OECD Ministerial Meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy

The Portuguese Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, José Mariano Gago, was one of the 5 Vice-Presidents at this Ministerial Meeting and chaired the “Promoting Creativity” Round Table. The other four Round Tables were chaired by the Canadian Minister of Industry, the Japanese Minister of the Interior and Communications, the Australian Minister of the Department for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and the Ambassador Coordinator for International Information and Communication Policies at the US State Department.

After the round tables, ministers from the 30 OECD members approved a joint declaration on the Future of the Internet Economy (Seoul Declaration) at an official ministerial meeting where the President of the Ministerial Meeting's Summary was also presented. A further 9 countries (non-OECD members) and the European Commission also endorsed the Seoul Declaration.

The declaration calls for participation in convergence between networks, equipment, applications and services, promoting competition to defend users and guarantees that the Internet will continue to develop in an open and decentralised manner.

Other commitments under the Seoul Declaration include: stimulating creative solutions for the development of the Internet, maintaining an open environment for information to be exchanged freely, research and innovation, provision of public sector information and content, scientific data and work of a cultural nature, and encouraging universities and public research institutions to work in joint knowledge networks.

The issues of strengthening confidence in the Internet, its safety, consumer protection and personal privacy were broached in the Declaration, in addition to harnessing the Internet’s potential to address global challenges, such as improving energy efficiency and environmental sustainability, or the prevention and mitigation of global risks.

The Portuguese Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education chaired the “Promoting Creativity” Round Table, where interventions were also made by: The Chief Editor of ZEIT Online, the CEO of StarTV, the President of Fujitsu, the President of the Mozilla Foundation, the French Secretary of State for the Development of the Digital Economy, the Indonesian Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, the Irish Minister for the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, the Swedish Minister for Communications at the Enterprise, Energy and Communications Ministry, the CEO and Director of Daum Communications Corporation and the CEO of Skype.

The Portuguese delegation also included the presidents of The Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) and the FCCN – Foundation for National Scientific Computation and representatives from ANACOM – National Communications Authority.

10 years have elapsed since the OECD Ministerial eCommerce Conference that was held in Ottawa, Canada, in 1998. It proved a landmark in the formulation of policy in areas such as privacy, safety, tax and consumer protection, which have proved crucial in the Internet’s development.

The Seoul Ministerial Meeting was intended to help adopt suitable policies to address the major changes that are forecast for the coming years and for the development of the Internet economy over the next decade.

The meeting was preceded by three Stakeholders Forums that ran in parallel on 16 June, involving non-governmental organisations and experts: the Business Forum organised by BIAC – Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD and the FKI – Federation of Korean Industries, the Internet Community Forum organised by ISOC – Internet Society and the NIDA – National Internet Development Agency of Korea, and the Civil Society/Organized Labour Forum organised by TUAC – Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD, Public Voice, OECD Civil Society Reference Group (APC – The Association for Progressive Communications, CIPPIC – Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), EDRI – European Digital Rights Initiative, EPIC – Electronic Privacy Information Center, IGP – The Internet Governance Project , TACD – Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue) and Consumers Korea.

The World IT Show – Future of the Internet Economy exhibition ran alongside the Ministerial Meeting from 17-20 June 2008.

The OECD Ministerial Meeting on the Future of the Internet was prepared with contributions from the Meeting of the OECD's Committee for Information, Computer and Communications Policies (54th meeting) and the Meeting of the OECD's Committee for Information, Computer and Communications Policies (53rd meeting). The Portuguese delegations at these meetings were led by the president of The Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC).

This Committee also prepared the draft Seoul Declaration and the Shaping Policies for the Future of the Internet Economy document and respective annexes. Other publications provided for the meeting prepared by the Committee Secretariat include the Meeting Leaflet, the Policy Brief and ministerial reports on:

• The Future of Internet Economy – A Statistical Profile;
• Broadband Growth and Policies in OECD Countries;
• Broadband and the Economy;
• Convergence and Next Generation Networks;
• Internet Address Space: Economic Considerations in the Management of IPv4 and in the Deployment of IPv6;
• RFID – Radio Frequency Identification;
• Development of Policies for Protection of Critical Information Infrastructures;
• Malicious Software (Malware): A Security Threat to the Internet Community;
• Scoping Paper on Online Identity Theft;

and additional documents:

• Enhancing Competition in Telecommunications: Protecting and Empowering Consumers;
• Digital Broadband Content: Public Sector Information and Content;
• Mobile Commerce;
• Global Opportunities for Internet Access Developments.

The Portuguese delegation at the OECD’s Information, Computers and Communication Policy Committee played a particularly active role at these meetings, which influenced important parts of the documents that were prepared, namely as regards improving and modernising statistical indicators and updated measures for Internet access and use and related information and communication networks, sensor-based networks, the Internet and energy sustainability, the Internet as a platform for international cooperation in scientific research, greater access to content of public interest including scientific information and data, promoting scientific research to address emerging Internet security threats and contributing to their use, the importance of the Internet’s open, neutral and decentralised character for innovation and creativity in open collaborative networks, and towards participation in international knowledge networks.

The organisation involved in the Stakeholders Forums held the day before the Ministerial Meeting also prepared documents: Business Vision Paper prepared by the BIAC, Internet Technical Community Memorandum – Memorandum on the Future of the Internet in the Global Economy prepared by a group of participants from the Technical Community Forum held the day before the Ministerial Meeting, Civil Society-TUAC “The Seoul Declaration” prepared by a group of participants from the Civil Society/Organized Labour Forum, Fuelling Creativity, Ensuring Consumer and Privacy Protection, Building Confidence and Benefiting from Convergence prepared by the organisation The Public Voice.

The OECD reached an agreement with YouTube on setting up a YouTube page to broadcast short videos with exchanges of opinions, questions asked by YouTube users and answers to these questions.

A Meeting of the OECD's Committee for Information, Computer and Communications Policies (55th meeting) was held the day after the OECD Ministerial Meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy, on 19 June 2008.