Early in 2007, in collaboration with partners and stakeholders, IISD commissioned exploratory papers to be written from the perspective of the Internet governance and sustainable development communities with the aim of discovering where links between these two communities of researchers and practitioners could be fostered. The premise of the project was that these two historically disparate policy communities will each gain if they can discover and leverage the overlap in their respective visions for the future. The papers focused on five areas in which potential links could be anchored: governance processes; economic barriers to development; the capacity of developing countries to participate in international governance; access to knowledge as a critical input to decision-making; and indicators for development. IISD has created the following booklet containing short editorials on each of the pair of papers, which includes observations from an associated e-conference along with our
conclusions regarding common positions, mutual challenges and differences, and where lessons from one community's experience might contribute to progress by the other.
Can a dialogue between these two communities contribute to mitigating degradation of natural and human environments in developed and developing countries; help avoid the economic marginalization of developing countries facing digital exclusion from global markets; and help maintain and promote cultural diversity and traditional knowledge? Internet Governance and Sustainable Development contemplates such questions, and stimulates further dialogue.
