Internet Governance News

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.”

As part of an ongoing effort to increase youth participation in the global dialogue about Internet governance, the RIPE NCC offers fellowships that allow young people from the RIPE NCC service region to attend regional Internet Governance Forums (IGFs). Thanks to these fellowships, Thijl Klerkx (19) from the Netherlands and Ana Kakalashvili (20) from Georgia attended the second Arab IGF, which took place this week in Algeria.

The RIPE NCC hosted a Roundtable Meeting for Governments and Regulators on Tuesday, 10 September 2013, in Amsterdam, bringing together around 30 participants from governments, regulators and the Internet technical community.

The RIPE NCC has announced that it will provide 50,000 USD in financial support for the upcoming Internet Governance Forum (IGF) event in Bali, Indonesia.

In late 2012, the United Nations General Assembly invited the Chair of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) to establish a working group to examine the mandate of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) regarding "enhanced cooperation".

EuroDIG (the European Dialogue on Internet Governance) held its sixth meeting in Lisbon on 20-21 June 2013, attracting its largest ever audience of more than 600 registered attendees from government, business, civil society and the Internet technical community.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) held its fifth World Telecommunications/ICT Policy Forum (WTPF) in Geneva from 14-16 May 2013.

On 29 April 2013, the RIPE NCC, as a sector member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), formally submitted a document to the ITU Secretariat on behalf of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs).

The first 2013 Roundtable Meeting was held in Brussels on 19 March, adjacent to the European Commission's High Level Group on Internet Governance, and attracted around 40 participants from governments, regulators and industry.

Over the past weeks and following on from talks at last year's ITU WTSA and WCIT events, both AFRINIC and the RIPE NCC have been asked to participate in discussions concerning the possibility of establishing a new Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for the Arabic-speaking community. In the spirit of open community discussion, both AFRINIC and the RIPE NCC feel that this should be brought to the attention of our members and community.