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The Net Dialogue site categorizes information according to
traditional governance areas – based on the theory that the same
types of problems that governmets have had to grapple with
throughout history crop up in cyberspace. The site also provides
overviews of organizations treating the Internet, and, for
summaries of initiatives, it uses language directly from the orga-
nizations involved. To help the viewer find original documents,
the site also links to official texts. In addition, to enable people
to find further details, the site provides background information,
indicating the drafting committee or pointing to the terms of refer-
ence for a specific initiative. Finally, this one-stop-shop portal
features online discussion tools to show how the public can
submit comments.
A forum established by the World Summit on the Information
Society could easily take on this task in an official capacity. As
part of its work, the forum could simply pull together what
already exists through organizations’ individual online coverage.
Then, to garner public input, the site could offer a request for
comment process to enable direct public participation in pending
decisions. The site could employ simple tools like RSS feeds to
facilitate the transmission of feedback directly to the specific
committees involved in formulating new rules.
Anticipating the future
Of course, by the time an Internet-related topic reaches an inter-
governmental body for rulemaking, the technology is already well
on its way to making an impact. In past years this delay was
perhaps tolerable; however, today, and more so in the future, the
pace of technological change will greatly outstrip the ability of
rules to keep up with developments. For this reason, it is imper-
ative that policymakers be equipped in advance with an
understanding of the technology around the corner so that they
may anticipate change and accommodate it.
Indeed, with technology developing at an exponential rate, the
next ten years are projected to revolutionize the way people live.
Web services and other oncoming advancements promise to make
the Internet all pervasive in life, with electronic agents continu-
ally exchanging and analysing information without individuals’
even being aware of it. Moreover, whoever wields the power of
quantum computing when it arrives (estimated by some to be in
five to seven years) will have an enormous “first mover” advan-
tage geopolitically in the networked world.
On the one hand, the Information Society is on the cusp of a
renaissance, where high-performance computing is opening new
scientific frontiers in fields like biotechnology and high-energy
physics, and is awakening a love for the arts in an expanding
universe of multimedia creations. On the other hand, the world
risks decline, as information is consolidated and claimed, so that
even people’s location and spending patterns, or their commu-
nications with others, become restricted commodities. With these
divergent possibilities, policies pertaining to the ownership and
control of information will dramatically determine whether free
society flourishes or withers.
In other words, there is an urgent need for policymakers to
prepare for the future and not just focus on problems of the past.
To do so, they need to maintain better dialogue with the tech-
nology community, and they need to employ procedures that are
appropriate for this fast moving realm. More than ever before, the
Declaration of Principles, espousing multilateralism, transparency,
democracy, coordination, and multi-stakeholder input – coupled
with a lean and nimble process – can help the networked world
harness technological change for everyone’s good.
Photo: ITU/Sanjay Acharya
Delegates at the WSIS PrepCom-2 Sub-Committee meeting at the Palais des Nations