On the afternoon of November 19, the 2024 Best Practice Cases for Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace release and showcase event was held in Wuzhen, Zhejiang. The Global Internet Oral History Project, initiated by Fang Xingdong, Executive Dean of our college, stood out among more than 230 global cases and was successfully selected as one of the best practice cases.
Wang Song, Deputy Director of China’s Cyberspace Administration, Francis Gurry, Vice Chairman of the World Internet Conference, Ren Xianliang, Secretary-General of the World Internet Conference, and Ke Jixin, Vice Governor of Zhejiang Province, attended the event. They presented trophies and certificates of recognition to representatives of the featured cases and distinguished organizations. Guests from around the world engaged in in-depth discussions on international cooperation in cyberspace.
During the release session, Hundred Talents Program researcher Zhao Yupei represented the team and provided a detailed presentation of the core concepts and outcomes of the Global Internet Oral History Project.
The Global Internet Oral History Project was launched in 2007 by Fang Xingdong. It aims to document the oral histories of key figures in the global internet field, presenting a comprehensive narrative of the internet’s development. The project spans more than 50 countries and regions and includes interviews with over 500 internet pioneers and key figures, such as “Fathers of the Internet” Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn. To date, it has amassed 1,100 hours of video footage and over 7 million words of textual records, making it one of the world’s most extensive and vivid archives of internet history.
The project not only traces the trajectory of internet technology development but also provides crucial cultural and historical references for global cyberspace governance. It has produced a series of oral history books and has been featured on international platforms such as the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF), the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), and the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies (APRICOT).