IGF 2024 Newcomers Session

Summary

This discussion focused on the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), its history, structure, and role in shaping internet policy. The IGF emerged from the World Summit on the Information Society in the early 2000s as a multi-stakeholder platform for dialogue on internet issues. It brings together governments, civil society, the private sector, and technical communities to discuss emerging internet topics and best practices.

Key features of the IGF include its bottom-up agenda setting, inclusivity, and non-commercial nature. The forum has grown significantly since its first meeting in 2006, now attracting thousands of participants. It produces outputs like best practice forums and policy networks on topics such as cybersecurity, AI, and internet fragmentation. The IGF also supports national and regional initiatives to foster local internet governance discussions.

The speakers emphasized the IGF’s commitment to multi-stakeholder engagement, capacity building, and addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. They highlighted the forum’s role in facilitating knowledge exchange, influencing policy processes, and promoting an ethical, rights-based approach to internet governance. The discussion also touched on the upcoming renewal of the IGF’s mandate and its potential role in implementing the Global Digital Compact.

Audience questions addressed topics such as including ethics in IGF discussions, engaging media stakeholders, and incorporating emerging technologies like blockchain. The speakers encouraged active participation from newcomers and emphasized the IGF’s openness to community-driven improvements and new ideas.

Keypoints

Major discussion points:

– History and purpose of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF)

– Structure and components of the IGF, including stakeholder groups, best practice forums, policy networks, etc.

– Growth and evolution of the IGF over time

– Importance of multi-stakeholder participation and bottom-up agenda setting

– Connections between the IGF and other UN processes/SDGs

Overall purpose:

The purpose of this discussion was to provide an overview and introduction to the Internet Governance Forum for newcomers and first-time attendees. The speakers aimed to explain the IGF’s history, structure, and importance, while encouraging active participation from all stakeholders.

Tone:

The overall tone was informative and welcoming. The speakers were enthusiastic about the IGF and eager to share information. There was an emphasis on inclusivity and openness throughout. Toward the end, the tone became more interactive as audience members asked questions and shared their perspectives, creating a collaborative atmosphere.

Speakers

– Chengetai Masango: Head of the Secretariat of the Internet Governance Forum

– Nnenna Nwakanma: Digital Policy, Advocacy and Cooperation Strategist

– Audience: Various audience members asking questions

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Discussion: An In-Depth Overview

This comprehensive summary provides an extensive look at a discussion centered on the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), its history, structure, and role in shaping internet policy. The discussion featured Chengetai Masango, an IGF Secretariat representative, as the primary speaker, with contributions from audience members.

1. History and Purpose of the IGF

The IGF emerged from the World Summit on the Information Society in the early 2000s as a multi-stakeholder platform for dialogue on internet issues. Chengetai Masango emphasized that the IGF was established to address internet governance issues through inclusive, multi-stakeholder dialogue. This approach brings together governments, civil society, the private sector, and technical communities to discuss emerging internet topics and best practices.

Since its inception, the IGF has experienced significant growth. What began as a modest forum has now evolved into a global event attracting thousands of participants. The current event had 8,800 registrations, while the previous event in Japan saw over 10,000 participants. This growth underscores the increasing importance of internet governance discussions on the world stage.

2. Structure and Activities of the IGF

A key feature of the IGF is its bottom-up agenda setting process. Masango highlighted that the forum’s themes and topics are determined through community input, ensuring that discussions remain relevant and responsive to current issues in the internet governance landscape.

The IGF produces several tangible outputs, including:

– Best practice forums

– Policy networks

– Dynamic coalitions

These outputs cover a wide range of topics such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and internet fragmentation. The forum also supports national and regional initiatives to foster local internet governance discussions, allowing for more granular, context-specific dialogues.

Masango noted that the IGF has various engagement tracks, including business, parliamentary, and youth tracks. This structure ensures that diverse perspectives are represented and that the forum remains inclusive of different stakeholder groups.

3. Impact and Partnerships

The discussion highlighted that the IGF has led to concrete outcomes in some regions, such as the establishment of Internet Exchange Points. This demonstrates the forum’s potential to influence real-world internet infrastructure development.

Masango emphasized that the IGF aligns its work with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, showcasing its commitment to broader global development objectives. The forum also partners with various UN agencies, regional bodies, and private companies to extend its reach and impact. A specific partnership with ICANN was mentioned, highlighting collaborative efforts in capacity building and outreach.

4. Participation in the IGF

The speakers encouraged active participation from newcomers and emphasized the IGF’s openness to community-driven improvements and new ideas. Masango explained that individuals can join IGF working groups and mailing lists to get involved. Additionally, national and regional IGFs allow for local participation, while online participation enables remote engagement for those unable to attend in person.

The IGF offers a travel support program to facilitate participation from developing countries and underrepresented groups. Masango also highlighted the IGF’s website as a valuable resource for accessing reports, documents, and other materials related to internet governance discussions.

5. Inclusivity and Accessibility

In response to an audience question, Masango addressed the IGF’s commitment to inclusivity, particularly regarding people with disabilities. He mentioned ongoing efforts to improve accessibility at IGF events and encouraged continued feedback and suggestions from the community to enhance these efforts.

6. Media Engagement

An audience member from Kenya highlighted the existence of an African media caucus and suggested formalizing media participation in the IGF by creating a dedicated caucus. This proposal underscores the importance of media engagement in internet governance discussions.

7. Non-Commercial Nature and Community Support

Masango emphasized the IGF’s non-commercial nature and its dependence on community support. He encouraged participants to contribute their time and expertise to various IGF initiatives and working groups.

8. Future Directions and Challenges

The discussion touched on several potential future directions for the IGF:

– Ethics: An audience member suggested formally including ethics as part of the IGF’s overall aspirations, particularly in relation to AI and human rights discussions.

– Emerging Technologies: An online participant proposed reintroducing distributed ledger technology (blockchain) as a major discussion topic, given its growing importance in the digital economy.

– Organizational Meetings: A long-time participant suggested using the IGF as a platform for organizational meetings and partner gatherings to maximize the value of in-person events.

9. IGF Renewal and WSIS Plus 20 Review

Towards the end of the discussion, Masango mentioned the upcoming renewal of the IGF mandate and the WSIS Plus 20 review. These processes will be crucial in shaping the future of the IGF and its role in global internet governance. The Global Digital Compact, which references the IGF, was also mentioned as an important development in this context.

In conclusion, this discussion provided a comprehensive overview of the Internet Governance Forum, its history, structure, and ongoing evolution. It highlighted the IGF’s commitment to multi-stakeholder engagement, capacity building, and addressing global internet governance challenges. The discussion also emphasized the forum’s openness to new ideas and community-driven improvements, encouraging active participation from all stakeholders in shaping the future of internet governance.

Chengetai Masango: who don’t. So, and the internet at that time, around the turn of the century, 2000, was increasing in relevance, economically, socially. It was no longer just an academic network. And we had our first, you know, MySpaces and et cetera. I don’t know if those who are old enough to remember those kind of things. So, and this was when Kofi Annan was Secretary General. And so the Secretary General decided that yes, there will form a World Summit on the Information Society. And ITU was one of the lead organizations with UNDP, UNESCO, DESA, et cetera. And as Omer said, there were two phases. Phase one was in Geneva. And when they were discussing, they found out that, okay, we’re discussing something called internet governance. But what exactly is internet governance? Nobody really knew what internet governance was. So what they did, as in all good UN processes, they formed a working group on internet governance. And this working group was actually made up of multi-stakeholders. So governments, civil society, the private sector, as well as IGOs. And they came up with a report, which was presented in the second phase in Tunis, which also formed part of the Tunis agenda. And the mandate of the IGF is written in paragraph 72 of the Tunis agenda, which called upon the United Nations Secretary General to convene a meeting by the end of 2006, which would discuss, oh yes, we asked the United Nations Secretary General in an open and inclusive process to convene by the second quarter of 2006. 2006, a meeting of a new forum of multi-stakeholder policy dialogue. So this was the most important thing, multi-stakeholder policy dialogue. And at that time, this concept of multi-stakeholder policy dialogue, which was envisioned here, was new, especially to the UN system. And at that time, multilateral meant just governments speaking together, and civil society, and the companies, et cetera, would be observers, if that. But now we realize that for the Internet, most of the knowledge, of course, was in the technical community, and also civil society had to have a say. So the main thing about the IGF is that everybody has a say, everybody participates on an equal footing at the IGF. And part of it was to, of course, engage stakeholders, identify emerging issues, build capacity as well, which was also very important, especially for the global South, especially for the youth, elderly as well, people with disabilities. We had to make sure that all these people were involved and nobody was left behind. So the first meeting of the IGF and OMA, slight correction, was in Athens. And there in Athens I think we had over, I don’t know, about 800 people coming together. Today we have a registration of over 8,800 people. So we’ve grown over the years, which is very good. So the key points of the IGF, it’s bottom-up agenda setting. When we set our agenda, we do send out a call for themes, and anybody can participate and say what is the theme. the theme of the year. Last year, it was most definitely AI. The year before that, it was internet fragmentation, et cetera. So each year, there’s a new hot topic there. And we also do emerging issues, which is also very important. And we have capacity building. I don’t know, I’ve been talking a lot. Would you want to say a little bit of what we do with… This is actually the most exciting part about the IGF, I think, the intersessional work that we do during the year. So it’s just not planning the global forum at the, which are here now. We have the best practice forums and the policy networks. And what we do is we look at hot topics, things that we think that you and the stakeholders, our community would be interested in, and the mag decides on which types of best practice forums and policies. So what we do is we get together, we talk, and we come up with what’s the best practice, what we look at standards, do comparisons of them, and then we produce a report. So I encourage you to go to the IGF’s website, and you’ll see the different work that we do over the past few years. They change after a while, but the best practice forum that we have today is cybersecurity. For policy networks, we have three. It’s AI, internet fragmentation, and meaningful access. So then we have the cooperation of the NRIs and dynamic coalitions. I encourage everybody to also, again, go to the internet, to the website, and to see if your country has a, or your region has a national or regional IGF and participate. So you just don’t have to participate at the end of a year. You can try to be active during the entire year. We’ve moved on. Okay. So then we have the two major groups. We have the IGF leadership panel and the multi-stakeholder advisory group. So the MAG, which we call, I’m the current chair, and the chair’s selected based on the cycle we are for each stakeholder group that we have. So currently, I’m actually government stakeholder, and that was for this year. And then we have the leadership panel, which we collaborate together in order to come up with the great stuff that we have today and that you see here today. And as you can see, the chair for the leadership panel is Vint Cerf, one of the founders of the internet underlying architecture. And the vice chair is Maria Ressa. She’s a Nobel Peace Prize winner. And of course, we also have… a selection of people who represent each stakeholder group. For Africa, we’ve got Gebenga Sessan, and for the business community, we’ve got Maria Fernanda Gaza from the ICC basis, and she’s also based in Mexico. She’s a small business owner in Mexico. We also do have the Secretary General’s Envoy on Technology, as a ex-official member, and the three, the past host, so for Japan, has currently changed a bit, the present host, and today, we will also have the next host, which is Norway, joining the leadership panel. And as it says there, the IGF Secretariat is based in Geneva. We’re a very small secretariat. We’re only seven people, full-time, and then we do have consultants, but we do depend on community support. That’s one of the things that, we are like the internet, open-sourced. There are, of course, some people who are full-time, but most of the people are volunteers, like Omer was, and that also has helped. And again, key principles, open, multi-stakeholder, bottom-up, inclusive, transparent, non-commercial, and community-centered process. We do not charge anything for the IGF, and also the national and regionals don’t charge anything for the IGF as well. These are where we started. We started off in Athens, and then we went to Brazil. And last year, we were in Kyoto, and the year before that, we were in Addis Ababa. We do try and move the IGF meeting from region to region, just to make sure that people do have access, because if we have it, okay, we have it here, for instance, people from South America, it’s very difficult for them to come. So, but when we have it in Brazil, it’s the other way around. But we do. sure that people can come and participate physically if they want to more easily. And over the past years, and this is when we had COVID. So we had an online meeting and from then we have actually increased our online and remote participation so that it’s seamless between the two. Next. Yes. So over the years, Secretary General has attended. This was in Paris where we had the president of France there. And of course, Engel Merkel of Germany as well. And as I noted, remote participation is also very important. We’ll go to the next. Right. So that brings us to where we are today. The MAG looked at the topics from the that the community sent in. And what we thought this year was that since there’s so many cross cutting topics that we would look at it as a holistic view. So we ended up with building a multi stakeholder digital future. And as Shanghai was saying that the multi stakeholder part that’s you, me, everybody is extremely important to the entire process and moving forward. So we have enhancing the digital contribution to peace, development and sustainability, advancing human rights and inclusion in the digital age, harnessing innovation and balancing risks and the space, improving digital governance for the internet we want. And we thought that these four will help us to build our multi stakeholder digital future. One of the so we discuss and there has been at the beginning, at least, you know, oh, we’re just a talk shop, etc. Well, we’re not just a talk shop. But also, there’s nothing wrong with being a talk shop, it is very important to have stakeholders who normally don’t meet to discuss issues and learn from each other, and then go home and discuss what they have learned here, and implement it at their home station. And this is the third mandate of the IDF. And we’re due for renewal next year. And we have had studies to see what is the actual impact of the IGF. And one famous example, which I always quote, is that, for instance, the establishment of the Internet Exchange Point in East Africa was because they came, the regulatory authority came to the IGF, met people from Packet Clearinghouse, et cetera, had a discussion, went home, continued that contact, and a IXP was established. And the effect of that ISP was that usually Internet traffic would come directly from England, et cetera. Now that, and even if it’s local, if I wanted to send an email and I was in East Africa next door, it would first go to England and then come back. So with the establishment of the IXP, all the traffic was local, which, of course, brought down the cost of the Internet because there’s no intercontinental traffic, et cetera. And that’s also something that we are proud of, or I’ll say I’m proud that the IGF has managed. Can we just go back? Sorry. And yes, I’m taking too long. And also, we do have outputs, as Carol just said. We have best practice forums where we discuss what are best practices or actually good practices, and also highlight bad practices as well, because it’s very important to see. And the world is not a uniform world. There’s some where economies of scale can happen, but then we also have small island developing states where it’s very difficult to have that connection. But people have faced those problems or faced those challenges, and it’s very good to have that knowledge exchange on how they have solved that problem, so people don’t have to reinvent the wheel. the wheel. And as part of our outputs, we do have the IGF messages and we try and couture our outputs so that they can be inputs into other processes. And we’ve also seen that the IGF has been mentioned in G7 processes, in African Union processes as well. So we do see the effects. And that’s why I say the biggest effect of the IGF is the second order effects that we have. And you want to take this one? No? Okay. Yes. As we said, these are the different parts of the IGF. And it has grown over the years. As I said, in Athens, we had about 800. Now we have a factor of 8,000. So we’ve grown by a factor of 10. In Japan, we had over 10,000 people. So yes. So we have business engagement. We have sessions for business because it is very important. We have a parliamentary and judiciary track. Parliamentarians are the ones who set those public policy instruments. And it’s very important that they have an understanding of how their laws can affect normal internet life. For instance, how do you set laws to combat counterfeiting, et cetera. If you just block IP addresses from a server, you might block not just that server that’s selling fake Gucci handbags, but a whole lot. The same server may be having a hotline that helps people with disabilities, et cetera. So how to combat those and also how knowledge sharing amongst parliamentarians. There’s some parliamentarians who are more advanced. The European Parliament is quite well known for having good policy instruments, the GDPR, et cetera. And they can share how they do things. Of course, newcomers that were here. And we also try and encourage newcomers to go around. Remote hubs for people who cannot make it. Instead of watching the IGF by themselves, they can gather universities or some businesses and actually participate as a group, which we find that actually encourages more debate and more interaction. We do have travel support. I know some of you are here by the travel support. It’s not as much as we would like, but at least it’s something to bring people in. Youth engagement. Youth are our future, of course, and we really do want them to engage. There’s a summer school, there’s a South School, which is South American, there’s Asia-Pacific, and also there’s Eurodig as well for Europe. And inclusion is, of course, something that we actually do look at. After every single IGF, we look at the statistics, we see who has participated, we see who we are missing, and then we look and see how can we include them for the next IGF. It’s very important for us. So if you’re wondering how you could continue your experience from today, you can join any one of these groupings that you see here, and we look forward to persons giving their input because, again, it’s multi-stakeholder, and that means you. So you could join a best practice forum, there are mailing lists, and you can help to formulate the outcomes. There’s also the policy networks, as we said, on internet fragmentation, meaningful access, artificial intelligence. So if you want to be a part, if you have something to offer, if you want to learn something, then one of these groups, you should join and participate. And then we have the dynamic coalitions, there are 32 of those, and they cover a range of topics, blockchain, child rights online, connectivity, internet values, data, health, DNS, gender. So there’s something here for everyone. So we really encourage you to please join the mailing list and let your voices be heard. So here we have the multi-stakeholder groups, civil society, academia and research organizations, tech companies, intergovernmental and international organizations, governments. industries, and technical communities, so we’re all part of the IGF. So what we try to do as well when we form the program is to also look at the SDGs in order to help facilitate meeting the goals for 2030. So we discuss issues that shape the digital future, accountability, accountability and trust, trust is very important these days, innovation, even though we talk about issues, we can’t let the issues downplay the innovation that technology will allow you. So we try to do a balance between that and find out how we can balance, we look at standards and values, which is very important, what’s the norm of a country, of a member state, what’s the culture, we can’t leave those things out. Then we brainstorm with decision makers and users so that we can form a digital future today that the future could enjoy. So we have partners and corporations that help us in this endeavor. We have over 174 national and regional IGFs, as you can see from all over the world, and I think one of the, Saudi Arabia did join a couple of weeks ago, so there is an IGF and the other one, one of the later ones is Ireland, the Irish IGF was also formed. Is there a Norwegian IGF? So So, please, when you go back to your countries, see where the national IGF is. If there’s no national IGF, you’ve got two choices. Join the regional or sub-regional IGF. For instance, in Africa, there’s also a Southern African IGF, there’s a North African IGF, et cetera. Please do join and participate, or just come to our website and see where you can join. And if there isn’t, make one. Because the Internet is for everybody, and we will help you form that IGF. Youth? Yes, and we also have youth IGFs, so national, sub-regional, and youth IGFs as well. So yes, please join us. I know it may be a little bit intimidating. We have over 300 sessions. Just go, take it bit by bit, and in maybe not this year, but in a year or two, you’ll be able to navigate seamlessly throughout. And talk to people. I mean, like, Omer here, or anybody else. We are very approachable. Myself, even, Carol, the chair, we’re very approachable, and we will talk to you about things, yes. IGF and other processes? Okay. As Carol has said, we try and join with the UN 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. Each of our sessions are aligned with one or more of the SDGs. We’re currently behind. COVID did give us, make us be a little bit behind, and there is a question whether or not we will make those goals. But as you know, ICTs are seen as an accelerator, so we’ll see how. And as far as our partners are concerned, we have internal, basically the whole of the UN is our internal partners. We work very well with the ITU, UNESCO, UNDP, UN Habitat, UN Environment as well. So we do work. And also outside, we work with the African Union, as I said. EU, we work with the regional, like Economic Commission for Africa, Economic Commission for Asia, ECE, Economic Commission for Europe, et cetera, and companies. We do work with Google, Meta, Disney, and even the small companies as well. As I said, the person who is on our leadership panel is actually in Mexico, and also ICC that has been passed, the Global Digital Compact, and the GDC did mention the idea as one of the methods that can help with the implementation of the GDC, and due to our strong multi-stakeholder component as well, and we look forward to seeing how we can do that, and we also call upon you to help us as well with that. And next year, or starting now actually, there is the WSIS Plus 20 review, which will be the main focus for next year, and it’s also coming up to the renewal of the IGF for next year. We don’t know how long it’s going to be renewed for, but hopefully we will see. I will not even guess. I’ll not speculate, but we do need your support for that to happen. So if you find the IGF useful, please help in supporting us for the renewal during the course of next year. Thank you. And with that, I also would like, we’ve got 13 minutes for questions. Anything you’d want to talk about, we’re here. That was very interesting.

Audience: I’m a first-timer at IGF, and I was looking at the SDGs and some of the values you had, for example, standards values. I was wondering whether it’s time to include ethics as part of, you know, the overall sort of aspirations of the IGF.

Chengetai Masango: Yes. Okay. is very important, our policy network for AI also is talking about, because we need an ethical internet. We need ethical AI. And we are looking at ways of how to integrate that into all our processes so that it’s designed that way. So ethics, we are human rights based as well. So everything that we do, everything as the UN does, well, one of our foundational documents is, of course, the Declaration of Human Rights. And that also seeps its way into what the IGF does as well. And that should include ethics. Anj, if you could go to slide 9. Sorry. No, keep going. Oh, that’s the one with the topics, right here. So you’ll see here things like advancing human rights and inclusion in the digital age. You’ll find in that part, you’ll see a lot about ethics. Also, in digital governance, ethics is covered there. We do have an online. Mohibi, can we get the question? While they’re figuring that one out, yes, please.

Audience: Good morning. Appreciate your efforts. We are considered the sons of IGF. We are consultative status, and we are participated in this IGF since five years ago. And I take this opportunity to call you to our booth because we have launched a platform for protecting intellectual property in the digital area, aligning with the IGF recommendations. And I call you to our booth. call you to know about this platform. And it’s our pleasure to be a volunteer for IGF leadership panel. Thank you.

Chengetai Masango: All right, thank you very much. We have one hand up there.

Audience: Thank you. Hi, can you hear me?

Chengetai Masango: At the back, you see there? Yeah.

Audience: Hi. Yeah, can you hear me? Yes. Well, I’m a first time IGF attendee and I want to find out if you would be including distributed ledger technology as part of this. I’m from Nairobi, Kenya. And one thing I’d like to appreciate is I come from the Association of Freelance Journalists and I really appreciate, I want to appreciate Carol, Vint, and the team at IGF for having the media caucus come and join the IGF for the first time. Thank you for the support that you’ve given the journalists. We really appreciate, because I guess it’s time that the IGF stories are able to be told from the inside, not from the outside looking, I mean, from the outside and everyone is just saying things. Now, the journalists will have an experience and I hope this will be the beginning of many more like, and even we’ll be able to create a caucus for the media. I’d like to let you know that we currently have the African media caucus that we started and we’ve been going on and we have several journalists in that group and we meet on WhatsApp and we get to share what’s happening in the different IGF fraternity and in the different NRIs that are happening. So I really appreciate. One thing, I don’t know if it’s too early to ask, if one of the, I saw the caucuses that you’ve already mentioned, that you talked about the civil society, private sector, and all the others, let’s have the media also be part of that caucus if it’s possible. Thank you.

Chengetai Masango: Thank you very much. And also, is it possible to have any of the online people speak?

Audience: Hi, can you hear me?

Chengetai Masango: Is it possible to have the online people speak?

Audience: Can you guys hear me? Thank you. Hello. Hi. Thank you for your time. My name is Ismail Sif from Guinea. I would like to thank you. As a first timer in IGF, I have two questions, please. First of all, countries who don’t have yet in the IGF, I would like to have information how to join IGF. That is my first question. And the second one is, is it possible to share this brief story with IGF? How can I get it if you have a website or if you can share a PDF or something like that? Thank you.

Chengetai Masango: No, thank you very much for your question. We will put it on the website so you’ll be able to find it and download it. And if you want to join a national and regional initiative, the lady sitting in front there, please just approach her and she’ll show you how. Is it possible for Nnenna to speak?

Audience: It is, I believe. Can you hear me?

Chengetai Masango: Yes. Yes, we can.

Audience: I can’t seem to activate my video, but that’s fine. Hello, everyone. My name is Nnenna. I come from the Internet. I had to wake up early in my current location to join you online, first because I’m a resource person, but because I also wanted to show you that you can fully participate from anywhere in the IGF series. I wanted to share two thoughts with you, especially for those who are joining recently. I have been participating in IGF for the past 19 years. Actually I was there before IGF started. So it is a good thing for us to listen to our incoming colleagues. I want to raise one thing. Thank you for the one who raised ethics. Over the 20 years, every improvement in IGF has been community motivated. What we have as best practice forums today was not called best practice forums earlier on. They used to call them beds of the same feather. These are people who think that an issue is important. They cuck us just like our media colleague. And they bring it up to the secretariat and we integrate it. So please, if there is a new idea, if there is a new dimension that you want to see in IGF, please do not be shy. Speak up. Find beds of the same feather, familiar spirits or kindred spirits. Cuck us together. Bring it to the fore. And you will see it materialize in IGF. There is something else. On the IGF website, you have a lot of reports. One of the things you want to do is to read a lot. Read up on who is doing what. Look at ngov.org, has a lot of resources. Reports and people. Past IGF sessions are also there. You want to find out who is doing what where and get connected to them. Most of us are online. Most of us are approachable. Most of us are resource people. Please make use of that. Finally, if you happen to be in any IGF, it is a great place to bring media, to bring attention to what you are already working on. You are meeting new people. you are meeting the people you’ve always wanted to meet. And if you are launching a book, if you’re launching a report, that will be a good place. And there are a lot of things that do not show up on the official IGF agenda. So your organization may use this to have a partners meeting, you have one-on-ones, you have a lot of other things you can do on the margin of an IGF. And that explains why most people really use that opportunity. Sometimes to even have a team meeting. If your organization is working in the digital space, that would be a good time to have your partners meeting, a good time to have even your board meeting, a good time to combine IGF with your team retreat because it cuts down your cost. So please, if you can’t do the global one, do the regional one. If you can neither do those, do the national one, but please participate. And if you can’t do it in person, you can just do it online like myself. Thank you very much.

Chengetai Masango: Thank you very much, Nnenna. And then now we have, if I can read, Mo Hippel. Sorry if I’m messing your name up, but you’re second in line online after Nnenna, please speak. If not, then we’ll go to Anja Albers.

Audience: Hi, I want to find out, I’m a first time attendee at the IGF. It’s fantastic. I’m attending in, right now I’m online, but I will be in Riyadh right in about a few hours time. And I want to find out if we can include distributed ledger technology as part of a forum, because that has a. massive parallel revenue stream or economy that’s going on and certainly requires this kind of multi-stakeholder engagement. Thank you.

Chengetai Masango: Can you just repeat if we can include one?

Audience: If we could include distributed ledger technologies such as blockchain as well as others into this forum as a discussion point because we do have, I’m also a PhD researcher, so hence the interest in this area.

Chengetai Masango: Yes, blockchain was a big issue at the IGF a couple of years ago, I think about five years ago and we had many workshop sessions on blockchain and distributed ledgers. As we mentioned before, it is quite easy to reintroduce that. We do need to have a critical mass of people who are interested in it. So, for instance, for next year’s IGF, we’ll be doing issues and if you put blockchain there and distributed ledgers and other people do so and it raises to the top or near the top, then yes, we can introduce it as a theme. But also, you yourself can have either a workshop session on blockchain, you just have to…

Audience: Sorry, I can’t hear you. Okay, there is a disturbance, please.

Chengetai Masango: I’ll try again and I think the technical people will just close off the microphones. So, we will have a call for sessions as well and you in your individual capacity can apply for a session, a workshop session. You would have to bring in some other stakeholders. two other stakeholders with you from different stakeholder groups to apply for a workshop session and have a session for next year. And the final thing you can do is to have a day zero session where the requirements aren’t that stringent as such to discuss distributed ledgers. And from that, it can help pick up the momentum for that.

Audience: Okay, that’s great. Thank you. Hello. We will hear. Yeah.

Chengetai Masango: Okay, we’ll have you and then we’ll have somebody from the. And then, unfortunately, we’ll have to close, please. If you can.

Audience: Yeah. Actually, you call me actually at the time, it was not. It was muted. So, just.

Chengetai Masango: That’s fine. Please state your question. Yeah.

Audience: Okay, so, yeah, so I’m from Montreal. And it’s almost 2am here so yeah yeah so yeah. So my question is, I’m from the technical community and I would like to know like, how can I can ICN and IGF work together to make the Internet score systems like domain names. More secure and accessible for public infrastructure. So, yeah. Yes. How could IGF and I can I can work on the technical issues. Yeah, that’s my question.

Chengetai Masango: Thank you very much. Actually, I can we work very closely with I can at this meeting, you’ll see in the opening session, just now, we will have the incoming CEO and President of I can making a speech. There’s a large contingent of I can staff and also board of directors here at the meeting, and the I give I myself goes to I can meetings as well. Thank you. meetings online, not just to discuss technical issues, but since we are somewhat similar in the way we organize our conferences, we also give each other best practices and how to do things better from our both perspectives. So to answer your specific questions, we will just continue to work with them. And also, not only in our meetings, but in the summer schools as well in our intersessional activities. Our last question, and then we have to go, sorry. Okay.

Audience: Yeah, so may I ask somebody else? Hi everybody, my name is Sanjay Jackson, Jr. I’m from Columbia, and I would like to find out if there are plans IGF has to include the Handicap Society, or is there a special section for the Handicap Society?

Chengetai Masango: All right, thank you very much. Yes, we do have actually a dynamic coalition on access and with people with disabilities as well. And we do work closely with them. They have actually given us a document which we attach to our host country agreement to make sure that all our meeting venues are accessible to people with disabilities. And you will also see in the opening ceremony and session, and in the plenary hall, we do have sign language provided as well. And it’s because of them. As Lena was saying, we didn’t have it at the beginning, but because the community asked for it, we’ve had it. And we’ll continue to have it. And of course, if there’s more to be done, please feel free to approach any of us or to send us an email with your suggestions. As we said, it’s a community effort. It’s a bottom-up process. And with that, I’m sorry we have to go, but every single one of us is very much approachable. We can have discussions in the corridors, et cetera. You can come into our offices, which are at the front there, and we’ll be happy to discuss anything you’d want. Thank you.

Agreement Points

Multi-stakeholder approach of IGF

Chengetai Masango

Audience

IGF established to address internet governance issues through multi-stakeholder dialogue

IGF provides a platform for stakeholders to discuss emerging internet issues and build capacity

There is a consensus on the importance of the multi-stakeholder approach in the IGF, allowing diverse groups to participate and contribute to internet governance discussions.

Growth and importance of IGF

Chengetai Masango

Audience

IGF has grown significantly in participation since its inception

IGF uses bottom-up agenda setting with community input on themes

There is agreement on the significant growth of IGF participation and its importance as a platform for discussing internet governance issues.

Inclusivity and accessibility of IGF

Chengetai Masango

Audience

IGF has various engagement tracks including business, parliamentary, and youth

Online participation enables remote engagement

IGF should continue improving accessibility for people with disabilities

There is a shared view on the importance of making IGF inclusive and accessible to various groups, including remote participants and people with disabilities.

Similar Viewpoints

Both the speaker and audience members emphasize the importance of active participation in IGF activities and working groups to contribute to internet governance discussions.

Chengetai Masango

Audience

IGF produces outputs like best practice forums and policy networks

Individuals can join IGF working groups and mailing lists

Unexpected Consensus

Importance of local and regional IGF initiatives

Chengetai Masango

Audience

National and regional IGFs allow for local participation

Online participation enables remote engagement

There was an unexpected consensus on the importance of both local/regional IGF initiatives and online participation, showing a shared understanding of the need for diverse engagement methods.

Overall Assessment

Summary

The main areas of agreement include the multi-stakeholder approach of IGF, its growth and importance, inclusivity and accessibility, active participation in IGF activities, and the value of both local/regional initiatives and online engagement.

Consensus level

There is a high level of consensus among the speakers and audience members on the core principles and functions of the IGF. This strong agreement implies a shared vision for the future of internet governance and the role of IGF in facilitating discussions and solutions to emerging issues.

Different Viewpoints

Unexpected Differences

Overall Assessment

summary

No significant areas of disagreement were identified in the discussion

difference_level

Low level of disagreement. The discussion was primarily informative about the IGF’s structure, activities, and goals, with speakers largely agreeing on the presented information. This implies a unified understanding and presentation of the IGF’s role and functions among the speakers.

Partial Agreements

Similar Viewpoints

Both the speaker and audience members emphasize the importance of active participation in IGF activities and working groups to contribute to internet governance discussions.

Chengetai Masango

Audience

IGF produces outputs like best practice forums and policy networks

Individuals can join IGF working groups and mailing lists

Key Takeaways

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was established to address internet governance issues through multi-stakeholder dialogue

IGF has grown significantly in participation since its inception, now attracting thousands of participants

IGF uses a bottom-up approach for agenda setting and produces outputs like best practice forums and policy networks

IGF aligns its work with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and partners with various UN agencies, regional bodies, and private companies

IGF has led to concrete outcomes like the establishment of Internet Exchange Points in some regions

There are multiple ways to participate in IGF, including joining working groups, attending national/regional IGFs, and engaging online

Resolutions and Action Items

IGF will put the presentation slides on their website for download

IGF will continue to work closely with ICANN on technical issues and best practices

IGF will seek support for its renewal in the coming year

Unresolved Issues

How to more formally include ethics discussions in IGF processes

Whether to reintroduce distributed ledger technology/blockchain as a major discussion topic

How to further improve accessibility for people with disabilities at IGF events

Suggested Compromises

For those unable to attend global IGF events, participating in regional or national IGFs was suggested as an alternative

Online participation was highlighted as an option for those who cannot attend in person

I was wondering whether it’s time to include ethics as part of, you know, the overall sort of aspirations of the IGF.

speaker

Audience member

reason

This comment introduced an important new dimension – ethics – that had not been explicitly mentioned before. It challenged the IGF to consider expanding its focus areas.

impact

It prompted Chengetai Masango to explain how ethics is already implicitly part of IGF’s work, especially in areas like AI and human rights. This led to a deeper discussion of IGF’s values and priorities.

I’d like to let you know that we currently have the African media caucus that we started and we’ve been going on and we have several journalists in that group and we meet on WhatsApp and we get to share what’s happening in the different IGF fraternity and in the different NRIs that are happening.

speaker

Audience member from Kenya

reason

This comment highlighted grassroots initiatives and self-organization within the IGF community, showcasing how participants are taking ownership of the process.

impact

It drew attention to the role of media and journalists in the IGF process, leading to a suggestion to include media as an official caucus. This expanded the conversation about stakeholder groups and representation.

Over the 20 years, every improvement in IGF has been community motivated. What we have as best practice forums today was not called best practice forums earlier on. They used to call them beds of the same feather. These are people who think that an issue is important. They cuck us just like our media colleague. And they bring it up to the secretariat and we integrate it.

speaker

Nnenna

reason

This comment provided valuable historical context and emphasized the bottom-up, community-driven nature of IGF’s evolution.

impact

It encouraged new participants to actively contribute ideas and shape the future of IGF. This shifted the tone of the discussion from informational to more participatory and empowering.

I want to find out if we can include distributed ledger technology as part of a forum, because that has a massive parallel revenue stream or economy that’s going on and certainly requires this kind of multi-stakeholder engagement.

speaker

Online audience member

reason

This comment brought up a specific emerging technology area (blockchain/DLT) and made a case for its inclusion in IGF discussions.

impact

It led to an explanation from Chengetai Masango about how new topics can be introduced to IGF, including through workshop proposals. This provided practical information for participants wanting to shape the agenda.

I would like to find out if there are plans IGF has to include the Handicap Society, or is there a special section for the Handicap Society?

speaker

Sanjay Jackson, Jr.

reason

This question raised an important issue of inclusivity and accessibility, which are crucial for a truly global and representative forum.

impact

It prompted a discussion of IGF’s efforts to include people with disabilities, both in terms of physical accessibility at events and representation in discussions. This highlighted IGF’s commitment to inclusivity and responsiveness to community needs.

Overall Assessment

These key comments shaped the discussion by broadening its scope beyond the initial presentation of IGF’s history and structure. They introduced new topics (ethics, blockchain), highlighted grassroots initiatives, emphasized the community-driven nature of IGF, and raised important questions about inclusivity. This led to a more interactive and dynamic conversation that showcased IGF’s adaptability and responsiveness to participant input. The discussion evolved from a one-way informational session to a more collaborative exploration of IGF’s present and future directions.

How to include ethics as part of the overall aspirations of the IGF

speaker

Audience member (first-timer at IGF)

explanation

The speaker suggested it may be time to explicitly include ethics in IGF’s goals, given its importance for issues like AI and internet governance.

Possibility of creating a media caucus within IGF

speaker

Audience member from Association of Freelance Journalists

explanation

The speaker suggested formalizing media participation in IGF by creating a dedicated caucus, similar to other stakeholder groups.

How countries without an IGF can join

speaker

Ismail Sif from Guinea

explanation

As a first-time attendee from a country without an IGF, the speaker wanted information on how to establish participation.

Including distributed ledger technology (blockchain) as a discussion topic

speaker

Online audience member (PhD researcher)

explanation

The speaker suggested reintroducing blockchain and distributed ledger technologies as a major topic, given their growing importance in the digital economy.

How ICANN and IGF can work together on technical issues

speaker

Online audience member from Montreal

explanation

The speaker from the technical community wanted to know how IGF and ICANN could collaborate to improve security and accessibility of core internet systems.

Plans for including the handicapped society in IGF

speaker

Sanjay Jackson, Jr. from Columbia

explanation

The speaker inquired about specific initiatives or sections dedicated to including people with disabilities in IGF activities.