Kathy Brown, CEO of the Internet Society, recently penned an Op-Ed for Canada’s the Hill Times calling for a multistakeholder approach to Internet governance: “an approach that is collaborative, one that engages the entire Internet community.” According to Brown, “The time has come to expand this inclusive model of governance to more places around the world.”
“No one party, government, corporation, or non-profit controls the Internet and we are all better for it. Nor does any one party have the knowledge or the ability to identify the solutions to these complex policy challenges. It has been this approach—what we call the multistakeholder model—that has allowed humankind’s most advanced and powerful communications tool to spread so far and so fast.”
She cites the partnership between the Internet Society, Innovation, Science and Economic Development, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, CANARIE, and CIPPIC as an example of the multistakeholder approach working successfully. “[Canada] is addressing cybersecurity head-on by working with the Internet Society to engage the Canadian Internet community in a process to develop recommendations to secure the Internet of Things.”
Read the entire Op-Ed, then learn how you can participate in the Collaborative Governance Project, which aims to expand global knowledge and use of collaborative governance processes to solve problems and develop norms. You can also register for the April 4th meeting in Ottawa, “Canadian Multistakeholder Process: Enhancing IoT Security,” which is the first in a year-long process to develop recommendations to secure IoT in Canada.