Dear reader,

Germany is proud and honoured to host the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) this year. Together with the IGF’s Multistakeholder Advisory Group appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, we have given this year’s IGF the title “One World. One Net. One Vision.” The intention is to stress the aspects the international Internet community share in common and to develop globally accepted solutions to today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. What solutions exist for functioning competition between large and small/medium-sized enterprises in the platform economy? How can we protect ourselves against attacks on the integrity of the Internet and its content whilst upholding data privacy and freedom of opinion? How can we succeed in maintaining and developing the global nature of the Internet with its emphasis on human rights – keeping it interoperable and freely accessible? What role does the Global South have in all of these developments, and how can we work together to increase its participation? These are just a few of the questions being discussed at this year’s IGF in the three major thematic fields of “data governance”, “safety and security” and “inclusion”.

I believe it is important not to allow our busy dayto-day lives to prevent us from looking ahead and thinking about what shape the Internet should take in the coming years and decades, and how the governance structures need to be designed. I therefore welcome the process on the future of Thomas Jarzombek, Commissioner for the Digital Industry and Startups and Federal Government Coordinator of German Aerospace Policy digital cooperation launched by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the first outcome of which was the report published by the panel in June. Germany supports the findings of the report and will particularly work to ensure that the idea of an “IGF plus”, improved and adapted to meet the new challenges, is pursued further. We will play an active role in this process.

This compendium also looks to the future, and the editors have succeeded in gathering a broad spectrum of views and opinions on all the issues of relevance to the future of Internet governance in the 21st century. It thus serves as an excellent vademecum for the participants at this year’s IGF which can continue to be used in future as a source of inspiration and ideas for the crucial debate on Internet governance in the coming years and decades. For this reason, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy quickly decided to support the volume with a substantial sum.