http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk An infuriatingly infrequently updated reflection on the Internet, the US, and life in general Sun, 21 Sep 2008 06:01:23 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en If anyone every wondered whether the Internet was vital, or if the new Internet Governance Forum suffered from a lack of interest, worry no more. Next week, a series of events will be held in Geneva covering the follow-up to the World Summit on the Information Society and most importantly ... http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk/2007/05/16/welcome-to-geneva-the-entire-city-is-fully-booked/ I have just announced the creation of the "dynamic coalition" for online collaboration in the IGF meeting in Geneva. Effectively this is a group of people who plan to test and run online tools to help governments, businesses, civil society, NGOs and so on, have discussions and arrive at solutions, ... http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk/2007/02/13/dynamic-coalition-for-online-collaboration/ The Greek delegate has just spoken at the stocktaking meeting of the Internet Governance Forum in Geneva. He gave some stats from the first Athens meeting in November 2006 that might be worth preserving: 1350 participants (including 152 media, and coming from 97 countries) 8 translation booths and 20 translators 50 buses 7 metal detectors 4 ... http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk/2007/02/13/some-stats-on-the-igf-athens-meeting/ I am in Geneva for a stock-take of the first Internet Governance Forum in Athens last November. It should be an interesting meeting. The one thing that no one is any doubt about is that the IGF will be bigger and more important in 2007. Born out of international discussion (some ... http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk/2007/02/12/the-internet-rollercoaster-starts-up-the-track-again-igf-in-geneva/ Starting 5 February, I will be the "general manager, public participation" for ICANN - an organisation I have closely followed and frequently criticised almost since its inception in 1999. I'm excited about it, and the possibilities the position holds. Here then is a blog post about why I took the job ... http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk/2007/01/25/so-i-took-this-job-at-icann/ I took place in a discussion with various notables just before Xmas for an edition of the BBC's Digital Planet radio programme and just remembered it has now come out and you can download and listen to it from its website (although I will also stick it below for ease). The ... http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk/2007/01/05/vista-and-net-governance-discussion-on-the-bbc/ I've spent quite a bit of time recently building and running online participation websites - or, in English, trying to get people on the Internet learning about and interacting with physical meetings. Both have been for Internet organisations, which should theoretically make things easier. The first was the Internet Governance Forum ... http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk/2006/12/07/online-participation-the-possibilities-and-the-realities/ I mentioned about a month ago how I was considering setting up a second blog so I could more easily separate my personal and professional life. And yesterday, twice, I was reminded that there is a bit of an unusual overlap when I spoke to two people: one, the spokesman ... http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk/2006/11/16/how-to-avoid-learning-a-little-too-much-about-kierens-life/ The secretariat of the Internet Governance Forum, part of the United Nations, has updated its website to include all the session transcripts, plus Markus Kummer's "informal summing-up" of them. More interestingly though it has also stuck up an online form asking for feedback on the meeting, asking the broad questions: What ... http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk/2006/11/13/un-asks-for-net-governance-forum-feedback/ I've a piece in The Guardian today which is a broad summary of the IGF last week. It basically says that what could have been a disaster ended up being a success and finishes with Nitin Desai's arranged marriage analogy - which I think was brilliant. Internet governance: it's like an ... http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk/2006/11/09/guardian-article-on-the-igf/