What we talk about when we talk about gender. The title of this chapter is a riff on US novelist Raymond Carver's landmark short story, “What we talk about when we talk about love”. 1 It applies to gender and internet governance simply because more than 20 years after this discourse first emerged, there is still not enough clarity on what it's really about.
The regional Internet Governance Forum of Latin America and the Caribbean (LACIGF) celebrated its 10th event in August 2017. This is a landmark for a developing region that is still striving to connect the remaining 50% of its inhabitants to the internet. In tandem, national internet governance initiatives flourish in the region.
National and Regional Internet Governance Forums (NRIs) grew organically and spontaneously in the first few years after the United Nations (UN) Internet Governance Forum (IGF) – what we have come to know as the global IGF – was established in 2006. These national and regional IGFs focused on internet governance and broader internet policy issues that reflect national and regional priorities.