Internet Governance Dialogue of Costa Rica 2020 (DGI CR, online edition) — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

On 23 September 2020, the Internet Governance Dialogue of Costa Rica (DGI CR) went fully online for the first time due to COVID-19 — a two-hour panel streamed via Zoom and Facebook Live.
Under the theme 'strengthening Internet governance in the pandemic era', speakers from LACTLD, MICITT and IPANDETEC discussed crisis-time public policy and regional cooperation, and marked NIC Costa Rica's 30th anniversary.
The headline is continuity: the half-day in-person event shrank to a two-hour stream rather than skip a year — a textbook case of a national IGF keeping its annual cadence through the pandemic.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on Internet Governance Dialogue of Costa Rica 2020 (DGI CR, online edition) draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.

📍 The catalogue lists the location as TBD; the official record confirms a fully virtual edition due to COVID-19

Conference at a Glance (from official records)

Item	Detail
Official name	Internet Governance Dialogue of Costa Rica 2020 (DGI CR, online edition)
Dates	23 September 2020, 9:30–11:30
Venue	Held online: panellists on Zoom, public viewing via Facebook Live on the ISOC CR and NIC CR pages
Theme	'Cómo aportar al Fortalecimiento de la Gobernanza de Internet en época de Pandemia' (Strengthening Internet governance in the pandemic era)
Host	Organised by NIC Costa Rica with the ISOC Costa Rica chapter and MICITT
Note	Marked the 30th anniversary of NIC Costa Rica (the .cr registry)

(See the source list at the end of this article.)

Discussion Digest — from the Session Records

Key exchanges extracted from session records and transcripts.

1. Governance Under the Pandemic — A Crisis That Proved the Internet's Public Role

Sessions: Online panel, 9:30–11:30, moderated by ISOC CR president Silvia Pérez-Baires

The central question was how to strengthen Internet governance in the pandemic era, as remote work and schooling made connectivity's public role unavoidable [1]
MICITT's Angélica Chinchilla presented the government's COVID-19 policy response — the committee's government seat reporting on crisis management [1]
Each speaker gave a 15-minute presentation followed by a lessons-learned round and a 25-minute public Q&A, a flow designed for the online format [1]

2. Latin American Perspectives — LACTLD and IPANDETEC on the Panel

Sessions: Presentations within the same panel

Miguel Ignacio Estrada, general manager of LACTLD (the Latin American and Caribbean ccTLD association), reported on regional Internet development — registry-level regional ties sustaining dialogue through the pandemic [1]
Lía Hernández, executive director of Panama's IPANDETEC, presented governance good practices — Central American national IGFs lending each other speakers [1]

3. Going Virtual at a 30-Year Milestone — Changing Form to Keep Going

Sessions: Opening remarks and streaming operations

A two-tier setup — panellists on Zoom, the public on ISOC CR and NIC CR Facebook Live — replaced the three-hour in-person working groups with a two-hour streamed panel [1]
The opening marked the 30th anniversary of NIC Costa Rica, the .cr registry; the recording was published on social media with a summary document planned [1]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. How was it held?

A. Fully online: four panellists debated on Zoom while the public watched on Facebook Live, and the usual half-day shrank to two hours.

Q. What was discussed?

A. How to strengthen Internet governance during the pandemic — the government's policy response, regional trends from the ccTLD association LACTLD, and good practices from Panama's IPANDETEC.

Q. Why should I care?

A. Faced with a crisis year, the organisers chose 'smaller but held' over 'cancelled' — a lesson for any community event: two streamed hours can keep an annual institution alive.

What Is Costa Rica IGF? (for first-time readers)

Costa Rica IGF is a National or Regional IGF Initiative (NRI), aligning local internet governance discussion with global IGF principles.

Why It Matters to You

What was discussed here becomes the baseline for national digital policy, platform rules and AI regulation worldwide within a few years. The principles confirmed at the 2020 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.