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Internet Governance Forum06: Day 1 Wrap-up

Posted on October 30, 2006 by

Vintcerfigf_1

So the first day of the first Internet Governance Forum is over, thank goodness. I clearly look like hell, cause all my old friends from the WSIS walk up to me and say, “Hi Rik, good to see you! Man, you look like hell.” Here are some of my highlights that I can summon from my jet lag adled brain…

Rik’s Highlights of Day 1:

  • Level of Participation:
    A thousand or so registered participants, although not more than 500 or
    so could have been in the plenary hall.  Looks like not much civil
    society participation, particularly from developing countries, but it’s
    of course hard to get an exact count. Folks that I know are here: Social Science Research Council (me), CONGO, APC, CPSR, GLOCOM, Friedrich Boell Foundation, the Internet Governance Project, Ford Foundation, IT for Change, and dozens and dozens of people with the Diplo Foundation.

  • Notable VIPs in the house:
    Internet technorati Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn;
    Konstantinos Karamanlis, Prime Minister of Greece; Nitin Desai, Special
    Adviser to the UN Secretary-General for Internet Governance; Yoshio
    Utsumi, Secretary-General of the ITU; Viviane Reding, European
    Commissioner for Information Society & the Media; Guy Sebban,
    Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce. 

  • Remote Participation:
    Despite unreliable wifi that goes in and out like
    a breeze from the Aegean Sea, there are a few channels for ITC-enabled
    remote participation, from webcasting, to live chat, to discussion
    forums
    , to RSS aggregators and email submissions.  They are even
    posting full English transcripts after the sessions! Not bad for a
    first effort.
  • Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus: I caught the tail-end of the civil society
    Internet Governance Caucus meeting in the afternoon.  One interesting
    issue raised by Bill Drake of CPSR is what our position should be in
    regards to these multi-stakeholder “dynamic coalitions” that are
    supposed to be initiated at this first IGF conference.  In his view,
    the “multi-stakeholder” part is a limiting factor that will lead to
    only the most lukewarm, broadly acceptable coalitions being formed.  If
    some NGOs want to form a coalition on freedom of expression or privacy,
    which governments and the private sector are unlikely to rush to join,
    should we feel limited by the multi-stakeholder bit?

  • Multi-stakeholder Circus:
    Kenneth Cukier of The Economist didn’t
    moderate the packed “multi-stakeholder” panel in the afternoon as much as he lion-tamed
    it. With 14 panelists,(largely from governments despite the
    “multi-stakeholder” bit) and a full house of several hundred people,
    Ken threw questions around like a whip, going from mobile phone
    penetration in the developing world to reforming ICANN in a heartbeat.
    He called for questions from the audience and then fired them off to
    panelists in rapid succession.   It was a daunting task for any
    moderator and he handled it with style. It didn’t really work in the
    end though, with people leaving after three hours of this wondering
    what the point was.

  • Evening Reception:
    The first day ended with a very nice reception
    hosted by the Greek government at a beachside resort hotel.
    There was all the accountrementes of an elegant event: free flowing
    wine, ice sculptures, candle lit cocktail tables, hustling waitstaff
    everywhere.  I have to say that the food was just not very good.  Then
    again, it was free, so it’s pretty silly of me to complain. But then, I
    just did.
  • Tomorrow’s Agenda: There are two main sessions on the broad themes
    of “Openness” and “Security” in the morning and afternoon.  There are
    also a host of parallel workshops, one of which I’m speaking on
    entitled “IG for Participation.” Hopefully I won’t look like such hell
    tomorrow. Then again, I’m already up at 4AM, so it’s likely.

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