This post was co-authored by Anriette Esterhuysen and Wim Degezelle. Authors are Consultants with the IGF Secretariat, supporting the work of the 2019 Best Practice Forums.

IGF Best Practice Forums, an opportunity to bring your experience to the policy debate

In the run-up to the 14th Internet Governance Forum in Berlin, Germany, 25 to 29 November, different groups are discussing best practices pertaining to specific internet governance policy questions. These groups are open and thrive on your input and experiences. Their findings will be presented at the IGF and published shortly after.

The IGF Best Practice Forums intend to inform internet governance policy debates by drawing on the immense and diverse range of experience and expertise found in the global IGF community to create a resource of best practices and policy recommendations. For 2019 there are four Best Practice Forums: on Cybersecurity, on IoT, Big Data, and AI, on Gender and Access, and on Local content.

The BPF Cybersecurity explores how international cybersecurity initiatives, such as the Paris Call for Trust and Cybersecurity in Cyberspace or the GCSC’s Norm Package for Responsible Behaviour in Cyberspace, can be turned into actions that make a difference. The BPF identified a body of international cybersecurity agreements and is inviting their stakeholders, supporters and signatories to share experiences and thoughts on how to implement and operationalise the high-level principles, norms and policy approaches they support or signed up to. Details on the BPF and the Call for contributions are on the BPF Cybersecurity webpage.

The BPF Gender and Access is focusing on what happens once women and LGBTIQ people have some form of access to the internet? In particular, what opportunities and challenges do they have to deal with if they want to participate meaningfully in the digital economy. The BPF put out a call for contributions, now closed, to help them identify the scope of these challenges and what interventions, including policy approaches, are needed to address them. Learn more on the BPF Gender and Access webpage.

The BPF IoT, Big Data, AI acknowledges the huge potential of the new technologies to address societal policy challenges when applied in concert in an internet context. The expectations are high, both in terms of new solutions and making existing solutions more efficient. The BPF is focussing on three clusters of policy questions pertaining to the application of IoT, Big Data, AI technologies to address societal challenges: enhancing trust in the applications, stimulating their use and uptake, and the collection and management of the data. The BPF is currently conducting a public survey, more details on the BPF and survey are on the BPF IoT, Big Data, AI webpage.

The BPF Local Content is exploring how the internet can be used to preserve local language and cultural heritage, particularly in current contexts where cultural and linguistic diversity, artifacts and histories are at risk as a result of political and social shifts and upheaval. The BPF will soon be putting out a call for contributions to help gather examples and best practices of how digital technologies and the internet can be used to promote, preserve and share local culture and content. The BPF would also like to identify best practices of how to manage and promote the digitisation of existing analogue content (printed and electronic media, cinema, etc.) and services. A call for contributions will be published on the BPF Local Content webpage in the next few weeks.

IGF Best Practice Forums are open to all interested. Consult their respective webpages for details on how to get involved or subscribe to their mailing list.

IGF website : www.intgovforum.org
IGF2019 host country website: www.igf2019.berlin