Although you may not have heard about it yet, there are plans afoot for an Internet Governance Forum for the U.S. The location has been set for Washington, DC at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The date is set at October 2. The purpose of the affair is to debate, discuss and seek out common ground on some of the issues facing the global Internet Governance Forum operated by the United Nations, which will be held in Egypt November 15-18. In particular, we seek agreement on whether to support the IGF's renewal for another 5 year term. We note, however, that this is really an IGF Washington not an IGF-USA, as its organization, awareness and programming are pretty much confined to the nation’s capitol and it lacks the preparation time and breadth of participation to be considered a nationwide effort. UPDATE: You can now visit the website for more information, including a program agenda.

The Internet Governance Project along with several other civil society groups, notably EPIC's Public Voice project, has decided to support and participate in this event. Although the initiative came from Washington-based business interests and the program plans reflect the sometimes-parochial concerns of that crowd, we believe that it is a good way to raise awareness of the IGF and of global Internet governance issues in the nation’s capitol. If more civil society groups and people with diverse perspectives get involved, perhaps the event will become more than an echo chamber for the usual Washington lobbyists’ line on ICANN and Internet governance. EPIC has set up an email listserv exclusively for civil society; if you want to get involved please contact Katitza Rodriguez at igf-usa@thepublicvoice.org

National and regional IGFs have proliferated in the last two years. One of the most developed is European dialogue on Internet Governance.

5 thoughts on “Another mini-Internet Governance Forum: in the U.S.A.

  1. 1. The MAXI governance forum is NOW going on in Washington, DC with I* insiders secretly working out a deal with NTIA.
    2. Joe Sims runs ICANN – He dictates the scripts based on legal opinion.
    3. Paul Twomey is still on the ICANN payroll and now it is becoming clear why Joe Sims did that. ICANN has the lever or threat to the U.S. of
    playing the “We are International” card, via
    Twomey.
    4. Uncle Sam does not intend to blink. In fact,
    the U.S. is going to ignore ICANN and the insiders
    (Now in DC) are focused on IANA and new root
    servers.

  2. Another clue, go to the ICANN web site and look at the STAFF page. Only those with a “Picture” remain as part of the Social Network ICANN.
    You can see who is going with which half of ICANN at the IANA split.

  3. Where does that $15,000,000 .ORG tax to the ISOC go ?
    New ISOC Ambassadors to the IGF (18)
    Anupam Agrawal, India
    Godfred K Ahuma, Ghana
    Fouad Riaz Bajwa, Pakistan
    Baasansuren Burmaa, Mongolia
    Olga Cavalli, Argentina
    Jorge Contreras, USA
    Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond, France/UK
    Gérard Dantec, France
    Rafid AY Fatani, Saudi Arabia/UK
    Charity Gamboa Embley, Philippines/USA
    Tracy Hackshaw, Trinidad and Tobago
    Maureen Hilyard,Cook Islands
    Yvonne Ni, China
    John Kabogo Njoroge, Kenya
    Hempal Shrestha, Nepal
    Veaceslav Sidorenco, Moldova
    Naveed Ul Haq, Pakistan
    Rudi Vansnick, Belgium
    Returning Ambassadors (4)
    Julián Casasbuenas G, Colombia
    Charles Mok, China (Hong Kong)
    Cristos Velasco, Mexico
    Ceren Ünal, Turkey

  4. http://isoc-dc.org/wordpress/?p=654
    September 14 – U.S. Capitol Building
    The Internet is forty years old but still evolving–at an accelerating pace. According to some forecasters, in the next ten years we will see even more growth and new applications than we’ve seen in the last forty. Entire industries will be transformed. The Internet of Things connecting hundreds of billions of devices and sensors, new mobile applications, Cloud computing, and virtual worlds are just a few of the “game changers” that ubiquitous, high-speed networks will enable.
    But with these opportunities come new challenges. Will competing companies work together on critical standards or try to lock in customers using proprietary software? Will efforts to address Internet security vulnerabilities be more successful than the hackers who seek to exploit them?
    Join us for an informal, wide-ranging discussion of where the Internet is headed.
    Discussion Leaders:
    + Leslie Daigle, Chief Internet Technology Officer, Internet Society
    + Eric Burger, Chief Technology Officer, Neustar
    + Steve Crocker, Internet pioneer and CEO, Shinkuro, Inc.
    Moderator:
    + Michael R. Nelson, Visiting Professor, Internet Studies, CCT Georgetown University
    For more details, visit http://www.isoc-dc.org and http://www.isoc.org.

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