CPRsouth 2014 in Maropeng, South Africa, clashes with IGF 2014 in Istanbul.  Internet governance has assumed increased importance to the CPRsouth community in the aftermath of the controversial WCIT conference in 2012 and the Snowden revelations.

In recent years, IGF has been held in October-November and did not clash with CPRsouth, but unfortunately the dates have been advanced for 2014.  The CPRsouth call for proposals was published prior to the IGF call for proposed sessions, and the conflict was therefore not known at the time.  Now, as the IGF programme is taking shape, the cost of the conflicting schedule is becoming evident.  The need for some to be present at IGF will affect our ability to ensure attendance of all the planned moderators, discussants and young scholars’ programme instructors. 

Given the fact that the conference venue had already been booked and the post-IGF availability was uncertain, we had to make a quick decision to change the reservation.  This decision was not taken lightly, but we believe that as a research-to-policy organisation, it is important to avoid clashing with one of the most important Internet policy events of 2014. 

CPRsouth 2014 dates will therefore be:

Conference: 10th - 12th September 2014 (not 4-6 September as previously announced); and

Young Scholars programme: 7th - 9th September 2014 (not 2-3 September as previously announced). 

We have taken advantage of this opportunity to add half a day (7th of September) to the Young Scholars programme to accommodate more of the traditional tutorial content in addition to the planned Systematic Review training. 

The IGF will be held in Istanbul September 2-5 and the new CPRsouth dates will allow those who wish to participate in both activities to conveniently combine them in one trip. 

We apologise in advance for any inconvenience caused by having to revise the conference dates.