The Internet Management Committee met on January 23 in Sao Paolo, and initiated the process of democratising the internet in the country. For the first time since the creation of the Committee in May 1995, members of civil society were elected, and participated directly in the deliberations.
In accordance with Decree 4.829 of September 2003, the Committee comprises 21 members. Nine are chosen by the federal government, one by the directorate of the Fórum Nacional de Secretários Estaduais para Assuntos de Ciência e Tecnologia (National Forum of State Secretaries for Science and Technology), and 11 are elected: four from the business sector, four from the civil society sector, and three from the sector of science and technology. The elected members are chosen in an electoral college composed of organisations and representatives of each sector.
During the meeting, the Committee decided that the elections would be held via the internet, using ICP-Brazil’s digital certificates. The process will be set up by Registro.br, the institution responsible for registering internet domains in Brazil, with the technical direction of ITI – the Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia da Informação (National Institute of Information Technology). According to Sergio Amadeu, ITI’s president, and civil society’s representative to the Committee, this is an important step towards modernisation, both in the democratic and technological sense. This will be a good example of how internet transactions can be done in an simple and secure manner, Amadeu commented.
On the same day, the Internet Management Committee, a body attached to the Ministry of Science and Technology, defined its electoral timetable for the selection of civil society representatives. On February 16, a public forum will be launched on www.cg.org.br to define the method of appealing for the participation of civil society representatives. The chosen method will be announced on March 15. From that date, entities and associations have until February 2 to express their wish to participate in the Committee and to form the electoral college. The registration of candidates should be done from April 19 to 23, the election will take place on May 23, and the result will be announced on the 31st.
Debates on the theme will take place on the cyberforum inclusaodigital.org.br, hosted by RITS (Rede de Informações para o Terceiro Setor – Third Sector Information Network). People interested in participating should send an email to forum@inclusaodigital.org.br, providing their name, organisation, email address, city and state. There is another forum for debate on the creation of the Management Committee at http://debatecomitegestor.softwarelivre.org.
Translation of article from Portuguese: Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
