ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND

UNCLAS STATE 036296 OECD OECD FOR J. MALLORY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECPS EIND ECON OECD SUBJECT: ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE FOR INFORMATION, COMPUTER AND COMMUNICATIONS POLICY, PARIS, FRANCE, MARCH 11-13, 2009. ¶1. Summary: The 57th session of the OECD Committee for Information, Computer and Communications Policy (ICCP) was held on March 11-13, 2009, at OECD Headquarters in Paris, France. Richard C. Beaird, Acting U.S. Coordinator for International Communication and Information Policy, served as Head of Delegation. The delegation consisted of representatives from EEB/CIP/MA, EEB/IPE, FCC, DOC (NTIA and USPTO),Mission Paris, and the private sector. The meeting focused on the review of accession countries, OECD members, recovery plans as well as OECD research on the global financial crisis and economic recovery, the OECD innovation strategy, OECD work on information and communication technology (ICT) and the environment, and the declassification of documents. The ICCP also jointly hosted a workshop with the United Kingdom on Innovation and Policy for Virtual Worlds. Scoping activities for new work also commenced on the topics of cloud computing and the activities of Internet intermediaries (yet to be defined). Specific agenda items are reviewed below. ICCP,s next meeting will be held in Paris, October 14-16, 2009, and will include a Technology Foresight Forum on Cloud Computing. End Summary. ¶2. Review of Accession Countries: Israel and Chile made presentations on steps they are taking to accept ICCP-related instruments and to adjust their policies to make them more consistent with OECD instruments. Chile did not cover intellectual property rights in their presentation; the Israelis, in contrast, included an extensive section on copyright-related issues in their presentation. The ICCP found that both countries are willing and able to assume obligations of membership in the fields of information security and privacy. ¶3. Framework for the participation of non-governmental stakeholders: Following on the recommendations of OECD Ministers at the June 2008 Seoul Ministerial on the Future of the Internet Economy, the ICCP agreed to a framework for the participation of non-governmental stakeholders from civil society, the Internet technical community, namely the Civil Society Information Society Advisory Committee (CSISAC) and the Internet Technical Advisory Committee (ITAC). These stakeholders will be able to participate in meetings of the ;committee, and have access to official documents. The Committee may restrict participation in a particular meeting to member government delegations (with or without observers). It may also do so for a particular item on its agenda. These restrictions should be communicated in advance, where possible. These conditions were contained in the main text of the paper, including Annex A, which the committee declassified. ¶4. OECD Review of ICCP,s Work: The ICCP is undergoing a periodic review of its performance, relevance and effectiveness as part of the OECD structures. A review panel, consisting of several OECD ambassadors and led by the Ambassador Lopez, the Spanish ambassador to the OECD, will produce terms of reference for the review. The review will look at the ICCP work from 2004-2009. The review panel expects to produce a report to Council by October 2009. ¶5. United Kingdom-ICCP Workshop on Innovation and Policy for Virtual Worlds: The workshop focused on emerging issues surrounding virtual worlds. According to statistics cited at the workshop, 120 million people participate in virtual worlds globally. The panellists discussed whether it is the purview of governments to decide whether or not to regulate virtual worlds, and if so, to what extent. The panellists expressed that as virtual worlds grow, governments will be faced with public policy issues such as protecting users from cybercrime and privacy risks. In ICCP plenary, spirited debate characterized the choice of topic for the ICCP,s focus at the next ICCP meeting; the committee will hold a 8Technology Forsight Forum8 on cloud computing, although several members preferred the topic Internet intermediaries. These workshops and fora are key to the ICCP agenda and work program formulation in the two-year ICCP work cycles. ¶6. Discussion on the Economic Crisis: The OECD research on the economic crisis focuses primarily on forward-looking, government-based actions. The U.S. thanked the OECD for their excellent macro-level analysis of the economic crisis, but stated that macro and micro-level analysis must be correlated. The U.S. also emphasized that in addition to an examination of government roles, the OECD must understand how governments should relate to corporations to spur economic recovery. Corporations will react to economic recovery, but they will also be an essential force in the recovery as well. The delegate from the United Kingdom added that the presentation should have emphasized the fundamental role of broadband in innovation, and the role of governments in giving incentives to use broadband. The Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC) added that it is important to focus on retooling educational skill sets to spur innovation. This point was reiterated during a presentation by Gordon Graylish of Intel, who indicated that the role of government during the economic crisis could be to focus on 21st century skills, to encourage research and development; to foster a legislative environment friendly to business; and to invest in education. The ICCP will continue to review OECD documents, including cross-committee documents, on the role of ICTs in general economic recovery, throughout 2009, especially in the lead-up to the OECD Council and Ministers meetings. The U.S. will develop more in-depth policy positions as to the role of ICTs in economic recovery as we begin implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provisions (e.g., broadband mapping and infrastructure investment). ¶7. The Innovation Strategy Project: Interim Report: Member states and BIAC provided comments on the paper. Most agreed that the latest version of the draft interim report is greatly improved from previous iterations. During the floor discussion of the innovation strategy Andy Wyckoff, the member of the Secretariat presently coordinating ICCP work, highlighted the importance of IPR to innovation and to "open innovation" in particular. The U.S. thanked the Secretariat for their work, including the new emphasis on necessary legal frameworks for innovation. The U.S. indicated that the report could benefit from more discussion on how governments can encourage investment and the role of the private sector in meeting the challenges of the economic crisis. The innovation strategy will go to Council by mid-May. The Secretariat requested comments on the draft innovation strategy report by March 31, 2009. The final version of the report will be presented to the Ministerial Council Meeting in 2010. This work on the innovation strategy will feed into other papers for the Ministerial meeting, including the report on the OECD,s strategic response to the economic crisis. ¶8. Forging Partnerships for Advancing the Internet Economy (aka Internet Intermediaries): The OECD Secretariat has proposed initial work in a new field through a research outline, on a topic that may raise issues involved in the global Internet Governance debate. Several members outlined their strong interest in the general topic (note also Technology Foresight Forum debate),but advocated for the need to better define the actors and terms that the OECD seeks to encompass in this future analysis. The U.S. thanked the Secretariat for this outline and emphasized that the issue of intermediaries between telecommunications operators and customers is important. The U.S. stated that the list of intermediaries presented in Table 1 of the document is very broad and inclusive- it ranges from Internet service providers (ISPs) to virtual worlds. The U.S. also conveyed concern that if we rush into regulatory conclusions on these intermediaries it will lead to difficulties, and we will have a hard time agreeing on lessons learned. The first need is to understand the important role of intermediaries, such as ISPs, in economic recovery. The second priority may be to examine existing mechanisms for cooperation and governance. The third priority may be to examine the legal, policy, and regulatory norms associated with intermediaries and looking at how these relate to public policy goals. Other members supported the U.S. call to limit the work in early phases to a definitional and stock-taking exercise, short of policy conclusions. Separately the U.S. learned that the ITAC had worked with the Secretariat to improve the initial draft as to its factual basis and methodology. ¶9. ICTs and the Environment: The U.S. intervened to state that it would be helpful for the OECD to look at the ITU for possible collaboration on this issue. Denmark also spoke on this issue- highlighting their upcoming conference on ICT and the environment in May. Denmark also indicated that they will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December, 2009. The Danish government expects 19,000 participants at the UN conference. ¶10. Declassfication: The committee agreed to declassify several documents by written procedure. CISP i) Broadband Over Power Lines: Developments and Policy Issues ii) Network Externality Premiums and International Traffic Exchange iii) ENUM: Converging Telephone Numbers and Addresses in Next Generation Networks iv) Developments in Voice Service Markets v) Mobile Broadband: Pricing and Services WPIE vi) Policies and Programmes on ICT and the Environment: A Survey on Initiatives of Governments and Industry Associations vii)Measuring the Relationship between ICT and the Environment viii) The Information and Communication Technology Sector in India: Performance, Growth and Key Challenges CLINTON