Interview with Deirdre Williams

Participant of FGI as civil society member (Saint Lucia)

1.- Which is you role here in the IGF? How did you get involved in this process? And How do you feel that this process is helping civil society to achieve their own goals, related to IG issues and the protection of their rights?

Well, I was interested. Some years ago I started working on Internet, and in meetings and activities on social networking in the Caribbean, I mean not social networking just the way it today, but the previous “version” of it.

I think that there is a lack of coordination between most of the people here and the civil society. I heard voices on civil society is switching. I have been at Hyderabad, India [IGF 2008], and I see that there is so little dissemination of what was talked about there, I must say not decisions but conclusions, that have been reached. I think that there are some issues that are being debate in the different events, and you go and go around until an agreement is reached, so I am very cheerful of what I have heard here at the Rio.

2.- How does this process nurture you and your work at your community?

Well, I am sure I find. I work at teaching to adolescents in Saint Lucia, and the things that I have learnt from IGF, I put it all together, and I find myself doing it, and at a decision making level there is a chance to arrange a  meeting with the Cabinet of the Government at Saint Lucia, where I hope I will have the chance to convince them of the urgency of these issues involved in Internet Governance.

3.- Do you think that the whole process of the global IGF and the regional meetings must continue?

Yes, very definitively, but as I have said before, I would like to see more dissemination of what comes out of these meetings. I had an experience I would like to share, and I had a meeting with colleges at work, where I proposed to start teaching Internet Governance at the school I worked at, and I was very much surprise the people I work with, and nobody at the school, knew what IG was, and I was so ashamed about this. So, it is necessary to disseminate it, to reach all the people. There is a lot of work to do about it.

After the LAC IGF Preparatory Meeting at Rio, Deirdre attended the Fifth Caribbean IGF at Saint Kitts and Navis. Deirdre was invited by the CTU, and she shared with us her impressions on the meeting:

The most important issues that were debate at the Caribbean IGF are:

• The importance of multistakeholderism; that there is a tension between the idea of an open, flat, and bottom up IGF, without structure at all, and as an open platform, against some ideas and arguments that tend to move the IGF to a more formal and structure process.
• The importance of the regional perspectives, the regional IGFs and there linking with the global process
• The role of WSIS principles, and to get the input of business and civil society
• The role of CTU, in the harmonization and the inclusion of the different types of stakeholders: technical, legal, social and governmental actors. The CTU as facilitator and coordinator of the process.
• The importance of insular countries, and how make their voice to be heard.
• The tension between over regulation and lack of regulation.
• The vision of building consensus around principles, rather than on regulations.
• The linking between Internet problems and real world problems, are they different?
• About access and e-inclusion, the next billion will be non-English speaking and non-European
• The importance of participation and involvement
• The importance of capacity and knowledge building
• The importance of open standards, and open platforms
• The significance of open and universal access to improve people’s lives
• Trust and identity as emerging issues
• The significance of new social networking, as a challenge to governance
• Trans-jurisdictional condition of Internet
• The lack of a shared global model of Internet, the idea of a shared global ownership of Internet
• The significance of establishing IXPs in the Caribbean, and the need to build an Information and Knowledge Society for all in the region
• The importance of local content, and its impact on Intellectual Property Rights.
• The role of content in the culture, the importance of local content creation and local capacity, specially the inclusion of young people.
• IPV6 and the topic related to the migration to this new protocol.