Notes on a More Social, International Internet

BU Lecturer Nadira Araj reports on the 4th Internet Governance Forum

Nadira Araj  & Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang at the IGF09 Opening Session

Bethlehem University Lecturer in Business Administration Nadira Araj didn’t just attend the 4th Internet Governance Forum (IGF09)– she tweeted it.

One of 20 DiploFoundation Internet Governance Capacity Building fellows (and the only participant from Palestinian at the IGF2009), Nadira reported live on event sessions at the IGF in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt from 15-18 November 2009. Besides live tweeting and blogging , Nadira briefed participants about her online Diplo research group through (wikis) user-generated content on issues of intellectual property rights, open access and advantage of knowledge sharing. The following is her report on the discussions at IGF09 and what they mean for the future of the internet.

The Internet Governance Forum is a meeting of multi-stakeholder of government and civil society organizations from across the globe to discuss internet technology and policies.  Issues discussed include privacy, security, cybercrime and net neutrality.

One of the highlights from this year’s meeting was the official announcement by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body responsible for managing the assignment of domain names and IP address, that it would release non-Latin domain names. The change allows internet users to register domain names not just in their native languages but in their native letters (Arabic letters, for instance, or Chinese characters). The new standard is a step toward net neutrality, and it is designed to encourage communities to populate the internet with content in their local languages. More local languages mean more internet users worldwide and a truly international internet character.

The real emphasis of IGF09 discussions, though, was on social networks like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. These networks have experienced phenomenal spread worldwide and have had a profound impact on the culture of democracy.  Along with those positive changes have come increased concerns about privacy, security and freedom of expression online, and the IGF discussions attempted to find a balance between these concerns and the interests of government and private sector users to exploit available online data.

In keeping with the social networking focus, the forum gave unprecedented space for youth involvement in the discussions. Younger participants were invited to express their views in forum sessions and to share ideas for initiatives to engage youth in the IGF process. Young Egyptians trained by the DiploFoundation manned a booth, interacting with participants from all generations and exploring the generation differences in internet use. 

The IGF also installed wall screens in the meeting rooms to allow remote participation. Hopefully this strategy will lead to more international forum participation by developing countries that may not be able to send participants.