The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for all matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established in 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Union, making it among the oldest international organizations still in operation.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces and numerical spaces of the Internet, ensuring the network's stable and secure operation. ICANN performs the actual technical maintenance work of the Central Internet Address pools and DNS root zone registries pursuant to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) function contract. The contract regarding the IANA stewardship functions between ICANN and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the United States Department of Commerce ended on October 1, 2016, formally transitioning the functions to the global multistakeholder community.
An information society is a society where the usage, creation, distribution, manipulation and integration of information is a significant activity. Its main drivers are information and communication technologies, which have resulted in rapid information growth in variety and is somehow changing all aspects of social organization, including education, economy, health, government, warfare, and levels of democracy. The people who are able to partake in this form of society are sometimes called either computer users or even digital citizens, defined by K. Mossberger as “Those who use the Internet regularly and effectively”. This is one of many dozen internet terms that have been identified to suggest that humans are entering a new and different phase of society.
In international development, good governance is a way of measuring how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources in a preferred way. Governance is "the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented ". Governance in this context can apply to corporate, international, national, or local governance as well as the interactions between other sectors of society.
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was a two-phase United Nations-sponsored summit on information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis. One of its chief aims was to bridge the global digital divide separating rich countries from poor countries by increasing internet accessibility in the developing world. The conferences established 17 May as World Information Society Day.
Governance is all the processes of interaction be they through the laws, norms, power or language of an organized society over a social system. It is done by the government of a state, by a market, or by a network. It is the decision-making among the actors involved in a collective problem that leads to the creation, reinforcement, or reproduction of social norms and institutions". In lay terms, it could be described as the political processes that exist in and between formal institutions.
Internet censorship in Tunisia significantly decreased in January 2011, following the ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, as the new acting government removed filters on social networking sites such as YouTube.
The United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force was a multi-stakeholder initiative associated with the United Nations which is "intended to lend a truly global dimension to the multitude of efforts to bridge the global digital divide, foster digital opportunity and thus firmly put ICT at the service of development for all".
Technology governance means the governance, i.e., the steering between the different sectors—state, business, and NGOs—of the development of technology. The concept is based on the notion of innovation and of techno-economic paradigm shifts according to the theories of Joseph A. Schumpeter, Christopher Freeman, Carlota Perez, etc. The thought is that sure periods in economic development are commanded by a worldview driving innovation that impacts through finance components, hierarchical change, more prominent returns, and so forth. Likewise, the financial and social circle to such a degree, that a whole paradigm is begat by them. Right now, that worldview driving innovation is information and communications technology (ICT). As per Development Hypothesis, states, areas, or different networks don't consequently advance, or even go into, these key innovations, but instead should be guided there by dynamic intervention, by the State part. Innovation administration, is hence about how this is hypothetically and essentially done, which institutions are ideal for such a scene, how the education of administrators need to look like on the off chance that they will have the authoritative ability to manage such issues, and so on. Technology governance is a public policy concept; it is not to be confused with inner-corporate arrangements of organisation and IT arrangements, sometimes called "Information Technology Governance" or Corporate governance of information technology.
Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology is a Directorate-General of the European Commission. DG Connect is responsible for managing the Digital Agenda.
The Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) was a United Nations multistakeholder Working group initiated after the 2003 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) first phase Summit in Geneva failed to agree on the future of Internet governance. The first phase of World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) agreed to continue the dialogue on Internet Governance in the Declaration of Principles and Action Plan adopted on 12 December 2003, to prepare for a decision at the second phase of the WSIS in Tunis during November 2005. In this regard, the first phase of the Summit requested the United Nations Secretary-General to establish a Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG).
Digital rights are those human rights and legal rights that allow individuals to access, use, create, and publish digital media or to access and use computers, other electronic devices, and telecommunications networks. The concept is particularly related to the protection and realization of existing rights, such as the right to privacy and freedom of expression, in the context of digital technologies, especially the Internet. The laws of several countries recognize a right to Internet access.
Internet governance is the development and application of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programs that shape the evolution and use of the Internet. This article describes how the Internet was and is currently governed, some of the controversies that occurred along the way, and the ongoing debates about how the Internet should or should not be governed in the future.
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a multistakeholder governance group for policy dialogue on issues of Internet governance. It brings together all stakeholders in the Internet governance debate, whether they represent governments, the private sector or civil society, including the technical and academic community, on an equal basis and through an open and inclusive process. The establishment of the IGF was formally announced by the United Nations Secretary-General in July 2006. It was first convened in October–November 2006 and has held an annual meeting since then.
The Tunis Commitment was a consensus statement of the World Summit on the Information Society, adopted on November 18, 2005, in Tunis, Tunisia.
Francis Fabien Michel Muguet (1955–2009) was a French chemist who advocated open access to information.
József Györkös is a Slovenian university professor and former politician. He graduated from the University of Maribor and has a PhD in computer science. He is currently director of the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) and part time professor at that university, with research interest in information society and media convergence. For several years Györkös was a state secretary in the government of Republic of Slovenia. He grew up as a member of the Hungarian community in the multicultural environment of the city of Lendava/Lendva, Slovenia.
Multistakeholder governance is a practice of governance that employs bringing multiple stakeholders together to participate in dialogue, decision making, and implementation of responses to jointly perceived problems. The principle behind such a structure is that if enough input is provided by multiple types of actors involved in a question, the eventual consensual decision gains more legitimacy, and can be more effectively implemented than a traditional state-based response. While the evolution of multistakeholder governance is occurring principally at the international level, public-private partnerships (PPPs) are domestic analogues.
Anriette Esterhuysen is a human rights defender and computer networking pioneer from South Africa. She has pioneered the use of Internet and Communications Technologies (ICTs) to promote social justice in South Africa and throughout the world, focusing on affordable Internet access. She was the Executive Director of the Association for Progressive Communications from 2000 until April 2017, when she became APC's Director of Policy and Strategy. In November 2019 United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Esterhuysen to Chair the Internet Governance Forum’s Multistakeholder Advisory Group.
Multistakeholder participation is a specific governance approach whereby relevant stakeholders participate in the collective shaping of evolutions and uses of the Internet.