IGF 2011 – The role Diplo played

Six main sessions, over 80 workshops, more than 40 remote hubs, and 12,000 tweets have characterised this year’s Internet Governance Forum (IGF), which took place last week on 27-30 September. Several pre-IGF events were held on Monday, 26th September.

The 6th IGF welcomed hundreds of delegates to Nairobi, Kenya, for the most anticipated Internet governance event of the year. Remote participation facilities also opened the doors to hundreds of participants who participated in the sessions and workshops remotely. Analysis and reports in various journals, such as in The Economist, helped raise the IGF’s global visibility.

Let’s take a look at Diplo’s workshops, events, and social media buzz surrounding #igf11. 

Diplo’s workshops

Diplo’s packed schedule of workshops touched upon a number of hot IG issues, including Net neutrality, connectivity and access, content, and the involvement of young people. The list of workshops is available here.

A special workshop on E-participation Principles explored the online channels for participation in other global meetings, and explored ways in which online interaction could be strengthened. The panel drew experiences from IGF remote participation success stories, and agreed on a set of e-participation principles. In true e-participation spirit, the principles were drafted ‘on the cloud’, and are available, together with a replay of inputs, here.

Launch of two new publications

Two publications – Emerging Leaders for the Digital World, and the Book of Abstracts – were launched by Diplo during the IGF. A special event marked the launch of Emerging Leaders for the Digital World, which was attended by European Commission Vice-president Neelie Kroes, over 35 Diplo alumni, and several remote participants.

[Read full story | download press release]

The publications were a success: due to high demand, all copies were distributed within the first two days! The full-text online version and extracts of Emerging Leaders for the Digital World are available here, whereas the full-text Book of Extracts and most research papers are available here.

#IGF11 aggregator

A few days before the start of the IGF, we announced the link to our special IGF 2011 Social Media Aggregator: https://igf2011.diplomacy.edu. 

The aggregator successfully achieved what it aimed to do: aggregate all the links to blogs and tweets posted in relation to the IGF. Over 12,000 tweets, carrying the #igf11 hashtag, were collated in a matter of days. The tweets, posted by participants in Nairobi, as well as remote participants, were categorised according to the workshop/session number. The aggregator also picked up tweets tagged with #igfbuzz. This special hashtag gathered ‘corridor conversations’, short videos, gossip, and other curiosities. The stream is also available at

Diplo’s IG community: more vibrant than ever

The group ‘IGF 2011’ was the featured group of the month on www.diplointernetgovernance.org, as members discussed workshops, agendas, side-events, and other IGF-related topics. The highlight, though, was the various blog posts written by IGF participants, some of whom participated remotely. The following blog posts were posted during the IGF week. Comments are most welcome!

• Jou Kali – short explanation of Internet and its governance – Jovan Kurbalija
• IGF in transition… – Jovan Kurbalija
• Wisdom from the Father – Sheba Mohammid
• Beckstrom Advocates Multi-Stakeholderism for One World, One Internet – Sheba Mohammid
• IGF 2011: Impressions of a first timer #101 #96 – Eric Kamara
• Transforming higher education through broadband  – Priyanthi Daluwatte
• Facebook and Richard Stallman – Deirdre Williams
• Increasing our participation in the global conversation (#67) – Michele Marius
• Women and Internet Governance – Angelic Alihusain-del Castilho
• States concerns ‘legitimate’ – Special Rapporteur at #ws205 #IGF11 – Stephanie Borg Psaila
• Moving towards open data – #212 #IGF11 – Michele Marius
• IGF 2011: Gems from the New Delegates Briefing #IGF11 #O1 – Kolubahzizi T. Howard
• Moving Beyond Remote Participation towards E-Participation #67 – Keisha Taylor
• eParticipation principles – Priyanthi Daluwatte
• The heart and soul of blogging – Mary Murphy
• IGF 2011: Emerging Issues of Mobile Internet #IGF11 #192 – Kolubahzizi T. Howard
• “Being in” Nairobi at the IGF – Deirdre Williams
• IGF 2011: Human Rights and Governance for Development #IGF11 Main Session – Kolubahzizi T. Howard

​The IGF, of course, does not take place for only four days a year, but is a 365-day a year event. Diplo will continue e-participation and aggregation-sharing with you as we analyse and report on the 6th IGF and plan for 2012. We invite you to continue the process with us.