Cambodia Youth IGF! Welcome everybody!
Let me clarify at the beginning of my Keynote Speech what these words “Youth IGF” mean what is the purpose that brought us here together.
And let me also say that I am almost 90 years old – I was born in 1934, long before there was something like the Internet. I feel empowered standing now here in front of you- young people who nowadays order your purchases of food, or your haircut, or your wedding rings, with your mobile phones on the go. Really a different time!
The task seems to be simple today: I just put IGF into my Google search engine, and we have the answer already:
The IGF is a global multistakeholder platform that facilitates the discussion of public policy issues pertaining to the Internet
Now is everything clear? Maybe not so we should check word-by-word.
And our meeting is special: it starts with the word “YOUTH”. We do not have to define it, because in the original announcement for this meeting this was done already: it said “youth” means “persons from 18 to 35 years of age”.
But what about the next: “IGF”? Let’s start with the “I”, and take the “GF” later. “I” stands for Internet.
Nowadays, we all have an idea about the Internet-we use it every day, we use it on our mobile phones or on out computers to communicate.
But I would like to remind us that this is a fairly recent situation. When I came to Cambodia in 1990, there was no Internet – in Cambodia not yet. Before I came to Cambodia, I was one of the fairly early users of the Internet in Germany where I came from. But after arriving (to work at the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture) I felt bad because of the inability to communicate like before- and so I started the first Internet access in Cambodia at the end of the year 1994. I was encouraged to describe the start a bit here – I think nowadays hardly anybody can imagine how difficult it was.
After a visit to Europe, I had received some software. But in Phnom Penh – there was no regulate electricity: almost every day, the electricity went off for some hours. To have regular electricity for my laptop computer, bought a Japanese 24 Volt truck battery, I charged it (when there was electricity) with a Thai charger, an American friend imported an inverter – to charge the 24 Volt DC (direct current) into AC (alternate current)- but it was 110 Volts, as it was a US inverter, so I got a Vietnamese transformer to change the 110 Volts into 220 Volts.
That was the hardware side. But there was also the software side; and then the use of the Khmer script.
Software: first the military of the USA had developed a method for computer-based communication. Then people at different US universities became also interested – that was the beginning of the Internet. They had to develop an address system, and later there were also people in other countries involved. Jon Postel, a professor at a California university, developed an address system which everybody had to use to be able to communicate: on top two-letter country codes (like “kh” for Cambodia). and a hierarchy below, like “com” “edu” “gov” etc. I had to contact Prof. Jon Postel, and he assigned me the Cambodian country code “kh” and the instruction how to give addresses to people and organizations in Cambodia. Years later, I handed these things to the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication.
But people wanted to use also the Khmer script on computers. I found that 8 people in Cambodia and abroad, in France, Australia, the USA, Canada and Germany-had created Khmer font systems. But you could only communicate, when both the sender and the receiver used the same system. Later I found that there were actually 23 different Khmer font systems in use a big mess really hindering wide communication. Then a – friend, Prof. TAN Tin Wee at the National University of Singapore, suggested we should use Unicode. Unicode? – an international arrangement to create computer usable letters for all scripts of the world. But the Khmer script was not yet defined. With one Japanese professor and two Cambodia people living in Japan, the Khmer script started to be defined in Unicode. But some of those who had already defined their own Khmer fonds used in Cambodia, opposed the use of Unicode – with their own economic interests, partly also supported by persons with political power. Fortunately, under the Senior Minister Sok An a working group on Khmer fonts was set up, and the Khmer Unicode fonts became the official fonts for writing in Khmer.
So finally, it was possible to computer communicate in and from Cambodia – but for some years only by e-mail- the World Wide Web with graphics/pictures, and quite elaborate and complex content, came only some years later.
But the development of the Internet and the many new possibilities happened world wide-bringing fundamental changes in many societies, because of the availability of huge amounts of information and the possibility to share it, again worldwide.
It was as if a new epoch of history had started with hopes, but also with concerns. To find some clarity in these chaotic developments, the Organization of the United Nations took the initiative to create a platform to discuss this situation.
It took the form of not one, but of two large conferences: the “World Summit on the Information Society” meetings in 2003 in Geneva in Switzerland, and in 2005 in Tunis, in the capital city of Tunisia.
These “World Summits on the Information Society” – abbreviated also referred to as “WSIS” – were, a two-phase United Nations sponsored summit on information, communication and, in broad terms, on the information society itself. One of the Summit’s chief aims was to bridge the global digital divide, separating rich countries from economically poorer countries by increasing the accessibility to the Internet in the developing world.
It was in this context – my involvement to create the first connection to the Internet from Cambodia- that the FRANCOPHONIE – the association of former French colonies and French speaking countries-sponsored me to be one of the several thousand participants invited to both meetings in Geneva and in Tunis.
It is no surprise that there were sharp differences of opinion – especially about the control over the Internet – even to have the conferences ending as a failure became possible. However, finally, it was agreed to leave the control of the Internet addresses- the country names like “kh” for Cambodia – and the sub-structures of Internet addresses- like “com”: “edu”-“gov” in the hands of the United States-based organization ICANN – “Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers”, for the time being, to avoiding a major breakdown. As a compromise there was also an agreement to set up an international “Internet Governance Forum” – IGF with a purely consultative, not controlling, role.
The summit itself was partly disturbed by criticizing the government of Tunisia for allowing attacks on journalists and human rights defenders that happened during the days leading up to the event. The Tunisian government tried to prevent one of the scheduled sessions with the heading “Expression Under Repression”, from happening. A French reporter, Robert Ménard, the president of “Reporters Without Border” was refused admission to Tunisia for phase two of the Summit. A French journalist for the newspaper “Libération” was stabbed and beaten by unidentified men after he reported on local human rights protesters. A Belgian television crew was forced to hand over footage of Tunisian dissidents. Local human rights defenders were prevented from organizing a meeting with international civil society groups. But still WSIS Tunis came to a positive end.
The establishment of the IGF was officially announced by the United Nations Secretary-General in 2006. It was first convened in late 2006 and then has held annual meetings.
How to describe the most important concept developed in the Tunis meeting? It is the multistakeholder structure of the Internet Governance Forum.
It is a “tripartite” model as a result of the “World Summit on the Information Society”. It says in Paragraph 35 of the Tunis results:
“We reaffirm that the management of the Internet encompasses both technical and public policy issues and should involve all stakeholders and relevant intergovernmental and international organizations. In this respect it is recognized that:
“Policy authority for Internet-related public policy issues is the Sovereign right of States. They have rights and responsibilities for international Internet-related public policy issues.
“The private sector (that means here especially the technology companies) has had, and should continue to have, an important role in the development of the Internet, both in the technical and economic fields.
“Civil society has also played an important role on Internet matters, especially at community level, and should continue to play such a role.”
This official document recognizes States, the Private Sector, and Civil Society and calls it the “stakeholder” groups. In this tri-partite structure, here are also some additional explanations:
We recognize the valuable contribution by the academic and technical communities within those stakeholder groups mentioned in Paragraph 35 to the evolution, functioning and development of the Internet.
So as a result of the Tunis meeting, the IGF was created. It is a “Forum” – but what is a Forum?
A forum is a meeting where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged. – “we hope these pages act as a forum for debate”. A Forum does not define results it is not the solution, but it describes the way towards it where the three stakeholders present their – maybe different- interests, to regularly continue to work towards developing common next steps.
So please – take your role, as the Cambodian Youth among the Internet Governance Forum.
