- Public participation in the agenda setting on the EuroDIG wiki: Anyone can participate!
- eco survey: One third of all Internet users see the responsibility for Internet Governance as also residing with themselves personally
- eco Guidelines paper calls for the expansion of established Internet Governance structures and the continuation and strengthening of the multi-stakeholder approach
On 12 and 13 June 2014, this year’s EuroDIG – the European Dialogue on Internet Governance – will be taking place in the Foreign Office in Berlin, under the patronage of the German Federal Ministry of Economics. Registrations are now possible online, until 6 June 2014. It pays to be quick – as a result of the limited space, the number of participants for the EuroDIG this year has been reduced to 800. eco is the host of EuroDIG this year.
The European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) is one of the most important Internet Events at the European level, where stakeholders from industry, governments, academia and the civil society can exchange ideas on the future shaping of the Internet. In Berlin, the 2014 event is running under the slogan of “Digital society at stake – Europe and the future of the Internet”.
New this year is the possibility for the general public to be involved in the formation of the program using a specially established wiki. On the EuroDIG wiki, anyone can contribute to it by drawing up or bringing topic clusters into focus, or by becoming involved in one of the organizatory teams.
The results of EuroDIG will influence, among other things, the international Internet Governance Forum, which will take place in Istanbul from 2 to 5 September 2014.
eco survey confirms high social relevance of Internet Governance
The hottest question being discussed in the context of the current international Internet Governance negotiations is about the future organization of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). IANA is a department of ICANN, responsible for Internet administration and in particular responsible for the allocation of names and numbers in the Internet. This control function is currently still being undertaken by the USA, who, however, have announced that they will be withdrawing from the role in September 2015.
The majority of Internet users (around 40 percent) are of the opinion that the EU should be taking on considerably more responsibility for Internet Governance. This is closely followed by international organizations like the United Nations (UN), which 35 percent of users would like to see more strongly involved in Internet administration. These are results from a new representative survey carried out by the public opinion research institute TNS Emnid for eco – the Association of the German Internet Industry e.V., in which one thousand Internet users aged 18 to 65 from throughout Germany were questioned. One third of the respondents see users themselves as having a direct responsibility for Internet Governance.
These opinions support the expansion of a strong multi-stakeholder model for Internet administration, as is also called for by eco in the recently published Guidelines Paper on Internet Governance: “The multi-stakeholder approach must be strengthened and must not be allowed to develop into a secret clique. Only the active participation of all interest groups in this dialogue can lead to harmonized results at the European level, which can then influence the global dialogue,” said eco Chairman of the Board Prof. Michael Rotert.
Registration for EuroDIG is possible here.
The results of the eco Survey on Internet Governance can be found here.
