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Index

Preface ➤ 5
the call of history

Maurice Lévy, Chairman and CEO, Publicis Groupe ➤ 8

Changing the World

Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic ➤ 13

internet matters

Presentation by the McKinsey Global Institute ➤ 22

Plenaries
Session I
The Internet and Economic Growth ➤ 26
Session II
The Internet and Society ➤ 28
session III
Future Net: What’s Next? ➤ 30
session IV
Intellectual Property in the Digital Age ➤ 32
session V
Fostering Innovation ➤ 34
session VI
Digital Transformation ➤ 36

special talks
Digital’s Next Frontier: Education
Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of News Corporation ➤ 40
Groupon: A Case Study
Andrew Mason, Founder & CEO of Groupon, talks with Gilles Babinet,
Entrepreneur and Chairman of France’s Conseil National du Numérique ➤ 42

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Broadband For All
Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, talks with
Ben Verwaayen, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent ➤ 44
A Universal Human Need
Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Facebook, talks with Maurice Lévy,
Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe ➤ 46

workshops
I-1
Building Blocks: The art of the start-up ➤ 50
I-2
King Content: Entertainment in the digital age ➤ 52
I-3
Electronic Liberty: New tools for freedom ➤ 54
II-1
Be Here Now: Mobility changes everything ➤ 56
II-2
Disinter-Media: Is Internet killing – or relaunching – the press? ➤ 58
II-3
Open Government/Open data: For the people, by the Internet ➤ 60
III-1
The Disrupters: Extreme innovation ➤ 62
III-2
Sharing Value ➤ 64
III-3
The Data Dilemma ➤ 66

Concluding Press Release ➤ 70

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e-G8 FORUM May 24-25, 2011

Preface

Fittingly, this e-book is a virtual incarnation of an event whose physical
existence was fleeting, but whose impact will endure. Opened on May
24, 2011 in Paris by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the e-G8 Forum
gathered together the finest minds and most skillful operators of the
Internet for just two days. But the Forum’s effect as a catalyst—on
participants, on the G8 Summit that succeeded it, and on public policy
by governments worldwide—was, and will continue to be, far more
meaningful.
The Forum was an intense and ambitious gathering of 1500 participants
from more than 30 countries. It culminated in a delegation to the G8
Summit of Heads and State and governments, where questions regarding
the Internet were on the agenda for the first time in the history of
international summit meetings. The delegation was led by Maurice Lévy,
Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe, and comprised Hiroski Mikitani,
the CEO of Rakuten; Yuri Milner, CEO of Digital Sky Technologies;
Stéphane Richard, CEO of France Telecom-Orange; Eric Schmidt, CEO
of Google; and Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook. With
them, they took a message.
The Internet is a powerful vector for individual empowerment, free
expression and personal growth. It is an enormously positive force for
change and transformation of civic groups, industries, organizations
and nations. Its impact as a locomotive of job creation and economic
growth is spectacular. As it moves into a new phase that will even more
profoundly modify our environment, governments need to grasp more
fully the need for greater understanding of the phenomenon.
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Policy-leaders everywhere need a free Internet. They need to encourage
investment and to guarantee all citizens rapid, broadband access to an
Internet that is secure. As with any breakthrough technology, the digital
revolution may have unintended side-effects that may harm individual
and collective rights. Thus as it progresses, the Internet’s growth will
need to be accompanied by careful and measured government action
to protect consumers and creators alike. This will require a partnership
of intense dialogue with all the stakeholders: civil society, industry and
creators of all kinds.
You’ll find here a succinct narrative of every plenary session, workshop
session, informal talk and keynote conversation that took place during
the e-G8 Forum; photographs and links to video reportages and to the
full-stream video that was broadcast live on the e-G8 Forum website
from all plenary sessions; and the Forum’s final press release. This may
give you a sense of how a gathering of interconnected, sometimes
competing individuals joined into a vast, concentrated mass of
intelligence—not a consensus, but a passionate interplay of debate,
dispute and effervescent, vivid, spontaneous ideas, in the service of the
future of our digital world.
As our societies look forward to the Third Revolution—the digital
revolution—we hope that you will find this little e-book both informative
and thought-provoking.

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e-G8 FORUM May 24-25, 2011

The Call of History
Speech by Maurice Lévy,
Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe

Monsieur le Président de la République; my dear friends;
First, my heartfelt thanks to all of you, for coming here to be part of a
moment that I believe will be historic.
Mr. President, it is a joy and an immense honor for me to welcome you
to this Forum on Internet and the Digital Economy, the first ever to
precede a summit of the G8 nations. This gathering takes place at your
initiative. You asked that the Internet should be placed on the agenda
of the G8 summit in Deauville, which you will preside. It was your wish
that the key players of the Internet and all its stakeholders should be
able to express their insights here in open and unrestricted debate, and
that the conclusions of their discussions should be made known to the
Heads of State and government of the G8.
In other words, you wanted this Forum to take place in the same spirit
in which the Internet functions: open, participative, and free. You can
be sure that this will be the case.
I was particularly moved by the honor that you did in giving me the
responsibility for organizing this eG8 Forum, and it is with great pride
that I observe this assembly. Despite their heavy schedules and our very
short lead-time, all the key players of the Internet, with few exceptions,
are present among us. They have made huge efforts to shift their agendas
in response to your invitation. I think I can say that all of them fully
understand how important this meeting is, and the challenging task
ahead of us. I won’t take the time—or take the risk—of citing every one
of their names: the list is too long; and I might forget one of my friends.

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In our audience are represented all the components of the digital
ecosystem, in all its diversity: infrastructures, manufacturers, software,
telecommunications, search engines, social networks, e-merchants,
content, and the start-ups of today and of tomorrow. All of them are
present—even advertizing is here!—alongside representatives of the
academic world and social communities, in order to debate the future
of the Internet and its impact on our economies and our societies.
There have been a number of conferences about computers and about
the Internet. But none was destined to nourish the debates of Heads of
State. I think, then, that I can say, without a trace of an advertiser’s
habitual exaggeration, that this Forum is truly historic.
It is historic, first, because in two days’ time, a summit will take place
in Deauville in which the Heads of State and government of the eight
major industralized countries will discuss, under your Presidency and
at your initiative, a number of specific issues regarding the Internet
phenomenon as it develops at a speed never before observed in human
history. Historic, too, because this sector is a global phenomenon. Almost
two billion people are connected to the Internet: one person in three.
More than four billion have a cell-phone: two-thirds of the planet.
And as you know well, Mr. President, the digital industry abolishes
frontiers, erases distinctions and creates a new paradigm in every sphere:
knowledge, technology, information, creation, innovation, relationships,
exchanges, commerce, economics, communication—in short, every
aspect of life.
Finally, what makes these two days so special is the very nature of this
Forum. It gives voice to the economic and social actors of this sector—
to content creators: powerful generators of innovation, platforms or
companies; to players, big and small; to inventors, trend-setters, citizenbloggers or entrepreneurs, whether they be freshly minted or simply
vigilant of that common good that is the Internet. These individuals
will debate freely, exchanging points of view, laying down their own

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conclusions and proposing fresh ideas. It is a signal honor, and I am
certain that they will show themselves worthy of it. Thus this is a historic
moment, and a historic responsibility.
Of course it would be easy to use this occasion to express a few platitudes:
opinions that we all share. Every day the Internet does indeed transform
the way in which people live, work, communicate, bond, play, enjoy
themselves, live and love. And indeed, the Internet is a powerful motor
for economic development, a mine of productivity and job-creation.
This exceptional space of technological innovation is indeed also a
source of individual initiatives, pioneers, trend-setters, inventors. And
the Internet does indeed create a wind of openness and democracy
wherever it is accessible. It offers those who use it possibilities for
communication and self-realization unparalleled in our history.
But we know that. We are convinced of those truths. The real questions
that we need to ask—and debate here, in this Forum—are: How will the
Internet contribute to the creation of more wealth, more jobs, more
freedom? How can we go further? How, too, can we be even more
respectful of the rights of others—their intellectual creations and their
private lives? How can we ensure a proper balance in value sharing?
How can we be both free of constraint and responsible?
We have organized round-tables and workshops for debate with the
world’s most pertinent players in the field and all participants, in order
to attempt to discover paths towards more effective thought about the
questions that we all ask ourselves.
How can we improve our products, our services and practices so that
they can be more easily adapted and used? How can we reassure
consumers and clients about the dangers—some of them very real—of
using digital tools? How can we eliminate or restrict some practices that
penalize our digital sector in the eyes of the public, for example in terms
of protection of privacy or the fight against cybercrime? How can we
organize the transition so that actors from the physical, non-digital

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world can move, as they need to do, increasingly on-line, to the virtual
world? For that is the real world of tomorrow. How can we convince the
reticent—all those not born in the digital universe—of its interest and
its importance? How can we balance our exchanges? Respect intellectual
and artistic property? How can we finance major infrastructures in this
sector, as it continues its exponential growth? And, let’s dare to use the
word—what regulation can be put in place that would prevent abuses
but would in no way restrict the liberty of the Net, its development or
use, particularly in tomorrow’s mobile world.
If we want this Forum to succeed, we absolutely need to ask ourselves
these questions with sincerity. We need to imagine, in a spirit of
responsibility, possible paths towards solutions capable of bringing to
you, Mr. President, and to the Heads of State of the G8, some elements
of deeper thought and the viewpoint of the key actors in the field.
As you can see, it will take a lot of work to make this e-G8 Forum a
success. Of course we don’t plan to resolve everything in two days; far
from it. But I am convinced that we have here a historic opportunity to
move the Internet forward, and to bring our experiences and insights
to the table of the G8 Heads of State.
Mr. President, my dear friends, I have a particular affection for a quote
from Albert Einstein: “Imagination is more important than knowledge”.
Einstein would definitely have loved the Internet. It is both the fruit of
human imagination and a space for sharing knowledge that makes it
accessible to all humanity. All of us here today have a little knowledge
about the Net. But now it’s time to mobilize our imagination: to create
a collective picture of how Internet will develop in the world of the future.

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e-G8 FORUM May 24-25, 2011

Changing the World
Address by the President of the French Republic,
Nicolas Sarkozy, to the e-G8 Forum

Ladies and Gentlemen,
History always remembers those places where, at a given point in time,
all creative forces of an era seem to want to converge. And it is in the
hope that Paris would become the capital of the Internet for a few days
that I wanted to bring you here together, just before the G8 Summit.
This is an important moment, because to my knowledge it is the first
time that all those who, with their talent and ingenuity, helped change
the world—or I should say, make us change the world—are meeting in
one and the same place. France and the G8 have indeed the honour to
welcome the men and women whose names are now associated with
the emergence of a new form of civilization. If we are able to listen to
each other, speak to each other and understand each other, I am
convinced that we will be able to give this G8 a historic dimension, so
that our era becomes fully self-aware and moves beyond its tremendous
individual adventures to become a part of collective history.
Our world has already experienced two different globalizations. From
the first one, that of great discoveries, we inherited a complete world, a
world which Magellan could circumnavigate, a world that could be
explored and charted. From the second, that of industrial revolutions,
we inherited a space that was not only complete, but domesticated, and
at times subjugated.With the third globalization, that in which you both
play a role and are promoting, you have changed the way the world sees
itself.

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You have changed the notion of space, because the Internet has not only
eliminated the distance separating people, but has also opened up a
virtual world that is, by definition, limitless. A world in which everyone
can make contact with everyone else. A world in which everyone can
create their own territory, their own community, even their own society.
You have changed the notion of time, getting rid of the very concept of
something happening over a period of time, making everything
immediate, giving everyone the possibility of reaching others and
accessing information instantly, and in short, making anything possible.
You have even changed how we see history because transparency, even
if at times it can be contested, both in its method and its effects, has
imposed itself on countries. You have changed our relationship with
things and objects with the single phenomenon of “dematerialization”.
You have changed the very notion of knowledge and have made it
possible for everyone to access all knowledge and not only access, but
contribute to this knowledge. The dream of a universal library that would
include knowledge from all over the world, this dream that is old as time
itself, has now become a reality for millions of Internet users.
In just a few years, you have rocked the very foundations of the world
economy in which you now play a major role. You have changed the
world. For me, you have changed the world, just as Columbus and Galileo
did; just as Newton and Edison did. You have changed the world with
the imagination of inventors and the boldness of entrepreneurs.
Unique in history, this total revolution has been immediately and irrevocably
global. Unique in history, this revolution does not belong to anybody, it
does not have a flag, it does not have a slogan: this revolution is a common
good. Unique in history, this revolution has occurred without violence.
The discovery of the New World brought about the total destruction of
American Indian civilizations. The global revolution that you incarnate
is a peaceful one. It did not emerge on battlefields but on university
campuses. It arose from the miraculous combination of science and
culture, and the determination to acquire knowledge and the
determination to transmit it.

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With regard to the origins of your sector, legend has it that Google was
created in a garage: the thing I remember most is that Google was born
in a university library. The imaginary world of Hollywood wanted
Facebook to be seen as the result of a failed love affair: we’d like to see
many more like that. The thing I remember most is that Facebook was
created at a top ranking university campus.
This revolution that went so far as to change our perception of time and
space has played a decisive role in other revolutions. In Tunisia and Egypt
alike, mere individuals were able overturn a power that was completely
discredited by building virtual barricades and organizing very real rallies.
Peoples in Arab countries thus showed the world that the Internet does
not belong to States. International opinion was able to see that the
Internet had become, for freedom of speech, a medium for expressing
unprecedented power.
Like any revolution, the technological and cultural revolution you began
holds promise. Huge promise. Promise that is commensurate with the
considerable progress you incarnate.
Now that this revolution has reached the first stage in its maturity, it
should not forget the promise of its origins. If you have designed tools
that are now your own, it is because you dreamed of a world that would
be more open. If you have built social networks that currently connect
millions of men and women, it is because you dreamed of a world that
would be more socially minded. If you have given utopia concrete
expression, it is because you have faith in humankind and its future. If
you have achieved worldwide success so swiftly, it is because this promise
reflects universal values.
Your work should thus be considered historic and help drive civilization.
And that is the importance of your responsibility—because you do have
a responsibility. Our responsibility, as Heads of State and Government,
is no less important. We must support a revolution that was born at the
heart of civil society for civil society and that has a direct impact on the

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life of States. Because if technology is neutral and must remain so, we
have clearly seen that the ways the Internet is used are not. Today,
discussing and shaping the Internet is a real historic responsibility and
this responsibility can only be shared, by you and us.
The idea is for the G8 States, which include some of the most powerful
countries in the world, to recognize the role that is now yours in the
course of history. We would like to hear about your expertise, because
we have things to learn. We have things to understand. Just like individuals
and companies, States do not want to miss an opportunity for progress
that you have created and that you incarnate.
How can we use the Internet to bolster democracy, social dialogue and
solidarity? How can we use the Internet to improve the way States
function? How can we inject this spirit of innovation and enterprise
which is characteristic of your sector into States?
Also, the States we represent need to make it known that the world you
represent is not a parallel universe, free of legal and moral rules and
more generally all the basis principles that govern society in democratic
countries. Now that the Internet is an integral part of most people’s lives,
it would be contradictory to exclude governments from this huge forum.
Nobody could nor should forget that these governments are the only
legitimate representatives of the will of the people in our democracies.
To forget this is to run the risk of democratic chaos and hence anarchy.
To forget this would be to confuse populism with democracy of opinion.
Juxtaposed individual wishes have never constituted the will of the
people. And a social contract cannot be drawn up by simply lumping
together individual aspirations.
States and Governments have also learned from history, and I am
speaking to you on behalf of the country that drew up the Declaration
of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. So, ladies and gentlemen, be
loyal to the promise of the revolution that you began, as France has
sought to be loyal to hers for over two centuries.

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I know that the market has its own regulatory mechanisms but trade is
never truly free if the terms of this trade are unfair. Do not allow new
barriers to be built where you have toppled the longstanding walls of
the old world. Do not allow new monopolies to take root where you have
overturned long-established situations that seemed unshakeable. In
giving all individuals, regardless of where they live or from where they
speak, the possibility to be heard by everyone everywhere, you have
provided all citizens of the world with a freedom of speech that is
unprecedented in history.
This outstanding leap in individual freedoms cannot be taken at the
expense of the rights of others. Do not allow the revolution you began
to violate people’s fundamental right to privacy and to be fully
autonomous. Complete transparency, which never allows a person to
rest, will sooner or later come up against the very principle of individual
freedom. Let us not forget that behind an anonymous Internet user,
there is a real citizen who is evolving in a society, a culture and an
organized nation to which he belongs and with laws he must abide by.
Do not forget that the sincerity of your promise will be assessed in the
commitment of your companies to contribute fairly to national
ecosystems. Do not allow the revolution you began to violate the basic
right of children to lives that are protected from the moral turpitude of
certain adults. Do not allow the revolution you began to be a vehicle for
maliciousness, unobstructed and unrestricted. Do not allow this
revolution become an instrument in the hands of those who wish to
jeopardize our security and in doing so, our freedom and our integrity.
You have allowed everyone, with the mere magic of the Web, to access
all the cultural treasures of the world in a simple click.
It would be something of a paradox if the Web contributed to draining
them over time.
The immense cultural wealth that provides our civilizations with such
beauty is a product of the creative forces of our artists, authors and
thinkers. Basically, it is the product of all those who work on enchanting

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the world. Yet these creative forces are fragile because when creative
minds are deprived of the fruit of their talents, they are not just ruined,
what’s worse, they lose their independence, they will be required to
pawn their freedom.
I’m telling you this with a man in mind: a Frenchman who died over two
centuries ago, who with a single play brought down a nearly onethousand-year-old monarchy; a man who also, with Lafayette, was one
of the first defenders of American Independence! This man was like you
because, starting with nothing but his intelligence, he overturned an
order that was believed to be immovable and eternal. This man was
Beaumarchais. This same man invented the principle of copyright. He
went one step further than giving authors ownership rights of their
works, he ensured their independence, he offered them freedom.
I know and I understand that our “French” idea of copyright is not the
same as in the United States and other countries. I simply mean that
our commitment to universal principles, those that both the U.S.
Constitution and the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the
Citizen lay down: nobody can have his ideas, work, imagination and
intellectual property expropriated without this being punished.
What I would like to express here is that each of you should be able to
be heard, because before being entrepreneurs you are creators. It is
under this copyright law for creative work that you have been able to
found companies that have become empires. These algorithms that
constitute your power, this continual innovation that constitutes your
strength, this technology that is changing the world, are your property
and nobody can contest that. Each of you, each of us, can therefore
understand that writers, directors, musicians and actors can have the
same rights.
This copyright law for creative work enabling artists to receive fair
payment for their ideas and their talents, is also valid for each of the
States we represent. States invest in training of those who then join your

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companies. States invest in the technical and technological infrastructure
that provides transport for the services and content that are circulated
on the Web. States would like to engage in dialogue with you so that a
balanced way forward can be found one day that is mindful of your
interests, those of Internet users that give you overwhelming support
every day and those lastly of citizens and taxpayers of every nation who
also have rights.
We are emerging from a terrible crisis, resulting from the blindness of
financial powers who have lost sight of what was important to sacrifice
everything for money. These powers that did not want to be accountable
to people and the powers that wanted to avoid dialogue with elected
governments that have the interest of the people in mind.
It is simply a call for collective responsibility that I am issuing here. A
call for responsibility and a call for common sense. We believe in the
same values. I am therefore convinced that a way forward is possible. A
way forward that will enable the world you created and the world we
have inherited to work alongside each other in the interest of a world
that has become global, which is largely thanks to you. So let us begin
together this crucial dialogue. Let us open and build this new forum.
I would like to thank you, because when I had the idea for this forum,
at first everyone told me that it was a bad idea—except Maurice Levy,
when I asked him to be in charge of organizing it. First my fellow Heads
of State and Government, who told me yet again, “you take too many
risks”. I personally think that the worst risk is not taking any; the worst
risk is that of not speaking to each other. And I think that we never take
risks when we call on the intelligence of people, from your world, who
have said to themselves “what can we do with Heads of State and
Government?”
I think that we have a lot to accomplish together and I’ll be very happy,
on Thursday, if a delegation made up of some of the participants here
today could engage in dialogue with my fellow Heads of State and

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Government. We need this dialogue, we need to understand your
expectations, your aspirations, your needs. And you need to hear our
limitations, our red lines, the problems we shoulder in the name of the
general interest of our societies. I am so pleased to welcome you here in
Paris today and would be even more pleased if this forum could be held
every year prior to the G8 Summit so that we have a clear idea of where
you are in your progress and so that you know what we are thinking.
Thank you.

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e-G8 FORUM Tuesday May 24, 2011

presentation

Internet Matters

A groundbreaking report by the McKinsey
Global Institute shows the Internet is one of
the biggest drivers of global economic growth.

synopsis Presented at the e-G8 Forum, a recent study by the McKinsey
Global Institute took a detailed and comprehensive look at the Internet’s
impact on growth, jobs, and wealth creation in 13 countries that together
account for more than 70% of global GDP.

The study found that the Internet accounts for an average 3.4% of GDP in
Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Sweden, Brazil, Canada, the US,
China, India, Japan and South Korea. If it were a sector, its weight in GDP
would be bigger than energy, agriculture, or several other critical industries.
There is also a great deal of room for further development. While the Net
accounts for around 6% of GDP in Sweden and Britain, in 9 out of these
13 countries its contribution is still less than 4%.
It is also a powerful catalyst for job creation. While the Internet has
eliminated 500,000 jobs in France over the past 15 years, it has created
1.2 million others — 2.4 jobs created for every job destroyed. Moreover
it creates substantial value for users, ranging from €13 ($18) a month
per user in Germany to € 20 ($28) in the United States. Total consumer
surplus generated by the Internet in 2009 ranged from €7 billion (nearly
$10 billion) in France to € 46 billion ($64 billion) in the United States.

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Over the last 15 years the Internet has created an average increase of $500
in real per capita GDP in developed countries. It took the Industrial
Revolution of the 19th century 50 years to achieve the same results. All
industries have benefited. Across sectors, small and medium-sized
companies with strong Web presence grew more than twice as quickly as
those that had minimal presence on the Net. They also reported a share of
total revenues from export that was twice as large, and created more than
twice the number of jobs.
Armed with a better understanding of how—and how much—the Internet
contributes to national economies, policy makers and business executives
can act more effectively. In particular, the report suggests they should
consider the following immediate steps:
➤ Use public spending to support innovation. Countries with the highest
public investment in the Internet also have the largest non-public
Internet contribution to GDP
.
➤ All business leaders, not just e-CEOs, should put the Internet at the top
of their strategic agenda, looking to reinvent their business models to
boost growth, performance, and productivity.
➤ A dialogue between government and business leaders can help the
Internet ecosystem flourish. Standards for digital identities and intellectual
property protection must be addressed; other relevant topics include net
neutrality, the availability of talent, and the overall business environment.

Download the full report at www.mckinsey.com/mgi

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The Internet spirit of cooperation and consultation: left to right, Ben Verwaayen, CEO of
Alcatel-Lucent, with French Finance Minister
Christine Lagarde; James Manyika, Director
at McKinsey and Co. San Francisco; the audience was lively and knowledgeable; Jimmy
Wales, the founder of Wikipedia; Pascal Nègre,
President and CEO of Universal Music France;
Nigel Shadbolt, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Southampton; Sheryl
Sandberg, COO of Facebook.

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e-G8 FORUM Tuesday May 24, 2011
e-G8 FORUM Tuesday May 24, 2011

Plenary Session I

The Internet
& Economic Growth

Information technology and the digital
ecosystem have been powerful accelerators
of economic growth and employment.
How to ensure that this can continue?
Session Panelists
Christine Lagarde, Minister for Economy, Finance and Industry, France
John Donahoe, President and CEO, eBay
Jean-Bernard Lévy, Chief Executive Officer, Vivendi
Hiroshi Mikitani, Chairman & CEO, Rakuten
Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharti Airtel Ltd.
Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google Inc.
Moderated by
Ben Verwaayen, CEO, Alcatel-Lucent

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synopsis The Internet is a critical locomotive for growth, Minister
Christine Lagarde reported: in France, the digital sector currently generates
3.7% of GDP and this is likely to rise to 5.5% in the short term. By
encouraging entrepreneurship, the Internet creates value, jobs, and
unique opportunities for today’s global citizens to establish new ventures
at minimum cost, regardless of geographic location or other physical
difficulties. Ebay has 17,000 employees globally, but 1.3 million people
make their primary or secondary income from sales via the Ebay platform.

Moreover, this increasing growth is also exponentially accelerating in
impact. A small startup company creates the idea for platform which,
if successful, can be almost immediately globalized; as Eric Schmidt
pointed out, this platform (PayPal, Rakuten) then becomes an ecosystem
used as a launch-pad by multiple entrepreneurs, creating great wealth.
Mobile phones in developing nations provide the same platform-like
ability to rapidly accelerate economic growth, noted Sunil Bharti Mittal.
E-health and m-health (via mobile phone) also impact the economy,
because they lower the cost of delivering health services and improve
the health of consumers, thus also boosting productivity and income.
Whether in G8 or developing countries, digital job creation occurs largely
among small businesses and individuals, although of course the Net
does also permit large corporations to improve productivity and create
new positions. Several panelists urged governments to analyze factors
that might curb entrepreneurship and digital businesses in their
countries. Most of the panel agreed that above all, governments should
ensure broadband access to all citizens, with optimal physical
infrastructure for connectivity.
The panel also discussed the need to regulate certain sectors, for example
e-currencies and mobile banking: Hiroshi Mikitani pointed out that by
offering credit, these essentially create money. Government rules would
increase security in this field and thus also consumer confidence.
However, Eric Schmidt argued that before turning to a regulatory
approach to any issue in this brand-new, innovative and resilient field,
leaders should examine possible technological solutions from the private
sector. These may be quicker and better adapted to problems occurring
in the Internet ecosystem today. Examples: NFC chips for secure digital
banking (more secure than credit cards); content-ID programs to sniff
out pirated material; LTE technology, for four-times greater spectral
efficiency in the wireless band.

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e-G8 FORUM Tuesday May 24, 2011

Plenary Session Ii

The Internet & Society
The Internet transforms everything
it touches--how we communicate, market,
work, learn and play. Some of the most
profound changes involve how we organize
into communities, re-envision government
and share information. And that’s only
the beginning.

Session Panelists
Tom Glocer, CEO, Thomson Reuters
Andrew Mason, Founder & CEO, Groupon
Stéphane Richard, Chairman & CEO, France Telecom - Orange
Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook
Klaus Schwab, Founder & Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum
Jimmy Wales, Founder, Wikipedia
Moderated by
Maurice Lévy, Chairman and CEO, Publicis Groupe

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synopsis The Internet’s tools for knowledge open the possibility of lifelong education for millions. They mean that people are now much more
likely to seek out information, Jimmy Wales noted; Wikipedia is available
in more than 200 languages and for some (ex. Swahili) this is their firstever encyclopedia. This already huge impact on the world’s cultures will
exponentially increase as improvements in networks bring billions more
people online in the developing world.

But the Internet has moved beyond information retrieval to social
discovery. Social networks such as Facebook aggregate individuals into
self-defined, overlapping communities with collective voices loud
enough to effect change. This ‘outsourcing’ of personality also requires
sophisticated management of personal privacy by every individual. Prof.
Schwab felt that the development of social networks may mean that
young people may vote less in elections, as other forms of expression
become more pertinent. Sheryl Sandberg pointed to the 2008 Obama
social-network campaign that encouraged striking numbers of young
people to vote. All agreed that the rise of social networks will empower
youth in particular, and spur governments to greater dialogue with
citizens. This will be particularly transformative in the developing world,
as Jimmy Wales pointed out.
All successful new technologies reduce costs and friction, improving
quality of life, Tom Glocer said. But any new tool can also be harmful.
Faced with pedophiles or terrorists there is a need for oversight or
governance. This will have to be based on cooperation, because business
alone cannot solve the problems, but neither can civil society or
government.
Stéphane Richard noted that another vital area of cooperation is the
dual question of Net neutrality and Internet access. Everyone, even in
remote areas, should have access to broadband. But this requires costly
investment in physical infrastructure; moreover, the spectrum is limited.
Without careful co-management, the Net’s infrastructure could one day
face congestion or collapse, he warned.
There is still room to expand e-commerce. At present, only 5% of
commerce occurs on-line, while 80% of disposable income is spent
within a 2-mile radius of a consumer’s home. A niche exists in “local
e-commerce”: small businesses using websites like Andrew Mason’s
Groupon for performance-guaranteed, personalized marketing.

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e-G8 FORUM Tuesday May 24, 2011
e-G8 FORUM Tuesday May 24, 2011

Plenary Session iiI

Future Net:
What’s Next?

Limitless bandwidth. Massive data.
Total mobility. Technology continues to
accelerate. Will the infrastructure keep pace?
Session Panelists
Peter Chou, CEO, HTC
Michel de Rosen, CEO, Eutelsat
Paul Hermelin, Chairman and CEO, Capgemini
Danny Hillis, Co-Chairman and CTO, Applied Minds
Paul Jacobs, Chair and CEO, Qualcomm
Craig Mundie, Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Microsoft
Moderated by
David Rowan, Editor, Wired UK

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synopsis Technology in the next 5-10 years will eliminate the need to
master the traditional computer interface. This will change how we relate
to computers and the services we expect from them. Remote wireless
monitoring will transform the health-care industry, increasing productivity
and optimizing outcome, said Paul Jacobs. He detailed a list of futuristic
devices, including implantable fertility monitors and implantable
defibrillators, which tests have shown can reduce mortality by 50%.

Machines will increasingly talk directly to other machines. Cars will warn
each other when they are too close, and in gaming, avatars will interact
in human-like ways. A new generation of smartphones will offer consumers
broad choices in mobile TV and video, and travelers may encounter a
world of “curated” chips describing the history of landmarks. There will
also be more 3D TV and connected TV. As this flood of data increases it
will be exploited, in a world of personalized marketing and individual
choice. Students may demand personalized education. Governments
may seek to establish predictive patterns for terrorism or tax fraud.
These opportunities entail serious risks. An infrastructure of talking
machines will increasingly bypass the ability of government to manage
or even understand it, warned Danny Hills. Breakdowns will be much
more likely, and their consequences catastrophic. Reliance on digital
technology will increase the threat of data theft and hacking. New
enhanced services will also outrun current bandwidth capacity. Revenue
may need to be split differently so that the operators who lay down
infrastructure have incentives to keep pace with massive new needs in
the networks.
Other somber messages: battery capacity will strain to keep pace with the
needs of new devices. Michel de Rosen warned that the world could
splinter into digital haves and have-nots. He proposed that the G8 could
declare Internet access to be a universal service obligation; in effect, this
is already the case in Switzerland and Finland, and is an official commitment
by the EU. Craig Mundie also called on governments to improve
technological education.The panel broadly agreed that it is governments’
role to create the conditions in which people can be creative and prosper.
That means they must urgently focus on one area: anticipating and
planning for potentially disastrous breakdown of the infrastructure and
networks that underlie digital services.

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e-G8 FORUM Tuesday May 24, 2011

Plenary Session Iv

Intellectual property
in the digital age

What’s at stake for culture and business?
What should be the new rules to encourage
and stimulate content creation on the Internet?
Session Panelists
John Perry Barlow, Vice Chairman, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Antoine Gallimard, President Groupe Gallimard and President,
Syndiact National de l’Edition
Jim Gianopulos, Chairman, Fox Filmed Entertainment
Frédéric Mitterrand, Minister of Culture and Communication, France
Pascal Nègre, Chairman and CEO, Universal Music France
Hartmut Ostrowski, Chairman and CEO, Bertelsmann
Moderated by
Bruno Patino, Digital Head, France Televisions

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synopsis The Internet has overwhelming impact on what Pascal Nègre
called the “creatio, industries”: film, books and music. It is a huge
opportunity — one-third of the music industry’s revenue comes from the
digital sector— but also the locus of massive copyright infringement and
piracy. Service providers say 25% of traffic stems from illegal downloading.

With one exception, the panelists felt that a healthy and creative digital
economy cannot exist without assertive protection of intellectual property.
If the work of artists is not protected and paid for, creation (and content)
will dry up. Record labels invest $5 billion per year on new talent, Pascal
Nègre said, and get their money back only 1 time out of 7 or 8. It is not only
a question of return on investment but also the ongoing vitality of creativity.
Copyright is a source of freedom, said Minister Frédéric Mitterrand (himself
a movie director and author): the freedom to continue to create.
The panel noted Eric Schmidt’s earlier suggestion that content-ID
programs could trawl the Internet to identify, and remove, illegal content.
Jim Gianopoulos regretted that this technology “just isn’t there yet, not
even close”. He felt the best solutions stem from voluntary agreements
between the tech and creation industries to protect intellectual property,
but where those are not possible, governments should enforce rules. In
this regard most panelists approved the recent French legislation, Hadopi.
In contrast, John Perry Barlow attacked the very notion that expression
can be equated to property. For the first time in history, he said, the
Internet makes it possible to give every human the right to satisfy his/her
curiosity to the fullest and to find an audience. To deny those rights is to
preserve outmoded institutions. Instead of tightening the regulation of
creative content, global leaders should talk about incentivizing creativity.
This view that freedom means that everything should be free of charge
was hotly disputed. Jim Gianopoulos insisted that no new, alternative
business models exist that could generate the kind of cash required to
return investment on a major film. The creation industries generate
cultural diversity, jobs and tax revenue, and they are a major driver of
the demand for high bandwidth. Although opinions may differ as to the
details or complexity of the arrangements required, some mechanism
for remunerating content will probably be necessary.

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e-G8 FORUM Tuesday May 24, 2011 2011
e-G8 FORUM Wednesday May 25,

Plenary Session v

Fostering Innovation –
How to build the future
Session Panelists
Eric Besson, Minister of Industry, Energy and the Digital Economy, France
Lawrence Lessig/Professor, Harvard Law School
Xavier Niel, Founder & Chairman, Iliad
Yuri Milner, CEO & Managing Partner, Digital Sky Technologies
Sean Parker, Managing Partner, Founders Fund
Niklas Zennstrom, CEO and Founding Partner, Atomico
Moderated by
John Gapper, Chief Business Commentator, Financial Times

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synopsis As a business and creative environment, the Internet is
characterized by a dynamic in which innovative outsiders — kids,
immigrants, dropouts — challenge incumbents with their new and
better ideas. Prof. Lawrence Lessig observed that because of powerful
lobbies government regulations usually protect the interests of
incumbents, thus ultimately harming consumers. He therefore urged
governments to stay out of the way, aiming for minimal interference.

Copyright was a hotly argued subject. Lessig and others agreed that
creators should be compensated, but that the current architecture of
regulation no longer makes sense. The recent report published by
Professor Hargreaves for the UK government characterized the current
system as obstructive of innovation and economic growth. The French
Hadopi “three strikes” legislation, which punishes piracy by cutting
Internet access, was seen as poorly thought-out. A better system is
urgently required, the panel felt: it should be one that makes sense in a
digital world where everything can be copied. It should also be less
fragmented; currently “you almost have to pick which laws you’re going
to comply with,” said Niklas Zennstrom, because Internet-based (thus
global) companies cannot comply with all.
Startups in Europe face obstructions due to the limited size of each
national market and fragmented legislation on data protection and tax.
In Europe failure also carries a stigma and there is a cultural reluctance
to take risk, Niklas Zennstrom said. Yuri Milner pointed out that the two
largest internet companies in Europe are both Russian (Yandex and
Mail.ru); he attributed this to Russia’s “very open and lightly regulated
environment.”
Minister Eric Besson agreed that governments need to encourage
spending on research and innovation via tax incentives, as well as
ensuring good networks (fiber optics or 4G cellphone networks) and
laying down strong technological education for engineers. Governments
also need to foster startups through competitive centers.
Former Napster founder Sean Parker noted that the music industry —
which has recently shrunk from a global $45 billion industry to $12
billion — may soon see a rush of revenue. Just as has been happening
in the book publishing industry, he predicted that record labels’ back
catalogues will rise massively in value.

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e-G8 FORUM Wednesday May 25, 2011

Plenary Session vi

Digital Transformation:
How traditional businesses
are being re-invented

Session Panelists
Franco Bernabè, Chairman and CEO, Telecom Italia
Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor, Harvard Business School
Eric Labaye, Chairman, McKinsey Global Institute
Stephen A. Schwarzman, Chairman and CEO, The Blackstone Group
Mark Thompson,Director-General, BBC
Moderated by
Jeff Cole, Executive Director, USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future

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synopsis “There’s not a company on earth that hasn’t been affected by
digital technology,” observed Jeff Cole. “Most have been transformed”.
This transformation affects what Harvard’s professor Rosabeth Kanter
called the five Ps of corporate life: products, processes, partners, people
and purpose. The metamorphosis creates efficiencies and opportunities,
and is often exhilarating as well as profitable. Remote work may revive
rural areas, and self-organizing development teams and e-learning
provide a new modes for workers to continuously upgrade skills,
changing the way companies operate.70% of employees say Internet
technology has made them more productive.

But the change is also disruptive, both to corporations and their various
stakeholders. Franco Bernabè warned that traditional telecom industries
are shedding jobs rapidly. Of course there is also new job creation; but
what the figures don’t show, he said, is the shift from a protected workforce
to less secure jobs. This entails social dislocation. Additionally, Stephen
Schwarzman pointed out that by reducing friction in the financial
markets, digital tools have greatly increased the markets’ volatility. He
warned that this may not always be in society’s interest.
Companies can remain true to their identities as they re-invent the way
they do business, observed Mark Thompson: the BBC may deliver news
digitally, but remains aware of its core business as an authoritative
source of information. Incumbents can rely on their traditional strengths
and should not focus, as they currently often do, on a defensive strategy.
A limber approach to organization is necessary to avoid a split between
a “shiny new digital” unit and a “grim declining old” one.
Social networking adds to the transformative pressure on big corporations
by demanding more openness and faster reactions from corporate
leadership. It also provides an opportunity for real-time market research,
Eric Labaye pointed out, giving companies the tools to match customer
needs more effectively and quicker. This works to increase the
effectiveness of advertising budgets. There are also other, less quantifiable
benefits when networking allows businesses to establish new kinds of
relationships with customers. Pepsi, for instance, asked Internet viewers
to determine where it should direct its charitable contributions instead
of advertising on the Super Bowl, thereby redefining its image and
allowing customers to feel more closely involved.

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Free and wide-ranging debate: Xavier Niel,
founder and Chairman of Iliad, with Sean Parker,
Managing Partner at Founders Fund; Frédéric
Mitterrand, France’s Minister of Culture; in the
public were many key stakeholders of the Net;
French President Nicolas Sarkozy speaking with
Google CEO Eric Schmidt; a coffee and networking break in Paris’ landmark Tuileries Gardens;
Stéphane Richard, Executive Officer of France
Telecom Orange; Luca Ascani, co-founder and
Chairman of Populis.

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e-G8 FORUM Tuesday May 24, 2011

special talk
Ruppert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of News Corporation:

Digital’s Next Frontier:
Education
Limitless bandwidth. Massive data.
Total mobility. Technology continues to
accelerate. Will infrastructure keep pace?

Advances brought about by technology and the Internet are evident
everywhere but in education. Schools remain the last holdout from the
digital revolution; today’s classroom looks almost exactly as it did in the
Victorian age. This represents a colossal failure of imagination and an
abdication of responsibility to our children. Throwing money at this
problem is no solution. In my country, we’ve doubled spending on
primary and secondary education over the last three decades, while test
scores remained flat. Some claim the problem is students coming from
poverty, broken homes, or immigrant families. This is arrogant, elitist
and unacceptable.
The era of one-size-fits-all education, which frustrates the bright kids
and leaves the struggling ones behind, is over. Education-specific
algorithms can be used to help determine what a student needs to learn.
With digital technology we can bring the best educators to children
anywhere in world at low cost. Stephen Hawking explaining principles
in physics or Yo Yo Ma teaching harmony could be brought to any
classroom for what we now pay to download a song.

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An outstanding example of technologically improved education is found
in New York City, at an African American charter school in Harlem. The
school is located in a neighborhood with all the pathologies normally
used to explain away failure. Yet the school tests students, insists parents
check homework, and uses technology including the Kindle ebook
reader and laptops. Its student test scores are now equal to schools filled
with gifted and privileged students.
Technology will not replace the teacher but will take the drudgery out
of their responsibilities. The Ikea school in Sweden is supported by a
knowledge portal that contains the entire syllabus and other teaching
tools. Freed from administrative work, the teacher can give students far
more personalized attention.
Software, rather than hardware, is key to innovation in classrooms. Well
designed, it teaches concepts while helping students learn for themselves.
The more interactive and intimate, the better the student will perform.
In two small California schools a textbook publisher is using iPads and
education apps to offer guided instruction, instant feedback, and access
to hundreds of videos which students use at their own pace.
If we can bring these kinds of advantages to the entire world, we will
ensure that a poor child in Manila will have the same opportunities as
a rich child in Manhattan.

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e-G8 FORUM Tuesday May 24, 2011
e-G8 FORUM Tuesday May 24, 2011

Conversation
Andrew Mason, Founder & CEO of Groupon, talks with
Gilles Babinet, Entrepreneur and Chairman of France’s Conseil
National du Numérique

Groupon: A Case Study
Launched in November 2008, Groupon now stakes the claim of being
the fastest growing company in the world, employing 7,500 people to
offer localized “deal-of-the-day” coupons to customers. Its group
discounts are negotiated by Groupon itself with local businesses in 500
different cities across 46 countries, mainly in the food and entertainment
industry. Andrew Mason said the company has found the Groupon
model surprisingly effective in every region of the world.
Specifically focusing on customer happiness was key for Groupon’s
success with a local-centric
e-commerce model that had never succeeded before; a business value
that is not as complicated as some companies may think. “It’s as simple
as talking to your customers and understanding what they want and
making sure you do those things,” Mason said. Critical was the company’s
ability to put themselves in the shoes of customers to understand their
priorities. Relating to a highly demanding customer mindset, the company
was able to work to serve it.
Groupon found it was a mistake to try “to be all things for all people.” It
realized that doing a great job serving a selection of customers was far
more valuable than doing an okay job serving everyone. Another key
discovery was that self-service was not always the answer in building
e-commerce models. Groupon’s expanding sales force was an essential
ingredient to growing its network of local merchants.

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The company focuses on “relevance” today -- refining personalization
technology to find products that will be of maximum interest to every
individual consumer. It has also added a real-time element with its
Groupon Now service, based on the premise that customers often make
food and entertainment decisions at the very last minute. Providing an
effective real-time experience required moving from a “push” model to
the more difficult “pull experience.” Instead of browsing offers Groupon
found for them, the customer tells the service specifically what they
want and when. Groupon Now uses relationships with thousands of
merchants to offer real-time deals in a window of a few hours.
Mason said Groupon has had the effect of “catalyzing” lifelong passions
among customers. A discount of 70% off at local rock-climbing classes
can lead to discovery of interest in the sport among people who would
otherwise never had considered becoming a rock-climbing enthusiast.
“It exposes people to things they wouldn’t otherwise do.”
Thus Groupon’s phases of development reflect the evolution of Internetbased businesses towards increased personalization and real-time deals.
It started with a push sales strategy, offering deal-a-day for customers
to browse; it is now developing a more personalized demand-based
“pull service” called Groupon Now. Groupon’s overall business model
is based on using the Internet for collective action, allowing individuals
to come together to achieve a common goal. The model has also
repeatedly been used for more altruistic purposes with success.

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e-G8 FORUM Tuesday May 24, 25, 2011
Wednesday May 2011

Conversation
Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, talks with
Ben Verwaayen, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent

Broadband For All

The European Union’s Digital Agenda sets ambitious goals for the 27
EU member states. To spur growth, jobs, research/innovation, and better
policies on education and other issues, the EU has promised that by
2013 every single European citizen will have high-speed connection to
the Internet. By 2015, every European should have a 30 MB connection,
with 100 MB connections for at least 50% of Europeans by 2020.
Yesterday’s debates at the e-G8 Forum expressed passionate conviction
that governments should stay out of the way. That’s tempting. However,
some issues do require rules of the game. Those rules can be set by the
parties themselves: the EU needs to listen to business leaders, bankers,
broadcasters, the telecoms and content people, and they need to take
responsibility. Only if the digital sector does not take up its responsibilities
should political leaders step in to replace them.

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Political leaders need to take into account how incredibly rapid change
is in this area; we’re in a hurry, and we must learn to be far more alert.
We also need to realize that the rules should be global. There’s no sense
in the EU setting its own regulations. We need to look at this with the
OECD, with the G8 and later the G20. But meanwhile, we have a single
European market and it should be a digital single market. National
legislation on these questions is completely pointless. It’s absurd that
you can’t buy a movie on-line in some countries but you can in others,
and it drives consumers to piracy. We need rules; we need proper
remuneration for artists; but the borders for these rules should be
redrawn.
To the G8 Heads of State, we need to say: Take this issue seriously. It’s
on your agenda now and it needs to stay there. Make decisions, implement
them and keep coming back to review them. E-health, e-government,
e-learning. This needs to be a daily activity of every member state.

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e-G8 FORUM Tuesday May 24, 2011
e-G8 FORUM Tuesday May 24, 2011

Conversation
Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Facebook, talks with
Maurice Lévy, Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe

A Universal Human Need
The phenomenal success of Facebook owes much to a basic human
desire that turns out to be even more universal and more powerful than
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg appreciated when he founded the social
networking site as a student at Harvard in 2004. “I just wanted to let
people stay in touch with people around them,” Zuckerberg said. “It
turns out that’s a universal need.”
Equally important is Facebook’s role as a forum in which people interact
under their real identities. There is room on the Net for anonymous
social networking media and there are even advantages to interacting
anonymously—a willingness to speak controversial truths, for instance.
Facebook, however, has staked its future on people’s growing willingness
to share more of themselves without the cloak of anonymity. For one
thing, it promotes sincerity. “With transparency comes accountability,”
said Zuckerberg. “Your real name is attached.”
Do people share too much information? Only they can decide where
the boundary line falls, Zuckerberg said, but that boundary appears to
be shifting ever outward. In Facebook’s early days people were reluctant
to share much of anything. But more people are discovering the value
in sharing different aspects of their lives. The past few years have seen
a huge leap in the number of people sharing their location, for example,
so they can see which of their friends might be nearby.
Future growth will be propelled in large part by companies that build
social networking into applications hosted on Facebook’s platform. The
best examples are social gaming applications like Zynga and Playfish,
which are now at the forefront of the gaming business. Facebook will

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never launch its own applications like these, says Zuckerberg. “Any one
company can only do one or two things well. We know technology and
psychology, but we know nothing about games.” In future, he adds, media
and music companies will increasingly “bake in” a social design, and
Zuckerberg is hoping Facebook will serve as one of their primary platforms.
Zuckerberg downplayed Facebook’s role as an agent of change in the
democratic movements of the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere.
It is the power of the internet that lets people share their thoughts, both
trivial and passionate, with one another. Facebook was just part of a
bigger trend, he said. However, he does feel proud, he added, to see
heads of state communicate directly with the citizenry through their
Facebook pages, because “That’s what democracy is about”.
So is Facebook just a trend, a flash in the pan, asked a Facebook user ?
The mediums of social networking will change. Facebook itself has
changed considerably since its early days, and is still changing. Some
300 million Facebook users access the site through mobile phones, and
that segment is growing much faster than the web. But the basic need
to share one’s self with family and friends will remain.

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Support for innovation: Tony Wang, Twitter’s
General Manager Europe; questions were focused and often hotly debated; former Greatful
Dead lyricist and founder of the Electronic
Frontier Foundation John Perry Barlow, during
a workshop session on Electronic Liberty; debates during plenaries often spilled over into
breaks; workshops zeroed in on issues ranging
from smartphones to intellectual property and
open data; Susan Pointer, Director of Public
Policy for Google’s EMEA.

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e-G8 FORUM Wednesday May 25, 2011

workshop i session i

Building blocks:
The art of the startup
Session Panelists
Samir Arora, Chairman & CEO, Glam Media, Inc.
Luca Ascani, Co-Founder & Chairman, Populis
Bruce Golden, Partner, Accel Partners
Rick Marini, Founder & CEO, Branch Out
Shaukat Shamin, Founder & CEO Buysight
Moderated by
Esther Dyson, Chairman, EDventure

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synopsis To best help startup companies, many feel that governments
should aim to stay largely out of the way. However, they can help
encourage growth by ensuring high-quality Internet infrastructure and
business regulations that foster growth. Universal high-speed Internet
access and friendly hiring and taxation laws are policies that make
starting an international business easier to navigate and afford.
Government can also encourage growth by preventing “brain drain”
— the loss of a country’s most talented and educated workers overseas.

To help start-ups expand and operate across borders, governments should
standardize their practices as much as possible, making their business
requirements and services accessible and intelligible to a broad
international audience. The G8 could even promote a governmentcoordinated information portal, where businesses can go to grasp the
wide variety of international issues confronting them, such as tax treaties,
visa requirements, resident permits, employment rules, and local practices.
Across the world, Internet entrepreneurs encounter law-makers
with very little detailed knowledge of the issues they’re facing. To produce
policies that will positively assist startups struggling to expand into new
markets, governments should work to educate legislators and
administrators on the issues that should shape business legislation.
After starting up a business, another hard challenge is creating sustainable,
larger businesses that will last. This can be especially difficult in the diverse
marketplaces of Europe, where there is more friction facing a startup due
to the different treatment of regulations, hiring laws and even employee
stock options among countries. Young Internet companies based in
Europe often keep a presence in Silicon Valley, and this environment—
which is more conducive to growth—greatly increases their chances of
turning innovative ideas into a successful business.

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e-G8 FORUM Wednesday May 25, 2011

workshop i Session Ii

King Content:
Entertainment in
the digital age
Session Panelists
David Drummond, Senior Vice President, Google
David Kenny, President, Akamai
Mikael Hed, CEO, Rovio Mobile
Carolyn Reidy, President & CEO, Simon & Schuster
Martin Rogard, General Manager France, Dailymotion
Patrick Zelnik, CEO, Naïve
Moderated by
Spencer Reiss, Program Director, Monaco Media Forum

synopsis The Internet’s infrastructure makes it easier for people to access
media on their terms, deciding if they want to own, rent, or access content
for free. Most industry experts believe global leaders should discuss how
best to finance creation on the Internet so it benefits the artist as well as
society and culture as a whole.

The demand for TV, movies, and games remains unchanged: people
consume as much or more media content than ever. The factor that
continues to change as a result of the Internet and emerging technologies
is how people consume this media. Mobile technology, for instance, is
rapidly changing the way consumers behave and interact with content.

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A growing segment of end-users now expect content to be made available
to them instantly, in any location, for free. Book publishers point out that
prior to the Internet, physical space was an issue when it came to the
release of new publications: old titles had to be eliminated in order to
make room for new releases. Thanks to the Internet this problem has been
eliminated. There is also an exciting new market for reissuing previously
out-of-print books.
As online consumer behaviors differ significantly, the question for Internet
players becomes how to transition from one business model (i.e. providing
free content) to another (i.e. providing for-pay content) with the hope of
maximizing the consumer experience while maintaining high-quality
content. Experts agree that being able to quickly adapt to new business
models is essential for today’s online players to keep up with rapidly
advancing technologies.
The pressing and politically-charged issue of Internet regulation reemerged
in the context of online content. While industry experts remain divided on
the subject, most agree the issue should be taken up at the international
level by today’s global leaders and policymakers. Some experts also point
out that regulation is not the evildoer its opponents make it out to be; they
believe rules are necessary in any community — be it physical or virtual — and
guard freedom. Others assert that aggregated data shows a large percentage
of people who are “stealing” media content online do not know they’re
doing it. Instead, those of this opinion believe that today’s online consumers
lack the necessary literacy on how to use media responsibly and legally on
the Internet. Industry should address this problem.
The enforcement of regulation  who enforces what, and how?
—
—
is also a growing concern for Internet players on both sides of the regulation
argument. The general consensus is that the matter should be addressed
at the international level. Further, the harmonization of rules and
regulations between countries should also be on the international agenda
in discussions concerning online media content. Different countries have
different rules, and this poses problems for those consuming and
distributing media in the borderless, virtual world.

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e-G8 FORUM Wednesday May 25, 2011

workshop i session iii

Electronic Liberty:
New Tools for Freedom
Session Panelists
Hassan Fattah, Editor-in-Chief, The National
Jean-François Julliard, Secretary-General, Reporters Without Borders
Jamal Khashoggi, General Manager, Alwaleed 24News channel
Susan Pointer, Director, Public Policy & Government Relations EMEA, Google
Alec Ross, Special Advisor to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Nadine Wahab, Egyptian activist
Tony Wang, General Manager Europe, Twitter
Moderated by
Olivier Fleurot, CEO, MSLGROUP

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synopsis Policies of major Internet companies can unintentionally have
devastating impact on the personal security of active concerned citizens
living in authoritarian regimes. Facebook’s insistence that each profile
should correspond to a readily identifiable person might make sense in
a democracy, but in other regions it can create enormous problems.
Thousands of Internet users are in prison around the world for the
“crime” of expressing their opinions.

The company policies of Google and Twitter made it possible for Internet
users in the Middle East, for example, to communicate freely but without
the danger of being identified. However, for a mainstream traditional
media outlet which places a high premium on the reliability of its sources
of information, the anonymity of informal sources poses a huge problem.
There was also heated debate about whether to permit encryption for
online messaging services, with no consensus.
It is easy for an undemocratic regime to restrict access to the Net, but
no government can ever shut down freedom of expression. We recently
saw courageous Libyans smuggling telecoms and internet equipment
into Benghazi after the Qaddafi regime had knocked out their transmission
towers.
In open societies, the Internet is rapidly progressing as a sophisticated tool
for political strategy and communication. The innovative techniques used
by the Obama 2008 campaign are now mainstream tools used by everyone.
The panel expressed strong feeling that there should be a well structured,
global Commitment to Internet Freedom, backed up by the certainty of
a collective response to any major infringements based on Article 19 of
the United Nations Treaty of 1948. This is extremely urgent, and should
be enforced as a greater priority than either any agreement about
Internet content regulation or copyright enforcement.
Despite all the concerns for individual freedoms, and their possible
limitations, users in wealthy, Western democracies should not just take
the Internet for granted: there are many places in the world where even
simple access to the Web is greeted with infectious excitement and
optimism.

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e-G8 FORUM Wednesday May 25, 2011

workshop ii session i

Be Here Now: Mobility
Changes Everything
Session Panelists
Tod Cohen, Deputy General Counsel and VP Government Relations
International, eBay
Bart Decrem, SVP & GM, Disney Mobile
George-Edouard Dias, Head of L’Oreal Digital Business Group
Eric Hazan, Partner, McKinsey & Co
David Jones, Global CEO, Euro RSCG Worldwide
Alexandre Mars, CEO of Phone Valley
Olivier Roussat, Director-General, Bouygues Telecom
Richard Wong, Accel Partners
Moderated by
David Barroux, Les Echos

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synopsis Smart phones are increasingly the tail that wags the Internet
dog. They are already being used for search and browsing functions that
had been the exclusive preserve of PCs : mobile searches are up 64%
and social networking use is up 57% since 2009. Overall mobile media
consumption is twice what it was three years ago, and accelerating at
an increasing rate. Samsung predicts that smart phones will be twice as
powerful in 2013, making them essentially a portable computers.

As they grow more powerful, smart phones will be the agent of change
in the market. Blurring all lines between communication, social
networking and commerce, they will become even more versatile. There’s
already newly-minted jargon to point the way forward: Mocial — the
interaction of mobile telephony and social networking ; Metail — a mix
of mobile phone and retail; and, most musically, Solomo — social
networking, mobile phoning and localization. The mobile phone has
already become the basic computer medium in much of the developing
world; in Kenya, 13 million people use mobile banking.
These highly personalized tools will require vigorous safeguards for data
privacy and security. However, most agreed that this does not necessitate
greater government regulation. User reaction will police the market
adequately. As Accel Partners’ Richard Wong put it, “Any company that breaks
the consumer’s trust (by releasing personal data improperly) will be hit by
a backlash so bad that it will keep everyone from overstpping the line.”
Still, governments may need to take action in one specific area. Unlike
the Internet, smart phones are dominated by a small number of operating
systems, notably Apple and Android. They function as the market’s
gatekeepers, potentially curbing competition as they determine what
content can and can’t have access to their systems. As one panelist said,
“We are afraid of closed systems”. Many agreed that competitive markets
characterized by multiple choices and the ability for new entrants to
move in are the best business environment overall, and this may imply
stronger antitrust oversight.
Additionally, unlike fixed bandwidth (which is functionally limitless),
smart phone capacity may become restricted by the limits of the radio
spectrum. Although some have an unwavering political commitment
to Net Neutrality, others feel that some kind of «soft» regulation, drawn
up in cooperation with industry, may be necessary to apportion limited
spectrum capacity.

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e-G8 FORUM Wednesday May 25, 2011

workshop ii session ii

Disinter-Media:
Is Internet killing
— or relaunching —
the press?
Session Panelists
Carlo De Benedetti, Chairman, Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso
Norman Pearlstine, Chief Content Officer, Bloomberg LLC
Robert Shrimsley, Managing Editor, FT.com
Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., Chairman & CEO, The New York Times
Robert Thomson, Editor-in-Chief, Dow Jones
Moderated by
Frédéric Filloux, CEO, E-Presse

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synopsis Internet will not kill newspapers, but it is re-defining the
newspaper industry. Traditional business models that have worked for
decades or even centuries need to be scrapped in favor of more flexibility,
adaptability and consistency. There is no single solution: national,
international and regional papers face differing challenges. Bloomberg
LLC, a business and financial news provider, has a business model
whereby all subscribers pay the same price, no discounts. FT.com’s
system delivers a portion of initial content free; it then becomes a paying
service. The New York Times had a money-making model in place that
charged for selected articles, but decided it could make more money by
removing the pay structure and returning to advertising. There are many
possible models for success.

Whatever newspapers decide to do, the one thing they will have in
common: expect to make mistakes. As one participant warned: if you
don’t fail occasionally, you’re not trying hard enough. Also, expect
change. No successful strategy will have a long shelf life. As technology
continues to morph and evolve at breakneck speed, what works today
may be outdated tomorrow. The industry learned that painful lesson
when they were caught out with 5-year projections that completely failed
to take into account the rapid development of social media.
Devised correctly, Internet tools can greatly complement newspapers,
even if the physical papers have fewer readers. It’s all about content.
Content, not the means of distribution, is what defines every organ from
The New York Times to the Wall Street Journal to the Financial Times.
As content creators, the Net and the newspaper have more in common
than in conflict. Most newspapers will find that their website offers an
opportunity to engage more deeply with readers. The website -- which
provides content readers want and content they can use to help make
decisions -- redefines the role of the journalist, and although this is a
challenge it can be a very positive one. The key will be how to balance
digital revenues and sustainability long-term.

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e-G8 FORUM Wednesday May 25, 2011

workshop ii session iii

Open Government,
Open Data: For the
People, by the Internet
Session Panelists
Laurent Blanchard,Vice-President, European Markets
and General Manager, Cisco France
Carlos A. Primo Braga, Special Representative and Director,
EXT, Europe, The World Bank
Jean-Philippe Courtois, President, Microsoft International
Séverin Naudet, Director, ETALAB, data.gouv.fr
Andrew Rasiej, Founder, Personal Democracy Forum
Professor Nigel Shadbolt, University of Southampton
Moderated by
Stanislas Magniant, Co-Founder, Netpolitique.net

synopsis Governments in countries with widely differing levels of
economic development and democratic freedom grapple with issues
regarding Open Data systems. The process can (and optimally does)
include national and local governments and international administrative
and non-profit organizations, as well as commercial organizations and
private individuals. Open Data systems are evolving at uneven speeds,
even within countries. In the US, the quality and the amount of available
government data on the White House website (www.whitehouse.gov) has
increased impressively since 2000, but the open-data site www.data.gov
only launched two years ago. But not all open data systems are concerned

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with government. A highly impressive crowd source website in the
Philippines, www.checkmyschool.org, lets concerned parents check on
their children’s education. In Kenya, www.ushahidi.com was developed
to monitor violence and foul play during the 2008 elections; it is now being
used to lay out all kinds of interactive maps, in Africa and elsewhere. In
Madrid a crowd source application tracks the condition of the Spanish
capital’s trees.
While there is strong political support in France for the principle of open
data government and the launch of data.gouv.fr, perhaps the most
advanced G8 member country in terms of civic open data systems is the
UK. Data.gov.uk boasts almost 7000 national data sets, from detailed,
street-by-street crime maps to the location of bus stops. (Individuals often
contribute, to the benefit of all: scrutiny by Net users revealed that at least
6% of the British bus stops were initially located in the wrong place, and
crowd-sourcing eliminated the errors). In response to widespread public
indignation regarding politicians’ personal and public spending, every
expense over £500 must now registered on the site and all 355 administrative
areas in Britain now publish their full budgets on line.
The World Bank, like other international organizations, now publishes
most of its data free online. It also actively encourages developing
countries to make use of it, democratizing development economics.
Only when countries specifically request that their economic data
remain classified is it not made available to the public.
The private sector has an important role to play in spurring the
development of Open Data and spreading its benefits to society at large.
Private corporations developing Government IT systems can help make
public sector data more easily accessible and reusable. The ecosystem
of developers, corporations and Web entrepreneurs can reuse public
data, to invent new services for citizen, and to create new economic
activity, which can participate in strengthening growth and job creation.
Some panel members concluded with the recommendation that all nonpersonal government data should be made available online, in machinereadable format.

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e-G8 FORUM Wednesday May 25, 2011

workshop iii session i

The Disrupters:
Extreme Innovation
Session Panelists
Lars Bjork, CEO, QlikTech
Jacques-Antoine Granjon, CEO and Founder, vente-privee.com
Brent Hoberman, Co-Founder, mydeco, made.com, PROfounders Capital
Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet, Co-Founder and CEO, PriceMinister,
part of the Rakuten Group
Xavier Niel, Founder and Chairman, Iliad
Marc Simoncini, Founder and CEO, Meetic
Yossi Vardi, Chairman, International Technologies
Martin Varsavsky, Founder & CEO, FON Wireless, Ltd.
Moderated by
Loic Le Meur, Founder, Seesmic and Le Web

synopsis New technology has dramatically disrupted traditional
telecommunications, news, music, and other industries. This disruption
has been fueled by startups that appear to come from nowhere yet cause
sudden and major changes in how people communicate, get information,
and consume entertainment and services. Today, the way people make
new friends and even manage love relationships are being disrupted by
media like Facebook and Blackberry Messenger. Tomorrow’s disruptions
are, necessarily, unpredictable.

Increasingly tech-savvy generations will become an important catalyst
to the emergence of disruptive technologies. Children everywhere have
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a new relationship to technology. Disrupters therefore don’t only look
for new products and services for today’s population, but for more
technologically fluent generations to come. This creates a spiral of
increasingly younger disruptive entrepreneurs.
Executives at emerging technology companies identify various market
conditions that fuel the growth of their disruptive products and services.
They encourage countries to create environments that foster productive
disruptions in tomorrow’s economies. Above all, they implore regulators
to «keep their hands off the Internet.” Past disruptions have succeeded
because the early commercial Internet grew for many years before
regulators even understood the phenomenon. A policy of ”do no harm”
frees disruptive companies to forge their own path without additional
business burdens.
According to several participants, software patents present an especially
difficult obstacle to the spread of disruptive technologies. The need to
obtain patents for emerging technologies preoccupies companies with
resource-wasting patent battles. Many disruptive entrepreneurs would
like to see software patents eliminated.
Governments are strongly encouraged to promote universal access to
the Internet. Additionally, entrepreneurs are eager for more
harmonization of business laws among countries, to flatten barriers
and create a workable European framework. These conditions make it
easier for inexperienced, minimally resourced startups to grow. Also,
when making laws that will affect emerging disruptive business models,
legislators should consider the long term, with laws that will still be
relevant in years to come. Constantly changing regulations are an
obstacle for the success of disruptive technologies.
Today’s disrupters face competition from emerging markets. Countries
like China have produced competitors in American and European
markets, while China’s domestic Internet access is closed or controlled
for political and commercial reasons. This is a barrier for foreign
companies trying to compete. However, in previously closed Middle
Eastern countries, Internet markets are beginning to open. The Arab
Spring revolutions represent a unique opportunity for the disruptive
business model to succeed in newly open markets.

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e-G8 FORUM Wednesday May 25, 2011

workshop iii session ii

Sharing Value:
How to divide
the digital bounty
among creators,
distributors – and
governments?
Session Panelists
Frank Esser, CEO and Chairman, SFR
Gabrielle Gauthey, Executive Vice President,
Global Government & Public Affairs, Alcatel
Reed Hundt, Chairman, Aspen Institute IDEA conference
Alain Minc, President, AM Conseil
Ezra Suleiman, IBM Professor in International Studies, Princeton
University
Moderated by
Gilles Babinet, Entrepreneur, Chairman of the French Conseil
National du Numerique

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synopsis Access to the Internet’s data is easy, and in this market segment
it could be said that 90% of the effort of making money is just showing
up. You are not creating a product or even necessarily selling a product:
simply collecting data can, in and of itself, create value—jobs or revenue.
Moreover, it isn’t necessary to capture an entire market, just a section
of it, and aggregate from there. There remains little control or supervision
by either countries or companies, partly because the Internet became
a common medium for reasons of historic accident and was driven by
non-profit impulses.

In the Internet, all value creation depends on the collective commitment
to maintain a common medium. If this were not the case, no value—
either economic or social—would be created for anybody. Today
preferred sectors for investment are dynamic search engines, social
networks, and device networks. This may change.
Today, in the world’s 100 largest cities there are 400 smartphones per
square km. By 2016 that number is predicted to climb to at least 13,000.
By then the price of smartphones will have substantially decreased and
in Africa even the poor will have access to them. That’s a signal to many
industry insiders that something in the current value chain needs to
change.
One recent change has been the reemergence of government, specifically
in providing Internet service to areas not currently covered. In the US,
for example, billions of government dollars are being spent to provide
Internet to non-access areas. This is vital, because the market alone will
not organize itself in a way that will reach out to the less dense areas.

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e-G8 FORUM Wednesday May 25, 2011

workshop iii session iii

The Data Dilemma

Social media and the explosion of data
are driving the Internet’s growth, and raising
important questions about privacy
and data security
Session Panelists
Mitchell Baker, Chair, Mozilla
Steve Baker, Author The Numerati and Final Jeopardy
Jeff Jarvis, Buzzmachine
Andrew Keen, Author, Digital Vertigo
Alain Lévy, CEO, Weborama
Christian Morales, VP & General Manager EMEA,
Dave Morgan, Founder & CEO, Simulmedia
Christopher Wolf, Partner, Hogan Lovells
Moderated by
Curt Hecht, Vivaki Nerve Center

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synopsis The Internet is entering a stage experts term “Web 3.0,” in
which search engines use keywords to aggregate data while additional
online tools collect user information. Protecting user privacy and
guarding sensitive data has become a growing concern. The Net risks
losing users unless these privacy concerns are addressed.

Consumers should be able to control their personal data and who has
access to it. That’s what privacy is. Today, sophisticated Net users are
aware that advertising companies, social networking sites, and
governments (among others) actively mine information about them
while they’re online. These users know how to navigate the virtual world
safely and protect their personal information. But “ordinary”, “average”
Internet users are unaware that various entities are culling, storing, and
frequently selling information about them while they use the Internet.
Industry leaders agree that the average Internet user must be educated
and empowered to help maintain privacy online. Consumers should be
able to decide how much, or little, information they reveal about
themselves while using the Internet; it should not be a blind process.
Further, technologists should be encouraged to develop online systems
and tools so that Internet users who are interested in protecting their
personal data can do so. One key recommendation is to give people the
ability to opt in or out of tracking and data gathering processes.
Global leaders should also work to distinguish between online data mining
that’s acceptable versus that which is an actual security threat. If Internet
users begin to feel they are being “stalked” by online parties, their trust
in the virtual world will be compromised and Internet usage will drop.
The government’s role should be to regulate and enforce rules about
how to protect privacy and maintain data security. However, policymakers should be mindful of the possible unintended consequences
that privacy laws might have on freedom of speech. Technologists
likewise warn that regulators should be cautious not to over-regulate or
demonize exciting emerging technologies.
Giving people control of their data could be a long-term solution to
protecting user privacy. Many Internet don’t want to reveal information
about their private lives when they go online. As the Web 3.0 world moves
in, global leaders and industry experts need more dialogue about
possible technological solutions to this problem.

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The co-Chairs during the closing plenary that laid out the
Forum’s message to the G8 Heads of State: left to right, Paul
Hermelin, CEO of Cap-gemini; Stéphane Richard, Executive Officer of France Telecom-Orange; BenVerwaayen,
CEO of Alcatel-Lucent; Jean-Philippe Courtois, President
of Microsoft International; Jean-Bernard Lévy, the Executive Director of Vivendi; Maurice Lévy, Chairman and CEO
of Publicis Groupe; Joe Schoendorf, Partner at Accel Partners; Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google; Xavier
Niel, founder and Chairman of Iliad; Hiroshi Mikitani,
Chairman and CEO of Rakuten; and Sun Yafang, Chairwoman of Huawei.

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e-G8 FORUM May 24-25, 2011

Concluding Press Release
After two days of intense discussion in Paris, a delegation from the e-G8 Forum traveled
to Deauville (France) for a dialogue with leaders of the G8 nations.
For the first time in the history of international summit meetings, the Internet and related
issues were placed on the agenda of a meeting of Heads of State and government by
France, the presiding country of the G8-G20. Present in Deauville were Angela Merkel
(Germany); Stephen Harper (Canada); Barack Obama (United States); Nicolas Sarkozy
(France); Silvio Berlusconi (Italy); Naoto Kan (Japan); David Cameron (United Kingdom);
and Dmitry Medvedev (Russia).
President Sarkozy had placed the Internet on the agenda of the G8 summit meeting, and
had requested that stake-holders of the Internet take up the responsibility of organizing a
Forum, in order that all the relevant stake-holders could debate the salient topics before
the meeting with the G8 Heads of State and government.
On Thursday May 26, this ambitious process culminated in a one-hour meeting in Deauville
between the G8 leaders and a delegation from the e-G8 Forum. The delegation was led
by Maurice Lévy, the Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe and Chairman of the e-G8,
and comprised Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO of Rakuten; Yuri Milner, CEO of Digital Sky
Technologies; Stéphane Richard, CEO of France Telecom-Orange; Eric Schmidt, Executive
Chairman of Google; and Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook.
The two-day e-G8 gathering was an opportunity for debate and collective reflection on a
wide number of key themes involving the Internet. They included support for innovation;
future development of the Internet; freedom of networks; protection of personal data from
cybercrime; protection of minors; and, more broadly, the practical impact of virtual and
digital applications on fields as varied as economic growth, job creation, democracy,
government administration, education, news and health.
The Forum’s six plenary sessions and nine workshops featured free and wide-ranging debate.
Even when opinions were strongly held, the discussions that ensued were sincere and
respectful. The e-G8 Forum adopted the Internet spirit of cooperation and consultation;
thus all pre-conditions were united so that reason, as well as imagination, could be placed
at the service of the digital future.
“I want to thank all those who worked to make this e-G8 Forum a success, including of course
the major world leaders who shifted their schedules in order to attend, the sponsors who
graciously accepted to finance it, and all those who showed, by their presence and their
contribution to the debates, their interest in the future of the Internet,” said Maurice Lévy,
Chairman of the e-G8. “Those who feared that this first e-G8 had been organized exclusively
in order to regulate or restrict the Net have been disproven. Our debates have been open, rich
and constructive. Given this success, I think I can say that there will be a second e-G8.”
Maurice Lévy requested that the process of preparing the message to be delivered to

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Deauville by the Forum’s delegation should be completely open and transparent. The
closing plenary gathering thus reviewed the work of all the sessions that took place during
the Forum and defined a number of fundamental themes. The members of the delegation
used this as their basis when they drafted their message for Deauville.
From the outset of their discussion with the G8 leaders, members of the delegation
emphasized that the Internet is a powerful vector of individual fulfillment, free expression
and personal development. Moreover, as a collective tool, the Internet is a positive force
for change, capable of renewing the way in which groups and organizations cooperate and
act; this was spectacularly confirmed by the movements of the Arab Spring.
The Internet is also a strong economic locomotive, creating wealth and jobs. It has led to a profound
reconfiguration of the way in which modern economies function. This digital transformation of
every economic sector has been accompanied by a net creation of jobs: for every job that is
eliminated, 2.6 new ones are created. Thus the delegation emphasized that in every sector of
society, energies that are ready to invest in digital technology need to be freed up to do so.
In order to maximize these benefits, the delegation invited the G8 leaders to ensure proactive
policies regarding investment, or regarding the support and encouragement of investment,
in order to guarantee all citizens access to an Internet that is free, rapid and safe.
The delegation spoke openly about the existence of unresolved debates among Forum
members regarding regulation. These were notably a feature of discussions on intellectual
property, software patents, protection of personal privacy, and cybercrime. The key notions
of the discussion that the first e-G8 Forum sought to engage and to structure were: protect,
without constraining; regulate, without adulterating the fundamental liberty on which the
Internet has been built.
The delegation also stressed that exponential growth in the flow of information, and the
increasing interconnection of networks, call for action by public authorities in order to
ensure the stability, security and development of the physical infrastructure without which
the Internet could not exist.
The G8 leaders made very positive comments regarding the e-G8 gathering itself and the
main results achieved to date. In their statements about the delegation’s messages, the
Heads of State and government recognized the Internet’s exceptional achievements in
terms of economic growth and social change, and its potential for positive impact on
democratic processes, government administration, and education.
The first e-G8 Forum was organized at extremely short notice, with a lead time of barely
eight weeks. Grasping the importance and the challenge of the meeting, 1500 stake-holders
of the digital ecosystem made the journey to Paris, where they began to work together and
to sketch out possible improvements to a future Forum, in order to put the e-G8 fully at
the service of the Internet and the digital economy.
The possibility of a second, future e-G8 Forum was discussed; this echoed calls that were
made in Paris during the Forum itself.

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