Yesterday, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) started in Istanbul with around 3,000 participants, and already today, the first positive trends can be seen. This year’s IGF is dedicated to the Internet Governance discussion and is looking to achieve visible results. In a press release this week, eco called for a clear process for IANA reform, which is now well underway. The Association of the German Internet Industry welcomes any kind of reform process within the IANA discussion and is pleased with the increased interest of the many representatives from the civil society, academia, industry and governments.
On behalf of the German Federal Government the Foreign Office, the Ministry for Economics, and the Chancellor’s Office have representatives in Istanbul for the meeting. This demonstrates that the Federal Government is consistently implementing their statements on Internet Governance in the Digital Agenda. eco has explicitly welcomed this in their Position Paper. The EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes and MEP Sabine Verheyen have made clear that the topic Internet Governance has finally achieved an appropriate level of significance at the European level. Now, within the Multi-Stakeholder dialog, a succession plan is being sought for the administration of the Internet address administrator, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Already from the start of the forum, ICANN, and especially the supervision of IANA, were predominant topics, which have recurred in all of the sessions within the forum. eco Chairman of the Board Prof. Michael Rotert and eco Director of Policy and Law Oliver Süme are actively engaged in the discussion within the IGF.
