The Internet Society (ISOC) – Bulgaria and its Internet Governance (IG) Project has sent the following contribution to the Secretariat of the IGF:
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Suggested topics for the first meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
Dear colleagues,
ISOC-Bulgaria is happy to respond with the following ideas about the first meeting of the IGF:
1. Cybersecurity (par. 31, 39, 42, 45, 57, 58, 68, 72 of the Tunis Agenda).
Bulgaria, the Bulgarian civil society, and the Bulgarian government have been quite active in this area. We believe that today more than ever this topic is of importance also for the other countries, where cybercrime originates, and where it ends. And these countries are both developed and developing. While in developing countries the cybercrime usually does not end because of lack of credit card systems, databases, etc., it very well may originate there, as the local laws do not identify cybercrime as crime under national legislature. The fact that the Tunis Agenda discusses in details the issues about security and stability of the Internet, and also in the context of preventing cybercrime, is a good enough argument why the IGF should start its work with this topic.
2. Freedom of choice
We believe firmly in par. 49 of the Tunis agenda, and more specifically, we are sure that free and open source software solutions are vital for bridging the digital divide, easier localization, encouraging national IT, etc.
Today, when many countries suffer from different restrictions driven mainly by the Special 301 report of the US Trade Representative, the IGF may address these issues by advising governments about the different possibilities to use free and open source software as alternative, which also is very much in accordance with the point on cybersecurity.
3. Interconnection Fees and Spam
The topic of spam becomes more and more important in todays world, esp. from the perspective of developing and least developed countries (LDC). It is also very close to the issue of providing affordable Internet access and interconnection agreements.
Currently developing and LDC are the ones to cover all expenses for accessing the rich in Internet content countries. Yet, these lines are used by the latter for data traffic, as well. Unlike the telecoms, there are no settlement agreements, and all the cost is covered by the poor countries. Yet, the spam originates in the developed countries, and goes via the same leased lines, which are paid by the developing and LDC. The IGF has to address these issues.
We believe that all topics on the agenda are important, and certainly do not want to exclude any, but we also believe these three are of biggest importance for the developing countries.
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