The UK Internet Governance Forum is the national internet governance forum for the United Kingdom. It is a collaborative partnership that provides a local forum in the UK to engage industry, government, parliament, academia and civil society in debate on Internet Governance issues.
Internet Governance Forums (IGFs) are an initiative led by the United Nations for the discussion of public policy issues relating to the internet. A key distinguishing feature of IGFs is that they are based on the multi-stakeholder model – all sectors of society meet as equals to exchange ideas and discuss best practices.
The purpose of IGFs is to facilitate a common understanding of how to maximise the opportunities of the internet whilst mitigating the risks and challenges that the internet presents.
The UK IGF helps to:
- Identify nationally relevant internet issues;
- Provide an ongoing discussion forum in the UK to inform wider thinking and decision making regarding the Internet;
- Engage with the global IGF – helping attendees to represent UK interests on the agenda and reporting back to the UK community on the discussions;
- Interact with other national and regional IGFs for problem solving and sharing best practice.
The UK IGF will hold a series of preparatory meetings each year to formulate the UK messages to take to the international community at the Global IGF meeting. It will develop and showcase examples of UK best practice and serve as a potential prototype model for other national IGFs.
The UK IGF has a secretariat (the secretariat function is provided by Nominet, the UK’s national domain name registry) and a steering committee. The committee will input into the agendas and topics to be covered at these preparatory meetings, as well as helping to promote them and broaden the base of support and representation.
If you are interested in contributing to the UK IGF, please contact [email protected].