Join Internet Governance Forum Remotely from Islamabad

By Naveed-ul-Haq

The Internet is an amazing mean of communication spanning the globe. It is a multi flavor stage that anyone, anywhere can jump into it.

Searching wholesome of information to paying electricity bill, downloading a multimedia video to playing an online cricket game, advertising your product to checking the status of your shipment, applying for a job to developing social networking, providing electronic government services to enabling cheap VoIP for remote areas and so on; Internet has captured all age-groups and sectors of an economy.

Recent phenomenon of information based society has exploded the significance of Internet which till today is the most convenient technology to disseminate information.

At the same time the Internet is also described as anarchic space for abandoned content, last front for the teenagers to access obscene websites, a growing threat to personal privacy, largest source of harmful computer viruses and open violation of copyrights.

In view of development and implication issues of the Internet varying  from country to country, a devoted unified platform to converse on these is available is form of ‘Internet Governance Forum’.

The Tunis Agenda for the Information Society invited the Secretary-General of United Nations to convene a new forum on 2006 for multi-stakeholder open policy dialogue to stimulate open policy dialogue on issues of Internet Governance.

Internet Governance Forum holds its annual meeting to invite participants across the globe; reflecting governments, International organizations, telecommunication companies, Internet content providers, software developers, the private sector, civil society and the media.

The meeting brings through discussion on multifaceted public policy issues related to Internet governance. The meeting aids in bridging the gap between people and institutions to share their diverse opinions and experiences to discuss Internet concerns and move towards a common understanding.

The fifth annual IGF Meeting will be held in Vilnius, Lithuania, on 14-17 September 2010. Please visit http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/ for details.

Internet Governance Remote Participation Hub

In order to encourage and facilitate the participation from economies where international meeting attendance cost hampers a great number of interested students and professionals from attending IGF debates, IGF secretariat provides an opportunity to create remote participation hubs.

The remote hub will act as a local meeting where the participants will be able not only to watch the web and audio cast proceedings of the IGF but also to interact with the meeting participants.

Participants will also be able to discuss the themes covered by the IGF from a local perspective, a stimulus or a starting point for the debate of local issues and implications and for the development of a network of interested people.

Keeping in view the dire need of Internet Governance issues understanding and capacity building among our youth and Internet professionals, NUST SEECS in collaboration with Internet Society (ISOC) Pakistan Chapter  is establishing remote participation hub for fifth annual IGF Meeting at NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Sector H-12, Islamabad.

Remote Hub Schedule

The proceedings of the recent meeting were accumulated with parallel running main sessions and workshops on Internet Governance subjects. On a broad scale, Internet Governance debate for 2010 is structured into following key areas.

• Critical Internet Resources
• Internet Governance for Development
• Access and Diversity
• Security, Openness and Privacy
• Emerging Issues / Cloud Computing

Keeping in view the issues of local prospective, the following is the day-wise detail schedule of IGF proceedings to be made available through the hub.

Day One: Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Title: Policy, governance and participation; harnessing all aspects of Internet for Youth activism

Local Timings (PST): 11.00 – 13.00 hrs

Details: http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/index.php/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=WSProposals2010View&wspid=70

Title: IPv6 around the world; surveying the current and future deployment

Local Timings (PST): 13.30 – 15.30 hrs

Details: http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/index.php/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=WSProposals2010View&wspid=87

Day Two: Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Title: Developing Civil Society and Youth Participation in Internet Governance in Asia

Timings (PST): 11.00 – 13.00 hrs

Details:

http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/index.php/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=WSProposals2010View&wspid=67

Title: Application for Mobile Internet Access for Persons with Disabilities

Timings (PST): 13.30 – 15.30 hrs

Details:

http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/index.php/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=WSProposals2010View&wspid=182

Title: Cyber Crime – Common Standards and Joint Action

Timings (PST): 16.15 – 18.15 hrs

Details:

http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/index.php/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=WSProposals2010View&wspid=23

Day Three: Thursday, September 16, 2010

Title: Innovative Internet Governance Idea and Approaches

Timings (PST): 11.00 – 13.00 hrs

Details:

http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/index.php/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=WSProposals2010View&wspid=54

Title: Implication of Cloud Computing

Timings (PST): 13.30 – 15.30 hrs

Details:

http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/index.php/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=WSProposals2010View&wspid=58

Title:   Dynamic Coalition on Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Media on Internet

Timings (PST): 16.15 – 18.00 hrs

Day Four: Friday, September 17, 2010

Title: Principles of Internet Governance Dimension of Open Knowledge Environment in Bridging Digital Divide

Timings (PST): 11.00 – 13.00 hrs

Details:

http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/index.php/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=WSProposals2010View&wspid=18

Title: Deploying DNSSEC in a territory

Timings (PST): 13.30 – 14.30 hrs

Details:

http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/index.php/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=WSProposals2010View&wspid=141

Title: Integrated Approach for Child Protection Online

Timings (PST): 14.30 – 15.30 hrs

Details:

http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/index.php/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=WSProposals2010View&wspid=141

Participation at Remote Hub

An open invitation is given to all likely participants interested in attending the IGF 2010 and gaining necessary knowledge about the International Internet governance issues. Please visit http://seecs.nust.edu.pk/ for registration.