IGP has succeeded in putting IPv4 markets firmly on the agenda of the Baku Internet Governance Forum. On the afternoon of the first day of the Forum, there will be a workshop on the topic What is the best response to IPv4 scarcity? Exploring a global transfer market for IPv4 addresses, moderated by Dr. Milton Mueller of IGP and Geoff Huston, Chief Scientist at APNIC. There will also be a main session discussion of the topic.

The workshop will take a unique format. It will be organized not as a series of panelists speaking at an audience, but as a structured, multistakeholder deliberation over policy alternatives among peers.  It will test the extent to which the various stakeholders interested in that issue can come to agreement on a set of five basic policy issues affecting IPv4 number resources. The five policy issues we will discuss are:

  • the role of needs assessment in market trades;
  • the status of legacy number block holders;
  • the accuracy of post-transaction records;
  • aggregation policies
  • market power

For each of these issues two or three opposing positions are set out, and the workshop will attempt to document who takes which position, why, and whether the group can come to rough consensus on one position or some new compromise position formulated on the spot.

In other words, this workshop actually tries to do what the IGF was supposed to do all along, but has rarely if ever tried to do before.

The discussion framework that will guide the panel can be downloaded in advance here. The official IGF workshop description is here. The panel is scheduled for 14:30 – 16:00 on 6 November, the first day of the IGF, in Conference Room 9. Although the actual remote participation link for this session has not yet been created by the IGF Secretariat, this page provides general information and guidance regarding how the IGF will facilitate remote participation. Baku’s time zone is 9 hours ahead of US Eastern time, and 3 hours ahead of Continental European time. (click here to see your time zone and add the event to your calendar)

The next day, the IGF Main Session on Critical Internet Resources will also feature a discussion of IPv4 markets. This session, moderated by international telecommunications policy expert Dr. William Drake, will cover a number of other topics as well. The Main session will begin November 7 at 9:30 am Baku time (00:30 US Eastern time, 06:30 European time) and continue for 3 hours. (click here to see your time zone and add the event to your calendar)