Tomorrow, 2 July 2015, I will be speaking at the United Nations in New York during the “Informal Interactive Stakeholder Consultation” that is part of the preparatory process for the 10-year-review of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). You can watch live from 10:00am to 6:00pm US Eastern time (UTC-4) at:
I will be among a number of representatives of non-governmental organizations and in my remarks intend to make several points, including the following:
- In just the past 10 years, we have made impressive progress in implementing the goals laid out at the WSIS in Geneva and Tunis. Today, with more than 3 billion people online, the Internet’s infrastructure has significantly expanded.
- But access is not the ultimate goal, it is a means to an end: sustainable development and human empowerment.
- Here are the ultimate challenges: We need the Internet to be an enabler of Human Rights, supporting free expression, while protecting users’ privacy. We need more leading women in the technology field; for the Internet to contribute to social and gender equality. We need innovation to spur across all regions; for the next Facebook to come from a developing country. We need a secure Internet that users can trust.
- Getting us there will require cooperation, collaborative governance and mutual respect. No one does it alone, as stated in the Tunis Agenda.
- In this spirit, we call upon the UN to renew the mandate of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), a vibrant example collaborative governance.
- We call upon all stakeholders to work together collaboratively to address Internet security issues.
- This WSIS+10 preparatory meetings needs to be open to more than just governments but rather to all segments of society involved with the Internet. Over 120 organizations and individuals have now signed on to the Call For An Open WSIS+10 Preparatory Process and we expect even more to sign on as the process continues. (You are welcome to sign up now!)
To this last point, this set of WSIS+10 consultations actually begins today, 1 July, with a session where governments will state their positions. I will be observing and look forward to participating in tomorrow’s interactive session. I encourage you to watch the session live. The UN is also encouraging feedback via Twitter using the #AskWSIS10 hashtag.
To understand more about the WSIS+10 process, please see: