Chris, thanks so much for the rundown. I was also at IGF, and can attest to the meaningful contribution of the RIPE folks on the ground. IGF is an odd event, but it's also one of the few (or, the only?) places of its kind, a place where government, civil society, and the technical community show up and attempt a debate on very tricky issues. What has been missing in the past (in my assessment) has been a clearer voice from the research and technical community. This year's IGF was heartening in that there was more open dialog, and more input from people who understood the technology implicated by specific policies, and more openness to hear this input. Thanks agin to RIPE and the other technical folks for this. Implied, I would love to see RIPE and others continue to balance the debate with data and research from the people who know the Internet as a complex system, not as a "series of fluffy clouds." As next year approaches, I'd love to work with Chris and others to see what we can do to expand what RIPE's already doing, bringing more science, more data, more facts to IGF :) Cheers, Meredith On Mon, Nov 4, 2013 at 9:02 AM, Chris Buckridge <chrisb@ripe.net> wrote:
Dear colleagues,
The eighth Internet Governance Forum (IGF) took place in Bali, Indonesia from 22-25 October 2013. The event brought together more than 1,500 people from 111 countries to discuss the future of Internet governance under this year’s theme of “Building Bridges – Enhancing Multi-stakeholder Cooperation for Growth and Sustainable Development.”
Several members of the RIPE NCC’s staff and Senior Management attended, along with two members of the RIPE NCC Executive Board. Working in close cooperation with the other Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), we participated in workshops on IXPs, security, measurements, regional cooperation and IPv4 transfer markets.
Additionally, the RIPE NCC sponsored two members of the RIPE community, Merike Kaeo and Nick Hilliard, to travel to Bali and participate as speakers in a number of the workshops.
Reports and session transcripts for the three workshops the RIPE NCC was involved in organising can be found on the IGF website:
Internet Security Through Multi-stakeholder Cooperation (organised together with Netnod): http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/wks2013/report_view.php?xpsltipq_je=63
IPv4 Markets and Legacy Space (organised by the Number Resource Organisation): http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/wks2013/report_view.php?xpsltipq_je=49
Importance of Regional Cooperation in Internet Governance (Organised by the Number Resource Organisation): http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/wks2013/report_view.php?xpsltipq_je=50
Anne-Rachel Inné, AFRINIC COO, spoke at the closing ceremony on behalf of the Internet technical community. Looking back at a successful event, she noted that there is a further need for enhanced cooperation between different stakeholders at both the global and regional levels. She also highlighted the importance of the IGF as a place to discuss important and delicate issues amongst the different stakeholder groups. Hoping to maintain the open and collaborative spirit of Internet cooperation, she stressed the need to further strengthen the IGF, and called on all stakeholders to help in providing a stable and sustainable financial basis for the secretariat and future meetings.
The next IGF will be held in early September 2014 in Istanbul, Turkey. We welcome any input regarding the RIPE NCC’s participation at the IGF in 2014 via the Cooperation Working Group mailing list.
Best regards
Chris Buckridge External Relations Officer, RIPE NCC
-- Meredith Whittaker Program Manager, Google Research Google NYC