Free online articles on Introduction to Internet Law

The Berkman Center's Internet Law Program has uploaded a series of excellent modules on the introduction to  issues in Internet Law, which I've linked below. Very useful especially for those with little legal background. These online readings are provided to ensure that attendees have the necessary understanding of Internet technology and the relevant fields of law. 

Copyright and Peer-to-Peer Copying (Professor Fisher)

Alternatives to Intellectual Property (Professor Zittrain)

Privacy (Professor Nesson)

Freedom of Expression on the Internet (Professor Benkler)

Legal Regulation of Interconnectivity (Professor Fisher)

Cybercrime (Professor Fisher)

Online Business-Method Patents (Professor Fisher)

Domain Names (Professor Fisher)

Jurisdiction and Zoning (Professor Zittrain)

Access to the Internet (Professor Benkler)

Roadmap for Open ICT Ecosystems

The Berkman Center last month launched the Roadmap for Open ICT Ecosystems report.

I am excited about this Roadmap because, in my line of work, I see governments deciding on technology decisions in a haphazard manner, with no overriding strategy or priorities, and often reactive, under peer pressure, or driven by vendors . This results in systems that might work for the particular agency or institution in the short term, but that discourages sharing of information or collaboration across agencies, because the technical (and human) systems don't know how to talk to each other. 

The Roadmap is a very user-friendly guide for policymakers and technologists to understanding, creating, and sustaining open information and communication technologies systems, and addresses key issues such as interoperability and the implementation of open standards, that would allow for an integrated planning and implementation of ICT systems in the country (or other systems) that is most effective, efficient and scalable. 

Here is my summary of the Roadmap:

Who created this report?

• senior government officials from 13 developed and undeveloped countries
• five global organizations
• two leading technology companies
• Harvard academics

What is Openness?

It refers to collaboration, connectivity, access and transparency, and this movement is promoted by the blazing growth of the internet.  It includes using open technologies but goes beyond that to include the policies, strategies, processes, information, and stakeholders that together support an open technology environment for a country, government or an enterprise. 

Why is it important for governments? 

It promotes efficiency, innovation and growth. From the report: "Economic growth depends increasingly on information and communications technologies (ICT); countries, enterprises and individuals need to harness this power through collaboration, innovation and development. This report demonstrates, by its process and its outcome, the enormous potential of open collaboration and information sharing."

Values: An open ICT ecosystem should be:

• Interoperable – allowing, through open standards, the exchange, reuse, interchangeability and interpretation of data across diverse architectures.
• User-Centric – prioritizing services fulfilling user requirements over perceived hardware or software constraints.
• Collaborative – permitting governments, industry, and other stakeholders to create, grow and reform communities of interested parties that can leverage strengths, solve common problems, innovate and build upon existing efforts.
• Sustainable – maintaining balance and resiliency while addressing organizational, technical, financial and legal issues in a manner that allows an ecosystem to thrive and evolve.
• Flexible – adapting seamlessly and quickly to new information, technologies, protocols and relationships while

How to do it? 

It is not created per se, but rather a process of evolutions. Steps include:

• Scoping- Assessment to define vision and goals
• Create Policies- for open standards as well as related areas
• Managing the implementation

(refer to the Roadmap for detail including practical tools for each step).

(updated 11/15/05) 

The webcast of the Roadmap's launch and discussion at the World Bank on 9/9 is via this Archived video

UNDP forms the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor

Maybe I wish that the international community will embrace a bottom-up, rights based approach will come true? I mentioned about this wish in this previous post (and I'm sure I let it slipped elsewhere too) where I said that while I've done both reform work and NGO rights-based work, the current paradigm seems to be heavily biased in favor of top-down Rule of Law institutional reform work. 


A colleague of mine sent me this UN announcement via email (apologies that I don't have the original link,a nd note too that, while I'm generally skeptical of top level, collaborative results, I do hope that these efforts, especially given the high profile members, will at least put the topic on the international agenda):

Global Poverty Linked to Scarce Rule of Law:  New Group To Promote Access to Legal Protections for the World’s Poor

September 13th, 2005

New York, NY - The Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, a new independent global initiative, today announced it will fight global poverty by focusing on the connection between poverty and the lack of legal protections.

Legal Empowerment, which is co-chaired by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto, this month will begin its unique mission to extend the rule of law to the world’s poor.

Legal Empowerment members include an array of international leaders with a diversity of views from the worlds of politics, economics, law, and social policy. They include Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, former Presidents Fernando Cardoso of Brazil and Mary Robinson of Ireland, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi of Iran, all of whom were in New York for Legal Empowerment’s launch today.

“This is a wholly different approach to the poverty debate,” said co-chair Madeleine Albright. “While many worthy initiatives are underway to fight global poverty, our Commission will focus on a unique and overlooked aspect of the problem: the inextricable link between pervasive poverty and the absence of legal protections for the poor.”

“Our ultimate goal is to give the world’s three billion poor the tools they need to create capital and economic growth for themselves,” said Hernando de Soto. “We need to replicate successful practices that allow individuals to participate in legitimate economic systems and to improve their lives.”

Legal Empowerment’s work is based on the conviction that broadening the rule of law and ensuring users’ and property rights for the poor and marginalized populations leads to economic and social empowerment. As poor populations gain benefits that go beyond property and ownership, they will become participants in a system of laws and commerce that can leverage capital, create investment, and generate such rewards as clean water, medical care, schools and economic growth.

“Global poverty can be eradicated only if governments give the poor a legitimate stake in the economy by extending property rights and other safeguards to all citizens,” said Secretary Albright.

“Most of the world’s poor possess assets of some kind, but they are unable to benefit from the economic system because they lack legal means to protect and leverage their assets,” said Dr. de Soto. “In many poorer countries, overly burdensome and unworkable bureaucracies compound the problem.”

Legal Empowerment will operate as an independent entity with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in its capacity as chair of the UN Development Group. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) will also play an important role in light of its support for countries that are transitioning towards a market economy.

Legal Empowerment will be funded by voluntary contributions from the private and public sectors, and is endorsed by the governments of Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Guatemala, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Tanzania and the United Kingdom.

This two-and-one-half year effort is intended to contribute significantly to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the global and country levels, including the pledge by all UN members to cut extreme poverty worldwide by half by 2015.

In addition to drawing on the experience of Legal Empowerment members, advice and expertise will be solicited from a variety of non-governmental organizations, multilateral agencies, and target populations, such as indigenous people, women, labor unions, and displaced individuals.

Other Legal Empowerment members attending the launch activities included Lahkdar Brahimi, head of the United Nations Mission to Iraq; Ashraf Ghani, dean of Kabul University and former Minister of Finance for Afghanistan; Muhammad Medhat Hassanein, former Minister of Finance for Egypt; Hilde Frafjord Johnson, Minister of Development Corporation, Norway; Mike Moore, former Director General of the World Trade Organization; Syed Tanwir H. Naqvi, former chairman of the National Reconstruction Bureau of Pakistan; Arjun Sengupta, chairman of the National Commission on Enterprises in the Informal Sector of India; Lindiwe Nonceba Sisulu, Minister of Housing for South Africa; and Pansak Vinyaratn, Chief Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister of Thailand.

More information is available about the Level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor at http://legalempowerment.undp.org

2nd phase of WSIS coming up soon!

The World Summit on the Information Society is held in two phases. The second phase of WSIS is taking place  in Tunis from 16 to 18 November 2005. ( Read more about WSIS here. ) (PS. I am not sure if I am able to attend, even though invited. I am hoping that I can take a side trip to Tunis from Dubai, while en route to Afghanistan.)


A bit of trivia about the 2 phases:

• Both Switzerland and Tunisia proposed to be the host country of the Summit, Switzerland as the host country of ITU (ITU headquarters are in Geneva) and Tunis as the country that had proposed the resolution to hold a World Summit on the Information Society at the Plenipotentiary Conference of ITU in Minneapolis.

• The Secretary-General of ITU, given this special situation, proposed to the ITU Council to hold the Summit in two phases, a novelty regarding UN Summits. The Council followed the argument of the Secretary-General of ITU. The Council considered that the advantage of two phases would allow to discuss information society issues once in the setting of a developed country and once in the setting of a developing country. Also, there was hope that holding a UN Summit in two phases would allow for a better implementation and follow-up. The second part of the Summit would also allow for follow-up on the first part.

• The UN General Assembly, in Resolution 56/183, took note and approved the idea of holding WSIS in two parts. The Geneva and Tunis phase became thus part of the same Summit. 

• Some civil society groups expressed alarm that the 2005 phase of the WSIS will be held in Tunisia, a country with serious human rights violation

ADB Special Review on Access to Justice

In line with recent interest in access to justice and legal empowerment, as as a follow up to its Law Reform symposium earlier this year in January, ADB Review has published an online special issue focussed on Access to Justice, highlighting developments in reform and access to justice in the region. I especially like reading the Review series because of its on-the-ground, country-based focus (not to mention its magazine style and photos!). While it is still fairly typical of the top-down approaches adopted by the Banks, I do witness more of an effort to include women and other minority groups into the discussions.

Articles include:

• The Unbroken Line of Law- Creating the conditions for economic growth and poverty reduction necessitates legal reforms that take into account all aspects of the rule of law
• Paying for Justice- Three justice experts discuss the importance of the connection between judicial reforms and the progress of development in Asia and the Pacific
• Better Policing- Tackling the problems besetting the Bangladeshi police services means overcoming a long history and great shortage of funding
• Justice for All- Justice system reforms in Pakistan are helping strengthen legal protection for all particularly the poor and vulnerable and reduce delays in court
• Gender Justice- A leading Indian academic highlights the need for gender perspectives in law reform
• More articles 
• The Quest for Justice 
• New Era for Pakistan's Police 
• Laws to Favor the Poor 
• Bringing Justice to the Poor
• Climate for Change 
• Court Boosts Lao PDR Banks 
• Cleaning Up Corruption 
• Better Justice 
• Land of Their Own 
• Guarding Prisoners in Transport

You can access this ADB Review on Access to Justice articles online, or download the pdf. 

Global Voices Online- a Project to follow

In my recent trip to Asia which included the Cambodia, Thailand and Nepal, I specifically asked our local partners to point me to local bloggers. I'm struck by how many people are using blogs, even if usually not for purposes outside of personal journaling. This reminded me of the blogging conference at Harvard last year, and I looked online to check its outcome. I'm impressed by how much has happened in a mere six months!


If you are a blogger, especially one from a developing or non-western country, get involved!


Quick facts:

• Global Voices Online was developed out of the one-day blogging track as part of harvard's Internet and Society 2004 conference. I posted a couple of briefs about these two events below. This blogging conference was led by Ethan Zuckerman (technologist and Africa expert) and Rebecca MacKinnon (former CNN Beijing and Tokyo Bureau Chief), both Berkan Center Research Fellows. 

• A very "Rebecca Mackinnon, CNN"-like podcast about the importance of global blogging and the voices of non-western bloggers assessed on the Harvard webspace here (interesting interviews with bloggers from China, Iraq, Kenya and other countries. who were at the conference).

• Global Voices online is now at www.globalvoices.org instead of in addition to the longer Harvard url: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globalvoices. If you would like to get involved (and it seems to be a very inclusive project), look out for the announcements for input and participation. 

• Technologically, it now uses an rss aggregator to track recommended blogs from around the world, but there is a call for you to 
• Start publishing a roundup on your own blog 
• Translating posts and other documents into English
• Let them know about good global blogs, so they can include it in the aggregator and index (if not already)

• Global Voices also produced a Manifesto authored collaboratively by the people at the blogging conference (note: In light with Global Voices' mandate, they are asking for translators for this manifesto via the Global Voices wiki):

Global Voices Manifesto:

We believe in free speech: in protecting the right to speak — and the right to listen. We believe in universal access to the tools of speech.

To that end, we seek to enable everyone who wants to speak to have the means to speak — and everyone who wants to hear that speech, the means to listen to it.

Thanks to new tools, speech need no longer be controlled by those who own the means of publishing and distribution, or by governments that would restrict thought and communication. Now, anyone can wield the power of the press. Everyone can tell their stories to the world.

We seek to build bridges across the gulfs that divide people, so as to understand each other more fully. We seek to work together more effectively, and act more powerfully.

We believe in the power of direct connection. The bond between individuals from different worlds is personal, political and powerful. We believe conversation across boundaries is essential to a future that is free, fair, prosperous and sustainable - for all citizens of this planet.

While we continue to work and speak as individuals, we also seek to identify and promote our shared interests and goals. We pledge to respect, assist, teach, learn from, and listen to one other.

We are Global Voices.

Techsoup.org- resource to bridge the gap for Accidental Techies (like me)

Deborah Finn's blog on technology for nonprofits introduces San Francisco's techsoup.org (which is to me, like Seattle's NPower, which now has grown and evolved into NPower National), These nonprofit organizations in their various permutations serve other nonprofits in the use of technology internally (to enhance efficiency) and externally (to enhance program impact). 

Reproduced from Deborah Finn's blog on technology for nonprofits

I worry a lot about exasperated and over-extended nonprofit workers, who often have to take on technology problems in addition to their more-than-full-time jobs.  They are not even accidental techies; they are recusant techies.

Most of the time, nonprofit professionals don't need or want to plunge into a general education in ICT (information and communication technology) in order to solve a problem.  They want a quick overview, or perhaps even a cheat-sheet. And then they want to go back to being social workers, legal advocates, community organizers, environmentalists, direct care providers, educators, lobbyists, or philanthropists - anything but techies.

Enter TechSoup, the definitive web site about nonprofit technology.   When you have a question, it's the first place you should go, even before you ask the Cyber-Yenta!

If you've never visited TechSoup, the place to start is the page for first-time users.  Once you've familiarized yourself with this wonderful resource, you'll be amazed at how often your problem has arisen in other nonprofit organizations, and you'll be able to see if any of your colleagues (and fellow-sufferers) have already worked out options.  

Of course, if you've searched TechSoup and you still have a question, you're always welcome to post it to this blog.