Who is running the Internet in your country?

19 August 2014 13:45 - 15:45 | Room: Salle Rhône 3

How often do you stop to think about who is making the important decisions about the Internet in your country? Have you ever wondered how you can influence the Internet governance environment in a positive way for libraries?

Internet governance refers to the development of shared principles and rules for shaping the evolution and use of the Internet. The ultimate idea is all stakeholders in the future of the Internet - Governments, the private sector and civil society – will be able to work together to contribute to a full-functioning Internet for everyone.

IFLA’s role

IFLA has been participating in Internet governance discussions since the World Summits on the Information Society in 2003 and 2005. Every year new issues emerge that could potentially affect libraries, such as surveillance and the loss of personal privacy, or the allocation of the allocation of new top-level domain names that could include ".book" or ".library". Our position is to ensure that the library viewpoint is included in discussions so that governments and businesses don’t forget how important it is to protect people’s freedom of expression in the library, or provide access to the cultural and historical record in an age when bit rot (data or software deterioration/loss) threatens the integrity of digital heritage.

We do this by attending the annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF), and by encouraging our members to participate in their national and regional IGF events. In 2014 IFLA representatives participated in workshops on public access to ICTs and copyright reform at the African, Asia-Pacific, European and Latin American IGFs. The outcomes of these activities will be discussed at the 3^rd meeting of the Dynamic Coalition on Public Access in Libraries (PAL-DC) at the IGF in Istanbul in September. IFLA is the co-organiser of the PAL-DC with Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL).

The road ahead

A significant agenda item for the main IGF is how to follow up the NetMundial conference held in Brazil in April. This conference bought together governments, civil society, the technical sector and business representatives from 97 countries to discuss the post-Snowden Internet environment. The outcome document, the Multistakeholder Statement of Sao Paulo outlines a set of principles for Internet governance and a supplies a roadmap for their implementation. IFLA participated in NetMundial and ensured libraries were mentioned in the opening speeches, as well as making sure public access was recognised in the outcome document as a powerful tool to provide access to the Internet.

This year’s FAIFE session (Mass Internet Surveillance and Privacy - how does it affect you and your library?) tackles the issues of surveillance from a library perspective.

Join the discussion!