ADVISORY GROUP to Prepare for INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM MEETING IN RIO DE JANEIRO

The mandate of the Advisory Group for the Internet Governance Forum has been renewed in order to assist in preparations for the next meeting of the Internet Governance Forum, to be held in Rio de Janeiro from 12 to 15 November 2007.  The Secretary-General is very appreciative of the work carried out by the Advisory Group in the past and welcomes the renewal of its mandate in preparation of the November Forum.

The Group is to be chaired by Nitin Desai, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for Internet Governance, and Hadil da Rocha Vianna, Director for Scientific and Technological Affairs in Brazil’s Ministry of External Relations, representing the Host Country.  The 47 Advisory Group members will serve in their personal capacity.  They have been chosen from Governments, the private sector and civil society, including the academic and technical communities, representing all regions.

As part of its mandate, the Advisory Group has been asked to enhance the transparency of the preparatory process by ensuring a continuous flow of information between its members and the various interested groups.  It has also been requested to make proposals on a suitable rotation among its members, based on recommendations from the various interested groups.  Any decision on how to prepare subsequent meetings will be taken after the Rio de Janeiro meeting in an open, inclusive and transparent consultative process, taking into account the proposals of the Advisory Group.

The co-chairmen may also select special advisers to assist them.

The Internet Governance Forum is an outcome of the Tunis phase of the World Summit on the Information Society, which took place in 2005.  In the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society, Governments asked the Secretary-General to convene a “new forum for policy dialogue” to discuss issues related to key elements of Internet governance and set out the Forum’s mandate.

The Forum’s inaugural meeting took place in Athens in November 2006.  It was attended by 1,350 registered participants, including 397 delegates from 97 Member States and 152 accredited journalists.  “The meeting brought people together who would not normally meet under the same roof,” said Markus Kummer, the Executive Coordinator of the Forum’s Secretariat.  “It encouraged dialogue on issues of common interest among people who would not normally interact.”

A stock-taking session in Geneva last February showed broad support for the multi-stakeholder format of the Athens meeting, which should be maintained in the preparations for the Rio de Janeiro meeting.  A round of open consultations held in Geneva in May showed broad support for keeping the four themes discussed at the inaugural meeting -- access, diversity, openness and security.  In addition, there was widespread support for adding a new theme -- critical internet resources -- to the agenda of the Rio de Janeiro meeting.

For further information, please visit www.intgovforum.org or contact Markus Kummer, Executive Coordinator, Secretariat of the Internet Governance Forum, tel.:  +41 0 22 917 54 88, e-mail:  mkummer@unog.ch.

List of Members

Co-Chairs

Desai, Nitin	Delhi/Mumbai - Special Adviser to the Secretary-General for Internet Governance
Vianna, Hadil da Rocha	Brasilia - Minister, Director for Scientific and Technological Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Members

Agrawala, Pankaj	Delhi – Former Joint Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology
Akinsanmi, Titilayo	Johannesburg - Programme Manager, SchoolNet Africa; Global Facilitator of the WSIS Youth Caucus
Akplogan, Adiel	Port Louis - CEO, Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa - AfriNIC
Al-Shatti, Qusai	Kuwait City - Deputy Chairman of Kuwait Information Technology Society (KITS)
Arida, Christine	Cairo - Director of Telecom Planning & Services, The National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA)
Bayramov, Ayaz	Baku - Head of Department for International Relations and Cooperation with NGOs, Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies
Cavalli, Olga del Carmen	Buenos Aires - Adviser for Technology, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Clarke, Trevor	Geneva - Permanent Representative of Barbados to the United Nations Office at Geneva
Daftardar, Abdullah M.	Riyadh - Senior Executive, Communications and Information Technology Commission
Dardailler, Daniel	Nice - Associate Chair for Europe, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
Diop Diagne, Ndeye Maimouna	Dakar - Directrice des NTIC, Ministère des Postes, Télécommunications et NTIC
Disspain, Chris	Carlton, VIC - CEO, .AU Registry; Chair, ccNSO Council
Echeberría, Raúl	Montevideo - Executive Director/CEO, Latin America and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry (LACNIC)
Fältström, Patrik	Stockholm - Consulting Engineer, Cisco Systems; Member, Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF); Member, Swedish Government IT Policy and Strategy Group
Gadelha, Augusto Cesar Viera	Brasilia - Secretary-General, Ministry of Science and Technology; Chairman, National Internet Steering Committee
Gallagher, Michael D.	Washington, DC - President of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA)
Graham, Bill	Ottawa - Director, International Telecommunication Policy and Coordination, Industry Canada
Gross, Robin D.	San Francisco, CA - Executive Director of IP Justice
Hassan, Ayesha	Paris - Senior Policy Manager, E-Business, IT, and Telecoms, Executive in charge of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Policy, International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
Hellmonds, Peter	Munich – Head, Corporate Social Responsibility, Nokia Siemens Networks
Hofmann, Jeanette	Berlin – Researcher, Social Science Research Center
Iriarte, Erick	Lima - Executive Director, Alfa-Redi
Kafi, Abdullah	Dacca - Managing Director, J A N Associates Limited; Former President, Bangladesh Computer Society
Kārkliņš, Jānis	Geneva - Permanent Representative of Latvia to the United Nations Office at Geneva
Katoh, Masanobu	Tokyo - Corporate Vice-President; President, of Law and Intellectual Property Unit and Security Export Control Headquarters, Fujitsu Limited
Katundu, Michael	Nairobi - Principal Officer, Information Technology Communications Commission
Kišonas, Valdas	Vilnius - Director of the Information Technologies and Telecommunications Department, Ministry of Transport and Communications
Khan, Masood	Geneva - Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations Office at Geneva
Kovács, Kálmán	Budapest – Senior State Secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Water
Lohento, Gemma Brice (Ken)	Dakar - Panos Institute West Africa; Coordinator, Center for International ICT Policies for Central and West Africa (CIPACO)
Magalhães, Luis	Lisbon - President of the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC), Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education
Oliver, Colin	Canberra - General Manager, International Communications, Department of Communications, Information Technology & the Arts
Papadatos, George	Athens – Minister-Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Greece to the United Nations Office at Geneva
Peake, Adam	Tokyo - Executive Research Fellow/Associate Professor, Center for Global Communications (GLOCOM), International University of Japan
Pisanty, Alejandro	Mexico City - Director of Computing Academic Services, Universidad Autonoma de Mexico; Director ISOC Mexico
Quaynor, Nii	Accra - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Network Computer Systems; President, Internet Society of Ghana
Sambrook, Richard	London – Director, Global News Division, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC); Vice-President, European Broadcasting Union (EBU)
Sha'ban, Charles	Amman - Executive Director, Regional Office, Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP)
Shears, Matthew	Copenhagen - Director of Public Policy, Internet Society (ISOC)
Swinehart, Theresa	Marina del Rey, CA – Vice-President, Global and Strategic Partnerships, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
Tang, Zicai	Beijing - Deputy Director in the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Ministry of Information Industry (MII)
Taylor, Emily	Oxford - Nominet (.UK), Director of Legal and Policy
Vasiliev, Vladimir	Moscow - Deputy Director, Department of Information Society Strategy, Ministry for Information Technologies and Communications
Yahaya, Issah	Accra - Head of Policy Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation/Telecoms, Ministry of Communications
Zangl, Peter	Brussels - Deputy Director-General, DG Information Society, European Commission

[An additional representative for the Asian Group will be announced in due course.]

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For information media • not an official record