IGF Baku issue index (6 November 12)

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IGF: super-fast summary of the opening speeches
Person Organization Summary Length
Wu Hongbo  UNDESA Thanks. The IGF is important. The Internet is great. 13 mins 14 secs
Ali M. Abbasov Azerbaijan government Message from President: Azerbaijan loves the Internet. And it is used freely. 2 mins 24 secs
Hamadoun Touré ITU The IGF is great (because it came from an ITU conference). The ITU allows business and technical organizations into its processes. WCIT (next month) will not be about the ITU taking control of the Internet. (See extended notes below.) 10 mins 24 secs
Abid Sharifov Azerbaijan government [Spoken in Azerbaijani - no translation available] 6 mins 16 secs
     
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IGF Baku: your guide for what to follow

The Internet Governance Forum is taking place this week in Azerbaijan. This annual get together of governments, the technical community, academics and others is in its seventh year and the overall theme this year is: "Internet Governance for Sustainable Human, Economic and Social Development."

As ever, there are a huge number of sessions and workshops - often 12 going on at the same time - which can make navigating the conference pretty difficult. But do no fear: .Nxt has been through the agenda and picked out what we think will be the sessions most worth following.

We have done our best to only pick one session per timeslot and it is worth noting that nearly all sessions will be webcast and transcribed so you can catch up on the ones you miss at a later date.

You can view all sessions live through the Baku webcast channel. Note: the time in Azerbaijan is UTC+4. Find the time there now.

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IGF opening ceremony: more of the same
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Proving yet again that 23 speakers say no more than five speakers but take two hours longer to do it, the Internet Governance Forum held its seventh opening ceremony in Baku, Azerbaijan earlier today. Not much came out of it.

It was a government dominated morning, with 14 of the 23 speakers representing countries and the vast majority of them simply reiterating long-held positions. If the 1,500 attendees were looking for insights into governance of the Internet they were sadly disappointed.

Read a very concise summary of all speeches.

There were a few notable exceptions. Head of the ITU, Hamadoun Toure, exploited his position to get 10 minutes of airtime instead of five, and used it to reiterate the message that the WCIT conference next month is not about the ITU or United Nations taking over the Internet.