IGF 2006
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| Date: | October 24-26, 2006 |
| Location: | Atheens, Greece |
| Web: | |
The first IGF meeting was held in Athens, Greece.
Context[edit | edit source]
According to the first "IGF Book"[1], the inaugural meeting was chaired by Greek Minister of Transport and Communications Michalis Liapis, who declared that the Forum should shape a common global vision for the development and growth of the Internet. Prime Minister Mr. Karamanlis, who officially opened the meeting, also told participants that the Forum had united under the same goal and vision, governments, intergovernmental organizations, the private sector and civil society.
Theme[edit | edit source]
The overall theme of the meeting was "Internet Governance for Development" and the agenda was structured along the following broad themes:
- Openness - Freedom of expression, free flow of information, ideas and knowledge;
- Security - Creating trust and confidence through collaboration;
- Diversity - Promoting multilingualism and local content;
- Access - Internet Connectivity: Policy and Cost.
Discussion[edit | edit source]
The first "IGF Book" is about the two first IGF meetings (IGF 2006 and IGF 2007), and so it talks about the discussions that occured in a single take. These have been mainly about issues of equity and freedom. The broad theme of equity covers many things - the concern about Internet users in developing countries, about users in remote areas, about gender, about indigenous people, about people with disability. This concern for equity also underlies the discussions on diversity, local content and IDN so that the Internet is more accessible to people whose natural language is not English, natural script is not Latin. A very important dimension of equity is the question of access cost which has come up again and again in the discussions.
The IGF discussions have also focused on the tremendous growth in Internet usage -in fact, the issue of Internet governance has acquired salience precisely because of this explosive growth. But the concern for equity also manifested itself in the frequent references in the discussions to the five billion who are not yet on the Internet.
Outcomes[edit | edit source]
Among the most concrete results of the first IGF in Athens was the emergence of a number of so-called Dynamic Coalitions which were relatively informal, issue-specific groups consisting of stakeholders that are interested in the particular issue and a number of workshops on specific issues. Most coalitions were open to participation to anyone interested in contributing. Thus, these groups gathered not only academics and representatives of governments, but also members of the civil society interested in participating on the debates and engaged in the coalition's works.