Hyderabad: 3 – 6 December 2008

The third Internet Governance Forum (IGF) took place in Hyderabad, Andra Pradesh, India on the 3 to 6 December 2008. The IGF Secretariat has published the initial transcripts and key points that arose from the Forum. The ePSIplus Thematic Network was represented at the Forum. The event Chair has published a brief report on the event, which states:

“The third meeting of the Internet Governance Forum focused on the overall theme of ‘Internet For All’. The meeting was held in the aftermath of terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The participants expressed their sympathies to the families of the victims and the Government and the people of India. While these tragic events led to some cancellations, the overall attendance with 1280 participants from 94 countries, of which 133 were media representatives, was close to that at the second annual meeting.

All the five main sessions were organized as three thematic days under the following headings: ‘Reaching the Next Billion’, ‘Promoting Cyber-Security and Trust’, ‘Managing Critical Internet Resources’. The last day covered ‘Emerging Issues - the Internet of Tomorrow’ and ‘Taking Stock and the Way Forward’.

Parallel to the main sessions, 94 workshops, best practise forums, dynamic coalition meetings and open forums were scheduled around the broad themes of the main sessions and the overall mandate of the IGF. Six workshops and other meetings were cancelled following the events in Mumbai.

The IGF programme and meeting were prepared through a series of open, multistakeholder consultations held throughout 2008, a process that also designed the IGF's interactive and participatory structure.

The entire meeting was webcast, with video and audio provided from all meeting rooms. The main sessions were transcribed and made available in real time. The text transcripts of the main sessions, the video audio records of all workshops and other meetings are available on the IGF Web site. This meeting saw a large number of people actively contribute through remote participation. All main sessions had simultaneous interpretation in all UN languages and one Indian language.”

The Forum considered amongst other topics:

• Public Sector Information
• Privacy
• Access laws – Freedom of Information or Right to Information
• eContent
• Human rights in the context of the Internet

The Internet Governance Forum will next meet in Cairo in 2009