Session
Organizer 1: Sivasubramanian Muthusamy, Internet Society India Chennai
Speaker 1: Sally Wentworth, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Sivasubramanian Muthusamy, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 3: Osama Manzar, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Sivasubramanian M
Joly MacFie, President, Internet Society New York Chapter
Round Table - 90 Min
The session would be in a new format with two tables across, one seating ALL stakeholders and another seating Government representatives with a good understanding of policy rationale and shortcomings.
More panelists to be added to the session, diverse on one side of the table in this new format session, to reflect stakeholder diversity, gender diversity and regional diversity. At the same time, on the second table facing the Stakeholder table, only Government policy makers are to be seated, with a semblance of regional balance, as the emphasis for the second table is to seat Government representatives to respond to the topic as well as to listen to the views of the stakeholders.
The session would discuss the gap between available Technological advances and Policy hurdles to the deployment of technology. ( For broadband, especially using wireless technologies, several effective technical solutions are available with capabilities to deliver 300 MBPS or higher bandwidths to remote locations. Community Networks could deploy these technologies and make broadband available to remote regions. But the policy and the regulatory framework seem to limit progress.
The panelists from the stakeholder table would be asked to present their concerns for about 5 minutes each, followed by 10 minutes for views from the floor, followed by about 20 minutes for the second table to respond. This would in turn be followed by a Q&A across.
Government Policy and the policy making process are slow to embrace the technology advances of the Internet; For instance, cost effective technologies exist for providing high bandwidth access to remote regions. Government Policy on Spectrum use, licensing requirements and processes are hurdles that limit the deployment of available technology, and this in turn slow down progress towards millennium development goals.
We will request help from the Internet Society New York Chapter to manage online participation. Will reach out through social networks to encourage remote participation.