SPI Director Dr. Scott Pace will participate in the Dynamic Coalition on the Interplanetary Internet (DC-Interplanetary), a working group which will assemble during the next UN Internet Governance Forum meeting in Saudi Arabia.

The United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) serves to bring people together from various stakeholder groups in discussions on digital public policy. While it does not produce negotiated outcomes, the IGF informs and inspires those with policy-making power in both the public and private sectors. As a year-round process, the IGF includes policy, outreach, and community and capacity-building activities, all dedicated to facilitating a common understanding of how to maximise digital opportunities and address digital risks and challenges. IGF intersessional work culminates in annual meetings, where delegates discuss current and critical issues, share good practices and exchange policy recommendations with one another. The IGF’s resulting outputs are transmitted to global and national decision-making bodies.

The Interplanetary Networking Special Interest Group (IPNSIG) envisions a common network environment even in space will empower science, exploration and commercialization activities which will all become a benefit for humanity. This suggests a need for a governance ecosystem toward the establishment, operation and use of the Interplanetary Internet. In 2023, IPNSIG released a report laying out recommendations on governance of how the Interplanetary Internet ecosystem can be realized which can be used as a basis for future discussions at the “Dynamic Coalition on the Interplanetary Internet”.