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