Month: November 2009

The gem above, heard over lunch at IGF Egypt, illustrates the apparently tenuous ground upon which some feel the IGF now stands. But to understand why there was so much concern one needs to sort out the issues at play.

First, there is the issue of who will conduct the formal review of the IGF. The review will be the basis for any decision to continue the forum under the aegis of the UN and in what format (including any outputs).  Second, there is the issue of where financial support for the forum will come from going forward. That these issues are being tussled over within the UN bureaucracy importantly illustrates the soft power that the IGF has accumulated within Internet governance.

This year’s IGF was characterized by intensified rivalry between the backers of the Internet Society/ICANN and the supporters of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which would like to contest the former’s hegemony over Internet names and number governance. Many workshops and main sessions of the Forum get sucked into this polarity one way or the other, especially if they discuss critical internet resources. Talk to the ISOC/ICANN supporters and one will get the impression they are engaged in a fight for their life. I am skeptical of this.

IGP's Brenden Kuerbis will convene a break out group of civil society participants from the Noncommercial Users Constituency during the Code of Good Practice workshop. The workshop, hosted by the Association for Progressive Communications, along with the UNECE and Council of Europe, will be held at the Internet Governance Forum at Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt on Wednesday 18 November from 9:00-10:30 (local time, 7:00-9:30 UTC) in Room 3 (Suez Canal).

IGP's Derrick Cogburn will join other experts in the workshop Implementing the WSIS Principles: A Development Agenda for Internet Governance at the upcoming Internet Governance Forum in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt. The workshop will be held on Day 3 of the IGF, Tuesday 17 November, from 9:30-12:30 (local time, 7:30-9:30 UTC) in Room 3 (Suez Canal). Remote participation is available.