Brazil is going through a remarkable procedure for the establishment of a civil-rights based regulatory framework for internet. On October, 29th, the Ministry of Justice, in partnership with CTS-FGV, held an event at Fundação Getúlio Vargas to launch a public consultation in order to draft our civil regulatory framework for internet, the so called "Marco Civil". Ministry of Justice, Tarso Genro and the Executive Secretary from the Ministry of Culture, Alfredo Manevy, joined a round table to present the debate.

This public consultation is structured in two phases:

a) First phase (finnished on December, 17th): based on selected topics proposed by the Ministry of Justice, public opinion had an open space to expose their opinion on a weblog. During this period, the blog received more then 800 contributions, besides oficial contribution of important institutions on the matter.

b) Second phase (underway): considering the opinions posted at the weblog, the goal is to compose a draft bill for the civil regulatory framework to be submitted to a second round of virtual public consultation for reaching final document that should reach the Congress by March.

The topics proposed for debate at the first phase were structured in three goals: 1) adapting and consolidating individual rights for the context of electronic communication, 2) underlining a transparent civil responsibility for all the actors implicated on the virtual communication process, 3) establishing directives for public policy. The most polemic topics are: right to access, freedom of expression, privacy, non-discrimination of content and conflict resolution on the web.

At the launching occasion, representatives from CTS and the Ministry of Justice where able to explain the mechanisms for the first phase of public consultation. They could also expose ideas on balancing IP for development and education and for repelling old-fashioned views of intellectual property as key points to consider for the new legislation. All these explanation and videos from the event can be currently found at the weblog home page.

Since the launching, the weblog average daily visiting was about 1500 people, a wide range of seminars has been held throughout Brazil to debate the topics (such as the International Forum of Brazilian Digital Culture, etc), and the civil regulatory framework was been massively addressed on Twitter (#marcocivil) and some websites. This all truly represents an interactive network probably able to foster a wider debate and reach consensus towards directives for the new legislation.

Nonetheless, the use of virtual social networks to formulate a legal framework represents a major change on Brazilian political process and democracy. It is a concrete expression of policy-makers acknowledgement about the importance of using new channels for improving dialogue within society. And surely represents a practice of decentralized public coordination able to foster innovative solutions more likely to address challenges of the information society.

To keep yourself updated about this process, visit the weblog at www.culturadigital.br/marcocivil