The meeting will address five main themes: reaching the next billion; promoting cyber-security and trust; managing critical Internet resources; taking stock and the way forward; and emerging issues -- the Internet of tomorrow. In addition to plenary sessions on these themes, there will be open meetings and thematic workshops to discuss specific issues and share best practices.
At the opening of the meeting, participants stood for a minute of silence to commemorate the victims of the terrorist attacks of last week in Mumbai, at the request of the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, Jomo Kwame Sundaram, who expressed, on behalf of the Secretary-General, his condolences to the families of the victims of the attacks.
Opening Ceremony
The UN Assistant Secretary-General said India was a very appropriate venue for this meeting. Here, in India 's Silicon Plateau, we see at first hand how well the savvy application of information and communication technologies has accelerated the nation's development. The Internet has become the backbone of our globalized world and is transforming our lives, and thus we should all take an interest in how it is run and managed.
That is very much the spirit of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), a space for frank and enlightened debate, shaping and informing the decision-making processes. The IGF has become a valuable melting pot for forging a common understanding of complex Internet issues from diverse points of view. The year 2010 will represent a turning point for the Forum, when the General Assembly will decide on whether or not to extend the initial five-year mandate of the IGF. Jomo announced that the 2010 IGF meeting would take place in Vilnius, Lithuania.