Session description: This page features a detailed print-news story and video-clip highlights. This session provided background on the evolution and current state of Internet governance discussions at the IGF. It was presented in the morning of the first day of IGF 2010, before the opening plenary, which took place in the afternoon. It offered historical context and an introduction to the primary issues of the 2010 IGF meeting. As a starting point for this discussion, expert IGF participants who wrote background papers for a documentary book that was prepared to report on now the proceedings of each previous IGF led up to the point we are at in 2010 each presented on one of the principal themes: critical Internet resources; openness; diversity; access; security. The print-news story is below the video window. Use the video viewer below to view several clips with brief highlights. Scroll down the right-hand column of print next to the video-viewing pane and click on the captions for each of the videos to view them.
September 14, 2010 – Participants in this session briefed IGF newcomers and also provided a setting for moving forward to those have previously attended the global IGF. More content about this session will be written later. For now, enjoy the video clips that are linked in the Flowplayer on the right side of the page. The video is content captured from the remote webcast of IGF events. It is not comprehensive due to occasional technological glitches in that recording process, but this selection of clips is representative of the presentations in this session.
Leaders of the plenary “setting the scene” session were: Jeanette Hofmann, senior researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science; Olga Cavalli, professor at Universidad de Buenos Aires and director of South School on Internet Governance; Hong Xue, professor and director of the Institute for Internet Policy and Law at Beijing Normal University; Anriette Esterhuysen, executive director of the Association for Progressive Communications; Alejandro Pisanty, professor, Facultad de Quimica, National University of Mexico; N. Ravi Shanker, joint secretary of the Department of Information Technology and Ministry of Communication & Information Technology for the government of India; Arthur Reilly, senior director of strategic technology policy for Cisco.
IGF 2009 Topics – Panel discussions, workshops and other meetings that took place on the opening morning of IGF and will continue to take place this week are aimed at illuminating many issues, including: the future of privacy; freedom of connection and expression; long-term Internet stability; cross-border criminal law on the Internet; a multilingual Internet; international trade and governance; digital inclusion; cybersecurity; disabilities access; governance of social media; enhancing transparency; child safety; cloud confidence and implications of cloud computing; and the issues tied to the involvement of Internet intermediaries in information networks.
The four previous meetings of IGF were held in Athens, Greece in November 2006; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in November 2007; in Hyderabad, India, in November 2008; and in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt in November 2009. If there is a sixth IGF, it is expected to take place in Nairobi, Kenya.
The UN’s official transcript of the Setting the Scene session at IGF 2010 can be found here.
– Reporting by Samantha Baranowski, Kirsten Bennett, Drew Smith and Glenn Scott
– Senior segment producer, Janna Anderson
Imagining the Internet report on IGF-Lithuania 2010 home>
Internet Governance Forum official site>