Membership Survey on Internet Governance July 2007

The Internet Society conducted a survey of its members on the topic of Internet Governance
(IG) in May 2007. The purpose of the survey was to assist ISOC in addressing Internet
governance issues in the discussion up to and including the Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in November 2007.
The IGF provides the framework of an institutionalized international dialogue on the subject
of Internet Governance. Following the two phases of the World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS in 2003 in Geneva and 2005 in Tunis) the United Nations has planned to hold
annual IGF meetings until 2010 to provide a forum for discussing a range of issues of
importance in the area of ICTs, the Internet and economic development.
Since the very first Internet governance discussions, the Internet Society has been fully
engaged in the Internet Governance debate (http://www.isoc.org/pubpolpillar/governance) and has
been a firm advocate of multi-stakeholder, democratic and transparent participation.
The survey attracted responses from 252 individuals representing chapters and organization
members from more than 80 countries. Their participation provided the Internet Society with
an understanding of the state of the Internet governance debate in their countries.

Internet Society

4, rue des Falaises

CH-1205 Geneva
Switzerland

Tel: +41 22 807 1444

Fax: +41 22 807 1445

http://www.isoc.org

1775 Wiehle Ave.

Suite 102
Reston, VA 20190, USA

Tel: +1 703 326 9880

Fax: +1 703 326 9881
Email: info@isoc.org

ISOC members increasingly involved in IGF

The survey shows that 9% of respondents participated in the IGF meeting in Athens in 2006.
This proportion should increase (15%) for the next IGF meeting in Rio (November 2007). A
significant number of members (43%) have met or are planning to meet with local policy
makers to discuss Internet Governance issues and prepare for Rio.
Members' Participation in the IGF
50.00%
45.00%
40.00%
43.25%

35.00%
30.00%
25.00%
20.00%
15.00%

19.05%

10.00%
5.00%

15.08%
8.73%

0.00%
Percentage
Participation in the IGF in Athens in 2006
Participation in international or national preparatory meetings for the next IGF in Rio
Participation in the IGF in Rio (November 2007)
Meetings w ith local policy makers to discuss Internet governance issues

The evolving IGF agenda

Respondents were asked to rate the importance of the four key themes of the IGF meeting in
Athens. Openness and Access were selected as the most critical issues, closely followed by
Security.
Importance of IGF themes in members' countries

33%

33%

7%
27%
Openness

Internet Society

4, rue des Falaises

CH-1205 Geneva
Switzerland

Diversity

Security

Access

Tel: +41 22 807 1444

Fax: +41 22 807 1445

http://www.isoc.org

1775 Wiehle Ave.

Suite 102
Reston, VA 20190, USA

Tel: +1 703 326 9880

Fax: +1 703 326 9881
Email: info@isoc.org

The IGF secretariats planning document outlines issues within these four themes. In
anticipation of the next IGF meeting in Rio, respondents were asked to indicate if these issues
were top priorities. Within the theme of improving access to the Internet, 34% of respondents
ranked the importance of an enabling environment to improve access and the governments
responsibility to bring about that environment as a top priority. 27% of the interviewees also
designated international connectivity costs and competitive markets as a top priority.
Top Priorities within Access
40.00%
35.00%
30.00%
25.00%
20.00%
15.00%

34.52%
26.98%
21.83%

10.00%
5.00%
0.00%

19.05%
14.68%

The role of governments as key stakeholders in ensuring an enabling environment to improve access
International connectivity costs and competitive markets
Regulatory framew orks tailored to local conditions, in particular tow ards improving access in rural areas
Market structures and their relationship to competition and investment and in fostering innovation
Gender and access

Within the theme of Openness, freedom of expression and the role of governments to protect
and promote that right was considered as a top priority by 42% of the respondents, and 33%
also identified the relationship between national regulations on freedom of expression and
the borderless Internet as an issue of the highest importance.
Top Priorities within Openess
45.00%
40.00%

42.26%

35.00%
30.00%

32.94%

25.00%
20.00%

23.81%

15.00%

18.65%

10.00%
9.13%

5.00%
0.00%
Freedom of expression and the role of governments to protect that right

The relationship betw een national regulations on freedom of expression and the borderless Internet
The balance betw een citizens' rights to information and the rights of IPR holders
The relationship betw een market forces and human rights
The advantages and disadvantages of different business models dealing w ith digital content
The Internet Society (http://www.isoc.org) is a not-for-profit membership organization founded in 1991 to provide leadership
in Internet related standards, education, and policy. With offices in Washington, DC, and Geneva, Switzerland, it is dedicated
to ensuring the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world. ISOC is
the organizational home of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) (http://www.ietf.org) and other Internet-related bodies
who together play a critical role in ensuring that the Internet develops in a stable and open manner. For over 13 years ISOC
has run international network training programs for developing countries and these have played a vital role in setting up the
Internet connections and networks in virtually every country connecting to the Internet during this time.

Within the theme of Security, 37% of the respondents estimated that authentification and
identification is a top priority. 29% also designated the identification of best practices for
delivering security measures as a top issue.
Top Priorities within Security
40.00%
35.00%

36.90%

30.00%
28.57%

25.00%

24.21%

20.00%

22.22%

20.63%

15.00%

20.63%

10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
Authentification and identification
Identifying best practices for delivering security measures
The respective advantages of open and proprietary standards standards in shaping security solutions
The definition of security threats in international cooperation
The role of all stakeholders in the implementation of security measures
The relationship betw een national implementation and international cooperation

Within the theme of Diversity, 30% of respondents indicated that the role of the Internet to
relieve illiteracy and provide accessible content for people with disabilities was a top
priority.
Top Priorities within Diversity
35.00%
30.00%
25.00%
20.00%

29.76%

25.79%

15.00%
10.00%

19.05%

5.00%

15.08%

13.10%

0.00%
The role of the Internet to releive illiteracy and provide accessible content for people w ith disabilities
Expressing and protecting locally developed content, including content that is not commercially viable
The involvement of language communities in developing internationalized domain names (IDN)
The role of audio-visual communication in promoting local content
The role of softw are in developing local content

The Internet Society (http://www.isoc.org) is a not-for-profit membership organization founded in 1991 to provide leadership
in Internet related standards, education, and policy. With offices in Washington, DC, and Geneva, Switzerland, it is dedicated
to ensuring the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world. ISOC is
the organizational home of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) (http://www.ietf.org) and other Internet-related bodies
who together play a critical role in ensuring that the Internet develops in a stable and open manner. For over 13 years ISOC
has run international network training programs for developing countries and these have played a vital role in setting up the
Internet connections and networks in virtually every country connecting to the Internet during this time.

Other possible topics for Rio

Survey participants suggested that the discussions in Rio could also address other potential
topics, including:
-

Enhancing the Internets technical openness and accessibility: broadening

participation in standards bodies (IETF, W3C, etc.), and exploring governments role
in fostering interoperability.
Enhancing multistakeholderism in Internet policy formulation, enforcement and
dispute resolution: developing public-private regional and international cooperation,
encouraging the development of internationally recognized best practices, structuring
the multistakeholder debate at the national and local level, and enhancing
participation in developing countries in international discussions.
Adopting an adequate international legal framework through fostering the
development of common rules (cybercrime, spam, intellectual property rights (IPR),
e-identity, privacy, e-commerce, etc) and encouraging appropriate transborder
cooperation (treaties, MoUs, etc.) to enforce them.
Deepening educational discussions through recognizing the role of the Internet as an
educational tool, improving education of ICT professionals and ICT users, leveraging
e-learning for developing countries, and empowering youth and catalyzing its
potential to leverage the Internet.
Initiating an international and multistakeholder debate on network neutrality through a
state of play analysis, identification of key issues and a focus on ensuring the
retention of the Internets openness.
Developing a truly global information society through considering progress on a
common acceptance of an Internet Bill of Rights, understanding how technology can
improve human connections and relationships, how it can foster democracy
throughout the world, and how it can create new communities, new interests and new
democratic tools.

Localizing the debate

Survey participants also expressed a range of ideas to help localize Internet Governance
discussions so that national stakeholders have the opportunity to share their ideas at IGF
meetings, and to encourage IGF leaders to structure discussions at the national level (bottomtop process):
-

Develop fellowship programs similar to the ISOC IGF ambassadors programme to

support participants from developing countries.
Improve means of remote participation (webcast sessions and videoconferencing).
Improve multilingual participation.
Organize national/regional events (national/regional IG forums) between annual IGF
meetings, in close collaboration with ISOC chapters.
Focus on more specific issues to allow the emergence of credible and useful guidance
to stakeholders.
Encourage governments and other stakeholders to implement mechanisms to diffuse
IGF results broadly and efficiently.

We would like to thank the survey participants for their contributions to the IGF discussion.
The Internet Society (http://www.isoc.org) is a not-for-profit membership organization founded in 1991 to provide leadership
in Internet related standards, education, and policy. With offices in Washington, DC, and Geneva, Switzerland, it is dedicated
to ensuring the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world. ISOC is
the organizational home of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) (http://www.ietf.org) and other Internet-related bodies
who together play a critical role in ensuring that the Internet develops in a stable and open manner. For over 13 years ISOC
has run international network training programs for developing countries and these have played a vital role in setting up the
Internet connections and networks in virtually every country connecting to the Internet during this time.