Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries (CENTR) has published an Issue Paper entitled “Internet Governance Landscape this year and next.” The following is a summary from the paper along with links to download the document in full.

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CENTR Paper: Internet Governance landscape this year and next
(Click to Download)What happened in 2013 and what’s coming up in 2014

With the tenth anniversary of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) approaching next year, there has been renewed interest in reviewing the progress made on topics and activities that were included in the WSIS outcome documents. Internet governance, which became one of the most hotly debated WSIS topics, is therefore experiencing resurgence in the debates about its future.

In response to concerns that Internet governance could head into a more intergovernmental direction, a number of new initiatives emerged in late 2013. First, the leaders of the “I-Star” organizations produced the Montevideo Statement on the Future of Internet Cooperation. Shortly after this, following a meeting between the President of Brazil and the ICANN CEO, Brazil announced it would host a Global Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance in April 2014. At IGF 2013, the I-Star leaders proposed an online cross-stakeholder platform, now called 1net, to look for ways to improve the current model of multistakeholder Internet governance. The organizers of the Brazil meeting have decided that 1net is to be a major conduit of non-governmental input into the three committees preparing for the meeting in April.

Also in late 2013, one of ICANN’s five Strategy Panels was repurposed to become the non-ICANN branded High Level Panel on Global Internet Cooperation and Governance Mechanisms. Although the panel’s primary function is more wide-ranging than the Brazil meeting, the panel will provide input into the Brazil meeting in April.

In addition to these initiatives that began in 2013, in 2014, there will be intergovernmental events that will look at Internet governance issues. These include the discussion on Internet-related public policy issues in the ITU CWG-Internet meeting in February, the Chair’s report on enhanced cooperation by the CSTD Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation in March, the ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference also in March, and the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in late October.