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A new IGF begins

By terminus - 16/11/2009 On the first day of the Sharm el Sheikh meeting of the Internet Governance Forum, it is clear that if the IGF's mandate isn't renewed following its fifth meeting next year, at least it will go out in style. Like the host countries that preceded them, the Egyptian hosts have learned from the mistakes of the past, and insisted on raising the bar.

My pick of the programme at IGF 2009

By terminus - 14/11/2009 One of the first things that strikes the newcomer to the IGF, as it originally struck me in 2006, is how fragmented the programme is. If the IGF were intended to effectively fulfil its mandate as a forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue, one might expect that all its participants would be given the opportunity to... er... engage in dialogue.

Pre-Sharm planning meeting - dynamic coalitions and remote participation

By terminus - 18/9/2009 I feel a little guilty to admit that as someone who has been quite deeply involved in the IGF from its inception, I find myself taking little interest in the open consultation meetings nowadays. After all, nothing ever seems to change... or if it does, so terribly slowly.

One step forward, two steps back

By terminus - 19/5/2009 - 3 Replies With a steady influx of new progressive civil society voices at every renewal (this time including Fouad Bajwa, and last time Graciela Saleiman), the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) cannot forever hold off the momentum towards the eventual achievement of its mandate from the Tunis Agenda.

China seeks to end the IGF

By terminus - 14/5/2009 The biggest bombshell out of yesterday's open consultation meeting came from China:We feel that the IGF has contributed a great deal in light of its historic mandate. ... But it's not enough for developing countries who don't have enough resources and don't have the capacities to participate in this kind of dialogue without further commitments being made, which is why the points of view of developing countries, especially when it comes to Internet governance, ... are not sufficiently reflected in our discussions, which is why we don't agree that the IGF should continue its mandate after the five years are up.

To what extent has the IGF addressed the mandate set out for it in the Tunis Agenda?

By terminus - 23/3/2009 An excerpt from my answer to this question in response to the IGF's questionnaire on the continuation of the Forum:

Round tables proposed as the IGF's engine for outputs

By terminus - 3/3/2009 Following on from the MAG meeting that took place last week after two days of open consultation, an official summary of the meeting has just been released. The most important development foreshadowed here takes forward two of the ideas brought up during the open consultation meeting: firstly that there are certain areas in which a consensus on the need for action has emerged or may emerge, and secondly that the IGF needs to evolve some structure that could produce proposals for such action.

IGF Procedure Proposal

By terminus - 25/2/2009 Francis Muguet delivered this proposal to the open consultation meeting this week:

Comments on a maturing IGF from this week's consultation

By terminus - 25/2/2009 Here are summaries of some of what I consider the most insightful criticisms and suggestions about the IGF that came up at this week's open consultation meeting in Geneva, for those who weren't able to attend personally or virtually, and can't be bothered wading through the transcript or synthesis paper. The overall theme of the comments was that as the IGF is maturing, it is time to raise the level of the discussion, and at the same time to narrow the number of parallel sessions in which it takes place.

Jonathan Zittrain on the Internet Governance Forum

By terminus - 28/1/2009 Here is a pertinent extract from Jonathan Zittrain's The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It, which I'm currently reviewing (a bit late, I know) for the Journal of Information Technology and Politics.

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