Finnish Internet Forum

Finnish Internet Forum is a national multi-stakeholder process which discusses Internet-related issues. Its organizers hold an annual meeting and some smaller events throughout the year.

The Internet forms a part of the daily life in Finland. Even those who do not use it hands-on depend on it, as the functioning of the entire society relies upon it to an increasing extent.

Communications systems, in their time, grew up under the tender care of governments, and their internationalization took place, step by step, by intergovernmental arrangements. The Internet expanded organically and fast, disregarding national frontiers, until it spanned the world. Because the Internet only provides the framework for the communication among thousands of autonomous network, it cannot be governed in the traditional sense and by traditional means, in spite of efforts by some.

The UN World Summit on the Information Society (Geneva 2003, Tunis 2005) raised Internet Governance issues on the international agenda. It turned out that governments and intergovernmental organizations alone are not capable of the governance of an expanding array of issues at the crossroads of technology, economy, law and politics. One of the major outcomes of the WSIS was Internet Governance Forum (IGF) that was set up as a framework for dialogue on a broad agenda of Internet Governance issues among all stakeholders: governments, the private sector and civil society.

IGF has been an outstanding success, witnessed, among others, by the large following it has spawned both on regional and national levels.

The first Finnish Internet Forum took place on September 20-21, 2010 in Helsinki.

Source: https://www.internetforum.fi/