Internet Governance Forum

A meeting of the internet’s top brass as well as UK politicians, businessmen, and academics will take place in London at 2pm today – and bloggers have been asked to make their voices heard.

Discussion will cover the future of the internet and seek answers to the problems the medium has thrown up, including spam, phishing, freedom of speech, and child pornography. The results will then be fed into a global meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) that will be held in Athens at the end of the month, and that meeting’s chair, United Nations representative Nitin Desai, will be present and giving a speech alongside trade minister Alun Michael

So, if you have something to say or just want to hear what the experts think, view the webcast from 2pm and blog on events, tagging posts “igf” or commenting at the IGF2006.info blog.

The full agenda for the meeting is here [pdf].

Beach Soccer World Cup

I’ve dug out the full tournament schedule, starting on 3 November, for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Rio. “This year, for the first time, all the participating associations have taken part in official qualifying competitions in each of the six confederations and games are being played in accordance with the new FIFA Beach Soccer Laws of the Game in line with FIFA’s quality standard.” Yeah, England are not playing.

Group A
Brazil (host country)
Poland (3rd place in the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Marseille)
USA (champions of the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Costa Rica)
Japan (runners-up of the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Dubai)

Group B
Spain (champions of the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Marseille)
France (5th place in the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Marseille)
Canada (runners-up of the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Costa Rica)
Iran (3rd place in the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Dubai)

Group C
Solomon Islands (champions of the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Tahiti)
Cameroon (champions of the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Durban)
Portugal (runners-up of the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Marseille)
Uruguay (runners-up of the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Maca