The Internet Society

at the Internet Governance Forum

2010
Bill Graham, Strategic Global Engagement
8 October 2010

Internet Society Galerie Jean-Malbuisson, 15 Tel: +41 22 807 1444 1775 Wiehle Ave. Tel: +1 703 439 2120
InternetSociety.org CH-1204 Geneva Fax: +41 22 807 1445 Suite 201 Fax: +1 703 326 9881
info@isoc.org Switzerland Reston, VA 20190, USA
The Internet Society has been deeply involved in international discussions of
Internet governance since the earliest days in the World Summit on the
Information Society in 2003. Since the Tunis WSIS created the Internet
Governance Forum in 2005, ISOC staff and members have played a pivotal role
in developing the Forum into the success it is today. In 2010, the impact of ISOC
on the IGF was highly visible. The strong representation made by ISOC in
workshops and main sessions is having an influence on the way Internet
governance is discussed in global, regional and national forums. The following
report is only a partial view of the Internet Society's involvement in IGF Vilnius.
Members are invited to add their own reports via:
http://www.isoc.org/isoc/conferences/wsis/IGF.shtml
The IGF Secretariat is holding two key consultations on the IGF, both with
deadlines of 24 October 2010. The first is a stocktaking of the Vilnius IGF and
consideration of the way forward. The second has to do with the future of the
Multistakeholder Advisory Group. Your views are being sought via a
questionnaire at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/igf
Your comments provide an important input to developing ISOC’s contribution to
these consultations. Please take a few minutes to contribute to this
questionnaire before October 18. Of course you are invited to make your own
contributions to the consultation on the IGF Website at: www.intgovforum.org.

Internet Society IGF Ambassadors Program 2010

The Internet Society’s IGF Ambassador program is designed to involve members
in ISOC's global engagement activities while providing valuable expertise and
know-how by enabling participants to attend the global IGF meeting each year.
ISOC's Ambassadors help to bring their views and ISOC's positions on public
policy issues related to the themes of the IGF. Ambassadors add significant local
and regional experience and insight to IGF sessions and workshops, and thus
enrich the IGF discussions. The Ambassadors are also expected to take home
first-hand experience of the IGF and to continue to drive local ISOC activities,
particularly as they relate to Internet governance issues. The objective is also for
them to continue participating in global discussions on Internet governance. This
year the Internet Society (ISOC) was able to send ten first-time and five returning
IGF Ambassadors to the Fifth Internet Governance Forum in Vilnius. All 15 were
selected through a demanding application process, and proved their quality
during the IGF.
For a list of this year’s participants, please refer to:
https://www.isoc.org/pubpolpillar/igfambassadors/alumni.php
For more information about the Ambassadors program, please refer to:
https://www.isoc.org/pubpolpillar/igfambassadors/
Ambassadors were provided with mentors to help them prepare for and increase
the benefit of attending the IGF. And once on site, the day before the IGF opened
there was a full-day briefing, held on Monday, 13 September. The Ambassadors
were prepared, focused, and enthusiastic to start their work at the IGF and to
represent the program. After introductions, ISOC staff discussed details of the
Ambassadors program and the requirements involved. Then each Ambassador
was invited to speak briefly about his or her planned contributions to the IGF
proceedings, how the topics of discussion applied to their local region, and the
workshops they planned to attend. This also bridged into discussions on what

The Internet Society at IGF 2010 | 8 October 2010 2

they were personally working on back home, providing a strong foundation for
understanding how the Ambassadors would apply their experience after the IGF,
as well as creating a sense of being an ISOC team.
Speaking of this year’s Ambassadors program, Connie Kendig, Grants Manager,
said: “In regards to interacting with and observing our Ambassadors during the
IGF, I was much amazed at the caliber of those selected for the programme.
Each individual was continuously engaged throughout - they were confident,
excited about the workshops they participated in, and willing to share their
observations within the group. It was great to see such a large number of our
Ambassadors contributing to various workshops and main sessions. Though
some confessed to being new to the IGF community, I was amazed at how many
people they already knew and, by the end of the week, how many people they
met through their interactions with ISOC staff, mentors, their own contacts, and
casual interactions.”

Internet Society Members’ Briefing

The Monday afternoon session, in which Chapter, Individual, and Organizational
members were invited, provided an overview of ISOC's engagement in the IGF
and our policy positions. This year there was good attendance by individual,
Chapter and Organizational members, who participated actively in the discussion,
and gave us a good start into the week of IGF. A full transcript is available on
request.
Internet Society Involvement in IGF Events
!""#$%&'($#)'*%$#"+',-#$.%/'0//$/#-%#'1"23"#-3456"%"3-7'8.9.':(-9"'1;%+-3-9'
Mr. Jomo has been Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development at
the UN since January 2005. He was in Vilnius as the senior UN official to open
the event, and also to meet with various stakeholder groups. ISOC was asked to
coordinate a meeting with the Internet technical community to discuss the future
of the IGF. The group consisted of heads of Regional Internet Registries (RIRs),
from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a root server operator, as well
as several individuals who have long been active in the IGF multistakeholder
advisory committee (MAG). The discussion was cordial, and we explained to
ASG Jomo why the Internet Governance Forum is important to our community.
He responded with thanks for the many contributions that have been made to
keep the IGF running, both financial and in terms of expertise and time. He
explained the process at the United Nations that will decide the future of the IGF,
and urged us all to inform governments of our priorities. He cautioned that our
positions sound like a call for the status quo, and that is not likely to continue. He
says there are many states that want to see change, so he urged us to think
about how to improve the IGF, particularly to increase participation by
governments and all stakeholders from the developing world. This was a useful
message to hear from such a senior official, and it will be helpful to keep in mind
when talking to others both before and after the expected December vote at the
United Nations.

<4%%'1#='09.;3>/'1?""2)'$%'#)"'@?"%$%&'1"//$.%'
Internet Society President and CEO, Lynn St. Amour, was invited to be one of the
speakers during the Opening Session of the IGF. Lynn’s speech was very well
received by the audience. Many people congratulated her for having given a
thoughtful and content-filled address.

The Internet Society at IGF 2010 | 8 October 2010 3

Lynn spoke about the importance of the Internet model and the open,
collaborative approach to its development that has made the Internet a catalyst
for innovation and creativity. But, she said, we all share challenges as we strive
to extend the benefits of the Internet to everyone. She then turned to a discussion
of one particular challenge. She said it is paradoxical that, while the IGF has
shown the value of opening up policy discussions to involve all stakeholders. Yet,
in some instances it seems possible that once again key Internet policies may be
decided by small groups of people or companies. For example, she said, some
national Net Neutrality policy processes, while initially quite open, are
increasingly being held as closed sessions with small numbers of participants.
A second example, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), while
affecting individuals across the world, was initially negotiated behind closed doors
with little to no transparency or multi-stakeholder engagement. It seems this may
now be improving, and she said we hope that trend will continue.
Third, she said, many current discussions about cyber-security, which often
masquerade as protection for citizens, are more about hardening or locking down
the Internet than about finding the right balance between openness and
“protection”. Instead of focusing on a single solution, she said it would be more
constructive to look to innovative approaches such as trust, privacy, and identity
management being considered in venues such as the Internet Engineering Task
Force (IETF), as well as other communities, to address these very real
challenges.
She concluded by stressing that while it’s clear that those at the IGF support the
Internet model of development and the idea that we must work even more
collaboratively to develop the Internet together. And only this, she said, will
ensure we have an Internet that should be all it can be - for each and everyone
on this planet.
The text of Lynn’s speech is available here:
http://www.isoc.org/pubpolpillar/governance/igf-vilnius_lsa_20100914.shtml
A%#"3%"#'1.2$"#4'B.3C/).?/'
Once again, ISOC staff and members participated actively in organizing IGF main
sessions and workshops. Staff worked with partners to organize two workshops,
briefly described here. The full transcripts and audio/video webcasts of all
sessions can be found at the Internet Governance Forum website:
http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/

Priorities for the long term stability of the Internet

This workshop was organized by The European Commission, the Internet
Society, Government of the Netherlands, Communications Regulatory Authority
of the Republic of Lithuania (RRT) and Tama University. Mrs Neelie Kroes, Vice
President of the European Commission and European Digital Agenda
Commissioner opened the workshop by saying that the good news about the
issue of long-term stability is that Internet has proven until now to be remarkably
robust and resilient. But, she said, that doesn't mean, however, that there is no
necessity for a continuous effort to address stability threats. She urged workshop
participants to be very concrete in the discussions, trying to find where
international collaboration is needed. Such conclusions would be valuable
messages for the IGF to deliver to the wider community.

The Internet Society at IGF 2010 | 8 October 2010 4

The workshop brought together speakers from the technical and policy
communities, regulators and academics to talk about real-world threats to the
long-term stability of the Internet. A series of technical threats were identified,
followed by discussion of some threats to long-term stability that arise from the
policy arena. These engendered a good discussion, which was followed by
presentation of a case study from Lithuania about their national efforts to monitor
the stability and security of their networks and their identified need to have
reliable indicators so that they could do that work. Finally, turning to solutions,
one speaker said that the issues identified as threats to stability have been well
known to the technical community for years. However, it is only when they
become a problem or threaten to be a crisis, that the policy community wakes up
to them, and then they feel they need to react very quickly. Thus there is a need
to close the gap among researchers, operational people and policy people. There
is also a need to train people to operate at the intersection of policy and
technology. The workshop concluded by considering a map that had been
prepared showing national and international entities trying to deal with issues in
the policy and technology realms. Two gaps were identified: creating a
mechanism for global policy coordination on regular basis, as well as a
mechanism for global operational coordination. Both require good degree of
cooperation and coordination among the various actors concerned. The word
“global" is used here to recognize that most actors in developing countries do not
participate in the existing mechanisms sufficiently, yet threats are generated and
spread globally. While there was no appetite for creating new organizations to fill
these gaps, the problems were recognized.
Material about the workshop is temporarily posted at:
http://workshop28.blogspot.com/ but will soon be transferred to the Internet
Society website.

Future of Privacy
The Internet Society co-organised a very successful workshop on The Future of
Privacy with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. There were approximately 100
participants in the room. Eight of the Internet Society’s IGF Ambassadors
participated in this workshop, providing remote moderation and logistical support
as well as blogging and taking photos.
We would like to express our thanks to the Internet technical community for
supporting the Internet Society in this endeavour and contributing very
considered and insightful perspectives on the Future of Privacy for presentation
at this workshop (http://www.isoc.org/privacyinsights). This is part of an ongoing
effort by the Internet Society to bring Internet technical expertise and
perspectives to the policy debate on privacy.
Information about the workshop: http://isoc.org/wp/newsletter/?p=2019
Internet Society’s presentation (slides):
http://www.isoc.org/isoc/conferences/wsis/docs/privacy_20100916.pdf
The Internet Society will continue collecting and documenting insights on the
Future of Privacy from the Internet technical community for input into policy
discussions on privacy. We invite you to send your contr.ibution (max 100 words
or a picture) to Christine Runnegar <runnegar@isoc.org>.
We also invite Internet Society members and others to express their views on
The Future of Privacy here: http://isoc.org/wp/privacy.

The Internet Society at IGF 2010 | 8 October 2010 5

!-$%'1"//$.%D'1"2;3$#4E'@?"%%"//'-%+'F3$G-24'
The Internet Society presented a brief report on The Future of Privacy workshop
during the main session on Security, Openness and Privacy, summarising some
of the views expressed regarding international cooperation on privacy including
those provided by the Internet technical community.

F-3#$2$?-#$.%'$%'.#)"3'(.3C/).?/'
ISOC members and staff played an active role in many of the IGF workshops,
including volunteering as room assistants and remote participation moderators.
Others organized workshops and meetings of Dynamic Coalitions throughout the
meeting in Vilnius. Members are encouraged to provide reports, comments and
links to transcripts of workshops they participated in at the following web site:
http://isoc.org/wp/newsletter/?p=226

Conclusion
Participation in the Internet Governance Forum by ISOC in 2010 created a very
high visibility for the organization. This demonstrates to other stakeholders
ISOC’s deep knowledge base and commitment to the multistakeholder process,
and to educating and encouraging them to engage in the Internet ecosystem.
This is important to the development of Internet governance discussions
worldwide and to the health of the Internet more broadly. The IGF now moves
into unknown territory, with its future yet to be decided by the United Nations. At
this time, it is important for all of us to take the lessons learned in Vilnius into our
respective communities and to reach out to others involved in Internet
governance to explain the benefits of getting engaged in the process in future
years.
Credits
Special thanks to everyone who contributed to this report, particularly Connie
Kendig and Christine Runnegar who submitted significant pieces. Thanks also to
everyone who contributed to make the ISOC presence in Vilnius a success.
Those include all our Ambassadors, several Board of Trustee members, and
individual, organizational and chapter members. On the staff side: Sebastian
Bellagamba, Carmen Dell’Erba, Frédéric Donck, Drew Dvorshak, Connie Kendig,
Anne Lord, Michuki Mwangi, Karen Rose, Christine Runnegar, Christine
Saegesser, Lynn St. Amour, Sabrina Wilmot and Greg Wood.

About the Internet Society

The Internet Society is a non-profit organization founded in 1992 to provide
leadership in Internet related standards, education, and policy. With offices in
Washington, D.C., and Geneva, Switzerland, it is dedicated to ensuring the open
development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of people
throughout the world. More information is available at: http://InternetSociety.org

The Internet Society at IGF 2010 | 8 October 2010 6