.Nxt Pledges Full Release of WCIT Documents, Citing Public Interest in Conference Outcome
A promised full release of documents related to the World Conference on International Telecommunications began online Thursday through .Nxt, an Internet policy information service. It cited growing public interest in the WCIT in its decision to release the files. Delegations from ITU member states will meet at WCIT, which begins Dec. 3 in Dubai, to revise the treaty-level International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs). “As interest has grown over the outcomes of this conference (thanks largely to concerns raised about what they may be) the issue of availability of related documents has itself become a major bone of contention,” .Nxt said in a blog post announcing the documents’ release (http://xrl.us/bn27p9). Files relating to WCIT, including proposed revisions submitted by national delegations, are available to parties within the telecom industry and members of the ITU that pay for membership to the organization. CEO Kieren McCarthy of .Nxt told us that while he’s had access to WCIT documents through the ITU portal for some time, “it got to the point where there was a massive public interest in the conference.” That rise in public interest is due in part to PR campaigns by Internet advocacy group Fight for the Future, Google, Greenpeace and the International Trade Union Confederation, all of which have centered on proposed revisions to the ITRs that the U.S. and other nations fear could alter the current Internet governance structure, McCarthy said. Google’s effort, which went live Tuesday, centers on getting its users to sign a petition that says “A free and open world depends on a free and open Internet. Governments alone, working behind closed doors, should not direct its future. The billions of people around the globe who use the Internet should have a voice” (http://bit.ly/TdH9iK). Some national proposals have also received heightened public scrutiny, such as a set of proposals from the Russian Federation that critics claim could alter the current model of Internet addressing and other Internet governance issues (CD Nov 21 p7).
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Limited public access to the WCIT documents was “damaging what is going to be a very important conversation about what we're going to do with these regulations, and it was becoming very noisy about the fact that people couldn’t get hold of these documents officially,” McCarthy said. The ITU considered making all WCIT documents publicly available themselves, but ultimately decided to only release limited documentation, he said. Releasing the full portfolio of documents would put the focus back on the actual proposals under consideration, McCarthy said. “I'm not sure how happy the ITU will be. I think they should be happy, they couldn’t do it under their rules, so this should actually give the public a little bit of context about what’s going on.”
WCITLeaks, a site hosted by George Mason University researchers Jerry Brito and Eli Dourado, has been posting WCIT documents anonymously submitted to the site since early June. The site had been able to publish only proposals they received. “The ones that were being provided to WCITLeaks were giving a bit of a distorted perspective,” centering on the most controversial proposals like the recently released Russian proposals, McCarthy said. “I thought if you're going to do this, let’s get all of the documents up there and start having a reasoned conversation about it.” He said he’s able to access the WCIT documents directly from the ITU portal with log-in information provided by people within the industry. WCITLeaks was helpful in beginning a public conversation about the issues at WCIT and demonstrating there was public interest in seeing the documents, McCarthy said. “What I hope we've provided is the ability to see everything.”
.Nxt itself requires a paid membership to access most of its reports, but the WCIT documents can be accessed for free after registering with the site. McCarthy said he couldn’t justify charging for access to the WCIT documents when the ITU’s fee structure had been the main roadblock to accessing the documents in the first place. The ITU’s current membership fee structure was too high for McCarthy or .Nxt to join, he said. “The ITU to its credit is looking to change its fee structure, but they haven’t fixed it yet.”