The title is the message: We live in the age of „digital interdependence“, says the Final Report of the UN High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation (HLP.DC). Since the days of the UN World Summit on the Information Society (2002 – 2005) the world has changed. Two decades ago, we discussed the Internet revolution. This was seen more as a technical issue with some political implications. Today, digitalization has penetrated all areas of life and there is less and less difference anymore between offline and online. Cyberspace is everywhere.

The UN High Level Panel has opened our eyes, rocked our minds and invited us to discuss the future of the world at the eve of the third decade in the 21st century. The 2020s will be crucial to build a people centered information society. In 2025, there will be the second WSIS Review Conference (WSIS +20). 2030 marks the target year of the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

In our eyes there are three issues for #NextGenerationInternetGovernance, which are in the center of the discussion

1. How to organize a holistic approach to Internet Governance, taking into acocunt the interdependence of stakeholders and the interdependence of sectors?

2. How to combine multilateralism and multistakeholderism in global Internet policy making?

3. How to enhance global mechanisms to frame the future development of digital cooperation?

In the Internet there is no single solution, no „silver bullet“. With this publication we want to show a broad variety of different approaches and opinions. This could help to broaden our minds, to deepen our understanding and to contribute to the way forward.

When WSIS established in its Tunis Agenda (2005) the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), the basic idea was to create a discussion space for all the new cyber and digital issues to enable decisions makers to find sustainable solutions in the various international, regional and national institutions, which have a mandate to take such decisions.

The idea has worked. The IGF is a success, even if there is plenty of room for improvement. The 14th IGF in Berlin (November 2019) will be another opportunity to look deeper into the still widely unknown territory of cyberspace.

The editors of this book were guided by the two basic ideas of the UN report: The Multistakeholder and the multidisciplinary approach. We have structured the report in two parts: On the one hand we have invited representatives from various stakeholder groups – government, parliament, business, civil society, technical and academic community – to comment on the report. On the other hand, we have asked experts from the three big „basket“ of the Internet Governance Ecosystem – cybersecurity, digital economy and human rights – to reflect about the report. And we added our own proposition, how cyberpeace and digital cooperation can be enhanced in the 2020s.

In it, we develop the contours of a new normative order of the digital with good rules for a better Internet: Relying on the formative power of norms within our digital ecosystem, we develop a multitiered approach to a #NextGenerationInternetGovernance. Technology, we argue, influences our behavior, but the focus on code and standards as ‘telling us what to do’ can be reoriented through our value-based normative approach. Rather than letting actors within the Internet Governance realm instrumentalize security or let profits dictate policy, our approach holds the promise of sustainable digitalization and digital sustainability.mBased on a forward-looking reading of the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation we call for a #NextGenerationInternetGovernance to emerge over the next decade. It should be comprised of four loosely coupled, interdependent and mutually reinforcing governance frameworks - on peace, economy, rights, and AI - to be bootstrapped at and facilitated by the IGF. We propose to make Internet governance work for all through four interlinked policies: an #OnlinePeaceFramework (Digital Peace Plan), a #DigitalMarshallPlan (Digital Sustainability Agenda promoting inclusive economic growth and sustainability through internationally coordinated technology policy frameworks), #OnlineRights4all (A Digital Human Rights Agenda), and #ResponsibleAIStewardship (framework for future-proofing the research, development and deployment of AI based on a human being-oriented conception of technology and established Internet governance norms).

All contributions are extremely valuable perspectives on the IGF and Internet Governance. To get just a first taste of the many crucial contributions to the future of Internet governance this book has to offer, consider (among many others) these selected arguments:

Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the internet and Internet Governance, opens the discussion asking for new solutions that don’t require regulation or treaties but instead rely on practice guided by transnational norms as discussed e.g. in the Commission for Stability in Cyberspace. In line with this book‘s editorial he also lists several areas where the IGF could be significantly improved; namely (1) identification of problems; (2) reporting on progress of solutions and (3) recommendations for venues to tackle problems and possibly creation of new ones.

ITU Secretary General, Houlin Zaho, elaborates on the historic and current leading role of the ITU as a multilateral, multistakeholder and consensus based institution, that drives UN efforts in thee ICT for SDGs and a just information society.

Amadeep Singh, one of the Chairs of the UN High Level Panel, discusses the opportunities that new technologies like the internet and AI create for us to make a new start at international governance with. He recommends to root governance development deeply within networks of practice (e.g. health or finance) in order to make them more meaningful for communities of practice and enable smart learning loops, moonshots and leapfrogging.

Guy Berger, one of the originators of UNESCO’s work on Internet Universality and the ROAM (Human Rights, Openness, Access and Multistakeholder) principles, elaborates on how these tools can be used by UNESCO and its member states to evolve next generation internet governance.

Marietje Schaake, a former Member of the European Parliament and now Stanford Cyber Policy Center’s international policy director, calls for a “serious reality check”. We’ve talked the talk: between “Magna Carta, Social Compact, New Deal or Geneva Convention Online” there will soon be “no more big words unused”. Multi-stakeholder gatherings, she qrgues, should focus less on new processes, statements, and more on results and enforcement. The time has come “to move beyond words: The IGF is the perfect moment for a reality check and some tough love.”

German parliamentarian and Chair of the Digital Agenda Committee, Jimmy Schulz, urges and organizes a deeper integration of parliamentarians into internet governance and the IGF in particular. He calls for us to find courage and to team up in a movement for digital Enlightenment aimed at liberating people from their “self-imposed immaturity”.

Anriette Esterhuysen from the Association for Progressive Computing (APC), one of the longest true civil society stakeholder with deep expertise in ICT4D and Human Rights, stresses in her piece that states should live up to their responsibilities and use all stakeholders to guide them. Multistakeholder Governance only complements this traditional approach.Several areas of good practice and challenges are discussed and thee IGF is identified as the best mechanism to evolve and tackle thee next generation internet governance.

Anette Mühlberg from the German Trade Union ver.di refers to the consequences of global digitalization for the future of work. Artificial intelligence will have affect the way we work and live and she refers to the receommendations of the ILO Global Commission on the Future of Work and the G20/OECD principles which should guide the development and deployment of Artificial Intelligence.

Thomas Schneider, former ICANN GAC Chair as well as WSIS, IGF and EURODIG veteran puts forward learnings from Switzerland‘s history that apply to the IGF and Internet Governance. Increased differentiation and interdependence in the global information society requires a strong United Nations that fosters peace and cooperation. The recommendations by the High Level Panel can be combined and refined to set the right incentives to enable hard but productive decisions that balance competition, solidarity and voluntary compromise.

Carlos Afonso, one of the architects behind one of the most successful practical implementations of Multistakeholder Internet Governance at the national level in Brazil, shares his well grounded views on how multistakeholder and multilateral initiatives need to build on each other. While he sees improving the IGF as the way forward, the concrete measures of improvement need to be worked out further.

Lynn St. Amour, is the current Chair of the IGF‘s central Multistakeholder Advisory Groups. She urges all stakeholders to focus on improving the IGFs impact and support, together as well as on actionable outcomes by soliciting and addressing the interests and needs of stakeholder (practice) communities

Robin Mansell, one of the top academic thought leaders in media governance at the London School of Economics, asks a very difficult and important question that is at the center of developing a next generation cyber governance: which services are offered by public institutions and which by private companies.

Jonathan Zittrain from Harvard's Berkman Klein Center reviews the evolution of governance of the digital space from the early era focused on user rights to the current focus on avoiding user harm and ensuring "public health" (online). Asking stakeholders to synthesize both perspectives, he is looking for us to develop the ideas and institutions of #NextGenerationInternetGovernance to be legitimate because of the inclusive an deliberative, and where possible, federated arrangements that resolve challenges in a dynamic equilibrium of interests.

Wolfgang Ischinger, Chair of the Munich Security Conference, which is one of the pioneering world leader fora for deliberation about international (cyber) security, makes the key point that multistakeholder governance is the only viable approach, but that trust between actors needs a shared understanding of the problem space both on the expert technical level as well as on the strategic political level. He also highlights the various innovative Cybersecurity initiatives that were started in the last years.

Christoph Steck from Telefónica build on the company‘s New Digital Deal report published not long ago. His pitch is to engage in more agile, transparent, transnational cooperation to implement the New Digital Deal for more human-centric digitization envision by his company.

And finally Bill Drake, who has been an eminent analyst and advisor since WSIS and throughout the IGF‘s history, summarizes and weights in on the viability of the main aspects of the IGF Plus proposal. He especially stresses the need for the IGF as information clearing house.

In conclusion we would like to thank Katharina Mosene for her fantastic editorial support. We also would to thank the German Ministry for Economic Affairs, and in particular Rudolf Gridl und Heiko Wildner, for their support. We also wish to thank Google for making this book possible.