Internet Society Members Across the Globe Rally to Call to Action

Last week was a high point in our long history of engagement with a growing global community that shares our mission of promoting the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of everyone, everywhere.

In a live-streamed event which we believe has set a new benchmark for global engagement, our community came together to be a force for progress and action. During the Q1 Community Forum on 15 January and in the days that followed, more than 600 individual member participants heard the Internet Society’s CEO Kathy Brown talk about the successes achieved together in 2014 as well as the key Internet technology, policy and development issues and challenges that are important for the organization as 2015 gets underway.

The Forum highlighted several areas that represent a focus for the Internet Society this year as part of the Internet Society 2015 Action Plan, including: the value of the collaborative, bottom-up approach to Internet governance; the importance of the continuing WSIS process; the need to restore trust in the Internet; the next steps in Internet security; and the most effective ways to increase access to the Internet opportunity. In summarizing the work of the organization this year, Kathy Brown called the community to action to advance the Internet debate, self-organize and strive for positive change.

A total of 108 countries were represented at the Forum, with a geographic reach that spans the entire globe. Brazil, Canada, Ghana, India, Kenya, the United States, Pakistan, Spain, Switzerland, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the UK all showed especially strong attendance figures. People even interrupted their sleep to tune in from as far afield as Samoa.

See the numbers here!

Designed to provide an interactive platform for dialogue, the first global Community Forum of the year attracted many questions on a broad range of Internet Governance and technology-led issues, giving a voice to the concerns of our community members. Its success follows a number of regional community forums held around the world in December and January that offered the community an opportunity to talk with ISOC Regional Bureau Directors about 2014 achievements and plans for 2015.

There will be additional Forums throughout the year, with the Q2 Forum in April and the Q3 event being a fully virtual ‘town hall’ meeting of the Internet Society’s global community, streamed from Auckland, New Zealand. More details to follow.

If you’re a member, login to watch the full Q1 Community Forum here.

If you’d like to become one, sign up to be an ISOC member here!

Q1 Community Forum: Participants Across the World