Deliighted to be here with all of you. What an honor to be invited in. I'm still reeling.
Well, a good place to start with is Kofi from the Washington Post on Saturday. Couldn't have put it better myself:
"In its short life, the Internet has become an agent of revolutionary change in health, education, journalism and politics, among other areas. In the United Nations' own work for development, we have glimpsed only the beginning of the benefits it can provide: for victims of disaster, quicker, better-coordinated relief; for poor people in remote areas, lifesaving medical information; and, for people trapped under repressive governments, access to uncensored information as well as an outlet to air their grievances and appeal for help.
There are also legitimate concerns about the use of the Internet to incite terrorism or help terrorists, disseminate pornography, facilitate illegal activities or glorify Nazism and other hateful ideologies. But censoring cyberspace, compromising its technical underpinnings or submitting it to stringent governmental oversight would mean turning our backs on one of today's greatest instruments of progress. To defend the Internet is to defend freedom itself."
washingtonpost.com - "The U.N. Isn't a Threat to the Net" By Kofi A. Annan, Saturday, November 5, 2005; A19. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/04/AR2005110401431_pf.html
And with that, let's begin.