Global Internet Governance: dream or reality?

After the celebration of the UN World Summit on the Information Society, WSIS (Geneva 2003, Tunis 2005), promoted by the ITU, and the verification of its main outcome, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), the global society´s sight is focused on the possibility of generating an Internet regulation capable to cross borders from one nation to other. Put it another way, as far as the Internet is a global phenomena it should be legislated from a global institution in which the decision-making processes could enable the participation of governments, private sector and civil society. However, this theorization in the field of Internet governance seems to be easier "said than done", the fact is that one year ago we attended to the, at least partially successful attempt to shut down the Internet in Egypt carried out by the national Government of Mubarak when trying to stop the social revolution taking place on the country. So, although the aim of the global population is to establish common policies to regulate the Internet on a frame of freedom of expression and self-responsibility, the reality is that still today the ones counting on true power to control the cyberspace are, on the one hand, the national governments, and, on the other, the huge Internet conglomerates.

WSIS: An attempt to democratize the Internet governance landscape.

The preparatory process toward the 2003 WSIS stated in 1998, when UN´s International Telecommunications Union (ITU) proposed it within the UN system in order to challenge to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). In December 2001 the General Assembly formally authorized the summit, to be held in December 2003 (Phase 1) and November 2005 (Phase II). Actually, this was the first time that a two-part nature summit took place within the UN and it achieved an important change in the summit form in the sense that the forum´s resources could be used for a longer time and there are more chances for encouraging fruitful implementation processes. Formally speaking, the preparatory meetings for the summit taking place in 2001 (that consisted on both preparatory committee meetings -prepcoms- and regional meetings) served to gather input from around the world and to prepare the documents that would be adopted in 2003. In fact, the summit itself is a ceremony of ratification in which heads of state make speeches and ratify the collective documents that would be adopted after the event. At this point it is interesting to highlight that WISIS formalized the role of civil society to an unprecedented level by creating an official "civil society bureau" that held formal meetings with the bureaus for governments and the private sector. Later on, five years after the summit there is a conference to assess the progress made toward implementing the summit plans.

As we have mentioned before, one of the main WSIS´s aims was to create a new global Internet governance regime in which the powerful ICANN could acquire a less monopolistic role to play. Created in 1998 as a private, U.S.- based corporation under the sole political authority of the United States, ICANN constitutes a nascent global governance regime for the Internet. This institution is unpopular because of its perceived violation of sovereignty through its control of the Internet´s globally-shared core resources. China, South Africa, Brazil, and most Arab States, in an alliance with the ITU, successfully initiated a process to review and possibly change the ICANN regime. This way, between the three classes of outcomes that the summit produced, significant policy action, significant policy inaction and a large set of ambiguous outcomes, taking part in the first class we find both the Internet Governance Forum, that is discussed in greater detail below, and the Digital solidarity fund, which consists on a mechanism to address issues commonly known as the "digital divide" by transferring wealth from the rich countries to the poor ones. These two effective policy-initiatives are the best proofs to conclude that the UN´s summits can make a difference in the sense that they present an opportunity structure that, when combined with advocacy and well -fitting policy proposals, can lead to a real change. (1. Klein H. (2004). Understanding WISIS: An Institutional Analysis of the UN World Summit on the Information Society. Volume 1, Number 3-4)

However, on an attempt to reflect some of the critics made to WISIS and its pretended multistakeholder nature we can attach the idea that, although civil society (mainly represented by NGOs) was supposed to reach the same participatory level than private sector and governments, some details point out that while a large number of NGOs and other civil society actors get involved within the event and created effective mechanisms for lobbying and thematic exchange, they also had to face serious obstacles in accessing the summit stage and in participating meaningfully, particularly with regards to accreditation, funding and exclusion from negotiations. Furthermore, the requirements for receiving accreditation for the WSIS process were geared towards formal NGOs and failed to consider the structural background of those civil society actors that are organised as loose grassroots groups, non-hierarchical networks and temporary coalitions. In addition, several groups, such as Reporters Sans Frontiers and Tunisian Human rights groups, were not allowed to participate at all. Financially, effective participation in WSIS preparatory conferences involved covering flight tickets and two weeks of hotel accommodation, food and drinks in an expensive Swiss city -several times a year. Little funding was provided for civil society delegates by the WSIS organisers. Again, only larger NGOs, which could mobilise sufficient funds could cope with this restriction. Finally, and despite the initial promises by summit organisers, the new non-governmental stakeholders were reduced to the status of "observers" who were allowed to attend only "public" sessions and who were excluded from actual decision-making processes and spaces. Only the Working Group on the Internet Governance (WIGIG) came close to a true multi-stakeholder design. (2. Hintz, A.,& Milan, S.(2009), "At the margins of Internet governance: grassroots tech groups and communication policy". International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics 5: 1&2, pp. 23-38 )

Challenges to "Mediated Participations"

With the entrance of new ICT in our daily activity, an important sector of scholars and intellectuals are tempted to think that the key issue for a more democratic society resides on the use of these technologies as a tool for engaging citizens in the decision-making processes. These people sustain that time and space limitations operating until this moment have been already overcome on the current society. Citizens don´t need to attend to the antique “agora” to discuss about certain social affairs and to develop a collaborative policy to regulate the society; nowadays, this kind of “meeting room” can be available from each one´s home, always taking on account the need of the connectivity to the Internet. Lately, I´ve been working about this new concept of “deliberative democracy”, and, after reading different essays describing the implications of the term I still remain confused about its real meaning. I think the reason why I can´t completely understand this concept it´s because it seems to be clear if we are focused on the abstract/theoretical sphere, but when we try to be concrete about its direct application...things start getting imprecise. In my view, apart from the obvious challenges for this new ITC working as a tool for engaging citizens, such as digital divide or lack of information systems´ skills, I think that nowadays this “participative democracy” is conceived more for excluding a huge part of the citizens than for encouraging them to actively participate in the policies making. So, on the following lines I´d like to pose some question about which I hope to discuss in group during the Mediated Participations course:

· Does “deliberative democracy” mean “e-participation”? And, if it was the case, is the concept “e-participation” reduced to “e-voting”?

· Is it possible to develop a constructive discussion through the cyberspace? Or, on the other hand, maybe the Internet just provides the perfect environment for self-expression and for caring about individual needs more than the collectives ones.

· Who would be responsible if the decisions agreed by using e-participation processes don´t work appropriately once they have been applied to the society? How could anybody answer if he/she had contributed to this decision-making from its home´s anonymity? How this processes could affect to the public sphere?

· Who is going to decide which part of the population has the right to participate on a concrete discussion? And, in addition, Who has the responsibility of establishing which topics can be discussed online during an e-participation session and which others remain only for being managed by the political elite?

· Why some sectors of society try to confuse citizens with the promise of self-government? This confusion takes place when “deliberative democracy” is pretended to be “direct democracy”.

Maybe most part of these questions could be easily answered by an expert on information systems and sociology, but, so far I remain skeptic about the power that new ICT really have to promote a significant change in the current political organization within democratic communities. I know that e-participation processes have been successfully developed in countries like Scotland and the United Kingdom but they have taken place always focusing on a restrictive environment, or, what it´s the same, good delimited groups of people sharing a common interest and knowledge about the discussion topic, with an equal voice and opportunity to express themselves, well provided of information and, of course, using friendly technologies for the participants. Finally, to be developed in the correct way, this kind of processes need to invest an important effort by both the stakeholders and the organization. So, my last question is: Are the politicians really willing to empower citizens by spending both money and energies even knowing that this fact represents the loose of their current hegemony? It doesn´t seem to be very likely for me...

The beginning of the #SPANISHREVOLUTION

Cuando nos encontramos a escasos 30 días del aniversario oficial del movimiento 15-M, me gustaría rescatar de las oscuras profundidades del ordenador algunas partes del ensayo que redacté hace un año en Helsinki para la asignatura "Social Media (Webcourse)". Se trata de un resumen en tono explicativo acerca del nacimiento y los primeros pasos de esta iniciativa ciudadana, que supo encontrar su mayor aliado en las redes sociales:

Events and context

On May 15th, right before the local and municipal elections taking place in Spain, on May 22nd, young people –well, overall young but not exclusively- within the entire country decided to take the streets to claim for a better future´s perspective. The economic crisis, the extremely high rate of unemployment ( that affects more than the 20% of the active population) and the general degradation of the welfare state have led Spanish citizens to start a long term demonstration complaining about the shameful and inefficient political actions manifested by the two bigger Spanish parties: PSOE (the one that is in the government nowadays) and PP (the main opposition party). These two political formations are accused of handling the economic crisis that hits the nation in a very dreadful way: they seem to be much more interested in blaming each other about being responsible of the situation to take political advantage of citizens´ desperation than in figuring out the right ways out to the crisis. Furthermore, the citizens consider that the liberalization measures that have been adopted so far to overcome this situation have reduced their rights and are more close to the problem itself than to the solution. Most of the time these demonstrations have been located in emblematic places such as "La Puerta del Sol" (Sun´s door) in Madrid or Pza de Catalunya a Parc de la Cuitadella (Catalonia Square and Ciutadella Park) in Barcelona; the location here is especially relevant cause in these two cities the assistance to the protests has been counted by thousands of people.

Furthermore, whereas these demonstrations are meant to have a clear political dimension, this political nature is not to be understood as one party supporting but rather none of them. People with very different backgrounds and political attachments was gathered together trying to promote a more participative democracy, far from the practical bipartisan PP-PSOE. That way, demonstrations have been given the name of "Outraged Movement -15 M", a movement that included unemployment people, mileuristas (person with higher education that has difficulty in earning over 1.000 Euro per month), housewives, immigrants and citizens in general united under the motto: "We are not goods in the hands of politicians and bankers", and, " Real Democracy: Now!" - the latter alluding to the protests organizer entity, the movement Real Democracy Now.

Real Democracy Now

Real Democracy Now is a Spanish political platform that defines itself as non-partisan, asyndicate, pacific and contrary to take part into any kind of ideology (but non apolitical). This platform is one of the main movements behind the happenings on May 15th, plus, later on it played a crucial role acting as the official manager (food distribution or meeting agenda act as an example) of the camps that were erected after that date in which the long term demonstrations were established.

This movement was born into the Internet and the social networks themselves along the first months of 2011. It considers that citizens are not represented neither listened by the current Spanish politicians and demands a change of course inside the social and economic politics being developed right now. Those same politics that have led a large number of people to unemployment and precarious situations inside the context of the economic crisis 2008-2011. The platform has usually been organized around three of the most damaged collectives on society: the unemployed, those who have been evicted due to the impossibility of facing their mortgages any longer, and finally young people counting on university studies whose probabilities to find a job in which develop the professional skills they have been prepared for are not rather likely. (1. Wikipedia. Entry: Democracia Real Ya)

Last March 2011 the platform published one manifesto that defines its posture and summarize its goals. This document counts on eight different items that gather together a total of thirty-seven concrete politic and economic proposals conceived mainly in an "alter- capitalism" line of action. Those eight general items are: 1. elimination of the political class´ privileges, 2. measures to fight against the unemployment rate, 3. measures to promote the right to the housing, 4. measures to promote quality public services regarding the education, health system and public transport, 5. control of bank entities, 6. fiscal measures, 7. measures in favour of the citizens freedoms and the participative democracy, 8. reduction of the military budget.

The spreading and organization of the platform through Social Media Networks

From the "home screen" of the official website we can easily click on three different social networks networks in which the platform counts on its own profile and the citizens, in case they also count on a personal profile on the site, can actively participate on a public discussion forum by posting their own comments on a large variety of subjects and news. These three networks linked by the platform are the following ones:

· Facebook page: the official facebbok profile of the platform, that so far has gotten 387.435 facebook-likes, provides a broad range of possibilities to encourage citizen participation. From this site those who already have an individual profile in force on the site can access to "the wall", a public forum for discussion in which the organization posts news related to the demonstration and other alternative initiatives that contribute to the success of the protests, plus, people can like/share/comment on them. In some cases the comments have overcome the figure of 2.500 (the news was about one of the protest camps in Málaga being attacked by an extreme-right group). However, sometimes when there is that much people taking part in the discussions and introducing lots of new topics, links and opinions the consequences are that this discussion can just be held in a very superficial way, which leads us to conclude that due to the lack of moderator and follow-up, facebook is not the more suitable environment to hold these kind of discussions ( there is not enough empowerment of the outcomes extracted from the conversation). On the other hand, you can also find a wide selection of videos - with a testimonial character of the demonstrations, overall- and photographies - not only testimonial but also creative. Finally, the organizers have also opened a space called "forum", in which a total of 1352 concrete topics are been discussed between a more concrete number of people (such as the reform on the electoral law or the globalism of the platform).

· Twitter profile: throughout this social network the discussion (under the key word @democraciarealya) is being followed by a total of 74.489 people while the figure for the Tweets is 2.868 - and increasing-. In here, although the short nature of the tweets doesn´t allow a deep conversation, these comments seem to be much more useful to share interesting links related to the topic that contain both news and videos. Within the section named "lists" there is located a list of all the other discussion that @democraciarealya is interested in. The options that the net surfer finds on this site appear as narrower than on the Facebook page, however, we have to take into account that in Spain Tweeter is not one of the most popular social networks - as they are Facebook or Tuenti-.

· YouTube Channel: the organization has fit out an official channel in collaboration with YouTube, that already counts on 2.125 subscriptions, through which they have uploaded a wide range of videos related to their cause. The most part of this material is edited to appear as partially testimonial and partially "fun and creative". That way, the environment of this page is very interesting because the user can easily share these videos on its own social network profile at the same time that commenting on the videos and "like" them. So far the channel offers a total of 40 videos and some of them have been highly spread thanks to their presence in citizens´ personal profile on social networks. One of the most popular videos (130. 378 views) is the interview made to Jose Luis Sampedro (one of the most reliable and prestigious personalities regarding the anti-capitalism fight) in which the economist declares his support to the demonstrations and the movement in general.

However, although these three social networks are being the most used by the platform there are also another online sites in the same line in which the organization is present. A good example to reflect this is Tuenti, one of the most popular social networks for young generations in Spain -mostly teenagers-, where RDN counts on a profile visited by 168.815 users so far. In here we can also find comments, videos and photographies (uploaded not only by the organization but also by the users). However, it is clear that the profile of the people being active on the forum arena change a little bit from other SNTs like facebook or twitter, and in this sense we can analyse certain lack of matureness or knowledge on the subject. Furthermore, the moderator of the site remembers in first place that respect must be always in force on the comments and he asks directly to the users not to use any kind of insults or bad language and also not to upload pornographic material and so on. Finally, we also have to mention that the platform is being supported not only by its individual members but also by a broad number of alter-globalization movements that somehow have been fighting for the same goals for a long time - maybe one of the better examples here is ATTAC-Spain**. This way, the unstopping sharing of information about their common interests is making the "blog-reference" an increasingly popular tool, what means that both personal and collaborative blogs are also playing an important role when it comes of spreading and supporting the RDN platform.

** ATTAC is an international organization involved in the alter-globalization movement. They oppose neo-liberal globalization and develop social, ecological, and democratic alternatives so as to guarantee fundamental rights for all. Specifically, they fight for the regulation of financial markets, the closure of tax havens, the introduction of global taxes to finance global public goods, the cancellation of the debt of developing countries, fair trade, and the implementation of limits to free trade and capital flows.

La Libertad ya no es monopolio de William Wallace

El final de la película Braveheart (1995) nos dejaba a un desgarrador William Wallace, un rebelde escocés encarnado por Mel Gibson, clamando por su derecho a ser un hombre libre ante los opresores al servicio de Eduardo I de Inglaterra. Sin embargo, con el último libro del escritor estadounidense Jonathan Franzen, que lleva por título "Libertad" (2001), ésta palabra parece verse despojada de todo ese romanticismo que había cosechado a lo largo de los siglos, cuando uno todavía podía poner rostro y nombre a sus enemigos; cuando el ser humano aspiraba a ser dueño de su propio destino. Para Franzen, la libertad es pragmatismo. La explicación última que se encuentra en la base de nuestras equivocaciones, la culpable de esa infelicidad generalizada que invade las sociedades actuales. Nadie puede escapar a ella, así que quizá sería mejor si aprendiésemos a hacer que juegue en nuestro bando y no en el del contrario.

Ese es precisamente el principal problema de Patty, la depresiva mujer de Walter Berglund, quien tras contraer matrimonio con éste y ser madre de dos niños, Jessica y Joey, a una temprana edad, pasa la mayor parte de su vida adulta sintiéndose cómoda entre notas de autocompasión y albergando profundos impulsos sexuales no resueltos hacia el mejor amigo de su marido, el músico independiente Richard Katz. La libertad nos defrauda, porque no consta de ningún mecanismo que nos frene cuando estamos a punto de traicionar a aquellos que más queremos. No hay píldoras para la sensatez, ni puertas que nos impidan el paso a lugares emocionalmente inseguros. Estamos solos, y tenemos que decidir. Y, lo que es peor en el caso de Patty, hay veces que nuestras elecciones se hacen en base a deseos tan penetrantes como transitorios, a delicadas mentiras imaginarias que han sido perfectamente delimitadas con el paso del tiempo, pero que no por ello acaban de convertirse en verdades. Por su parte, el personaje de Walter, quien presume de un carácter pasivo que llegará a exasperar al lector en más de una ocasión, se perfila como aquella figura cuya manifiesta falta de autoridad parece estar echándole un pulso infinito a sus arraigados principios éticos y a su vocación de ecologista sin fronteras. Su amor por Patty, aparentemente inquebrantable, será puesto a prueba en más de una ocasión para demostrar que cuando hablamos de sentimientos nadie está en disposición de hacer promesas eternas. Finalmente, el roquero Richard Katz encarna la ausencia de reglas. Cualquier comportamiento es justificable para él en los términos simplistas en los que entiende la vida, a pesar de que haya ciertas fronteras que, al ser cruzadas, nos releguen a la más desesperante soledad.

Sin lugar a dudas, la mayor fortaleza de Franzen es su capacidad para describir la complejidad de las relaciones humanas sin abusar de los tics grandilocuentes. Su gusto por buscar cobijo en esa desnudez tan característica que envuelve la rutina. Al lector de hoy en día parece no emocionarle tanto la integridad incorruptible de Jean Valjean como la necesidad constante de autoafirmación que presentan todos los personajes propuestos por el escritor estadounidense. Esa falta de identidad tan característica del mundo occidental, que nos obliga a reinventarnos una mañana tras otra y a pensar en las personas que nos rodean comos seres de ética flexible, capaces de sorprendernos tanto para bien como para mal en cualquier descuido que tengamos. Los héroes como William Wallace son un espejismo de aquello que quizá algún día podríamos llegar a ser si supiésemos como cultivar el valor inmanente a la naturaleza humana, sin embargo, los tipos como Walter Berglund son el reflejo de la imperfección de nuestras conciencias. El reflejo de lo que somos.

Sobre el reportaje y la ética formalista Kantiana

Cuanto más trato de extraer conclusiones formales con respecto a la naturaleza del reportaje, más me desespero al comprender que el método de elaboración de este tipo de piezas se ve constantemente retado ante el instinto, el talento o la creatividad del periodista. En mi exposición a unos y otros textos que se adhieren a este género -en ocasiones situado en tierra de nadie entre información, interpretación y opinión-, de repente me encuentro sumida en un pensamiento que se repite. Se trata de una especie de paralelismo entre lo que sería el decálogo del buen reportaje (en caso de existir) y la ética formal kantiana, la ética universal y racional que carece de contenido. El filósofo alemán mantenía que para garantizar la autonomía del sujeto con respecto a la normas de comportamiento, es necesario no establecer un bien o fin que haya de ser perseguido por el individuo, y, por tanto, no nos dice lo que hemos de hacer, sino como debemos actuar. Es así como Kant postula que el valor moral de una acción no radica, pues, en el fin que se pretende conseguir, sino en el móvil que determina su realización. De esta lógica nace lo que él denomina como "imperativo categórico", el cual ha asumido diversas formulaciones, entre la que destaca la siguiente: "Obra solo según una máxima tal que puedas querer al mismo tiempo que se torne en Ley Universal".

Pues bien, a mi parecer la lógica que reina en el mundo del reportaje periodístico, y que hace que éste se diferencie claramente de otros subgéneros como la crónica o la noticia, se basa en ésta analogía con los preceptos filosóficos que acabamos de exponer. ¿Quiere decir esto que el periodista debe ser un completo transgresor obligado a producir piezas sin amparase en referente alguno? Resulta evidente que no. Imagínense que nos situamos en la década de los sesenta en Nueva York, y hemos decido comenzar a recorrer nuestro particular camino en el mundo de las redacciones de periódicos eclipsados por los pautas del Nuevo Periodismo de Tom Wolfe o Guy Talese. En este caso tendríamos un gran número de técnicas profesionales y estrategias narrativas, herencia directa de la novela realista, en las que refugiarnos a la hora de plantear nuestra producción noticiosa. El propio Wolfe se encargó de recopilarlas y analizarlas en las siguientes claves:

"Estaban traspasando los límites convencionales del periodismo ( en relación a los practicantes del New Journalism), pero no simplemente en lo que se refería a la técnica. La forma de recoger material que estaban desarrollando se les parecía también mucho más ambiciosa. (...) La idea consistía en ofrecer una descripción objetiva completa, más algo que los lectores siempre tenían que buscar en las novelas o en los relatos breves: esto es, la vida subjetiva o emocional de los personajes. (...) Solo a través del trabajo de preparación más minucioso era posible, fuera de la ficción, utilizar escenas completas, diálogo prolongado, punto de vista y monólogo interior." ( 1976: 35)

He aquí algunos de los parámetros de mayor relevancia a los que deberíamos atenernos en nuestra calidad de redactores inexpertos en caso de optar, como decíamos, por la tendencia rompedora de la segunda mitad del siglo XX en Norteamérica. Aún así, y sin tratar de restar heroicidad a las conquistas del Nuevo Periodismo, todos estos preceptos, lejos de ser necesarios, son contingentes. Lejos de constituir las bases de la estructura del reportaje, podríamos decir que forman parte de unas condiciones coyunturales determinadas. En este sentido, el redactor podrá acogerse a los preceptos más adecuados en función de la naturaleza de su misión; si queremos desarrollar un reportaje de investigación trabajaremos las fuentes y la recopilación de materiales de manera distinta a si nos disponemos a abordar un reportaje testimonial - en el que el periodista narre un hecho del que haya sido partícipe-. Es decir, al igual que sucedía con la ética kantiana, es el redactor quien tiene la oportunidad de decidir cómo dotar de estructura y contenido la narración. Y, si bien el filósofo alemán nos instaba a actuar de tal forma que nuestras acciones pudiesen convertirse en Ley Universal; en el mundo del reportaje parece que esta norma podría cambiarse por aquella otra que reza: "haz lo que te de la gana, siempre y cuando seas capaz de basarte en hechos acontecidos que interesen a los lectores, y tu escritura sea de calidad". Solo al amparo de esta lógica de libertad creativa tendría sentido, por ejemplo, la producción periodística de Truman Capote recopilada en el obra "Música para camaleones", en cuyo prefacio el escritor sostiene lo siguiente:

"Aún cuando era bueno, vi que jamás trabajaba con más de la mitad, a veces con solo un tercio, de las facultades que tenía a mi disposición. ¿Por qué?(...) El problema era: ¿Cómo puede un escritor combinar con éxito en una sola estructura - digamos el relato breve- todo lo que sabe acerca de todas las demás formas literarias? Pues ésa era la razón por la que mi trabajo a menudo resultaba insuficientemente iluminado; no faltaba voltaje, pero al adecuarme a los procedimientos de la forma en que trabajaba, no utilizaba todo lo que sabía acerca de la escritura: todo lo que había aprendido de guiones cinematográficos, comedias, reportaje, poesía, relato breve, novela corta, novela. Un escritor debería tener todos sus colores y capacidades disponibles en la misma paleta para mezclarlos y, en casos apropiados, para utilizarlos simultáneamente." (1994: 13)

· Wolfe, T. (1976): " El Nuevo Periodismo", Editorial Anagrama, Barcelona.

· Capote, T. (1994): "Música para Camaleones", Editorial Anagrama, Barcelona.