IGF 2014

To map, frame and make accessible the often-confusing tangle of processes underway across the vast number of Internet governance-related issues, an increasing number of initiatives have emerged or are being proposed, including:

• CSTD WGEC Correspondence Group mapping activity;
• GIPO;
• Geneva Internet Platform;
• Internet Policy Observatory; and
• Internet Collaborative Stewardship Framework (ISOC).

With the advent of so many initiatives, some of the possible issues and risks that may emerge include:

• Lack of coordination between initiatives;
• Unnecessary duplication of activities;
• Overlooking good initiatives in “competing” forums; and
• Adding to general IG stakeholder confusion;

This roundtable will bring representatives of initiatives together to explore similarities and synergies and ways to improve communication and coordination, with the ultimate goals of:

• Strengthening support and partnerships between initiatives to avoid a sense of “competition”;
• Enabling initiatives to gain access to stakeholders, information and processes that by themselves, they would not have direct access or knowledge of;
• Sharing best practices between initiatives, such as data conceptualization and visualization;
• Contributing to a more inclusive and collaborative mapping of issues, mechanisms, and gaps in Internet governance;
• Encouraging greater IG stakeholder buy-in for all initiatives; and
• Breaking down barriers, generally, between IG stakeholders.

The roundtable will also encourage representatives from regions or stakeholder groups that don’t have such initiatives to join the roundtable, with a view to helping such representatives ascertain whether or not initiatives are needed for their own regions and stakeholder groups.