Methodology
The mandate that was given by ECOSOC to the CSTD secretariat has been addressed through
the following steps:
1. Review the identified international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet.
The data that was initially gathered through the CG was reviewed and reorganised.
Adjustments were made in the listing of issues to allow more detailed information on the
relevant mechanisms.5 The issues were then classified under the following seven broad
clusters according to their main attributes:
infrastructure and standardisation
security
human rights
legal
economic
development
sociocultural
It should be noted, however, that this classification in seven broad clusters is only indicative.
Its objective is to assist readers in their understanding of the complex field of Internet public
policy. Most of the issues are intersectoral, and consequently, they could also be classified in
other clusters, depending on the context.
2. List where there are international mechanisms addressing these issues, and identify the
status of these mechanisms, if any.
As part of the review, the mechanisms identified by the CG have been examined: the
mechanisms that were retained from the CG’s work are marked as OLD in the database;
NEW mechanisms were added, where appropriate; some general mechanisms identified by
WGEC (e.g. mentioning the name of the organisation) were supplemented by more specific
mechanisms describing the activities of the organisations mentioned (e.g. consultation
mechanisms, conventions, events); some mechanisms were dropped because they did not
fulfill the criterion of being ‘international’.
Altogether, the database has 643 mechanisms, classified in 40 issues, in 7 clusters. These
consist of organisations, policy processes, and policy instruments, among others. Several
mechanisms, such as the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), appear under more than one
issue. The list of mechanisms is not exhaustive, given the breadth and constant evolution of
the field of Internet public policy.
5
Refer to the Annex for a detailed comparison between the general description of the issues identified through
the CG and the list of issues presented in the database.
3