On October 8, a briefing for this year's 7th Internet Governance Forum (IGF 2012) was held in the UN Information Centre in Moscow, Russia. The Forum will take part in Baku, Azerbaijan, on November 6-9, 2012.
The proposed main theme for the meeting is ‘Internet Governance for Sustainable Human, Economic and Social Development’. Andrei Kolesnikov, the director of the Coordination Center for TLD RU/РФ, briefed the public on what the company's part will be at IGF in Baku. The themes that the Coordination Center experts plan to speak on include cybersecurity, legal aspects of the Internet, copyright protection, blocking criminal content, managing critical Internet infrastructure, elaborating Internet culture standards and other relevant topics.
Robert Schlegel, a member of Russia's State Duma, thinks that IGF is a very beneficial event for any stakeholder who is related to Internet governance, creating the policies and ensuring their performance. Schlegel also noted that the Internet is an transboundary entity, and the Internet governance policies should be harmonized for all countries.
Coordinating the government, community, and business efforts is one of the topical subjects for this year's forum. Andrei Kolesnikov notes that no country can withstand today's cyberthreats alone, so the governments should unite their efforts to synchronize the regulations and coordinate the law enforcement activities. "IGF's function is to initiate the dialogue between different structures and entities that often have contrary points of view. The Forum allows discussing a scope of issues and, in many cases, finding a solution that suits all stakeholders", Kolesnikov says.
Over 1,500 attendees from more than 100 countries are expected to visit IGF 2012. The Coordination Center and the Technical Center of the Internet will engage in the Forum's activities as well.
