science

NetMundial Initiative

NetMundial Initiative is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand NetMundial Initiative rather than just read about it. In short: The NETmundial Initiative (NMI) was a controversial effort to create a new platform for internet governance issues. The NMI was named after an internet governance conference held by the Brazilian government and DNS overseer ICANN in May 2014; it was intended to help turn the conference's final principles into action.

Key takeaways

NetMundial Initiative belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect NetMundial Initiative to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of NetMundial Initiative from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The NETmundial Initiative (NMI) was a controversial effort to create a new platform for internet governance issues. The NMI was named after an internet governance conference held by the Brazilian government and DNS overseer ICANN in May 2014; it was intended to help turn the conference's final principles into action. Despite the backing of both the US and Brazilian governments, the initiative ran into trouble almost immediately when it was revealed that the three lead organizers had decided to award themselves 'permanent seats' on its 25-member council, leading to comparisons with the United Nations' Security Council. Despite efforts by the organizers to respond to criticism, the initiative was rejected by a number of key internet organizations including the Internet Society and the Internet Architecture Board. As a result, two of the five proposed permanent seats were never taken up. The initiative ran for 18 months until its 'mandate' ran out in July 2016. Just prior to that deadline, both ICANN and the World Economic Forum said they were withdrawing from the project. At a planning meeting, the US government representative called for the NMI to be shut down. ICANN and the WEF had contributed $200,000 each. Plans for re-election of council members were postponed and then cancelled. The remaining member - CGI.br - initially suggested it would continue the initiative in some form but in August 2016, the initiative announced an open call for a new group to take over the 'solutions map' that was its most significant work product.

Background The NETmundial meeting held in São Paulo, Brazil, in April 2014 saw 1,480 people from 97 countries come together to discuss internet governance issues in light of mass surveillance by the US government revealed by Edward Snowden. Attendees came from a wide range of sectors: government, private sector, civil society, technical community, and academia. Its concluding, non-binding Multistakeholder Statement contained a shared set of Principles and a Roadmap to guide the evolution of Internet cooperation and governance. Months later, DNS overseer the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br), and the World Economic Forum (WEF) funded an 'initiative' named after the conference with the goal of working together to apply the NETmundial Principles to address Internet issues in concrete ways. The NMI was launched in on 6 November 2014 as an "open source platform" and a "shared public resource" that would provide help to any "calls for assistance on non-technical issues." ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade said: "If there is a cybersecurity issue, or someone who has figured out how to protect children through a browser," then they could use the platform to connect with others as well as crowdsource and fund their efforts. However plans announced at the same time to create a 25-member Inaugural Coordination Council on which the three organizers would give themselves "permanent seats" sparked immediate criticism and led to a lack of support that blighted all future efforts.

Mission and Scope The NMI's self-created mission was to "provide a platform that helps catalyze practical cooperation between all stakeholders in order to address Internet issues and advance the implementation of the NETmundial Principles and Roadmap." Its Terms of Reference, along with other guiding documents were developed based upon these principles and in consultation with the global Internet community. Its scope included promoting the application, evaluation, and implementation of these principles and operating as an impartial clearinghouse for information about governance issues. It planned to produce a platform on which diverse actors could present projects, solicit partners and establish collaborative relationships. It also hoped to facilitate participation in the Internet governance ecosystem, particularly by stakeholders from the developing world, and advances multistakeholder processes at the global, regional and national levels. It noted that it would not act as a policy-making body, but would seek to complement and support existing Internet governance dialogue, processes and institutions including the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and the global Internet technical community.

Rationale and Commitment The Multistakeholder Statement generated at the initial NETmundial meeting in São Paulo, Brazil, in April 2014, identified a need to develop "operational solutions for current and future Internet Issues." The NMI vows to operate in a "multistakeholder, open, transparent and inclusive manner, as a part of the Internet governance ecosystem." Capacity building and financing are essential elements of the NMI's commitment to enabling diverse stakeholders to effectively participate in Internet governance development.

Coordination Council The NMI's inaugural Coordination Council composed of representatives from all stakeholder groups and geographies. Members of the inaugural Council included prominent leaders in the Internet governance ecosystem. Nii Narku Quaynor, Jack Ma, Fadi Chehade, Richard Samans, Virgilio Almeida, Jean-François Abramatic, Lu Wei, and Secretary Penny Pritzker. Initially intended as a 25-member council, only 23 councillors were ever chosen after the two seats set aside for internet organizations and the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) were not taken up following rejection of the initiative. The council was tasked with guiding the development of the initial phases of the NMI. It shut down in July 2016.

Secretariat A joint secretariat, formed by staff from the three organizing partners: The Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) carried out the administrative and secretarial tasks of the NMI.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with NetMundial Initiative

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what NetMundial Initiative claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to NetMundial Initiative before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about NetMundial Initiative ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of NetMundial Initiative

In research: NetMundial Initiative appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses NetMundial Initiative in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: NetMundial Initiative is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Internet governance, Projects disestablished in 2016, Projects established in 2014, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for NetMundial Initiative outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study NetMundial Initiative in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what NetMundial Initiative means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain NetMundial Initiative out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is NetMundial Initiative in simple terms?

Why does NetMundial Initiative matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study NetMundial Initiative?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on NetMundial Initiative.