This page includes a link to a documentary film about the future of the internet and also provides links to a series of 27 individual video interviews.
To see the 13-minute film, click here.
The links to the individual interviews follow. These offer the full content of 27 sessions conducted in 2006 with international stakeholders from 18 different nations at the world’s first Internet Governance Forum in Athens, Greece. They were asked to speak about their deepest hopes and fears for the future of the internet, and they addressed topics tied to their areas of expertise. This video content is shared under a restricted Creative Commons Noncommercial license. The Athens IGF was the first of five annual global events focused on discussion of the overarching issues tied to the future of information and communications technologies, including control over the internet architecture and numbering and naming system, security, intellectual property, openness, connectivity, cost and multilingualism. More than 1,200 participants shared information, experiences and best practices. The biographies below represent the people’s lives at the time of this forum, in 2006.
The following links allow you to enjoy a series of 10- to 30-minute audio and video interviews with 27 people of the internet …
Vinton Cerf – Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google; chairman of the board for ICANN; and co-designer of the internet’s enabling TCP/IP protocols and the basic architecture of the internet; founding president of the Internet Society. While he travels the world regularly in support of internet projects, his home base is in Herndon, Virginia, USA.
Markus Kummer- Executive coordinator of the Internet Governance Forum Secretariat. This Swiss diplomat also led the secretariat of the United Nations Working Group on Internet Governance, in planning and implementing the first Internet Governance Forum. He was the chair of the group that developed the text on internet governance for the World Summit on the Information Society’s “Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action.”
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Robin Gross – Executive Director of IP Justice, an international civil liberties organization promoting access to knowledge; one of 47 people from around the world appointed to form the first UN IGF Advisory Group, and a leader of dynamic coalitions formed to address specific internet governance issues that came together at the first IGF meeting in Athens in 2006. Based in San Francisco, USA.
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Renate Bloem – President of the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationships with the United Nations; a leading participant in the World Summit on the Information Society and the IGF. Based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Milton Mueller- Director, Master of Science in Telecommunications and Network Management program, Syracuse University; co-founder of the Global Internet Governance Academic Network. Based in Syracuse, New York, USA.
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Solomon Atnafu – Assistant Professor, Computer Science, Addis Ababa University; expert on core issues of internet governance from Africans’ perspective; participant in IGF preparatory conferences and the IGF in Athens. Based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Susy Struble – Director of IT Standardization and Government Policy for Sun Microsystems; goal is promotion of social and economic progress through interoperable IT systems. Based in San Francisco, USA.
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Claudio Menezes- Senior Programme Specialist, Information Society Division, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; works on internet issues including multilingualism and ICT and persons with disabilities. Based in Paris, France.
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‘Gbenga Sesan – Vice Chairman of the African Technical Advisory Committee; Program Manager for Lagos Digital Village; was selected to be Nigeria’s first Information Technology Youth Ambassador. Based in Lagos, Nigeria.
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Steve Ballinger – Press Officer, Amnesty International, a non-governmental organization that campaigns for internationally recognized human rights; he coordinates the organization’s media work in China, Iran, Colombia and Europe. Based in London, United Kingdom.
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K Atique – e – Rabbani- Managing Director, The Computers Ltd; Former Secretary General of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services; expert on Native Language Internet Address. Based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
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Flavia Marzano – Project Manager, e-Participation Project of the Province of Rome; computer scientist; member of Italian Open-Source Committee; evaluator of IST European projects; helping define Italian e-government and policy. Based in Pisa, Italy.
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Kuo-Wei Wu – CEO of National Information Infrastructure Enterprise Promotion Association of Taiwan; longtime leader of the Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre; supercomputing pioneer in the Asia-Pacific Region. Based in Taiwan.
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Anas Tawileh- Co-founder of the Syria Chapter of the Internet Society and initiator of the Arab Commons Initiative; involved in free and open-source software projects and advocacy. Based in Syria and Cardiff, Wales.
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Vincenzo Vita- Director of Information Infrastructure for the Province of Rome; Deputy Minister in the Italian Ministry of Communications; an original signer of the International Internet Bill of Rights. Based in Rome, Italy.
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Mary Wong – Professor of Law, Franklin Pierce Law Center; intellectual property and information technology policy specialist; advocate and solicitor qualified for the Supreme Court of Singapore; member of Singapore’s e-Commerce Consultative Committee. Based in Concord, New Hampshire, USA.
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Nityesh Bhatt – Associate Professor, Ph.D. in e-governance, Pacific Institute of Management. In addition to his teaching, he has a research consultancy and he conducts training in technology policy for corporations. Based in Udaipur, India.
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Marsha Guthrie – Information Technology Management Services, Caribbean Development Bank. Leader, Internet Governance Capacity-Building Program, DiploFoundation. Based in St. James, Barbados.
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Romina Bocache- Researcher on Internet Governance Policy; associated with the DiploFoundation. Studies internet governance and policy for development. Based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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Seiiti Arata Jr. – Leader, Internet Governance Capacity Building Program, DiploFoundation; staff member of the secretariat for the Working Group on Internet Governance; lawyer specializing in information technology. Based in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
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Veronica Cretu – President of CMB Training Centre in the Republic of Moldova; Leader with the Internet Governance Capacity Building Program, DiploFoundation. Based in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova.
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Arturo Di Corinto – Cognitive psychologist and new-media expert at the University of Rome; founder of the Avvisi Al Naviganti BBS and Cittadigitali; journalist; active in advocacy for free software and the investigation of issues tied to software patents. Based in Rome, Italy.
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Hanane Boujemi – Researcher on Internet Governance Policy; associated with the DiploFoundation. Involved in bridging the digital divide and studying the impact of information and communications technologies on development. Based in Morocco.
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Estuko Anderson – Senior Manager, Barbados Foreign Affairs Ministry, since 1987; has supervised departments dealing with Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, Commonwealth, UN and CARICOM. Head of chancery at Barbados High Commission, Ottawa, Canada.
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Norbert Bollow – President of Swiss Internet User Group. Active in the study of the revision of Swiss copyright law. Led a pre-IGF workshop on African Digital Opportunity Visions. Based in Gruet, Switzerland.
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Pavel Antonov- Member of the Association for Progressive Communications, advocating the use of the internet for Social Justice and Development. Chaired the IGF Athens workshop on “Greening Development Through ICT and Civic Engagement.” Based in Bulgaria.
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Bria McElroy- Director of International Relations at the Center for Women and Information Technology, University of Maryland, USA. Coordinates initiatives to attract more young women to information technology. Based in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
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The videos on this site are offered for use under a Creative Commons Noncommercial License allowing no derivative works. Executive producer, Janna Quitney Anderson; reporter, Erin Barnett; chief engineer, Bryan Baker; video editor, Janus Rogerson.