For information only – not an official document
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
• The second day of the Internet Governance Forum meeting in Vilnius featured two main sessions dedicated to the issues of managing critical Internet resources and access and diversity.
• Other events took place in parallel meetings. In all 22 workshops were held today, as well as ‘open forums’, ‘dynamic coalitions’ and other meetings.
Managing critical Internet resources
• In a wide ranging discussion the session examined the status of Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6) availability around the world; the internationalization of critical Internet resources management and enhanced cooperation; the importance of new top-level domains (TLDs) and internationalized domain names (IDNs) for development; and maintaining Internet services in situations of disaster and crisis.
• The session Chair, Mindaugas Glodas from Microsoft said the industry was now facing a paradigm shift, with the adoption of cloud computing. Governments around the world, small enterprises, big enterprises, when they move to the cloud, would actually move their mission critical systems, their mission critical data to the Internet he said, and should something happen to the Internet, those corporations, those applications, would virtually cease to exist. This made it critically important to ensure the Internet develops well and we take care of critical Internet resources.
• The successes and obstacles to the adoption of IPv6 around the world were highlighted by different speakers with some suggesting that the demand was now coming from the customers -the end users rather than the number resource allocators. And one speaker encouraged us to articulate the benefits rather than just the depletion of a waning resource and look at what IPv6 could open up.
• In the discussion about the internationalization of critical Internet resources, many speakers emphasized the importance of the introduction of non-Latin script Top Level Domains. Cooperation between the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board, with other stakeholders was raised as well as the tangible result of a creation of a knowledge database between Country Code Top Level Domain managers. There were some concerns about whether the use of non-Latin domain names would close or increase the digital divide.
• The session also heard about the remarkable achievement of the Haitian registry in ensuring continuity of service despite the destruction of the local infrastructure following the earthquake in January this year. And the IGF also heard about the responses to natural disasters in New Zealand following its earthquake recently and the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) role in restoring satellite services.
• Feeder workshops on issues related to managing critical Internet resources were held on the first day of the IGF covering the following topics: priorities for the long term stability of the Internet; new generic top-level domain (gTLD) and IDNs for development: Importance and Obstacles; strengthening country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) in Africa; IPv6 around the world: surveying the current and future deployment of IPv6 and resilience and contingency planning in domain name system (DNS).
Access and diversity
• The session focused on access to infrastructure and access to content including the side effects of the tools and methods used to block content, geolocation of hosting platforms, the global reach of social networks and the linkages between access to knowledge and security solutions both in terms of hardware and software.
Other events
• Workshops held today examined the following issues: how the Internet can foster democracy; multilingualism on the Internet; freedom of expression and Internet intermediaries; international trade and Internet governance; Internet governance and economic and social development; a development agenda approach to Internet names and numbers; digital inclusion; protecting the consumer online; cybercrime; location services and child safety; Internet governance in Africa; access to mobile Internet applications for people with disabilities; legal aspects of Internet governance; governance of social media; public-private cooperation on Internet safety and cybercrime; enhancing transparency in Internet governance; and privacy and social networking.
• Open Forums were held on Internet openness and privacy organized by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) Sub-committee on the Media; Balancing the governance of hate speech and freedom of expression and the free flow of information on the Internet organized by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE/Freedom of the Media) in cooperation with the Council of Europe; and Development of Arabic content facing the future Internet organized by the Arab ICT Organization; International Chamber of Commerce’s (ICC) policy and practice work on data protection and privacy organized by ICC.
• Transcripts of all the main sessions and workshops will be available on the IGF website the following day: www.intgovforum.org
Regards,
Anne Thomas, UN Information Officer
Mobile: (+370) 61318266
www.intgovforum.org
