[Abstract]

Drafters: Milton Mueller, John MathiasonSignatories: Jeanette Hofmann, Lee McKnight, Derrick Cogburn, Hans Klein

The United Nations is building a new platform for the discussion of global Internet policy. Public consultations on this new “Internet Governance Forum” will be held in Geneva February 16-17. IGP has released a new discussion paper explaining how the Forum could work. The paper proposes three design criteria for the Forum: 1) It must be as open as possible and give all stakeholders equal participation rights; 2) its deliberations must be wide-ranging and resist politically motivated barriers to discussion; and 3) its products must feed into other, more authoritative Internet governance forums. We proposed a structure and process for the realization of these objectives. We also set out three policy problems that exemplify the kind of issues the Forum should take up: spam, Internet free expression, and public policy principles for the coordination of Internet resources.

Suggested citation: Milton Mueller and John Mathiason, “Building an Internet Governance Forum” (February 3, 2006). Internet Governance Project. Paper IGP06-001. Available at https://www.internetgovernance.org/pdf/igp-forum.pdf