IGF 2015 in João Pessoa, Brazil will be seen as a milestone for the global Internet community. After 10 years of intense work, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has earned the right to celebrate its success and prepare itself for the future. As we come out of the meeting, we are urging all who want to be heard at this important moment in the evolution of the Internet to join over 110 organizations and individuals who have already signed on to a message to the UN General Assembly that will 1) help safeguard the IGF for the future; 2) preserve the multistakeholder model of governance; and 3) help keep us focused on the work at hand. more
CENTR, the association which represents European country code top-level domain name registries (ccTLDs), such as .de for Germany or .no for Norway, has provided feedback to the United Nations' initiative on a Global Digital Compact (GDC). The GDC seeks to "outline shared principles for an open, free and secure digital future for all", and invites multistakeholder participation in the consultation phase. more
The Internet Society has released a statement today in support of the timely transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions to the global Internet community, in light of latest development suggesting possible delays. more
The Internet Society is seeking nominations for its 2026 Board of Trustees. Four seats are open across its global stakeholder communities, offering an opportunity to help steer the future of a trusted, open Internet. more
The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) statement on the IANA Stewardship Transition released on Wednesday more
Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft are among tech companies that have joined Apple in its iPhone fight with the U.S. government, according the latest report from the Wall Street Journal. more
Listening to several of the discussions here at the IGF (so far), my post from yesterday seems to be close to what the focus of this meeting is, control and access to resources. Yesterday I highlighted areas of Governance where Governments actually could help, and make difference. Admittedly, that is not all the aspects of governance though. more
A number of people have reported on the International Telecommunications Union's (ITU) Plenipotentiary in Guadalajara. Indeed even the Secretary of the ITU Hamadoun Touré felt the need to comment, saying: "The ITU does not have the intention to take over the Internet. We are condemned to live together, so the question is whether we manage that well or not." A very firm statement - but it needs to be. Many still fear that the ITU is waiting for a moment of inattention by business and the Internet community and that it will pounce and attempt to place itself in a position of control. more
This year's Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Istanbul comes at a critical moment in the Internet's history and is the latest in a series of pivotal meetings that will have far-reaching consequences for its future. One of those central questions posed recently was how the IGF, founded nine years ago in Tunis as part of the two founding phases of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), could be improved to increase its relevance and inclusiveness in meeting the new challenges facing our open Internet. more
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board Chair Dr. Stephen D. Crocker today submitted to the U.S. Government a plan developed by the international Internet community that, if approved, will lead to global stewardship of some key technical Internet functions. The news was confirmed today at a press conference finalizing the ICANN 55 meetings in Morocco. more
The group named Global Commission on Internet Governance (CIGI) is meeting in Ottawa, Canada this week with a mandate to deliver policy recommendations for the future of Internet governance by early 2016. The meetings on Monday and Tuesday are the third in a series of international gatherings since the group formed in January. more
The UN's move to grant permanence to the Internet Governance Forum reframes legitimacy in digital policy. As states accelerate action, multistakeholder processes risk becoming ceremonial, with speed replacing consent as the arbiter of influence. more
The digital domain encompasses the different spaces and spheres we use to relate and interact with the people and things that surround us using digital technologies. The digital domain is not limited to the technologies itself, but it has an important ethical dimension that encompasses the values, principles and instruments that inform and govern it. Created by humans for humans, our beliefs, cultural backgrounds, and biases are reflected in the codes we write and the algorithms we create. more
Security expert Bruce Schneier in a blog post today writes: "It's about who is in charge of cyber security, and how much control the government will exert over civilian networks. And by beating the drums of war, the military is coming out on top. ... General Keith Alexander, the current commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, hypes it every chance he gets. This isn't just rhetoric of a few over-eager government officials and headline writers; the entire national debate on cyberwar is plagued with exaggerations and hyperbole." more
When ISOC, PIR and Ethos announced the sale in November they hoped for a quick transaction. PIR CEO Jon Nevett announced the same week that PIR would be going on a buying spree. This was optimistic. Six months, if at all, is now the more likely outcome. How many times in recent history have companies surprised stakeholders with their best-laid plans, only to discover we no longer live in a world where business has free reign. The glory days of the 2000s died with Lehman Brothers. more