Researchers from the Imagining the Internet Center are conducting a video survey of Global Internet Governance Forum participants in Berlin in November 2019, recording interviews with dozens of people from dozens of nation-states and stakeholder groups around the world about the ongoing evolution humans and digital life. Use the video viewer to see their responses. Click on the first video to begin a player that will cycle through all visible on this page or click on those you wish to view. To see additional videos, click on the numbers at the end of the video column to display additional videos – there are dozens more than you see here. The question on this page:
We’d like to ask about Enhancing Global Cooperation in the Digital Age – What will bring people together and build better cooperation globally on digital issues, digital regulation, security and trust?
Among the respondents are leaders involved with the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group, Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Internet Society and civil society, business, government, academia, as well as non-governmental organization leaders from across the world.
Background:
Since 2006 the United Nations has facilitated global Internet Governance Forum meetings to encourage discussion of issues. IGF is one of the World Summit on the Information Society efforts toward sustainable development and its work contributes to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
The IGF does not make decisions regarding the evolution and operation of the Internet. Those tasks are taken on by many other global multistakeholder organizations, including the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), all of which consist of people who are continuing to work to evolve an open network on which more and more people can exchange a widening range of communications.
The Internet of 2019 is a extremely complex system on which both humans and untold numbers of bots communicate. In 1995 only about 1 percent of the world was connected; today about half of the people in the world have Internet access. The first billion was reached in 2005. The second billion in 2010. The third billion in 2014. It is estimated that today approximately 4 billion of the world’s nearly 7.64 billion people have access to the Internet.
As Internet accessibility, quality of service and responsiveness becomes more and more vital to day-to-day actions, entrenched institutions and newly rising organizations are challenged to identify and navigate intertwined threats and opportunities.
Global politics and everyone’s social and economic futures are weighing heavily in the balance of the decision-making of the multistakeholder organizations that have influence over the future evolution of the Internet.
Many additional global organizations are continually working to assess how their involvement might move the future forward in concert with the technical organizations for positive change, thus the Global Internet Governance Forum is at a turning point in its own evolution in 2019.
Interview participants in some aspect of Imagining the Internet’s 2019 Global IGF Video Survey:
Elzbieta Potocka, expert, Ministry of Digital Affairs, Poland; Bold Luvsanvandan, member, The State Great Hural (Parliament) of Mongolia, Mongolia; Kenneth Adu-Amanfoh, executive director, Africa Cybersecurity & Digital Rights Organisation, Ghana; Tatiana Shulga-Morskaya, associate researcher, University of Bordeaux, France; Stefanie Kemp, digital advisor, freelancer, Germany; Michelle Van Raalte, programme officer, RNW Media, Netherlands; Viacheslav Antonenko, software engineer, Usafe, Netherlands; Alexander Rabe, managing director, Association of the Internet Industry, Germany; Naomi Kitcher, consultant, Credo Global, United Kingdom; Abdulkarim Oloyede, senior lecturer, University of Ilorin, Nigeria; Judicaelle Irakoze, executive director, Choose Yourself Organization, Burundi; Jimson Olufuye, chief executive officer, Kontemporary, Nigeria; Yvan Rooseleer, co-founder, Belgian IT Academy Support Center, Belgium; Alexander Arakelov, development architect, Digidentity, Netherlands;
Samuel Gitonga Mutungi, member, Universal Services Advisory Council, Kenya; Armando Guio, member, Berkman Klein Center at Harvard, Colombia; Peace Oliver Amuge, program manager information sharing & networking, Women of Uganda, Uganda; Cindyneia Cantanhede, ambassador, Safernet NGO, Brazil; Andrey Shcherbovich, associate professor, Higher School of Economics, Russia; Leonid Volkov, founder, Internet Protection Society, Russia; Ian Marsden, student, HMKW Berlin, Germany; Umar Khan, student, Law College of University of Peshawar, Pakistan; Shreedeep Rayamajhi, editor in chief, RayZNews, Nepal; Alexandra Gonzalez, journalist, Deutsche Welle, Germany; Christian Mihr, executive director, Reporters Without Borders, Germany; Kumar Abhishek, co-founder, WE are SDGs, Germany; Markus Kummer, founding chair of IGF secretariat, Internet Governance Forum, Switzerland; Raymond Onuoha, research assistant, Lagos Business School, Nigeria; Kofi Asante, CEO, Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications, Ghana; Melissa Sassi, global head, IBM Hyper Protect Accelerator, United States;
Nataša Perućica, researcher, Diplo, Serbia; Mattias Bjärnemalm, advisor, The Greens European Free Alliance, Belgium; Nenja Wolbers, project manager, Stiftung Digitale-Chancen, Germany; Ivana Maida, executive secretary, National Movement on Digital Literacy, Indonesia; Olumide Babalola, co-founder, Digital Rights Lawyers Initiative, Nigeria; Pearse O’Donohue, director, Future Networks in the European Commission, Belgium; Bruna Toso de Alcântara, student, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; Stefano Trumpy, honorary president, Internet Society Italy Chapter, Italy; Stefano Trumpy, honorary president, Internet Society Italy Chapter, Italy; Andrise Bass, vice chair, NGO Committee on Sustainable Development New York, United States; Gisa Fuatai Purcell, director, Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation, United Kingdom; Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, team lead, LIRNEasia, Sri Lanka; Alex Comninos, researcher, Research ICT Africa, South Africa; Nnenna Nwakanma, chief world advocate, World Wide Web Foundation, Nigeria; Ron Da Silva, international board of directors member, ICANN, United States;
Mirwais Naiknal, planning and policy director, Ministry of Communications & IT, Afghanistan; Dima Samaro, MENA policy associate, AccessNow, Tunisia; Maurice Muller, representative, Bremen Parliament, Germany; Ben Jemaa, executive director, Mediterranean Federation of Internet Associations, Tunisia; Peixi Xu, director, Global Internet Governance Project, China; Chhabilal Sunar, member, Bageshwori Asal Shasan Club, Nepal; Maria Korniiets, ambassador, Youth IGF Movement, Ukraine; Agita Pasaribu, founder, Bully.id, Indonesia; Liljana Pecova-Ilieska, president, Center for Internet Development and Good Governance, North Macedonia; Jan Kleijssen, director, Information Society for the Council of Europe, Netherlands; Jan Kleijssen, director, Information Society for the Council of Europe, Netherlands; Nestor Bustamante, general manager, Lean Task Force, Argentina; Emmanuel Sam, national coordinator, MacPherson Foundation, Sierra Leone; Ricardo Campos, researcher, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany; Muheeb Saeed, program officer, Media Foundation for West Africa, Ghana;
Tim Engelhardt, human rights officer, United Nations, Germany; Rahel Winter, student, Hamburg University of Applied Science, Germany; Mauricio Hernández, data protection attorney, Bufete Soni Law Firm, Mexico; Mei Lin Fung, co-founder, People Centered Internet, Singapore; Andre Rebentisch, software project manager, Open Tech Summit, Germany; Miglė Mašanauskienė, communication programme coordinator, Lithuanian National Commission, Lithuania; Berin Szoka, president/founder, Tech Freedom, United States; Turkan Khalilova, student, Hamburg University, Azerbaijan; Yrjö Länsipuro, board member, Finland Internet Society, Finland; Raj Kumar Kattel, assistant secretary general, International Youth Committee, Nepal; Silvina Moschini, CEO, SheWorks!, United States; Robert Krimmer, professor, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia; Doreen Yomoah, communications consultant, International Telecommunication Union, Switzerland; Sherly Haristya, internet governance research consultant, Freelancer, Indonesia; Michel Chammas, ambassador, Youth IGF Movement, Lebanon; Joy Fakude, ambassador, Web Rangers South Africa, South Africa;
Nemma Iyer, founder, Pollicy, Uganda; Alejandra Chinchilla, student, Francisco Marroquin University, Guatemala; Madan Oberoi, executive director, Technology and Innovation INTERPOL, Singapore; Ayman Dababneh, head of business development, Dinarak, Jordan; Jay Paudyal, founder, Genlish Foundation, India; Gerwin De Roy, project manager, DW Akademie, Germany; Nigel Hickson, VP for UN & IGO Engagement, ICANN, United Kingdom; Alioune Badara Traore, regulatory council member, Malian Authority of Regulation of Telecommunications/ICT and Posts, Mali; Amel Saidane, steering committee member, Digital Arabia Network, Tunisia; Bhavna Jha, research associate, IT for Change, India; Paris Ma, ambassador, IFocus 2019, Hong Kong; Samuel Ndicho Bambo, foreign affairs officer, Ministry of External Relations Cameroon; Michele Neylon, CEO, Blacknight Solutions, Ireland; Sebastian Garcia, chairman, IT Commission for Lower Chamber of Paraguay Congress, Paraguay; Kjartan Olafsson, lecturer, University of Akureyri, Iceland;
Joseph Osei-Owusu, first deputy speaker, Parliament of Ghana, Ghana; Samuel George, member, Parliament, Ghana; Carolin Silbernagl, director of external engagement, Betterplace Lab, Germany; Alexander Isavnin, researcher, Internet Protection Society, Russia; Milton Guarderas, director, New York Bloktech Network, United States; Michelle Tsing, founder, Elevate the Blockchain Inc., United States; Galia Mancheva, project manager, Free Software Foundation Europe, Germany; Jose Manuel Pérez Marzabal, head of technology transactions & intellectual property, MTN Projects, Spain; Ajang Bhandari, project manager, Swift Technology, Nepal; Milton Cabral, project manager, Operation Core for the Information Society, Cape Verde; Emil Lindbald Kernell, advisor, Danish Institute for Human Rights, Denmark; Anna Loup, doctoral candidate, University of Southern California, United States; Amal Sfar, board member, EuroDemos Youth Mobility NGO, Italy; Carlo Von Lynx, evangelist technology developer & activist, Freelancer, Germany; Benita Izemengia Kelame, secretary general, Initiative 243, Democratic Republic of Congo;
Alina Radachynskaja, strategy manager, Open Data Belarus, Belarus; Agnese Pastorino, associate researcher, University of Sorbonne, France; Ayden Ferdeline, public interest technologist, Freelancer, Australia; William J. Drake, international fellow/lecturer, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Layal Bahnam, program manager, Maharat Foundation, Lebanon; Viviane Vinagre, youth ambassador, Internet Society IGF, Brazil; Eberhard Blocher, director, East African Home Pages, Germany; Marco Mattioli, participant, IGF Youth Summit, Germany; Milton Mueller, professor/researcher, Georgia Institute of Technology, United States; Mathilde Pottier, spokesperson, ISOC Italy Youth, Italy; Yawri Carr Quiros, student, University of Costa Rica, Costa Rica.
Click here to return to Imagining the Internet’s content gathered at Global IGF 2019.
-Imagining the Internet’s ethnographic documentary work at Global IGF 2019 is being conducted by undergraduate researchers Paloma Camacho, Maggie Brown, Cameron Wolfslayer, Jack Haley, Jared Mayerson, Brian Rea, Oliver Fischer, Maria Ramirez and Julia Walter of Elon University’s School of Communications, under the supervision of Elon faculty Alex Luchsinger.