Enabling NGOs and
Civil Society
Through the Internet
February 2016
Public Interest Registry
• Not-for-profit formed by
the Internet Society in
2002 in partnership with
Afilias to operate the
.org Top Level Domain.
• 32 person staff;
donating annual surplus
to ISOC to help fund
their mission.
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Our Mission
Statement:
To enable, through
the Internet, those
who dedicate
themselves to
improving our
world.
The Internet
“I don’t think we have even seen the tip of the iceberg.
I think the potential of what the Internet is going to do to
society both good and bad is unimaginable. I think we’re
actually on the cusp of something exhilarating and
terrifying.”
“It’s an alien lifeform.”
David Bowie
BBC interview 1999
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiK7s_0tGsg
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What is the Internet?
• The Internet is a global network comprising of many
voluntarily interconnected autonomous networks. It
operates without a central governing body.
• The technical underpinning and standardization of the
core protocols (IPv4 and IPv6) is an activity of the
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a non-profit
organization of loosely affiliated international
participants that anyone may associate with by
contributing technical expertise.
Source: Wikipedia
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What is the Internet?
Technical standards
TCP/IP
Domain Name System
Coordination and cooperation
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What is the Internet?
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Internet Governance
Multi Stakeholder Model
- Governments
- Industry
- Civil Society
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN) http://www.icann.org –
industry led, bottom up multi stakeholder policy
making for the Internet
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Internet Governance
U.N. World Summit on the Information
Society - http://www.itu.int/net/wsis/
• The WSIS multistakeholder approach
which is essential in building the
information society should be harnessed
emphasising its benefits, recognising that
it has worked well in some areas; and that
it should be improved, strengthened and
applied in some other areas
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Internet Governance
Internet Governance Forum
http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/
International Telecommunication Union
http://www.itu.int
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How to Participate in
Internet Governance?
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How to participate in Internet Governance?
United Nations World Summit on the Information Society
“WSIS + 10” http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/jomec/resources/Julia_PohleMapping_WSIS_10_Unravelling_the_strings_of_a_messy_global_polic
y_process.pdf
ITU Plenipontiery - http://bestbits.net/busan-transparency/ ; binding
rules
IGF – global, regional, country-based; non-binding
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NGOs and the Internet
Need to be trusted
Need to connect and share information
Need to raise funds from donors and
foundations
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Validated Domains
• Online identity exclusively
for NGOs
• Non Governmental
Organizations self identify
with .ngo
• Validation gives donors
confidence
NGOs and the Internet
Data – public v. anonymity
WHOIS data
Government surveillance
- NGOs viewed as instruments of foreign
governments (Ford Foundation India, Russia,
Snowden)
Government restrictions
- Restriction on receipt of foreign donations (India);
GONGOs
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Internet Access
Access: growth of mobile
Source:
Tech Crunch
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NGOs and Internet Access
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Civil Society and the Internet
- Access
- Inequality of access within populations
(gender, education, ethnic minorities)
- Cultural dominance – English language v. multilingual Internet
- Data – How accessed? How used? Dominant
Internet companies
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Civil Society and the Internet
What is important for civil society?
Access - to the “open” Internet or a walled garden
Facebook Free Basics
“Great Firewall of China”
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Civil Society and the Internet
Internet Access and Censorship Issues
Facebook Free Basics and India
Astroturf lobbying campaign
SOPA and PIPA
Website blackouts, grassroots, technologists, Reddit,
traditional lobbying
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