I'm watching the video feed (English version) from the opening ceremony of the IGF. The audio and video are of good quality.
I hear that nearly half of the attendees couldn't get a pass to go into the meeting room - 800 seats for 1400 people. There seems to be grumbling abut the fairness of the system used to decide who got passes.
From the video I can see several things. First is that the camera man is, indeed, a man - his eye (and camera) seem drawn to the younger women sitting in the audience as well as a group sitting at a table on the side of the room. Second is that the number of people dressed in suits is rather larger than at ICANN meetings, and much larger than at IETF meetings - but about the same as at meetings of the California Intellectual property bar.
There are many faces in the audience that I do not recognize.
And as usual the microphones are left open during the breaks - which lets us overhear some interesting unscripted chatter.
The igf20006.intgovforum.org website keeps breaking and I haven't been able to raise anyone on its chats.
Is there any IRC or IM based chats out there?
As for the opening remarks themselves - nothing special (yet). However, there have been several references to the the history of democracy in Athens and the issue of democracy in internet governance. Whether this is mere wind or whether it represents a real pressure for something not much seen in internet governance, democracy, is yet to be seen.
Posted by karl at October 30, 2006 1:41 AM