Category: Newsletter N°7

The Internet Technical Advisory Committee (ITAC) to the OECD brings together the counsel and expertise of technically focused organizations, in a decentralized and networked approach to policy formulation for the Internet economy.  The main purpose of ITAC is to contribute constructively to Internet-related policies developed in the OECD. It mostly contributes to the work of the OECD Committee on Digital Economy Policy (CDEP) and its specific working parties such as the Working Party on Communications and Infrastructure Services Policy (CISP) and the Working Party on Security and Privacy in the Digital Economy (SPDE).

Table of Contents

By Constance Bommelaer, Senior Director Global Internet Policy, Internet Society -and Nicolas Seidler, Senior Policy Advisor – Internet Society

The OECD Ministerial Meeting on the Digital Economy, held in Cancun on 21-23 June 2016, gathered more than 1300 participants from around 50 countries.

Ministers, along with high-level representatives from the Internet technical community, civil society, private sector and trade unions, all converged towards the need for an open and trusted Internet as a pillar of a growing and inclusive Digital Economy. These elements, along with acknowledgement of the value of multistakeholder cooperation in policymaking, are reflected in the formal outcome of this Ministerial, the “Cancun Declaration” on the Digital Economy.

By Walid Al-Saqaf, Internet Society Board of Trustee, postdoctoral researcher at Stockholm University 

Simply put, the blockchain can act as a virtual public ledger that records transactions processed and maintained by a network of communicating nodes running cryptocurrency software. It was invented in 2008 as part of Bitcoin by a person with the computer nickname ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’. It was envisioned as a peer-to-peer payment system and digital currency that can be transferred between any two users connected to the Internet, without using any intermediary.

While none of the panelists who replied to my intervention[1] ended up talking about the blockchain technology itself, they did acknowledge the need to embrace such new and innovative technologies so that they could be used for the betterment of societies. I thought that was a good sign.

By Robin Wilton, Technical Outreach Director for Identity and Privacy, Internet Society

During the OECD Ministerial in Cancun, I had the pleasure to moderate an ITAC panel discussion entitled “Collaborative Approach to Internet Security”.

In a very wide-ranging discussion, both the panel and the audience examined Internet security issues from a variety of perspectives. Early questions from the audience set the direction for the event and included:

• We can all envisage how things might look in 10 years’ time, but how can we get a clearer picture of the next steps that will lead us there?
• Security is often portrayed as consisting of Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability, yet we seem to spend 90% of our effort on confidentiality, 9% on availability, and the scant remainder on integrity. What can/should we do about that?
• How can we increase trust in the Internet, and both the perception and reality of trustworthiness?

By Marco Hogewoning, External Relations Officer (Technical Advisor), RIPE NCC 

It was in the 2008 OECD Ministerial meeting in Seoul that the OECD member countries took it upon themselves to: “Encourage the adoption of the new version of the Internet protocol (IPv6), in particular through its timely adoption by governments as well as large private sector users of IPv4 addresses, in view of the ongoing IPv4 depletion.”

A lot has happened since then, and in anticipation of the 2016 OECD Ministerial meeting, which took place June 21-23 in Cancun, ITAC organized a panel to focus on the progress made during the last eight years and discuss the remaining challenges in the global adoption of IPv6 in both the public and private sectors.

By Laurent Liscia, CEO of OASIS

The following is a statement by Laurent Liscia, CEO of OASIS and spokesperson for ITAC during the press conference following the OECD Ministerial Meeting’s Stakeholder Day.

“First, let me name a few highlights among the 9 principles the OECD Ministers agree on:

• Support the free flow of information 
• Increase broadband connectivity and harness the potential of interconnected and converged infrastructures and digital services
• Embrace the opportunities arising from emerging technologies and applications
• Promote digital security risk management and the protection of privacy at the highest level of leadership

By Karen McCabe, Senior Director of Technology Policy and International Affairs at the IEEE Standards Association.

A segment at the ITAC Forum held during the OECD Ministerial this past June was dedicated to a thought provoking discussion on Open Standards for an Open Internet of Things (IoT).

Joining the interactive panel were Laurent Liscia, CEO and Executive Director at OASIS, David Conrad, Chief Technology Officer at ICANN, Monique Morrow, CTO, Evangelist for New Frontiers Development and Engineering at CISCO, Roberto Minerva, Research Coordinator at Telecom Italia Lab and Chair of the IEEE IoT Initiative, Elsa Chan, Co-Founder of Jetlun, and Luis Kun, Professor of  National  Security  at  the Center  for  Hemispheric  Defense  Studies at  the National Defense University.

By Jari Arkko, Chair of the Internet Engineering Task Force *

In my experience it is important that we talk to each other, all of us, the techies, the operators, the economists, and the policy people. We live in a connected world that is developing very rapidly, and none of us have a full picture of everything. It benefits us to share our views and increase our understanding.

I want to start off with a personal perspective on three areas where mixing people with different backgrounds has been very useful.