Organization

A draft resolution on WSIS was an exercise in frustration

You'd never know it from the disproportionate amount of time spent discussing Internet governance during the drafting of the CSTD resolution [pdf] last month, but the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was about a lot more than Internet governance.

It includes action lines on media, cultural diversity, capacity building, and ICT applications (including e-health, e-science, and e-agriculture).

But just as the original summit process in 2003-5 became about finding a replacement for ICANN, so many countries continue to try to find ways to advance their cause in the texts of UN agency resolutions.

Polar opposites

Given the global reach of the Internet, many Member States have serious concerns about the concentration of Internet management related activities in the USA, particularly the possibility of the US government withdrawing country code top-level domains or revoking IP address blocks through its IANA contract.

Leaderless, broke and mired in bureaucracy, the Internet Governance Forum will become an historic relic unless its supporters act

Pont d'Avignon and the IGF: dangerous similarities. Pic credit: Twicepix

"Sur le pont d’Avignon," the song goes. "L'on y danse… L'on y danse tous en rond". On the bridge of Avignon, we dance, all in a circle.

Those taking part in three days of discussions over the annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF) last month were 200 miles north of Avignon, at the UN headquarters in Geneva, but that didn't prevent them from dancing in circles.

A breakdown of who sits on the IGF's agenda-setting body

The IGF MAG has had a difficult couple of years. The UN has failed to replace former special adviser Nitin Desai who acted as its chair, and also chose not to perform the annual rotation of members in 2011, leaving the previous year's members in place and in limbo.

The 2012 MAG was supposed to be announced in time for new members to attend the first preparatory meeting February, but delays in groups submitting nominations meant the 2010 MAG was called on once again.

Finally, on 25 April 2012, the UN announced the composition of the new MAG for 2012, just in time for all the new members to find flights and accommodation in Geneva for the second preparatory meeting, 16-17 May 2012. So who are the new MAG members whom the Internet governance community waited so long to finally have announced?

Composition

The 2012 MAG comprises:

The 2012 IGF host country is no fan of dissent

The former Russian republic has a long history of silencing free speech. Credit: Human Rights Watch.

When Azerbaijan was announced as the host of the 2012 Internet Governance Forum (IGF) on the last day of the 2011 forum in Nairobi, it took a little less than an hour for civil society representatives to take the microphone and point out the country's poor human rights record.

That concern fed into the last preparatory meeting of the IGF in Geneva last month, with frequent questions and requests for more information over Azerbaijan's plans taking up several hours of planning discussions.

Such interventions are of course largely pointless and all too frequently slip into self-righteousness, but with freedom of expression one of the more abiding traits of an open and global communications medium, it is a question that any IGF host can be expected to face, and be expected to answer.

IGF MAG Meeting

Thursday, 17 May 2012

Geneva, Switzerland

The following is the output of the real-time captioning taken during the Multistakeholder Advisory Group meeting of the IGF, in Geneva. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the session, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.

[ Gavel ]

>>ELMIR VALIZADA: Dear colleagues, good morning. Please sit in your place while we start our morning session. We welcome all. I think today we will have good discussions. This is our second day of our work, and I hope today this morning we have some results, some maybe improvement in our discussions. And, therefore, now we will receive some reports by you, by moderator of group. And after, we will discuss other issues related to our forum which are indicated in our agenda.

And I want to give floor to Secretariat, so Chengetai can give you brief information and inform us about our activity.

Please, Chengetai.

IGF MAG meeting

Wednesday, 16 May 2012

Geneva, Switzerland

The following is the output of the real-time captioning taken during the Open Consultations of the IGF, in Geneva. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the session, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.

>>ELMIR VALIZADA: Okay. Dear colleagues, dear members of MAG, ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome to the first day of our two-day MAG meeting.

I welcome all our new members, and of course welcome back those who have been members in the past.

This is a really great group that now can work well together to achieve our common goals.

Today and tomorrow we will build on many good discussions of yesterday and our meeting in February, as well as the many good online comments and suggestions that have been made on our mailing list.

Yesterday, our delegation gave you all an update on logistical and physical preparations that are well underway in Baku.

IGF Open Consultations

Tuesday, 15 May 2012, Afternoon

Geneva, Switzerland

The following is the output of the real-time captioning taken during the Open Consultations of the IGF, in Geneva. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the session, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.

>>JANIS KARKLINS: -- President Clinton says everyone who comes to this event must tell what they have done in concrete terms to help improve the state of the world. Drawing parallels from these differences, one can think whether IGF could not hear or compile -- Secretariat could not compile information what decisions had been made as a result of IGF, first of all, in five years of existence or six years of existence of IGF and to make it kind of an annual information of all participants of IGF, what has happened in between, what decisions have been made not at the IGF but in other organizations as a result of discussions which have taken place in IGF.

IGF Open Consultations

Tuesday, 15 May 2012

Geneva, Switzerland

The following is the output of the real-time captioning taken during the Open Consultations of the IGF, in Geneva. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the session, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.

>>CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Can we please sit down?

All right. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the second open consultations for the Baku -- IGF Baku meeting 2012. I will hand it over to Vyatcheslav Cherkasov, who will -- from UNDESA.

>>VYATCHESLAV CHERKASOV: Okay. Chengetai, thank you very much. Your Excellencies, Honorable MAG Experts, Distinguished Experts, Ladies and Gentlemen: