[WSIS CS-Plenary] Online Forum on Internet Governance launched

[Ralf Bendrath]

http://www.unicttaskforce.org/perl/showdoc.pl?id=1285

Online Forum on Internet Governance launched on wsis-online.net

Geneva, March 5, 2004

In the context of consultations leading to the establishment of the
working group on Internet Governance to be set up by the UN Secretary
General, wsis-online.net, the community platform of the World Summit on
the Information Society, opens an online forum on Internet Governance to
host contributions from all concerned stakeholders. The forum is
accessible at: www.wsis-online.net/igov-forum.

The UN secretary General has been asked by the recent first phase of the
World Summit on the Information Society, held in Geneva on December
10-12, 2003, to set up a working group on Internet Governance, in an
open and inclusive process.

The mission of this working group will be, inter alia: 1) to develop a
working definition of Internet Governance, 2) to identify the relevant
public policy issues, 3) to develop a common understanding of the
respective roles and responsibilities of governments, international
organizations, private sector and civil society and 4) to report before
the next phase of the Summit in Tunis in november 2005.

Preparatory meetings and workshops organized by various convenors will
allow a large diversity of actors to engage in open consultations before
the formation of this group. In this perspective, an ITU workshop in
Geneva on 26-27 February and an ICANN workshop in Rome on March 4
already took place. Other meetings are already planned. In particular,
with the encouragement of the UN Secretary General, a two-day Global
Forum on Internet Governancewill be held in New York on March 25-26,
organized by the UN ICT Task Force on the occasion of one of its
biannual meetings.

Large visibility must be given to these efforts and all stakeholders
should be able to contribute in this open participatory process. It is
with this objective in mind that an online forum is offered on
wsis-online.net to host contributions from all willing stakeholders.

To facilitate navigation and contributions, this forum is structured
around four threads:
    * What are the different dimensions of Internet Governance?
    * Who are the main stakeholders already convening groups or
consultations on these themes or who should be involved in such
consultations?
    * What are the main concerns or challenges for each of these
different issues?
    * How can this consultation process facilitate the future work of
the working group the Secretary General was asked to set up?

The Global Forum on Internet Governance to be held in March will review
the first results of this open consultation.

Participation in the Online Forum is open to any individual or
organization concerned with Internet Governance and willing to
contribute to the debate in a constructive way. The only condition for
participation is registration on the wsis-online web site with a valid
email address.

Contributions should be short to facilitate interaction and oriented
towards producing a common vision. They can be submitted in English or
French. Contributions will be moderated to guarantee focus on the
different threads and a summary in six languages will be produced
regularly to facilitate the interactive debate. Forum archives will be
freely accessible.

The wsis-online Forum on Internet Governance is accessible at the
following address: http://www.wsis-online.net/igov-forum

About wsis-online.net

wsis-online.net is the online community platform for all actors willing
to implement the WSIS Geneva Action Plan. It offers a calendar of
events, and promotes people, organizations and projects involved in
building the Information Society, indexed through a list of summit
themes. To know more about this multistakeholder effort, visit:
http://www.wsis-online.net .

About the UN ICT Task Force

The Task Force is a multi-stakeholder initiative launched by the
Secretary-General in 2001. In supporting the first phase of the WSIS,
the Task Force successfully helped in placing the United Nations
development objectives at the heart of the Summit and mobilized the
participation of the multi-stakeholder networks, organized a series of
side events and launched new initiatives, including on education. The
Task Force contributes actively to the preparations for the second phase
of the WSIS leading up to the Tunis Summit in November 2005. For more
information, please visit: http://www.unicttaskforce.org/.