The Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) is an emerging scholarly community initiated in spring 2006 as part of the UN Internet Governance Forum. Its four principal objectives are to: (1) support the establishment of a global cohort of scholars specializing on Internet governance issues; (2) promote the development of Internet governance as a recognized, interdisciplinary field of study; (3) advance theoretical and applied research on Internet governance, broadly defined: and (4) facilitate informed dialogue on policy issues and related matters between scholars and Internet governance stakeholders (governments, international organizations, the private sector, and civil society.