Information Governance
African Telecommunications Union
The African Telecommunications Union (ATU) is the leading continental organization fostering the development of information and communication technologies infrastructure and services, with a current membership of 46 MemberStates and 17 Associate Members.
Association for Progressive Communication
The APC is a global network of
civil society organisations whose mission is to empower and support organisations, social movements and individuals in and through the use of
information and communication technologies to build strategic communities and initiatives for the purpose of making meaningful contributions to equitable human development, social justice, participatory political processes and environmental
sustainability.
CPSR is a public-interest alliance of people concerned about the impact of information and communications technology on society. We work to influence decisions regarding the development and use of computers because those decisions have far-reaching consequences and reflect our basic values and priorities. As experts on ICT issues, CPSR members provide realistic assessments of the power, promise, and limitations of computer technology. As concerned citizens, we direct public attention to critical choices concerning the applications of computing and how those choices affect society.
Founded in 1981, CPSR educates policymakers and the public on a wide range of issues. Originally founded by U.S. computer scientists, CPSR now has members in 26 countries on six continents.
From the Internet to the iPod, technologies are transforming our society and empowering us as speakers, citizens, creators, and consumers. When our freedoms in the networked world come under attack, the EFF is the first line of defense. EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990 — well before the Internet was on most people's radar — and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today. From the beginning, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights.
Blending the expertise of lawyers, policy analysts, activists, and technologists, EFF achieves significant
victories on behalf of consumers and the general public. EFF fights for freedom primarily in the courts, bringing and defending lawsuits even when that means taking on the US government or large corporations. By mobilizing more than 50,000 concerned citizens through our
Action Center, EFF beats back bad legislation. In addition to advising policymakers, EFF educates the press and public.
The five global Internet issues (access, openness, diversity, security and critical Internet resources) are also important on the national and regional level. European stakeholders, including European institutions like the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, supported the idea, to launch a “European Dialogue on Internet Governance” (EuroDIG) to enable European governments, parliaments, organizations, private sector and civil society groups, the technical and academic community etc. to contribute to Internet Governance policy development in Europe and to bring European experiences to the global
IGF-debate.
ETSI is recognised as an official European Standards Organisation by the European Commission (EC), enabling valuable access to European markets. ETSI produces globally applicable standards for Information & Communications Technologies including fixed, mobile, radio, broadcast, internet and several other areas. High quality and low time-to-market are its constant aims and it continually strive to collaborate with research bodies. ETSI is active in vital surround areas such as interoperability and we offer event services related to standardisation including forum hosting.
The Global Business Dialogue on electronic commerce (GBDe) is a worldwide, CEO-led, business initiative, established in January 1999 to assist the development of a global policy framework for the emerging online economy. GBDe has been actively promoting a private sector/Government dialogue on convergence-related issues since 2001. Today, there is an urgent need to build a global policy framework incorporating the new paradigm. We now have total 19 organizations from Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Korea, Hong Kong, China and USA.
GigaNet is an emerging scholarly community initiated in spring 2006 in conjunction with the UN
IGF. Its four principal objectives are to: (1)
support the establishment of a global network of scholars specializing in Internet governance issues; (2)
promote the development of Internet governance as a recognized, interdisciplinary field of study, (3)
advance theoretical and applied research on Internet governance, broadly defined: and; (4)
facilitate informed dialogue on policy issues and related matters between scholars and Internet governance stakeholders (governments, international organizations, the private sector, and civil society).
CITEL, an entity of the Organization of American States, is the main forum in the hemisphere in which the governments and the private sector meet to coordinate regional efforts to develop the Global Information Society according to the mandates of the General Assembly of the Organization and the mandates entrusted to it by Heads of State and Government at the Summits of the Americas.
ITU is the leading United Nations agency for information and communication technology issues, and the global focal point for governments and the private sector in developing networks and services. For nearly 145 years, ITU has coordinated the shared global use of the radio spectrum, promoted international cooperation in assigning satellite orbits, worked to improve telecommunication infrastructure in the developing world, established the worldwide standards that foster seamless interconnection of a vast range of communications systems and addressed the global challenges of our times, such as mitigating climate change and strengthening cybersecurity.
The IANA is responsible for the global coordination of the DNS Root, IP addressing, and other Internet protocol resources.
The ICA is a non-profit trade organization representing domain name investors and developers and the direct search industry. ICA is made up of responsible businesses and individuals who have joined together to improve public confidence in internet commerce. Based in Washington D.C., our mission is to promote and share best practices among participants in the domain name industry and to educate consumers, policy makers, law makers and the media about the value and benefits of direct navigation traffic and the domain name industry.
ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers.
ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn’t deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn't have one global Internet.
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a large open international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet. It is open to any interested individual. The IETF Mission Statement is documented in RFC 3935. The actual technical work of the IETF is done in its working groups, which are organized by topic into several areas (e.g., routing, transport, security, etc.). Much of the work is handled via mailing lists. The IETF holds meetings three times per year.
The IGC was originally created by individual and organizational civil society actors who came together in the context of the
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) to promote global public interest objectives in Internet governance policy making.
The mission of the IGC is to provide a forum for discussion, advocacy, action, and for representation of civil society contributions in Internet governance processes. The caucus intends to provide an open and effective forum for civil society to share opinion, policy options and expertise on Internet governance issues, and to provide a mechanism for coordination of advocacy to enhance the utilization and influence of civil society and the IGC in relevant policy processes.
Its purpose is to support the UN Secretary-General in carrying out the mandate from the
WSIS with regard to convening a new forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue - the IGF. The site provides an interactive, collaborative space where all stakeholders can air their views and exchange ideas.
The IGP is an alliance of academics that puts expertise into practical action in the fields of global governance, Internet policy, and information and communication technology. The Project both researches and publishes analysis of global Internet policy issues. The goal of the IGP is to:
· Inform and shape Internet public policy choices by providing independent analysis and timely recommendations.
· Identify and analyze new possibilities for improving global governance institutions
· Develop policy positions guided by the values of globalism, democratic governance and individual rights.
The purpose of the IRTF is to promote research of importance to the evolution of the future Internet by creating focused, long-term and small Research Groups working on topics related to Internet protocols, applications, architecture and technology.
The ISOC is a nonprofit organisation founded in 1992 to provide leadership in Internet related standards, education, and policy. With offices in Washington, USA, and Geneva, Switzerland, it is dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world. The ISOC provides leadership in addressing issues that confront the future of the Internet, and is the organisational home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards, including the
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the premier Internet standards body in the world, and the
Internet Architecture Board (IAB), which is responsible for architectural oversight of IETF activities, Internet Standards Process oversight and appeal, and the appointment of the
Request for Comments Series Editor.
The NCUC is the home for civil society organizations in ICANN's
Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO). With real voting power in ICANN, it develops and supports Internet policies that favor noncommercial communication and activity on the Internet, and it participates in the selection of
ICANN Board members. It is open to noncommercial organizations involved in education, community networking, public policy advocacy, development, promotion of the arts, children's welfare, religion, scientific research, human rights and many other areas.
This site presents the OECD's contributions in several critical public policy areas related to the Internet; such as security, privacy, telecommunication policy, universal access, consumer protection, e-commerce, and broader information economy issues. It provides links to the relevant OECD resources on
public policy issues related to Internet governance.
The Global Information and Communication Technologies Department (GICT) is a joint department of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Bringing together IFC's experience in private sector investment transactions and the World Bank's expertise in policy and regulatory matters, GICT promotes access to information and communication technologies in developing countries.
In 2001, the
ITU Council decided to hold the WSIS in two phases. The first phase took place in Geneva (Switzerland) from 10 to 12 December 200. The objective of the first phase was to develop and foster a clear statement of political will and take concrete steps to establish the foundations for an Information Society for all, reflecting all the different interests at stake.
The second phase took place in Tunis (Tunisia) from 16 to 18 November 2005. The objective of the second phase was to put Geneva's Plan of Action into motion as well as to find solutions and reach agreements in the fields of Internet governance, financing mechanisms, and follow-up and implementation of the Geneva and Tunis documents.
WSIS, while recommending representation from governments at the highest level also invited participation of all relevant UN bodies and other international organizations, non-governmental organizations, private sector, civil society, and media to establish a truly multi-stakeholder process.