Emergence of the notion of Multi-Stakeholder Internet Governance

1. Emergence of the notion of Multi-Stakeholder Internet Governance during the . A case study of the potential of complexity science in public policy issues Bertrand de La Chapelle French Ministry of Foreign Affairs Collegium Budapest August 5, 2006

2. This presentation has been prepared for the Seminar « Potentials of Complexity Science for Business, Governments and the Media » held at the Collegium Budapest on August 3-5, 2006 It represents a personal research of the author and in no way an official position of the French authorities or the French Foreign Ministry.

3. Structure 1 – The WSIS (2002-2005) and what it produced 2 – The « four magic words » and how they emerged 3 – A new governance model and how it can spread

4. 1- The WSIS (2002-2005) What was the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) ? And what did it produce ?

5. WSIS is a thematic UN summit • decided in1998 • organized by ITU • that took place in two phases : Geneva (2003) and Tunis (2005) • for more than 15.000 participants • a « Johannesburg for the Internet »

6. Four distinct constituencies Governments International Organizations Bureau HLSOC Executive Secretariat Bureau SC CCBI ITU Business Sector Civil Society, NGOs

7. ThematicConferences Regional Conferences PrepComs A four-year process Geneva Tunis 2004 2005 2003 2002

8. 11 major issue clusters 1. Role of governments and other stakeholders -------------- 2. Infrastructure (Connectivity, Access) --------------3. Access to Information and Knowledge --------------------- 4. Building Confidence and Security --------------5. Enabling Environment (Regulation, Laws) -------------- 6. Capacity Building (Formation) --------------7. ICT Applications (Health, Environment, …) -------------- 8. Cultural Diversity, local content --------------9. Media --------------- 10. Ethical Dimensions -------------- 11. International and regional cooperation More than 80 sub-themes

9. Apparent and real Results • Traditionally : four diplomatic Documents • Geneva : Declaration of Principes + Plan of Action • Tunis : Tunis Agenda + Commitment • More importantly : • A community of practice / complex network ? • Four words : Internet Governance Multi-Stakeholder Forum

10. A community of practice ? • Interconnexion of existing social networks • among constituencies : Govts, C.S, B.S., IGOs • within constituencies, particularly Civil Society • Thematic clustering : CS caucuses, WG, • Active rewiringthrough connectors and convenors (via numerous meetings) • Electronic tools(mailing lists, web sites, blogs, etc…) Scale-Free Complex Network ? Small World ?

11. 2- The four magic words Internet Governance (Geneva 2003) Multi-Stakeholder Forum (Tunis 2005) And how they emerged !

12. What was the issue (simplified) ? • Who controls the Internet ? (particularly its critical ressources - the DNS - and ICANN) • Pressure of countries (China, Brazil) to : • impose a bigger role for governments • end the prominent role of the US government • What role for the four constituencies ? Almost a political deadlock at the end of 2003

13. A reformulation was needed • As an « Issue of Common Concern or Interest » (aka ICCI) • Governance means : • neither pure government • nor pure private or technical management • Internet Governance covers both : • governance OF the Internet (infrastructure,…) • and governance ON the Internet (spam, …)

14. Multi-Stakeholder Forum ? • a Forum is a neutral middle ground between : • intergovernmental organizations (UN-type like ITU) • the non-profit civil society structure (ICANN or W3C) • Multi-stakeholder allows : • involvement of all consituencies • without determining their respective roles yet • The first Internet Governance Forum (IGF) : • will meet in Athens at the end of October

15. How this emerged ? • a four-year process slowly but progressively building trust and acceptance of CS and BS • progressive meme contamination of speeches, then texts through viral agents and promoters • some bifurcations (=> fitness landscape) and critical paths (inserting amendments) • tipping point under boundary conditions (the summits themselves)

16. 3 – A new generic model ? A new governance approach is needed for the complex issues of our time and the size of our global polity. But in spite of the limits of the present system we do not have yet a complete alternative, only building blocks.

17. Multi-level Multi-actors Trans-frontier / Global Complex issues ? • Absolute sovereignty ? • Legitimacy of actors ? • Genericity ?

18. A global polity ? • The natural size of the Polity is a day’s travel (by horse, car/train, planes) • Political systems depend upon communication tools (voice, print, Internet) • Third generation of political systems : after monarchies and representative democracy, participatory governance ?

19. Three ages, three distribution issues Agriculture Industry Digital Landownership Added Value Monetary /Non-monetary Monarchy RepresentativeDemocracy Participatorygovernance ?

20. A new Governance ? • Issue-based, not only geography based • Shared responsibility rather than mere sovereignty • Involving all concerned Stakeholders • Contributive rather than representative • Decision-shaping rather than decision-taking • Offering interoperability protocols between different governance frameworks

21. From Separation to Clustering Thematic Clusteringwith overlaps HierarchicalDelegation

22. Multi-layer architecture Governance Frameworks (ex : DDHC, preambles) Governance Charters (Thematic Constitutions) Governance Regimes (Laws, Regulations, Standards)

23. Iterative five-stage processes Imple-mentation Enforce-ment Initiation Drafting Adoption Variable roles and responsibilities of the different stakeholders in the five stages

24. A definition of Governance ? • The set of rules and procedures • Adopted and used by a group of actors • To initiate, draft, adopt, implement and enforce • Specific regimes and decisions • To address their issues of common concern or interest (ICCIs)

25. Perspectives / Conclusion Will Multi-stakeholder Governance succeed ? How to help the transition ?

26. Can MS governance percolate ? • Will work in the Internet sphere test bed (global nature, legitimacy of actors) • Reduces prisoner’s dilemmas situations and facilitates positive sum games • Already propagating to ECOSOC (NY) • Will replicate in and reform other domains of the international system

27. How to help the transition ? • Document case studies of Complexity Theory in public issues (ex. Health or Crime in Tipping Point de M. Gladwell) • Expose policy – makers to these examples in joint seminars with practitioners • Encourage trans-disciplinary research efforts with political scientists (conflict zones as well as constitutionnalists)

28. Thank You

29. P.S. : Personnal announcement For a personnal project, I am looking for : • data sets on professional conferences : speakers, participants and exhibitor lists or a way to access them • efficient clustering algorithms for social network structuration (incl. overlapping communities) • competences in recommendation systems and collaborative filtering