Enabling NGOs and Civil Society Through the Internet February 2016

Public Interest Registry 2 Not-for-profit formed by the Internet Society in 2002 in partnership with Afilias to operate the.org Top Level Domain. 32 person staff; donating annual surplus to ISOC to help fund their mission.

Our Mission Statement: To enable, through the Internet, those who dedicate themselves to improving our world.

The Internet “I don’t think we have even seen the tip of the iceberg. I think the potential of what the Internet is going to do to society both good and bad is unimaginable. I think we’re actually on the cusp of something exhilarating and terrifying.” “It’s an alien lifeform.” David Bowie BBC interview

What is the Internet? The Internet is a global network comprising of many voluntarily interconnected autonomous networks. It operates without a central governing body. The technical underpinning and standardization of the core protocols (IPv4 and IPv6) is an activity of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a non-profit organization of loosely affiliated international participants that anyone may associate with by contributing technical expertise.IPv4IPv6 Internet Engineering Task Force Source: Wikipedia 5

What is the Internet? Technical standards TCP/IP Domain Name System Coordination and cooperation 6

What is the Internet? 7

Internet Governance Multi Stakeholder Model -Governments -Industry -Civil Society Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) – industry led, bottom up multi stakeholder policy making for the Internethttp:// 8

Internet Governance U.N. World Summit on the Information Society - The WSIS multistakeholder approach which is essential in building the information society should be harnessed emphasising its benefits, recognising that it has worked well in some areas; and that it should be improved, strengthened and applied in some other areas 9

Internet Governance Internet Governance Forum International Telecommunication Union 10

How to Participate in Internet Governance? 11

How to participate in Internet Governance? United Nations World Summit on the Information Society “WSIS + 10” - Mapping_WSIS_10_Unravelling_the_strings_of_a_messy_global_polic y_process.pdf ITU Plenipontiery - ; binding ruleshttp://bestbits.net/busan-transparency/ IGF – global, regional, country-based; non-binding 12

NGOs and the Internet Need to be trusted Need to connect and share information Need to raise funds from donors and foundations 13

Validated Domains Online identity exclusively for NGOs Non Governmental Organizations self identify with.ngo Validation gives donors confidence

NGOs and the Internet Data – public v. anonymity WHOIS data Government surveillance -NGOs viewed as instruments of foreign governments (Ford Foundation India, Russia, Snowden) Government restrictions - Restriction on receipt of foreign donations (India); GONGOs 15

Internet Access 16 Access: growth of mobile Source: Tech Crunch

NGOs and Internet Access 17

Civil Society and the Internet 18 - Access - Inequality of access within populations (gender, education, ethnic minorities) - Cultural dominance – English language v. multi- lingual Internet - Data – How accessed? How used? Dominant Internet companies

Civil Society and the Internet 19 What is important for civil society? Access - to the “open” Internet or a walled garden Facebook Free Basics “Great Firewall of China”

Civil Society and the Internet 20 Internet Access and Censorship Issues Facebook Free Basics and India Astroturf lobbying campaign SOPA and PIPA Website blackouts, grassroots, technologists, Reddit, traditional lobbying