[Chapter-delegates] BBC report from the IGF

[Rosa Delgado]

Fyi,

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BBC News website Technology editor Darren Waters reported from the
conference as it happens. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6090394.stm

"It won't work this year, perhaps next year." 

That is the assessment of one delegate at the Internet Governance Forum,
before even a single word on the future of the net has been uttered. 

It's an indication of the widespread uncertainty that surrounds the IGF.


How will it work? Will people embrace the idea of a forum where talk is
cheap but no decisions are made? 

More than 1,500 people representing governments, companies,
organisations and themselves are here - far in excess of the numbers the
organisers were expecting. 

The main hall of the forum holds only 800 so it will be interesting to
see what happens with the early sessions. 

The hope is that by bringing every stakeholder in the internet together
in one place that consensus on issues such as cybercrime, security,
spam, freedom of expression etc can be reached and fed back to the
people that make decisions about the net in their respective countries. 

But as that slightly pessimistic, or perhaps pragmatic delegate, told
me: "Even if a unified position is reached on an issue there is no
mechanism to reflect it." 

The IGF in Athens is just the first year of a five-year process
initiated by the United Nations and there is hope that the forum could
one day become the single most important body for governance of the
internet. 

But perhaps not this year...