Overstepping Intent, Irregularities Appear in WMO Document System

"I don’t know” where the idea for a username and password system came from, said Jean-Michel Clerc, an associate expert in the group from MeteoSwiss. He said the system doesn’t present any particular difficulties for insiders other than adding to the already complex management of needed credentials. “I hate these things,” said Markus Dreis, a core member of the steering group from Eumetsat, an intergovernmental organization of 26 countries for the exploitation of meteorological satellites, referring to having to locate his username and password to respond a reporter’s question. WMO officials did not comment.

The WMO username and password system counters the transparency practices of other U.N. agencies dependent on ITU conference procedures for access to internationally coordinated spectrum. The International Civil Aviation Organization does not restrict access to its working documents, proposals and other documents on spectrum management and matters for international coordination, such as numbering. The International Maritime Organization restricts access but provides working documents and reports on request.

Everything was open prior to the implementation of the username and password system, which was introduced “a bit” before a January 2011 meeting, said a participant who did not want to be identified because of disagreement with the secretariat’s policies. A variety of concerns have been raised with the secretariat’s decision-making to boost the organization’s role in the international radio frequency process (CD Nov 15 p11). The system was only intended to keep some draft documents private until after the meeting when “everything” was to be open, he said. That “is not the case” today, he said referring to a controversial report from the January meeting.

"A small part” of a newly introduced Web-based collaboration tool is password protected, said Jose Arimatea de Sousa Brito, the new chairman of the group, in response to a complaint about the new username and password system that restricted access to the meeting report and formerly publicly available documents. “A more modern wiki-based collaboration tool” was introduced “to replace the previous system of emails between individual members,” he said. The “vast majority” of the steering group’s “output” is publicly available and accessible on the Web, de Sousa Brito said. Working documents still under “internal discussion” or documents originating from “another organization” are restricted, de Sousa Brito said referring to protecting “intellectual property.”

The “main issue” for the introduction of the username and password system is that “some people provided regional summaries or comments that related to decision processes which at the time were in process,” said David Thomas, chief of the WMO’s information technology systems in the Observing and Information Systems Department. Thomas said he restricted access to “all regional summaries” because “several of the authors requested his/her document be closed.” The “authors’ wishes” were also respected during the January meeting, he said.

Some documents that were “listed freely” in January “may be restricted” for the October meeting, and vice versa, Thomas said citing “providers requirements.” Thirty-five of 36 documents considered during the January 2011 meeting, including publicly available documents or information, were restricted to the WMO group, according to a document list in the restricted meeting report. The single exception is the report from a September 2009 meeting.

Dreis said he didn’t ask the secretariat to restrict access to one of his documents. “I don’t see any reason for restricting it,” Dreis told us. The document updated WMO’s position on several WRC-12 agenda items and included a general remark on the WRC-15 agenda, the WMO website said. More spectrum for mobile broadband will likely be the most important agenda item for the 2015 conference.

Another restricted document had background material for the WRC12 agenda items dealing with the band 2200-2290 MHz. Other restricted January documents included common positions for Europe and three other regions, the draft WRC-12 preparatory report, which is an ITU document available to members, summaries of regional positions, WMO and NOAA letters on NTIA’s fast track proposal to use the 1675-1710 MHz band for mobile (CD Jan 13 p9), documents on meteorological “issues” with regard to WiMAX and International Mobile Telecommunications, the international standard for advanced wireless communications, draft European reports and decisions that are normally public, and other documents. Documents in the European WRC-12 preparatory process have been open for years. All draft common regional positions are now public.

Restricted documents from an October meeting include a report of meteorological issues raised during ITU-R working parties dealing with certain satellite, terrestrial, spectrum management and science services. The minutes of a July 2010 meeting of the Space Frequency Coordination Group (SFCG), an informal group limited to space agencies, was also restricted in the WMO group for the October meeting. Meeting minutes and a “space database” have access restricted to SFCG members, said the group’s Chairman Edoardo Marelli. The SFCG in the future may generate other types of information that may be “considered as confidential and therefore restricted,” Marelli said. “We have no general rules about what is restricted and what is not,” Marelli said. The WMO restricted access to a letter from ITU-R on a “remote sensing disaster database.” The letter we obtained asked ITU-R to continue to contribute to ITU-D’s development work on the issue.

Radiocommunication Bureau officials and ITU-R participants have been trying to promote awareness of the need of administrations to add terrestrial and satellite frequencies to a database for use during and after disasters (http://xrl.us/bmh77d). ITU groups have been working on outlining the use and benefits of active and passive space-based sensing systems for disaster and emergency relief situations, the draft U.S. document said.

The WRC-12 preparatory report was also restricted for the October meeting. The report is “not ours to circulate,” Thomas said. ITU restricts access to the WRC-12 preparatory report, which is offered free to anyone with ITU credentials. The BR sometimes allows documents to be hosted locally on websites, a BR official told us. Permission usually follows a request, she said. The BR did not respond to queries asking if the WMO had obtained permission to locally host the WRC-12 preparatory report for WMO members.

The WRC-12 preparatory report was included in the WMO restricted pages “for convenience rather than put in the TIES link,” Thomas said. “TIES” refers to ITU’s system of online credentials that can be used to access the document at no charge. Only three of the 36 members of the WMO group members have credentials to access ITU documents, according to the ITU website.

The move to restrict access to working, draft and other documents used for international spectrum coordination goes against the trend for the 48 administrations of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT). The mostly ex-Soviet Union countries in the Regional Commonwealth in the Field of Communications (RCC) made draft regional WRC-12 positions available before they were given final approval by administrations. The Americas and Asia-Pacific regions also posted draft regional positions online. African and Arab groups detailed common proposals during three WRC-12 information meetings held to boost general awareness of the various approaches to the various conference agenda items. U.S. and certain other administrations variously posted or made available WRC-12 preliminary views, working documents, draft and final proposals. A rising number of administrations and regulators are moving toward more transparency for international spectrum coordination.