Agenda

In December 2015, the UN GA will mark the WSIS+10 anniversary with a high-level intergovernmental meeting. 2015 is also the tenth anniversary of a multistakeholder experiment that helped bring the WSIS to a successful conclusion: the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG). Convened by the UN SG in 2004, the WGIG assembled forty representatives of governments and stakeholders who engaged in months of intensive peer-level dialogue and collective analysis. In June 2005 it released a consensus report that advanced a ”broad definition” of Internet governance; holistically addressed a range of policy issues; offered four competing models for the ”oversight” of critical Internet resources; and proposed the establishment of the IGF. The WGIG also generated an informal background paper, and a multi-authored book that was released at the Tunis Summit.

This Roundtable reassembles WGIG members who are still active in the field to take stock of progress on the WGIG+10 anniversary. Moderated by the Executive Coordinator of the WGIG secretariat and later of the IGF secretariat, the session will consider:

• The WGIG’s procedural contributions, e.g. to multistakeholder cooperation
• The WGIG’s substantive contributions, e.g which elements of its analysis and recommendations remain valid, and which still merit further attention
• The WGIG’s proposed mandate for the IGF as it has been implemented.
• Whether the WGIG could serve as a model for the resolution of other pressing issues

The session will be based in part of an edited book to be released 1 December by the APC entitled, The Working Group on Internet Governance: 10th Anniversary Reflections.

Moderator:

Markus Kummer, ICANN Board of Directors, Switzerland

Participants:

• Carlos Afonso, Instituto NUPEF, Brazil
• Peng Hwa Ang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
• William Drake, University of Zurich / Noncommercial Users Constituency in ICANN, Switzerland
• Raúl Echeberria, Internet Society, Uruguay
• Baher Esmat, ICANN, Egypt
• Juan Fernandez, Ministry of Informatics and Communications, Republic of Cuba
• Ayesha Hassan, Internet Society, France
• Wolfgang Kleinwächter, European Summer School on Internet Governance, Germany
• Jovan Kurbalija, Diplo Foundation, Switzerland
• Olivier Nana Nzépa, Anais-AC / University of Yaoundé II, Cameroon
• Alejandro Pisanty, National University, Mexico
• Masaaki Sakamaki, DOCOMO CS, Inc., Japan
• Charles Shaban, Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property, Jordan

Remote Moderator:

Grace Githaiga, Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet)

Rapporteur:

Stefania Milan, Tilburg University, the Netherlands