The Internet Governance Forum Advisory Group (IGF AG) to the UN Secretary-General, selected by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 17 May, met in Geneva on 22-23 May to discuss the agenda and the programme of the Athens Meeting (31 October - 3 November 2006).

Members of the group and observers had a two-day meeting meeting under the leadership of Nitin Desai and Markus Kummer.

In an open and transparent discussion, the draft of the program included main topics for each day of the coming IGF meeting in Athens. These are :
- Access ( Internet connectivity, policies and costs with following workshops on: open (file) standards, investment incentives, etc.)
- Security ( building trust online, protecting users from spam, phishing, viruses, maintain security while protecting privacy and workshops with people from technologies, ISP, CERT, law enforcement and human rights, workshops by ITU (cybersecurity) and OECD (spam toolkit) )
- Diversity ( Promoting multilinguism through IDN, and local content and Respecting geographical diversity)
- Openness ( Free flow of information, ideas and access to knowledge)

The IGF AG consists of 46 people from different countries and cultures and is a good example of the way the UN opened up during the WSIS process. This includes 20 representatives from the governmental sector, 10 from the business sector, 7 representing civil society and 9 from the ICANN system. All stakeholders are well represented - governments, civil society, business, and the relevant international organizations, e.g. ITU, ICANN, ISOC, IETF, International Chamber of Commerce, UNESCO, Internet registries and registrars, and others.

People involved in the proceedings say that the IGF will be launched this year in Athens, but will continue in 2007 in Brazil, and in 2008.

IGF website - includes webcast and transcripts of the session
http://www.intgovforum.org/index.htm

EDRI-gram : Consultations on Internet Governance Forum (1.03.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.4/igf

(Contribution by Veni Markovski - EDRi-Member ISOC Bulgaria)