Planning a Remote Hub for the Internet Governance Forum

Between 5^th – 9^th November 2012, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, and students from the Web Science DTC at the University of Southampton are arranging a ‘Remote Hub’, allowing anyone from the University and the local community to join in IGF discussions live.

The Internet Governance Forum, which was set up out of the UN convened  Tunis World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in 2005 is now in it’s 7th year, and provides an open forum where governments, companies and civil society come together to discuss key Internet issues – from cyber-security and critical internet infrastructure, to multilingualism on the web, diversity, access, culture and the impact of the web on climate change.

As well as being a forum about the Internet, a volunteer team have also worked hard to make sure IGF is a forum that takes place on the Internet. Each parellel stream from the conference is WebCast, and last year over 40 ‘Remote Hubs’ took place, with groups meeting up to following the WebCast, and feed back directly to the conference through live chat and video conferencing opportunities.

The Southampton Hub will be based on Building 32 on the Highfield Campus of Southampton University, joining afternoon sessions of the IGF on 6th, 7th and 8th November. We’ll be choosing sessions to follow, joining in local discussions around the issues raised, and feeding our views back to the event in Baku, and to other Remote Hubs around the world.

We might also build on our recent experiments in live blogging events, to capture some of the key conversations form this years IGF.

So – if you’ve an interest in any area of Internet policy, and want to join us in person in Southampton to explore remote participation in a global forum, sign-up to take part, and cast your vote on the sessions we should be taking part in.

Please register your interest by the end of October so that we can make sure we’ve got room and refreshments arranged.

(You can find out more about live Internet Governance Issues on the Diplo Internet Governance Forum at http://www.diplointernetgovernance.org)

• 191 – The Influence of politics over Internet users’ access and diversity
• 161 – Operationalizing cybersecurity nationally and transnationally

Tuesday 6th – 12.30pm – 2pm

• 140 – The International Telecommunications Regulations and Internet Governance: multi-stakeholder perspectives
• 90 – iFreedom and cyber-security in the balance
• 203 – Information Ethics and Internet Governance – Identity design and preservation

Wednesday 7th – 10.30am – 12noon

• 157 – Is access to the Internet a human right?
• 82 – Measures and practices for promoting open knowledge environment (OKE) in developing countries
• 50 – Aspects of Identity

Wednesday 7th – 12.30pm – 2pm

• 78 – Internet Governance of Open Government Data for sustainable development
• 94 – Social media, young people and freedom of expression

Thursday 8th – 10.30am – 12noon

• UNESCO Open forum: Digital preservation and multi-lingualism
• Open Government Partnership and Internet Governance: reciprocal learning
• 98 – A plan for Rights-Respecting telecoms

Thursday 8th – 12.30pm – 2pm

• 154 – Internet & jurisdiction: What frameworks for cross-border online communities and services?
• 106 – Understanding Internet infrastructure: an overview of technology and terminology
• Dynamic Coalition on Internet and Climate Change

We can only take part in one session in each time-slot, so vote on the session you think we should be part of here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHVNbWRRem45Q3htLXNNd3RzMXhSMFE6MQ

You can also find a write up over on Chris Phethean’s blog.