When the world meets up at Tunisia, in coming November, during the World Summit on the Information Society, this meet signals global recognition that information and communication technologies can play a major role in social and economic development and contribute significantly towards poverty alleviation. South Africa’s civil society takes a look at the focus and objectives of the WSIS.

APC members in the Philippines, the Foundation for Media Alternatives, took the lead in a consultative workshop on the national leg of the information society summit. While welcoming the workshop, it also spoke out to voice concern that the first national summit of May 2004 had not been taken seriously by the government, with very few discussions held last year.

The Slovak Telecommunications Office has published a draft of its new general licence for operating radio devices in the public 2.4 GHz frequency band. But if the wordings of this new policy remain unchanged, it could "effectivelly put ban on thousands of devices around the country", warns the Bratislava-based CHANGENET.SK network.

Internet governance brings together two largely impenetrable realms for the average WSIS delegate: the nuts and bolts of the internet – what it is, how it works- and who manages those nuts and bolts. It is too early to predict what the final impact of the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) will be. But there is no doubt that it has created a much-needed space. “At a time of global malaise, indifference and lack of faith and legitimacy in many of our global and national governance institutions, the internet governance debate is one where civil society advocates can make a real difference,” concludes APC in this new report which covers the main developments in the internet governance debate.

As executive coordinator of the Secretariat of the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG), Markus Kummer prepares sessions, facilitates their work and writes up their reports after meetings. But, as he explains to Maud Hand in a quiet moment prior to PrepCom 2, Phase 2, unlike the classical secretariat tasks of any international working group, the multi-stakeholder make up of WGIG makes for a very different job.

Carlos Afonso, former chair of APC and member of the UN body charged with coming up with a definition of what ‘internet governance’ should encompass amongst other tasks has written an opinionative report on the first meeting of the UN Working Group on Internet Governance, November 23-25 2004, Geneva. For the first time published in English and Spanish from the Portuguese original. Translation by APC.

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process continues and two issues on which governments were unable to reach consensus during the first phase in 2003- ‘internet governance’ and ‘financing mechanisms’- are under the microscope. Last month saw the first open consultation on the ‘working group on internet governance’. APC briefs you on the discussions taking place.

Internet domains (such as .uk, .fr) are sold for a profit to any taker, even if the prospective holder does not have any legal binding with the corresponding country. Thus many ccTLDs are no longer identified with their countries on the Internet, having been sold to national or foreign companies for a profit – some are supposed to be identified with some specific sectors of activity instead of countries, just like some sTLDs (sponsored gTLDs, like .aero for example), but in practice accept any registrant from anywhere in the world with a valid credit card.

Carlos Afonso of RITS has been elected to the Brazilian committee which manages the internet in Brazil and controls .br. The election results were announced on July 15. He is one of four representatives from civil society. Other sectors represented are the scientific community, the business and telecommunications sectors, and internet service providers. It is the first time in Brazil that internet governance has been opened up to the public. In Portuguese.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) – the body that’s responsible for managing the registration and distribution system of domain names (eg. www.apc.org) in the internet – held its first meeting of 2004. More than 600 people from different countries took part in 27 fora. In attendance was Carlos Afonso, planning director of APC’s Brazilian member organisation, RITS. His fascinating report is essential reading for anyone trying to understand internet governance issues and has been translated into English and Spanish by APC.