A nine-member student-staff-faculty documentary journalism team from Elon's Imagining the Internet Center and School of Communications covered the Internet Governance Forum-USA at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 2.
Read the Elon team’s coverage of the event on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ImagineInternet and http://igfusa.wordpress.com. The Imagining the Internet Web site will also host in-depth video packages and written content from the first Internet policy event of this type ever held in the United States.
The Elon documentary journalism team included students Morgan Little, Randy Gyllenhaal, Tyler West, Ashley Barnas, Josh Chagani and Alex Trice, staff members J McMerty and Colin Donohue and associate professor Janna Anderson.
The event featured dozens of Internet experts who represented government, civil society, the technology/research sector, industry and academia in a discussion to help broaden understanding of emerging issues and identify best practices that can inform global decisions that affect global communications networks.
Among the discussion topics were The Future of the Internet, GenNext’s Online Future, Cyber Security, Freedom of Information in a Web 2.0 World, Critical Internet Resources, Privacy and Security Implications for Web 2.0, and Access Perspectives, Challenges and Opportunities.
Participants included Markus Kummer of the UN Secretariat for the global IGF, Larry Strickling of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Andrew McLaughlin of the technology office in the Obama White House, Lee Rainie of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Phil Bond of TechAmerica and others. The closing plenary included Ambassador Phil Verveer and Richard Beaird of the U.S. State Department,
Vic Costello, associate professor in the School of Communications, prepared a video on youth uses of emerging media for use at the conference. Several children of faculty and staff at Elon have speaking roles in the video, which is aimed at pointing out serious topics for youth that are up for discussion. (See the video at: http://facstaff.elon.edu/vcostello/igf3/)
J McMerty, coordinator of video projects for the School of Communications, assisted Cotelco in patching in to Elon’s video coverage to help complete the live Web streaming of video during all conference plenaries and workshops.
A multistakeholder steering group organized the IGF-USA, including: Fiona Alexander, NTIA; Janna Anderson, Elon University; Iren Borissova, VeriSign; Beckwith Burr, Wilmer Hale; Marilyn Cade, ICT Strategies; Derrick Cogburn, American University; Steve DelBianco, Net Choice; Robert Guerra, Freedom House; Liesyl Franz, TechAmerica; Brenden Kuerbis, Internet Governance Project; Janice Lachance, Special Libraries Association; Leslie Martinkovics, Verizon; Katitza Rodriguez, EPIC; and Heather Shaw, United States Council for International Business.
The fourth annual international Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is being hosted by the Government of Egypt in Sharm El Sheikh Nov. 15-18, 2009. The overall theme of the meeting will be Internet Governance – Creating Opportunities for All. Elon will also be sending a team to document that event.