1. How not to make Policy With reference to the ECT Bill Bretton Vine Yet Another Internet Activist... bretton@deepsouth.co.za

2. Contents Process overview Personal experiences in Parliament Lessons to be learnt How it could be done better

3. Process Overview legislative process »Need »Mandate »Discussion »Draft papers »Green Paper »White Paper »Draft legislation »Debate »Law

4. Ecommerce Debate Ecommerce Discussion paper »Outlined the issues to be discussed »Covered relevant international issues »Defined problem areas Working groups »Break problem down into components Tools for facilitating communication »Web site + email + document sharing mechanism »Foresight of potential communication problems, and tools provided to deal with these problems

5. Problems though Tools not used »Perhaps familiarity with existing tools of meetings, phone calls and dead trees preferred to computers which don’t always work well »Over dependence on Microsoft software? Exclusions »Only representative bodies, not individuals »Email went unanswered »Geographic meetings of working groups Urgent need for legislation

6. Urgency As a result of rapid pace: »documents produced through seemingly erratic process »bundling of extra components not necessary to the process »critical databases »cyber inspectors »domain authority Legislative process: »stop-start pace »mixed public input »running under it’s own timetable

7. Result One you start the legislative process, you end up in Parliament at some point »Draft legislation released »Debate under auspices of PPCC

8. Personal experience of parliament Lack of trust, group suspicion Logical debate complicated by political infighting Scheduling difficulties PPCC acknowledged administration difficulties Media misconceptions seemingly promulgating incorrect assumptions Testimony from experienced technical people not given due consideration

9. Obvious observations Geeks don’t understand politics and have little time for it »seemingly illogical processes? Politicians don’t understand geeks »What’s he saying? »Who is he? »Why doesn’t he speak a language I can understand? Black-White tensions »informed parties vs informed parties

10. Tensions ZA and Uniforum in one corner »ICANN rules for re-delegation of ccTLD’s »RFC1591 Chairman of PPCC in the other »South African law applicable »Black-White integration representative of the country demographics Stand off »But both sides seeking similar objectives »However not seeing each other’s perspectives »Complicated by commercial/political agendas

11. T-shirt The Internet will submit to the law of South Africa RTFM! »http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=rtfm » Read The Fucking Manual »An (unhelpful?) guru's traditional response when someone asks a question in a newsgroup or mailing list which he could have easily answered for himself had he bothered to RTFM. »Personal objective was to point out the obvious oversight. Threatened with arrest by MP »Informed parties?

12. Lessons to be learnt Internet industry still learning the lobby process »e.g. success of SAPO in becoming preferred authentication provider Technical concepts don’t translate well Lack of trust Participants seemingly there to speak, not to listen Use tools provided in their intended fashion »possible that correct use of electronic forums can facilitate good communication »concept translation easier when everyone using same medium of communication Historical communication barriers still to be overcome

13. How it could be done better? Internet is a ideal communication medium »Sustainable »Open standards »Ubiquitous connectivity when everyone adheres to same technical standards for connectivity Participation »Use existing Internet policy as guideline »Use Internet as communication medium »Co-operate »Collaborate »Remember we’re all just human beings at the end of the day

14. Onus on you as individual: To get involved »Challenge apathy »Challenge assumptions To listen to one another To contribute when you have something of value to add To ask questions of each other to prevent misunderstanding! Where to from here? »e.g. iWeek been successful in getting people together and communicating with each other