WSIS Forum 2015

25 May 2015 - 29 May 2015

Geneva

The WSIS Forum 2015, with the theme Innovating Together: Enabling ICTs for Sustainable Development, is being held on 25-29 May 2015, at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Place des Nations, 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland. The agenda and programme for the WSIS Forum 2015 are built on the basis of official submissions received during the Open Consultation Process on the Thematic Aspects and Innovations on the Format of the WSIS Forum 2015.

[Update] Summary of WSIS Forum highlights

Highlights from Day 5
Collaborative Internet Security: Best Practices in Addressing Spam and Establishing CSIRTs
The last day of WSIS started with a series of morning sessions, one of which concerned the need for collaboration to improve Internet security, in particular in addressing spam and in establishing Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs). The session started with an opening statement by Brahuma Sanou, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau, who emphasised the need to work together, since ‘we are as strong as the weakest link in the network’ – a phrase that seem to dominate all security-related sessions at the conference. Olaf Kolkman, Chief Technology Officer of ISOC then introduced the topic by offering his view on collaborative security, emphasising that security should be seen as an evolutionary process guided by an accumulation of small steps, encouraging to ‘think globally, act locally’.

Markus Kummer, who works on the IGF’s Best Practice Forums, explained that the main priority areas concerning the development of effective CSIRTs were to clarify their tasks, determine national points of contact, develop case-studies and identify successful examples, and to focus on privacy and free speech as concepts that are not to be compromised, but strengthened, with successful CSIRTs. With regard to spam, Kummer expressed his concerns about policy makers from developed countries showing little interested in fighting spam, and on the difficulty of retrieving data on spam in developing countries. Dominique Lazanski addressed spam in relation to mobile devices, and shared her experience with the Mobile Spam Reporting Service, which has been successful in the UK, not only in reporting and quickly responding to mobile spam, but also as an example of cooperation between mobile operators and law enforcement agencies.

Serge Droz, Head Security of SWITCH, reminded everyone that spam is only the tip of the cybercrime iceberg, and expanded the discussion to CSIRTs, praising its informal and collaborative nature. He argued that CSIRTs will not solve cybercrime, but it can help fighting in in collaboration with law enforcement. Eliot Lear, Principal Engineer of Cisco Systems, re-emphasised the importance of cooperation, and stressed that the Internet of Things will have to entail protection mechanisms. Vladimir Radunovic, Director of Cybersecurity Programmes at DiploFoundation highlighted two essential aspects that are required when building cybersecurity: knowledge and capacity on the one hand, and inter-professional and inter-institutional communication on the other. He furthermore shared his experience with collaborative capacity building programs, in which he also saw a big role for existing knowledge on best practices. Finally, Greg Shannen, Chair of the IEEE Cyber-security Initiative agreed with Radunovic that face-to-face communication is key to build trust. He furthermore expanded on the role of CSIRTs as honest brokers, who can communicate back to help stakeholders understand the causes of cyberthreats.

During the second part of the session, an interactive discussion emerged on various topics:

  • Spam: the speakers highlighted the elaborate levels of protection against spam. Lazanski explained that users can be made aware of what they can do by reading GSMA’s code of practice for spam, and Lear referred to the U.S. initiative of staysafeonline.org that informs users on the proper use of the Internet.
  • Regulation: Shannen talked about the danger that policy makers, through the regulation they design, dampening information exchange and the ability to quickly respond to threats. Richard Hill intervened and pleaded for the 2012 ITR anti-spam article to provide for a legal framework. Lear doubted the necessity of this article, as there is already a lot of cooperation without it, and argued that, ‘one has to be extremely careful about imposing processes that slow service providers down in their response’.
  • Information exchange and human interaction: Droz promoted the concept of a ‘beer-to-beer’ approach to create the trust necessary for information sharing and argued that only actionable, useful information needs to be shared. Radunovic and his colleague Jovan Kurbalija confirmed this with their experience with the cybersecurity winter school, where the ‘beer-to-beer’ networking helped develop communication and empathy between different communities of actors.

World Development Report 2016 – Internet for Development

Another morning session was a presentation of the World Development Report 2016, which examines how the Internet affects development. Deepak Mishra from the World Bank gave an insight in the content of the report. It is based on three functions that the Internet has: the inclusion of activities that previously had no market, the increase in efficiency of existing activities, and the creation of economies of scale as marginal costs go down to zero. When applying this framework, the World Bank has observed mixed results. The growth of the Internet does not necessarily lead to a significant increase in jobs in the ICT sector, but it has important indirect effects on employment in other sectors. Furthermore, while high-skilled and low-skilled jobs benefit from ICT, middle-skilled occupations are being squeezed out due to automation, leading to increased polarisation. Finally, while the Internet shows potential in government empowerment, while the empowerment of citizens seems to be the least promising area. This leads to the danger of digital development to be captured by elites. In short, the true transformative potential of the Internet is left largely unrealized. This could be solved by using supply and demand side measures, as well as strengthening the ‘analog foundations for a digital economy’, such as regulation that promoted competition – skills that leverage digital opportunities, and institutions that are capable and accountable. The report has not been finished yet, and contributions are welcome on the World Bank’s website.

Philippa Biggs from the ITU commented on the report and raised some interesting issues. For example, universal access to the Internet might significantly accelerate the marginal costs of individual access, which is not consistent with affordability. She listed a number of other trade-offs that need to be thought about, and concluded that the realisation of the potential of the Internet very much depends on sorting out increasingly more complicated telecom issues. Dutton, professor at Michigan State University, stressed the importance of an open Internet, and gave some examples of how safety can be maintained without having a heavy regulatory regime and thereby closing down the Internet. Jovan Kurbalija, Director of DiploFoundation and Head of the Geneva Internet Platform, opened a discussion on whether the Internet should be considered as a public good, as it fulfills the criteria of being non-excludable and non-rivalrous. At the same time, he raised questions on which elements of the Internet should be public, and which should be private, and pointed out three gaps that need to be addressed: the participatory gap, the jurisdiction gap and the incentive gap. Finally, Mishra reminded everyone that Internet is not a shortcut to development, and that governments are still needed to create effective policies to guide the Internet in the right direction. Kurbalija made a remark on the ultimate battle that is going to take place in the job-creation aspect of the Internet: Uber vs. taxi drivers, and closed the session by embedding the topic of the Internet in the 200-year long history of technological and diplomatic changes; ‘we’re not as unique as we think we are’.

WSIS Action Line Facilitators’ Meeting & Multistakeholder Consultations on WSIS Beyond 2015

The WSIS-week closed with two plenary sessions. The first gave the WSIS Action Line Facilitators a chance to present their reports. Many of the facilitators praised the WSIS’ multistakeholder approach and there was general agreement on the interrelation between action lines and the need to work together across action lines. UPU, facilitator of action line C7 (e-business) proposed for future WSIS forums to organize a few sessions on specific Sustainable Development Goals and have a more detailed discussion on how different action lines can contribute accelerating the achievement of these goals.

Subsequently, the multistakeholder consultations gave WSIS participants to engage in a discussion with ITU’s Secretary-General Zhao on ideas on the future of WSIS. It was a difficult topic to address, since the future of WSIS will depend on the decision of the UN General Assembly, who will discuss this topic in December. However, there was a general consensus among the participant that the forum has been fruitful and effective, and should continue to address Internet governance issues. One recommendation that gained widespread support in the room was to attach youth directly to the WSIS forum, and possibly have separate sessions organized by young IG experts. During the closing ceremony, two reports were presented: the WSIS Forum High Level Policy Statements and the first version of the WSIS Forum Outcome Document, which brought ended a full week of learning, networking and discussing.

[Update] Highlights from Day 4
Day four of the WSIS conference presented us with many choices. A wide range of topics was addressed in a multitude of simultaneous sessions, to do justice to the multi-faceted nature of Internet Governance. Presented here is a small selection of these sessions, as well as the launch of the report on Global Cybersecurity and Cyberwellness Profiles by ABI Research and the ITU.

Building Trust in Cyberspace – Working Together
The morning started with two high-level discussions, one of which concerned trust building in Cyberspace. Houlin Zhao, Secretary-General of the ITU, opened the session and reminded us that despite the immense opportunity, ICT comes with equally substantial challenges in terms of trust and confidence. According to Zhao, this can only be achieved when different stakeholders break out of their isolation and cooperation. Then, Ben Baseley Walker from UNIDIR, who moderated the session, asked each speaker to expand on his or her concept of cybersecurity.
 
The first speaker to address this issue was Uri Rosenthal, former Dutch foreign minister and special envoy of the Cyberspace Conference 2015. He placed cybersecurity in a triangle of human rights, security and development, claiming that a balance should be struck between all three nodes of the triangle. Furthermore, trust in architecture should emerge from discussions on norms and standards, whereas the trust in specific applications needs to derive from discussions among governments and the private sector. He also promoted awareness-raising activities on the proper use of ICTs and the Internet, as users share the responsibility in using the Internet appropriately.
 
Subsequently, Paul Cornish, professor at the University of Oxford, argued that there is a lot of trust, but that this trust is not well distributed across the cyberspace, as trust-building often lacks the involvement of governments. He stated that we should not be indulged ‘in a cosmopolitan fantasy that states are at worst an obstacle to trust-building mechanisms or at best an analogue idea that we can ignore in the new digital age. In the rush to hyper-connectivity, we should not forget that there are 200 political dinosaurs roaming around the world that show no sign of imminent extinction’. When thinking about state-centered confidence-building measures, it could be useful to review old ideas of confidence building measures, such as those used in the Cold War, so that a digital détente can be achieved.
 
Ellen Blackler, from the Walt Disney Company, mainly addressed the topic of trust building by improving digital literacy skills, which would enable users, and particularly children, to execute their rights and responsibilities online. Xiangsheng Shi, Deputy Secretary-General of the Internet Society of China saw trust building more as creating win-win situations through mutual cooperation, and Australian Ambassador John Quinn looked at the legal side of trust building. He addressed the application of international law to the cyberspace, and raised the interesting question of how peacetime norms should be developed in evaluating measures that do not pass the threshold of the use of force. He also elaborated on trust building measures in ASEAN, where a fruitful crisis scenario exercise was held. Fred Matiang’i from Kenya’s Ministry of ICT argued that building trust in Cyberspace concerns striking a balance between individual freedoms and the collective good of the whole, between security and human rights.
 
Next, the panel elaborated on different ongoing processes that will help develop trust, as well as capacity building measures. Shi elaborated on the Wuzhen conference, while Quinn addressed processes in ASEAN and the GGE processes. Matiang’i talked about the African Union Convention on Cybersecurity, of which the ratification is challenging due to the great disparity of development and adoption of the Internet among AU countries. This challenge stresses the need for capacity building. Cornish addressed this need by explaining his Cyber Capacity Model, developed at Oxford University, as a tool for governments to develop strategies for capacity building. Rosenthal expanded on the Global Cyberspace Conference, and in particular, the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise that was launched there. He explained that capacity building should not only address cyber threats, but also cyber’s positive elements, such as the Internet of Things. Blackler emphasized that businesses should be at the table when building solutions, but also that the different parts of the value chain should take responsibility for the harms that could happen, and mitigate them. Finally, the panel was asked to very briefly comment on what they thought would be the top issue for trust in the cyberspace in 2015-2016, and the answers included digital citizenship skills of children, bridging differences between different coalitions, the Internet of Things, mainstreaming cyber issues, public-private partnerships, the role of social media, and Cornish’ contribution to ‘persuade dinosaurs to spend more time talking to each other than eating each other’. 
 
Building Confidence and Security in the Use of ICTs: A Vital Component of the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda
This session elaborated on the previous high-level discussion. It discussed building confidence and security in the use of ICTs as a means for sustainable development. In relation to this topic, WSIS has created a matrix, linking WSIS action lines with SDGs.
 
Pavan Duggal, President of Cyberlaws.net and MobileLaw.net, offered a legal perspective to this issue, arguing that legal policy continuously lags behind, while cyber criminals are calling the shots and technology is rapidly moving forward. One way to address these challenges is picking ‘low hanging fruit’ by collecting all common denominators that are acceptable to all stakeholders, and by researching the applicability of international law to the cyberspace, for example in the context of warfare. Mohamed Naoufel Frikha from the Agence Nationale de la Sécurité Informatique narrowed this issue down by offering examples from Tunisian ICT policies. 
 
David Satola, ICT legal advisor of the World Bank, stressed the importance of an enabling environment with confidence and trust, which he said is a precondition for development projects with ICT elements, as recipients need to feel confortable using ICT products. He also raised the challenge of measuring security threats, which results in reluctant investors, as security risks cannot be calculated. Finally, he wished for an incentivized general culture of more security-minded behavior. Ibrahim Humaid AlMayahi from the Ministry of Interior of the United Arab Emirates agreed and gave examples how his governments have attempted to create such a security-minded culture. Cecile Barayre from UNCTAD discussed a report that she helped publishing on e-commerce, in which user confidence is an essential element. This trust is often breached by cyber criminals that exploit lax legal regimes. In her eyes, building trust therefore happens by establishing stronger legal regimes. Finally, Cederberg, Senior Programme Advisor of GCSP, offered his experience in drafting a national cybersecurity policy for Finland and stated that it is easier for cybersecurity regimes to be built at the national level first, rather than wait for a global regime to be established. The following, brief discussion focused on user responsibility, UN inter-agency coordination, which is needed due to the cross-cutting nature of cybersecurity, and global guidance on disclosure, which the OECD is currently working on.
 
Launching the Report on Global Cybersecurity Index & Cyberwellness Profiles
During the lunch break, ITU and ABI Research launched the report on Global Cybersecurity Index & Cyberwellness (GCI). According to Kemal Huseinovic, Chief of Infrastructure at the Enabling Environment and e-Applications Department of the ITU, the GCI aims to foster a global culture of cybersecurity, which can be done by sharing good practices, which helps assist capacity building. Aaron Boyd, Chief Strategy Officer at ABI Research, expanded on the details of the report. He explained that the index is an opportunity to help each country understand where they stand on the path towards cybersecurity and offer examples on how to get there. As such, ‘it is a cooperative index, not a comparative index’. The ITU and ABI research currently work on a second version of the GCI, which will most likely feature a more granulated index and a way of tracking the progress of different countries in enhancing cybersecurity. 
 
Recent Movement on ‘IoT’ and its Future
Throughout the conference, many have raised the topic of ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) as one of the issues that will revolutionize the Internet. During a session organized by Japan, several Japanese business representatives shared their experience with developing the Internet of Things and practical related e-applications. 
 
Tetsuo Nakakawaji explained, using many technical models and acronyms, how the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation is engaged in the ICT-driven solutions. He stressed that we are not yet in a IoT era, as for this to happen, technologies need to be further developed, especially in relation to security and stable Internet networks. Kuniaki Motoshima, also working at Mitsubishi Electric, expanded on the technical aspects of Mitsubishi’s work, and also introduced Japan’s ‘Smart Japan ICT Strategy’, which is, among other things, established by extensive public-private partnerships. 
 
While the first two speakers focused on the complicated road towards the IoT, the latter two focused on practical examples of services that have already been developed. Yoshito Sakurai, who works at Hitachi Ltd, shared some practical cases of services that have been created by Hitachi, which range from applications in transportation systems, civil construction, energy companies, agriculture, hospital management, food sanitation, and office electric management. Finally, Masahiro Kuroda from the National Institute of Information & Communications technology explained one case related to e-health: the development of affordable portable health clinics. During a project in Bangladesh, these portable clinics were experimented with, and the results were very positive. 
 
ICT Indicators for Monitoring the SDGs
This session was one of the final sessions of the day, and was moderated by Alexandre Barbosa, Head of the Center of Studies for Information and Communications Technology in Brazil. He claimed that there was a need for ICT-related indicators to be included in the official indicators monitoring the goals of the SDGs, especially considering that ICT is currently not mentioned in the goals of the SDGs, while ICT has a considerable impact on sustainable development. Susan Teltscher, Head of ICT and Data Statistics at the ITU explained the process of the establishment of official SDG indicators in further detail and raised some of the key challenges of establishing these indicators. She mentioned that Measuring ICT for Development has written a report proposing how ICT indicators can be used to measure the different SDG goals.
 
The following two panelists addressed the ways in which ICT indicators could be used for the monitoring of several specific themes. Peter Wallet, programme specialist of the UNESCO institute for statistics explained how ICT indicators can be used to measure goals related to education, and Kees Balde from the United Nations University talked about the role of ICT indicators in measuring e-waste. Finally, Alexey Kozyrev, Deputy Minister for Communications and Mass Media of Russia, explained how ICT indicators were used in his country to measure socio-economic development, and he suggested to create international standards for measuring the impact of ICT on social and economic development in various fields. While the clock approached six-thirty, the discussion addressed various issues, including computer-automated measurements, multistakeholder approach in data collection, and the need for more in-depth knowledge on how ICT helps us realize the goals of the SDGs.

Highlights from Day 3
Wednesday, the 2015 WSIS forum featured high-level policy statements and two high-level discussions, one concerning the intersection of ICT and disabled persons, and the other focusing on ICTs for sustainable development.

Making Empowerment a Reality – Accessibility for All
The third day of the WSIS forum started with a discussion on the third WSIS Action Line – Access to Information and Knowledge – with a focus on how access to ICTs could contribute to the empowerment of persons with disabilities. This session built on the conference ‘From Exclusion to Empowerment: Role of ICTs for Persons with Disabilities’ that took place in November 2014 in New Delhi. The main findings of this conference were that low-cost, easy to use ICT solutions exist, but there is limited knowledge sharing concerning the assisted technologies that have already been created at the policy level.

The topic was discussed by a diverse panel. Lenin Moreno, Special Envoy of the United Nations for Disability and Accessibility Issues and former Vice President of Ecuador started the session with a passionate speech, in which he argued that scientists need to be activists and focus on the social needs of society, rather than ‘producing expensive toys for rich children’. Stuti Kacker, Former Secretary of the Department of Disability Affairs of India, stressed the need for knowledge sharing and capacity building to bring ICTs in the reach of the marginalized. John E. Davies, Vice-president of the Intel Corporation offered an example from the private sector, and listed several examples of how ICTs can strengthen the inclusion of disabled persons in society, while Daniela Rubio, Director of Macneticos and Independent Consultant on Digital Accessibility in Spain shared her experience as a blind woman using ICT devices and emphasized that a person’s level of disability very much changes according to the environment in which he or she lives.

Michele J. Woods, Director of the Copyright Law Division of WIPO explained how WIPO helped in empowering disabled persons through ICT, by encouraging the creation of inventions, and at the same time having a sufficiently flexible intellectual property regime that allows for the dissemination of patents. Aniyamuzaala James Rwampigi, Member & Chairperson of Finance and Administration of the National Council for Persons with Disability of Uganda, stressed that we need comprehensive accessibility standards that should be prioritized and made affordable. Mr Andrew Taussig, Former Trustee of the International Institute of Communications and Voice of the Listener and Viewer in the United Kingdom recommended knowledge sharing between countries with the assistance of the UN system, as ‘we are in a catch-up process in which cooperation is essential’.

The following discussion focused on:

  • ​The need for governments to create legally sound framework, made concrete by mandatory measures, such as making all public buildings accessible to persons with disabilities.
  • The need for private sector ICT developers to make technologies more applicable for disabled persons.
  • The need for civil society to raise awareness on ICT accessibility and the use of ICT to empower disabled persons.
  • The need for all stakeholders to share their knowledge and build capacity.

Innovation in ICTs for Sustainable Development
The second high-level discussion concerned the ways in which the relationship between ICTs and innovation, and its foreseen positive impact on development, could be strengthened. After Chairman Chesub Lee, Director of Telecommunication Standardization Bureau of the ITU introduced the concepts of innovation and sustainable development, Behane Gebru from FHI 360 took the floor and discussed the six factors that impact innovation processes in the ICT ecosystem: (1) research and development infrastructure, (2) access to capital, (3) access to human resources, (4), markets and marketing, (5) the industry structure itself, and (6) the macro-economic environment supporting the infrastructure. John Davies, Vice-president of Intel Corporation, argued that innovation is essentially driven by needs, and the needs are set by the Sustainable Development Goals. Innovation needs to be applied to business models, to Internet access, and in applications, such as in sectors of health, agriculture and energy.

Iwona Wendel, Undersecretary of State of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development of Poland talked about the ways in which innovation was encouraged by the Polish government. Carsten Fink, Chief Economist of WIPO then brought the discussion back to the global level by explaining the role of the intellectual property system in incentivizing and driving innovation, in which both the processes of invention and dissemination of new technologies are key. Ken Lohento of the Technical Center for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation shared some examples of innovation fostered in Africa, in which the main problems are the enabling environments for innovation and the lack of funding for new initiatives. Finally, Istvan Manno, Ministerial Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary welcomed us all to Budapest where the ITU Telecom World 2015 conference will be held in October, and where these issues will be discussed in further detail.

High Level Policy Statements
Just like yesterday, high level policy statements continued to be delivered, and many governments extensively shared their experience in implementing the WSIS outcomes and offered their view on the future of Internet governance. In general, the speakers praised the achievements that have been made, but warned about challenges ahead. The statements often emphasized the need for a multistakeholder model of cooperation to bridge the digital gap, particularly stressing the need to connect rural areas. Other themes were the need for affordable access to ICTs, the inclusivity of the Internet, the encouragement of innovation, the importance of an enabling environment, ICTs applicability in emergency response and cybersecurity. When summarizing the statements, Chairperson Magdalena Gaj said that the task of creating an inclusive information society is huge, but not out of reach, and ‘if we want to go far, we need to go together’. Houlin Zhao, ITU’s Secretary-General closed the session by thanking everyone who participated and awarded a Certificate of Excellence to Magdalena Gaj for her efforts. 

Highlights from Day 2
The second track of the WSIS Forum, the High-Level Track (HLT), started on Tuesday, 26 May, and continues on Wednesday 27 May. It features high-level statements from high-ranking officials representing governments, the private sector, civil society and international organisations.

Throughout the day emphasis was placed on linking the WSIS process with sustainable development. The UN overall WSIS+10 review kicks off in New York after this meeting, and will culminate with a UN General Assembly decision in December 2015. In the words of Ms Magdalena Gaj, President, Office for Electronic Communication, Poland, appointed the chairperson of the Forum, ‘WSIS is not the problem, it is the solution’. While the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets will be finalised in September, the WSIS process is critical in their implementation, according to the majority of the officials speaking at the WSIS Forum today. ITU Secretary General, Houlin Zhao, pointed out in the morning that ‘only 4 out of the 17 SDGs refer specifically to development, and this is not enough’. They underline the role played by ICTs in the post-2015 agenda, the WSIS-SDG Matrix released by the ITU.

Many of the speeches stressed the need for innovati