Future of the Internet live at ANU

The UN in Nairobi. Photo by ficubc / flickr.

The future of Internet use, Internet regulation and cyber security will be among the issues discussed at the Sixth Annual United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) meeting this week, and The Australian National University will be the only place in Australia to watch and interact live with the proceedings from Nairobi, Kenya.

The event - which this year has the theme ’Internet as a catalyst for change: access, development, freedoms and innovation’ - will be essential viewing for anyone with an interest in global , Internet governance, network neutrality, intellectual property, cyber crime and human rights and the Internet.

ANU will be acting as Australia’s only ’remote hub’ for the conference. That will allow a local audience to watch selected workshops and discussions live from Nairobi and pose questions for the panels in Africa through video link-up.

Each day will start with an early afternoon discussion featuring ANU experts and high-ranking public servants discussing the issues the IGF will look at that day, and thinking about questions the local audience might like to ask. Each of the four days has its own theme. The live video link up will run from around 3pm every day until late into the evening.

The event has been organised by recent ANU PhD graduate Madeline Carr, who researches the intersection between the Internet and international relations.

"How the Internet is governed, managed and developed in the future has implications so wide-ranging that it is difficult to imagine a corner of our social, political, cultural or economic existence which will remain unaffected. Very few of these key decisions can be made solely at a national level. Instead, they need global debate and discussion - which is at the heart of the annual UN IGF," she said.

"ANU is proud to act as Australia’s only remote hub for the meeting. In doing so, local participants will be able to engage in this global debate. It’s an exceptional opportunity to expose ourselves to, and be one of a wide range of views from around the world on complex and essential issues."

For more details of the panels and themes: http://billboard.anu.edu.au/event_view.asp’id=83149