Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Online Forum on Internet Governance launched http://www.unicttaskforce.org/perl/showdoc.pl?id=1285 Online Forum on Internet Governance launched on wsis-online.net Geneva, March 5, 2004 In the context of consultations leading to the establishment of the working group on Internet Governance to be set up by the UN Secretary General, wsis-online.net, the community platform of the World Summit on the Information Society, opens an online forum on Internet Governance to host contributions from all concerned stakeholders. The forum is accessible at: www.wsis-online.net/igov-forum. The UN secretary General has been asked by the recent first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society, held in Geneva on December 10-12, 2003, to set up a working group on Internet Governance, in an open and inclusive process. The mission of this working group will be, inter alia: 1) to develop a working definition of Internet Governance, 2) to identify the relevant public policy issues, 3) to develop a common understanding of the respective roles and responsibilities of governments, international organizations, private sector and civil society and 4) to report before the next phase of the Summit in Tunis in november 2005. Preparatory meetings and workshops organized by various convenors will allow a large diversity of actors to engage in open consultations before the formation of this group. In this perspective, an ITU workshop in Geneva on 26-27 February and an ICANN workshop in Rome on March 4 already took place. Other meetings are already planned. In particular, with the encouragement of the UN Secretary General, a two-day Global Forum on Internet Governancewill be held in New York on March 25-26, organized by the UN ICT Task Force on the occasion of one of its biannual meetings. Large visibility must be given to these efforts and all stakeholders should be able to contribute in this open participatory process. It is with this objective in mind that an online forum is offered on wsis-online.net to host contributions from all willing stakeholders. To facilitate navigation and contributions, this forum is structured around four threads: * What are the different dimensions of Internet Governance? * Who are the main stakeholders already convening groups or consultations on these themes or who should be involved in such consultations? * What are the main concerns or challenges for each of these different issues? * How can this consultation process facilitate the future work of the working group the Secretary General was asked to set up? The Global Forum on Internet Governance to be held in March will review the first results of this open consultation. Participation in the Online Forum is open to any individual or organization concerned with Internet Governance and willing to contribute to the debate in a constructive way. The only condition for participation is registration on the wsis-online web site with a valid email address. Contributions should be short to facilitate interaction and oriented towards producing a common vision. They can be submitted in English or French. Contributions will be moderated to guarantee focus on the different threads and a summary in six languages will be produced regularly to facilitate the interactive debate. Forum archives will be freely accessible. The wsis-online Forum on Internet Governance is accessible at the following address: http://www.wsis-online.net/igov-forum About wsis-online.net wsis-online.net is the online community platform for all actors willing to implement the WSIS Geneva Action Plan. It offers a calendar of events, and promotes people, organizations and projects involved in building the Information Society, indexed through a list of summit themes. To know more about this multistakeholder effort, visit: http://www.wsis-online.net . About the UN ICT Task Force The Task Force is a multi-stakeholder initiative launched by the Secretary-General in 2001. In supporting the first phase of the WSIS, the Task Force successfully helped in placing the United Nations development objectives at the heart of the Summit and mobilized the participation of the multi-stakeholder networks, organized a series of side events and launched new initiatives, including on education. The Task Force contributes actively to the preparations for the second phase of the WSIS leading up to the Tunis Summit in November 2005. For more information, please visit: http://www.unicttaskforce.org/. _______________________________________________ Plenary mailing list Plenary@wsis-cs.org http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/plenary _______________________________________________ apple mailing list apple@lists.apnic.net http://mailman.apnic.net/mailman/listinfo/apple