[ga] GAC Watch

["A.M. Rutkowski" <amr@chaos.com>]

At 10:32 AM 8/9/99 , Planet Communications Computing Facility wrote:

>         http://www.noie.gov.au/docs/gac1.htm
>
>It's well hidden, but once you get there it pretty self explanatory.  It's
>has the civil service easy to navigate feel to it which I appreciate.

Fascinating.  We finally get a glimpse at how they put together
their secret committee.

44 countries, 6 intergovernmental organizations, and Twomey.

It appears that they indeed largely sent the invitations to the
ITU's contact list - which immediately skews everything in a
PTT/PTO regulatory direction.  Twomey has placed himself as
the chief ITU contact for the Australian Government, so the
linkage was foregone.  If they had used, for example, a
WTO list, or OECD list, they would have gotten very different,
and overwhelmingly more progressive and Internet friendly
government agency contacts.

There were some interesting exceptions.

In the US, they went to the US Commerce Dept which has no regulatory
or Internet policy making authority.

In France, they list an ambassador with no institutional affiliation.

The Asia-Pacific Telecommunity rep inexplicably lists someone with
no institutional affiliation and a Lesotho email address.

The table of GAC government contacts looks like this:

Argentina       Undersecretary for International Trade
Armenia         Ministry of Post and Telecommunications
Australia       Department of Communications, Information Technology and 
the Arts
Austria         Ministry for Science and Transport
Bangladesh      Bangladesh Telephone and Telegraph Board
Belgium         Belgium Institute of Post and Telecommunications (IBPT)
Brazil          National Agency for Telecommunications (ANATEL)
Canada          Industry Canada
Chile           Undersecretary for Telecommunications
Cyprus          Ministry of Communications and Works
Czech Republic  Ministry of Transport & Communications
Denmark         Ministry of Research and Information Technology
Finland         Ministry of Transport and Communications
France          [unknown]
Gambia          Department of State for Works, Communications and Information
Germany         Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology
Ireland         Department of Public Enterprise
Italy           Authority for IT in the Public Administration (AIPA)
Japan           Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications
Korea           Ministry of Information and Communications
Latvia          Ministry of Transport
Libya           General Post & Telecommunications Company
Malaysia        Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment
Mexico          Telecommunications Ministry
Morocco         Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information
Netherlands     Department of Telecommunications and Posts
New Zealand     Ministry of Commerce
Norway          Norwegian Post and Telecommunications Authority
Papua New GuineaPapua New Guinea Telecommunication Authority
Peru            Ministry of Transport
Singapore       Telecommunications Authority of Singapore
Slovenia        Telecommunications Authority
Spain           Secretariat General for Communications (Ministerio de Fomento)
Sri Lanka       Council for Information Technology
Sweden          Ministry of Industry, Communications and Labour
Switzerland     Federal office for communications
Taiwan          Directorate General of Telecommunications
Tonga           Prime Minister's Office
Tuvalu          Ministry of Works, Energy & Communication
United Kingdom  Department of Trade and Industry
USA             Department of Commerce
Vietnam         Department General of Post and Telecommunications (DGPT)
Yemen           Minister for Communications