Internet Governance Forum 2010
I spent a hectic week (September 13-17) at Vilnius, Lithuania for the 5th Internet Governance Forum. Although the local food is not very impressive to me, I got sufficient food for thought.
On Day One, I rushed to two sessions to give presentations. One was “Setting the Scene” in the Main Room. I’m the author on Chapter Diversity for “official” IGF book “Creating Opportunities for All.” Another was the workshop organized by Council of Europe on Framework of General Principles of Internet Governance, which is a very ambitious project that may have to be handled at UN forum.
On Day Two, I presented at a workshop “Internet Governance and Youth”, along with a critic lady from Pirate Party and a couple of young people. Frankly I don’t believe young people need to be arrogant to the “old” for establishment their own identity. Okay that session was not interesting. In the afternoon, I was the remote moderator for the workshop “Development Agenda.” An irresponsible commentator complained that he could not tweet the session but he lied for he did not even login the webex platform. At night, Prof. Drake and I went to UNESCO reception for a drink.
Day Three was comparatively relaxing to me. I went to the Dynamic Coalition’s workshop at the beginning and SSIG workshop before lunch. In the afternoon, I went to Russian IGF session and Intermediary Liability workshop before joining NomCom outreach. At night, around seven scholars were invited to join UNESCO dinner for a strategic talk. Everyone was so busy with talking or taking notes that we did not remember what we ate.
Last Day began with a Chinese workshop on open access to scientific data and library information. I later joined APrIGF report session. After having lunch with CNNIC friend, I went to city TLD workshop and had interesting dialogue on the large panel. The closing ceremony seemed endless. Prof. Ang, Mr. Tan and I ran into to heavy rain to catch the bus to go to the city for dinner.
On departure Day, Mr. Tan and I went to KGB museum and felt extremely depressed by the execution photos and other old files. Later we felt better in an open market in front of the City Hall. That’s my week by Baltic Sea and my second stay in the beautiful city. Nice to go home anyway.