to enter this partnership and why we think it's important.
Internet Governance issues tend to become overwhelming for people and through our membership we have been told whether its organizational members, individuals, academics, that individuals find it difficult to understand the issues to be equip with the right resources in order to be able to fully participate. If we have multistakeholder participation mechanisms, but at the same time individuals, governmental delegates don't feel equipped that they have the information, they will not be able to participate adequately. So, this is really the rational why we at the unit society decided to initiate this partnership with GIP, Geneva Internet platform and Diplo.
We (Indiscernible) on March on Internet Governance to get a sense of people's priorities, concerns, the hot topics, and also get a sense of what people wanted. What ISOC should do and what ISOC should produce or find a way to produce with others through partnerships.
People said they were concerned about security. Cybersecurity issues emerging. They were concerned about the pace of Internet Governance discussions and the difficulty for them to fully understand and at the same occasion participate fully to those discussions.
Then they called ISOC very clearly to support local Internet Governance discussions and this is what we do through local IGFs. We support their development at the national and regional level.
And they also asked ISOC to accelerate, I would say, in the development of resources. So we put out a series of policy briefs. ISOC is an advocacy organization. Diplo has a slightly different role. So the way we saw this we would have through GIP factual objective information offered to the community and then ISOC and others can tweak that information, come up with their own opinions, and fully participate in their roles of advocates.
We also were sensitive to the fact that people want information that is tailored at the national regional level, because if you talk about an issue like net neutrality, the perception, definition, legal framework will be very different, whether you're in a US context, your pee an context, Asian context. And this is why today we are launching with Geneva Internet platform the call for curators to help us monitor, collect this information, and work with Diplo experts to package it to be a resource shared for all stakeholders of Internet Governance discussion.
So basically this is why ISOC, it was close to ISOC's heart to get in project on track and it is also wonderful opportunity to work more closely with friends, and we hope that many of you will apply or share the information on this opportunity to become local curators in your countries to share information, gather, collect, and offer to the broader community.
I'll stop there. Thank you.
>> TEREZA HOREJSOVA: Thank you very much, Constance, for the kind words. Also I can say it is tremendous pleasure to work with you on this initiative, like it is the pleasure for us to work with Swenton on the GIP.
And, with this, I would like Thomas Schneider to say a few words.
>> THOMAS SCHNEIDER: Thank you. And good morning to everybody. My name is Thomas Schneider and I work for the Federal Office of Communication, Swizterland.
Tereza has said, we have been initiated to the GenevaInternet platform a few years ago, and basically the catalyst experience for us was the WCIT conference, which was a big conference in 2012, where we ended up at the end with a huge clash between many industrialized countries on the one hand, and a lot of 27 countries on the other hand. And we realized that not that much of the discussion was actually based on an actual factual knowledge but also on the idea that logical aspect on fears, on half knowledge of rumors. And we felt that since Switzerland is the home of a large number of intergovernmental institutions around the UN where a lot of issues related to Internet or to Internet Governance discussed normally in the silos in every of these institutions, we have a number of private institutions as well present in Geneva, and a lot of NGOs that also deal with different aspects related to the Internet, and we realized that people talk to the people they know in their silos, but not necessarily to others who may have a different view, a different experience. And so most of us do only have a limited, actually an aspect of the whole picture of issues that are related to Internet Governance.
Then we discussed in a multistakeholder group in Switzerland whether we could or should do as the host Country of this institutions. We should do something to purport neutral, factual information for easy access, to people that have struggling and finding out what is going on where, why are people having these positions or the other positions, what is the history to a discussion and so on and so forth, and we came up with this idea of building a platform that had three pillars. One is briefings and information meetings, physical meetings in Geneva targeted in particular, but not only to ambassadors, to people that work in small missions in particular from Developing Countries and that have small missions with little number of people that are struggling to find out where they should they invest their time, which is most important for them what is going on. So that is one pillar that is where Diplo has already been active for quite some time and has a well-known reputation as been very flexible also in seeing what the actual needs of these actors are.
And then the second part of the idea was to have a, we called it a one-stop shop in a beginning can was a fashion word a few years ago. Some portal, some tool online where you could, no matter where you are, where you could get easy access to what is going on, who is doing what, who is not doing what, and so on and so forth. And depending on the issues and has been said already in a personalized way, what is of your interest or what you think is of your interest that you can easily find access to such information. You find access to other people. You get to know other people, other institutions.
So that second pillar has actually now developed into the GIP Digital Watch which is the tool that you have seen.
Then there is a third pillar which we haven't implemented yet, but we are about to implement it, which is run and financed by Swiss private sector actors, which is a physical -- the idea of a physical space, a lab, whatever we will call it once it is there, in Geneva where people will be able to meet physically meet, have an infrastructure, an ICT infrastructure that allows them to also connect with other people from around the world with services there with a nice room facilities so they can meet and brainstorm, develop new ideas like a catalyst lab, or whatever you call it.
This is about to be -- we have a concept, now we need to see whether we get enough money from the Swiss private sector to do this, but it looks fine.
So these are the three elements of the Geneva forum which is run and funded by the foreign ministry of Switzerland and by my ministry which we call them the department for energy, environment, transport and communication.
And we have three more partners. One is the poly technical institute of Switzerland and Zurich that also contribute to the University of Geneva, and then the free so-called Geneva centers, it's now the Center for Democrat Control of Armed Forces, which is right next door on the other side of the railways. So this is like the basis. And Diplo is our operator that operates this and we also are happy to have other partners like ISOC for projects that run-on Diplo.
And I'm here just to say this is not intended in our view to convey situation positions or to lobby for swigs positions. This is meant as a service, as a host Country of a number of institutions to provide for easy access to as factual and transparent information as possible.
Thank you.
>> TEREZA HOREJSOVA: Thomas, thank you very much. Also for introducing the other pillars of the Geneva Internet platform, because the GIP really is not really only GIP Digital Watch, if you are available on Thursday afternoon, if I am not wrong, we have another open forum planned specifically for Diplo Foundation and its capacity Diplo activities and the Geneva platform in particular, so feel free to attend on Thursday, as well, to learn a bit more.
Just one final note on what Thomas was mentioning. On the last point the need for the transparent neutral information from the daily work that we are doing, I can confirm that neither ISOC nor Switzerland has actually ever discussed with us the way we present information. This is an independent work of Diplo.
Thank you, then, for your words, and I would like to get to you here in the room, but also our online participants.
So if you would like any clarification, comment or ask a question, please raise your hand or our remote moderator please alert me.
Yes, I'm not sure. Do we have a microphone or do you have to come in front? Yeah, sorry about this.
And while you are coming here, if you could please introduce yourself.
Thank you very much.
>> AUDIENCE: Hello. I'm Dan Arnato. Is this on? Hello? Hello? Okay.
Hi. I'm Dan Arnato from the University of Washington, and I saw a presentation on the NETMundial’s Internet, too, and it seems there is a lot of synergy and potential overlaps with what you're doing, so I was just curious if you guys had seen the initiative and what you thought of it and whether you thought there was some, I think there is some interesting room for collaboration there in the and a lot of similar themes.
>> TEREZA HOREJSOVA: Thank you very much for your question.
Yes, we are aware, and follow closely initiative like we will also the other observatory initiatives happening. Actually even here at the IGF we have a common workshop called something like introducing Internet Governance observers to where we get together about five or six partners doing various observatory projects and we will try to take the discussion further on the complementary and cooperation.
We do have established discussion channels open already, so we meet regularly in conference calls and try to discuss on both how to really make it easier for the community at the end and how to also make it more interpretable on the technical level.
We also have initial discussions on the taxonomy because for the community it may be helpful if the same taxonomy without the various initiatives, so the efforts are there.
Again, back to the specific target group that each of these initiatives is aimed for. This is where we see the biggest chance for complement rather than competition.
But thank you for this question. It is very important. Constance or Thomas, would you like to add anything on this?
>> CONSTANCE BOMMELAER: Yes. Thank you.
You know, I think it is --
>> TEREZA HOREJSOVA: You're not on. I have to switch over first. Sorry. Okay.
>> CONSTANCE BOMMELAER: Okay. Thank you. I think it's very encouraging to see that organizations who have resources, the knowledge, the expertise are responding to the call from stakeholders very clear call that they need more resources, they need to feel connected, they need to find information about how to participate to these fundamental discussions, whether it is WISS. The fact that there are various parts being developed at the same time I think it is very good because they're com plea men Terry.
We see with work of chapters and members we want to give a bottom up flavor to the content that will come out of digital watch. That was one of our priorities and (Indiscernible).
The fact as well that you already have a lot of content on digital watch where as some of the other platforms are still in the process of crowd sourcing is also very good, because it's already providing information, the information that diplomats, Civil Society read leaders, advocates need and there is a working relationship between all of those platforms.
I know there is a constant dialogue between European commission for JIPO and our colleagues from GIP exchanging ideas, tips on how to do this, because it requires a lot of expertise. It truly is very difficult, actually, to simplify information and make sure people rapidly can digest it and feel strong enough, equipped to dive into those Internet Governance international discussions.
Thank you.
>> THOMAS SCHNEIDER: Very quickly to add to this.
As I said this idea has actually started on a national level in 2011 also as part of a strategy of visibility of Switzerland in international discussions and contributions and we've been in contact from the very beginning with our colleagues from the European union with JIPO idea which is similar idea and it's actually I would also confirm that it is rather fruitful to share ideas and then it's also people to have a choice, because someone may like this application better and manage with other applications as well. Every idea has slight differences.
The Swiss approach to this is we try to, the GIP has been launched in spring, January 2014, there now for almost two years. We started with the physical courses in Geneva, then slowly built up the content on the GIP website with a timeline, with a glossary of institutions and so on. We try to do not the big thing at once but we normally as the Swiss we try to start with something small but reliable, something that works and you try to build on it and make it bigger over time and see whether people like it and adapt if they don't. So this is how GIP has been developing so far and we are quite happy with the way it has been developing and we are looking forward to other initiatives to complement what we're doing. As I said, this is only an advantage to people to have a choice.
Thank you.
>> TEREZA HOREJSOVA: Thank you. Thank you Constance and Thomas.
Please, if you can please come forward and introduce yourself. Thank you.
>> AUDIENCE: Good morning everyone. The name is Kevin Swift. I'm from LACNIC and also an avid Internet user. Just a quick question. And I apologize beforehand if this seems repetitive.
I want to hear more about the idea of the curators and find out exactly what are the anticipated responsibilities for such curators and also know if they were leveraged, let's say, existing structures, as informal as they would be, for instance in the Caribbean region where there have been small IG related activities going on.
Thank you.
>> TEREZA HOREJSOVA: Thank you very much. It is good to see you.
No, this is a very, very important and particular question. I don't know Constance if I should say a few words, or you want to. In a nutshell and the leaflet in the front will give you all the details about how to apply and also what the particular profile of this person should be.
So, just a few prerequisites that I will now remember from my head. Because this is part of the ISOC elements and GIP Digital Watch it is conditional that you are a member of the Internet Society or one of the (Indiscernible), you may however if you are not also become a member or a chapter involved person through this application process, you should obviously be interested and knowledgeable about Internet Governance issues and you should be following very closely the developments in your Country, in your region, because that is exactly what we will be interested in most for the localization of the content.
You should be flexible. You would need to commit to neutrality and unbiased presentation of the information. This is very essential.
Another important prerequisite for become ago curator is after you fill out the registration form which will also ask you to approach your CV, provide some information about yourself, a few words about why you are motivated to be part of this, but also try to come up with these simple updates. So you should have a look at the JP with digital watch, what is the format of the updates that we are providing and try to give us an example if you were the assistant curator now what would be the updates that you would share with us.
All information is available on digital watch website.
Digitalwatch.GIplatform.org to see more information, but just grab the leaflet and you will get it in a written format.
The call for application will close on the 3rd of January, if I'm not mistaken, but there is some time to think about whether you would like to go ahead. And after this we will select those that we want to take to the second level of the application process who would have to go through an online training course on reporting. So after you are done with the course you would also be a certified reporter, which is another motivation. And after the second step, we will make the final selection of the curators that we would like to involve in our work.
So the process is not automatic. If au apply you will become a curator. We hope so be able to motivate you along the way, we hope you to get out quite a lot of it, also an online course, and hope to have you a board then.
If you have any further questions on this, please tell me, and I'm sure Constance wanted to add a few things, as well. Go ahead. Switch over.
>> CONSTANCE BOMMELAER: Thank you very much, Tereza.
I just wanted to mention that becoming an ISOC member, an individual member is free. It takes a few minutes. You go on ISOC's website. It is one of the requirements to be able to apply as a curator to develop local content and it's very simple to do through our web platform. And I think you mentioned the deadline, so.
>> TEREZA HOREJSOVA: Yes. I will want to double check. Because I'm not sure if I remember well. Something like this. There is time. It is nottomorrow, it is not next week.
Please come forward to ask your question and introduce yourself.
Thank you.
>> AUDIENCE: Hi. Is this on? Hi. Good Morning. My name is Pase (Indiscernible). I'm in Global Centre at the University of ox for. I don't have a question. This is a common. I think this is really, really good. I am a great fan of Diplo and I'm a diplomat, but I sometimes log into your briefings because it is really helpful.
We have a cybersecurity capacity building focused portal and I think possibly it might be a good idea if we could have a conversation to see how we could feed in the sub security element to this because I think there is definitely a lot of scope for collaboration.
And I won really worry about the competitive necessary of portals. You know the success of portals is really in the cure ration of that information so I would focus on the cure ration of that information and then, you know, it will be the one kind of thing and everybody will feed into that.
Anyway. Thank you so much.
>> TEREZA HOREJSOVA: Thank you very much for your nice comment and encouragement.
Yes, again, we do not see this as a competition with the other initiatives. We do the work that we believe will serve the community and really have constant conversations about the others.
Please, we'll talk more about the work that you are doing, because it is not only with the observatory initiatives we wants to cooperate but definitely with other partners. Our director of cybersecurity programs, Vladimir is around IGF, as well, so it might be good to involve him in this conversation as well.
Thank you.
And I believe we have questions from remote moderators -- from remote participants through our remote moderators. Sorry.
>> AUDIENCE: Hello. I have a question. Miguel, from Argentina. What will the process from being GIP Digital Watch moderator?
>> TEREZA HOREJSOVA: Thank you very much for the question. I think Miguel is referring to the curator operation process which I have just described a few minutes ago together with Constance so I'm not sure if there was a lag in when this question was asked, but once again, to become a curator for GIP Digital Watch pleas go online at giplatform.org and you will have more information about the application process and the prerequisites.
>> AUDIENCE: Thank you.
>> TEREZA HOREJSOVA: Are there any other questions from remote?
>> No, we haven't.
>> TEREZA HOREJSOVA: Are there any further questions here in the room?
Okay. So, if not, thank you very much once again for coming.
Thank you for your questions and comments and for listening to us patiently.
I hope to see you Thursday at the GIP and Diplo Foundation open forum as well as on the session where we will talk together and discuss where the other observers do. I believe this is also taking place on Thursday afternoon, but please double check the schedule.
Thank you and have a good day.
Don't forget to grab your IGF daily tomorrow morning.
Thank you.
(Applause)