Foreword
In 2004, when I told my friends what I was doing as a member of WGIG – the Working Group on Internet Governance – they often called on me to fix their printers or install new software. As far as they were concerned, I was doing something related to computers. I remember taking a quick poll of my fellow WGIG members asking them how they explained to their friends, partners, and children what they were doing. Like me, they too were having difficulty. This is one of the reasons I started designing and preparing Diplo’s first text and drawings related to Internet governance. Today, just eight years later, the same people who asked me to install their printers are coming back to me with questions about how to keep ownership of their data on Facebook or how to ensure their children can navigate the Internet safely. Increasingly, they are concerned about a possible cyberwar and the online risks for water supply, power plants, and other critical infrastructure in their cities and countries. How far we all have come! Internet governance is moving increasingly into the public eye. The more modern society depends on the Internet, the more relevant Internet governance will be. Far from being the remit of some select few, Internet governance concerns all of us to a lesser or greater extent, whether we are one of the two billion using the Internet or a non-user who depends on the facilities it services. Internet governance is obviously more relevant for those who are deeply integrated in the e-world, whether through e-business or networking on Facebook. Yet it has a broad reach. Government officials, military personnel, lawyers, diplomats, and others who are involved in either providing public goods or preserving public stability are also concerned. Internet governance, and in particular the protection of privacy and human rights, is a focal point for civil society activists and non-governmental organisations. For academia and innovators worldwide, Internet governance must ensure that the 1