This book presents a digest of the increasing wealth of knowledge on issues related to Internet governance. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) provides the institutional home of the IGF Secretariat, which has prepared this book with the support of the ITU and UNESCO.

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was conceived as a platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue on public policy related to Internet governance. This dialogue was focused on the public policy debate on Internet governance, as defined by the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and contained in the Tunis Agenda. The IGF has, in its short history, broadened the debate on Internet governance. Issues of child protection for instance came to the fore at the second meeting in Rio de Janeiro, as did linkages with sustainable development and climate change.

This first ‘IGF Book’ contains the proceedings of the first two meetings: in Athens (2006) and in Rio de Janeiro (2007). It aims to inform interested readers about Internet governance and the IGF, but also give them an insight into multi-stakeholder cooperation in general terms.