Opening Ceremony

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30 October, 15 - 18 Hours

Theme: Multistakeholder Policy Dialogue - Setting the Scene

Description of Theme

This Session will set the scene for the discussion regarding institutional and substantive issues. It will look at the major themes that run through the inaugural meeting from the different perspectives of the various stakeholder groups.  The session will highlight many of the cross cutting themes that run though all the themes, especially capacity building.

Questions that will be examined from a range of stakeholder perspectives and experiences include:

• How does the IGF Agenda support the overall theme of ‘Internet Governance for Development’?
• How does the IGF agenda support the cross cutting theme of capacity building to increase access to and participation in the Internet and in Internet governance.
• What are the key issues under the four themes of Openness, Security, Diversity and Access?
• What is the best way for the IGF to ensure meaningful multi-stakeholder cooperation at the national, regional and international levels?

What are the objectives of this session?

The session should aim to give a clear view of the different expectations of the various stakeholder groups as regards the functioning of the IGF as well as its substantive priorities.  The session should also aim to emphasize the overall development perspective and should lay the groundwork for the expressions of the development perspective that motivates the four themes and makes them important.

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Session notes for main meeting: 31 October 2006, 10-13 Hours

Theme: Openness

Sub-themes: freedom of expression, free flow of information, ideas and knowledge

Issues:

• Free flow of information
• Freedom of expression
• Empowerment and access to knowledge

Description of the theme

Openness is one of the key founding principles and characteristics of the Internet. The open nature of the Internet is part of its uniqueness, and its importance as a tool to advance human development. Internet users trade ideas and information and build on both, thus increasing the wealth of knowledge for everyone.. Never have so many people been able to communicate and therefore to express themselves (i.e. to hold, receive and impart information and ideas regardless of frontiers) as richly and as clearly at such a low cost as they can today using the Internet. The communications possibilities of the Internet are enhanced over any previous medium as they allow for rapid communication by voice, printed text, picture and video across the same network.  Access to knowledge and empowering people with information and knowledge that is available on the Internet is a critical objective of an inclusive Information Society and to continued economic and social development.  This session will focus on freedom of expression and the free flow of information, ideas and knowledge in the online context and the enabling environment that is best suited to promote these principles.

What is the relevance of this theme to the IGF?

The Geneva Declaration of Principles and the Tunis Commitment refer to and underline the importance of freedom of expression and the free flow of information, ideas and knowledge as essential building blocks for the Information Society which relies and depends on these for its continued development.

What are the objectives of this session?

This session will aim to identify the appropriate enabling legal, policy and regulatory frameworks that preserve openness as one of the key founding principles of the Internet.

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31 October, 15-18 Hours

Theme: Security

Sub-Theme: Creating trust and confidence through collaboration.

Issues:

• Protecting users from spam, phishing and viruses while protecting privacy
• Network Security

Description of Theme

The Internet has the potential to enable all users to communicate and access and generate a wealth of information and opportunity.  Achieving its full potential to support commercial and social relationships requires an environment that promotes and ensures users' trust and confidence and provides a stable and secure platform for commerce. Internet security is a key element of building confidence and trust among users of ICTs.

Each new device and interconnected network increases the capacity for users and their communities to make beneficial economic and social advances. However, each of them also increase the exposure of individuals and organizations to potential harm.  Threats such as phishing, malicious viruses and other forms of cybercrime and spam undermine users' confidence, while security and privacy breaches threaten users' trust. 

Solving these problems depends on a heightened awareness and understanding among all stakeholders of the importance of a secure Internet infrastructure. It will involve a combination of initiatives, first and foremost awareness raising among the different stakeholders at all levels dealing with legislative, regulatory, law enforcement, and technological aspects. It also requires enhancing the users’ abilities to control their data and personal information. One major concern is to find the appropriate balance between ease of use and openness and security. There is also need for a balance between ensuring freedom of expression, protecting privacy and fighting crime. Ultimately, the responsibility for ensuring Internet security rests with all stakeholders, including the end users, and requires cooperation among them.

What is the relevance of this theme to the IGF?

WSIS recognized that increasing confidence and security in the use of ICTs is a key principle for building an open Information Society. The Geneva Declaration calls for “building confidence and security in the use of ICTs and strengthening the trust framework, including information security and network security, authentication, privacy and consumer protection” as a key principle for the development of the Information Society.

Furthermore, the Geneva Declaration states that “a global culture of cyber-security needs to be promoted, developed and implemented in cooperation with all stakeholders and international expert bodies. These efforts should be supported by increased international cooperation. Within this global culture of cyber-security, it is important “to enhance security and to ensure the protection of data and privacy, while enhancing access and trade”.

In addition, the Tunis Agenda, expresses the resolve of governments to “effectively deal with the significant and growing problem posed by spam.”  It also calls on all stakeholders to adopt a “multi-pronged approach to counter spam” that would include consumer and business education, legislation and law enforcement, technical and self-regulatory measures, best practices, and international cooperation among the various institutions and initiatives working on these issues.  The consultations and the contributions received in the preparatory process of the Athens meeting emphasized the importance all stakeholders attach to this issue.

What are the objectives of this session?

The objective of this session is to focus on what the important issues are with respect to cybersecurity, and how collaboration between stakeholders can improve trust and confidence to combat phishing, viruses and other forms of cybercrime as well as spam and issues related to information and network security. The session will focus on some of the initiatives currently underway and build on the expertise of the academic, scientific and technical communities.  Lessons learned from various ongoing initiatives will be shared amongst all stakeholders. Participants will exchange in-depth information about the technologies, cross-border agreements, consumer education resources.

Panellists will examine the role of technology, legislation and greater awareness among end users and new models of cooperation across law enforcement agencies and business to address security issues.

The session will also look at the interlinkages between protecting the security of the Internet and protecting privacy.  It will highlight work being done by different stakeholders on privacy issues and provide information about what users can to do to ensure privacy protection.  This session will explore technology solutions and offer concrete examples of what has worked well and what has worked less well, taking into account different legal systems.

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1 November 2006, 10-13 Hours

Theme: Diversity

Sub-Theme: Promoting multilingualism and local content.

Issues:

• Multilingualism, including IDN
• Developing local content

Description of Theme

By now almost one billion people use the Internet. Many of these people cannot read or write in English and they use languages that do not use scripts derived from the Latin alphabet. They would like to use the Internet in their own language and with their native script.  A multilingual Internet will foster an inclusive, democratic, legitimate, respectful, and locally empowering Information Society.

A key element of promoting multilingualism on the Internet is creating the availability of information in local languages.  Building the capacity of both individuals and institutions in creating this local content is one of the key development issues to be discussed under this theme. Additionally, many task specific multilingual applications need to be developed.

The domain names are incapable of displaying characters not contained in the English alphabet. The challenge is to develop Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) while preserving the security and stability of the Domain Name System (DNS). This is a difficult technological and policy challenge.

What is the relevance of this theme to the IGF?

WSIS recognized that fostering and respecting cultural diversity is one of the key principles for building an open Information Society. In this context, multilingualism emerged as one of the key issues. The Tunis Agenda includes a commitment “to work towards multilingualization of the Internet, as part of a multilateral, transparent and democratic process, involving governments and all stakeholders, in their respective roles”.  It also supports “local content development, translation and adaptation, digital archives, and diverse forms of digital and traditional media”, and recognizes “that these activities can also strengthen local and indigenous communities”. The consultations and the contributions received in the preparatory process of the Athens meeting emphasized the importance all stakeholders attach to this issue.

What are the objectives of this session?

The session will focus on how to build a multilingual Internet to increase access to and participation on the Internet and in Internet governance processes. It aims to inform better on who the various actors are and on current efforts to promote a multilingual Internet and local content and overcoming barriers to the development of content in different languages. 

The session will discuss initiatives to help to improve the development of content in different languages and promote human and institutional capacity building to accomplish this objective. Panellists and participants will highlight partnerships and initiatives to promote multilingualism and local content development.

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1 November 2006, 15-18 Hours

Theme: Access

Sub-theme: Internet Connectivity: Policy and Cost.

Issues:

• Interconnection policies and costs
• Interoperability and open standards
• Availability and affordability
• Regulatory and other barriers to access
• Capacity building to improve access

Description of Theme

Even if by now almost one billion people have access to the Internet, it should be borne in mind that five billion people remain without access to this important tool for economic growth and social development. Access may therefore be the single most important issue to most people, in particular in developing countries. Access is vital to empowering more and more individuals to explore the powerful resource that the Internet represents.

There are several factors that condition the availability and affordability of the Internet. The right regulatory environment at national level can do much to foster the deployment and growth of the Internet. National policies can encourage investment in capacity and growth, support the local exchange of traffic including the establishment of local Internet exchange points (IXPs)). They can create a favourable legal climate for supporting e-commerce, promote the extension of broadband networks, and encourage competition in the ISP industry that lowers prices. Another element that influences the availability and affordability of the Internet are international connectivity prices and costs. Interconnection standards and agreements, including peering arrangements, are critical to the successful functioning of the Internet and for maintaining its end-to-end and cost effective availability, and reliability.

What is the relevance of this theme to the IGF?

WSIS recognized the importance of an enabling environment to enhance the development of the ICT infrastructure. The Geneva Declaration specified that such an enabling environment should be accompanied by a supportive, transparent, pro-competitive, technologically neutral and predictable policy and regulatory framework. WSIS also called for the development and use of open, interoperable, non-discriminatory and demand-driven standards that take into account needs of users and consumers as a basic element for the development and greater diffusion of ICTs and more affordable access to them, particularly in developing countries.  Furthermore, WSIS raised concerns regarding International Internet Connectivity (IIC) and called for the development of strategies for increasing affordable global connectivity to facilitate access for all. The consultations and the contributions received in the preparatory process of the Athens meeting emphasized the importance stakeholders attach to this issue.

What are the objectives of this session?

Panellists will explore various barriers to access that people face in terms of availability and affordability including connection costs, national policies that influence the spread of the Internet, and the role of open standards in facilitating access. Country specific examples will be shared to illustrate practical ways in which access has been addressed. Case studies will consider how access issues have been addressed successfully and what it takes to do so and highlight the policy and cost issues regarding Internet connectivity. ‘Lessons learned’ from successful examples will be a concrete take-away from this session.

This session will also explore the role both of international connectivity prices and costs and of national policies that influence the spread of the Internet in developing countries, as well as the ease of access to it.

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2 November 2006, 10-13 Hours

Conclusions and the way forward

• Recap and review of the previous 3 days
• Chairman’s and Rapporteur's summary

Open microphone session taking stock of the Athens meeting and looking forward to the Rio de Janeiro meeting (working methods of the IGF and agenda for Rio de Janeiro).

What are the possible questions that will be addressed by this session?

Questions that will be examined from a range of stakeholder perspectives and experiences include:

• Did the agenda strike the right balance between technological and societal themes?
• Did the meeting succeed in supporting the overall theme of Internet governance for Development?
• Did the meeting succeed in supporting the cross cutting theme of capacity building?
• Did the meeting succeed in ensuring meaningful multistakeholder cooperation?
• What should be the substantive priorities of the IGF for the next meeting?

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2 November 2006, 15-17 Hours

Theme: Emerging Issues

A panel of young people will look at the emerging issues and issues of concern to youth from a technology and public policy perspective.

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2 November 2006, 15-17 Hours

Closing Ceremony