[AfrICANN-discuss] EMEA Newsletter Issue #2
Yaovi Atohoun
yaovi.atohoun at icann.org
Sat Oct 11 07:55:02 UTC 2014
Hi all / Bonjour a tous
Please see below the second edition of our EMEA Newslettter. My apologies
for the size of the text.
Priere trouver dans ce message la deuxieme edition du Journal EMEA
(Europe/Moyen-Orient/Afrique). Nous vous ferons parvenir la traduction
lorsqu'elle est terminee. Mes excuses pour la longueur tu texte.
Thanks/Merci
-
Yaovi Atohoun
Stakeholder Engagement and Operations Manager – Africa
ICANN – www.icann.org
Mobile : +229 66015649 / 97891228
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Issue #2
Jump To: Istanbul Hub Events <#IHB> | EMEA News & Activities <#ENA> |
Regional Insights <#IRI> | Spotlight <#S> | Upcoming Events <#KRUIE> |
News Highlights <#NH>
Welcome to our second edition of the EMEA newsletter
We’ve had a busy quarter, especially last month in Istanbul with various
activities planned around the 9th Internet Governance Forum (IGF).
Our newsletter provides a snapshot of activities within our Istanbul hub
along with highlights from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa and
also a few insights into what we have been doing and why.
You will also find a special feature ‘Spotlight’ in this edition, which
highlights efforts in the EMEA community and stories of successful
multistakeholder collaboration designed to ensure the safeguarding of a
secure, stable and resilient global Internet. This issue’s spotlight is the
Lebanon Internet Center (LINC), a multistakeholder body mandated with
overseeing Internet policies in Lebanon. It is the first national
multistakeholder body in the Middle East launched earlier this year. LINC’s
CEO shares his thoughts with us.
We hope you find our news and features engaging and, as always, we welcome
your feedback.
Happy Reading!
The EMEA Team
ICANN’s Hub in Istanbul – Regional and Local Focus on Internet Activities
The opening of the Istanbul Hub marked a significant milestone in the
evolution of ICANN as it spreads its operational functions across three
global headquarters—Los Angeles, Istanbul, and Singapore. Since then, the
Istanbul hub office and its staff have served as both hosts and conveners
with events stakeholders for across all of its sectors. Additionally, the
hub provides full support to the engagement offices and their staff
throughout the EMEA, along with standard ICANN services in the following
areas: policy development, contractual compliance, operations, registries
and registrars’ services, communications, meetings, and Board support.
In our host city, Istanbul, we have been active in our outreach efforts on
several levels, meeting and collaborating with members of government,
business, academia, and civil society, a testament to ICANN’s commitment to
the region and to its globalization efforts. Hosting and convening meetings
of stakeholders from various sectors helps achieve ICANN’s engagement
efforts in Turkey and the EMEA region more broadly. From meetings with
researchers and scholars to planning a forum of DNS experts, ICANN
appreciates the opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to globalizing its
services and resources for the multistakeholder community.
ICANN looks forward to expanding the Istanbul hub and further elevating its
work in Turkey and the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region.
David Olive
Vice President, Policy Development Support
General Manager, ICANN Regional Headquarters –Istanbul
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
_
Istanbul Hub Events
Meeting with law students from the Bilgi University IT Law Institute
http://cyberlaw.bilgi.edu.tr/
Local Officials, ICANN President and CEO Launch .ist and .istanbul
The Municipality of Istanbul signed an agreement with ICANN for the
registration of .ist and .istanbul as domain extensions. Istanbul Mayor
Kadir Topbaş and ICANN President and CEO Fadi Chehade attended the signing
ceremony on 2 September 2014 in Istanbul. “Istanbul will also have a central
presence on the Internet via the new '.ist' and '.istanbul' domains,” said
the Mayor Topbaş.
The Mayor said Istanbul was "in a position that can influence the world in
many fields" and that the municipality is exerting efforts to turn Istanbul
into "a hub for everything." Mentioning that few cities had their own domain
names, Mayor Topbaş continued, "I believe it is a great opportunity to boost
recognition of Istanbul and further expand its role as a financial hub." He
emphasized that the city became the first of 81 cities in Turkey to have its
own domain name.
Fadi Chehadé noted that Istanbul has managed to preserve its past while
building its future. "Istanbul is a unique city and imitated by others”,
Chehadé said. “It will now have more online visibility and websites will
benefit from those new domain names."
Broad Multistakeholder Participation as IGF 2014 Wraps Up in Istanbul
ICANN participated <https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-3-2014-08-25-en>
in this year's 9th Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
<http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/> meeting in Istanbul. The overarching
theme of the meeting was Connecting Continents for Enhanced Multistakeholder
Internet Governance <http://www.igf2014.org.tr/about.igf.html> . This year's
meeting built on previous IGFs and furthered the dialogue on Internet
governance and emerging Internet issues. It also built on the success of
this year’s NETmundial in Sao Paulo, Brazil and promoted its outcomes. ICANN
believes that the IGF plays an effective role in fostering global
multistakeholder cooperation in Internet governance and strongly supports
its continuation beyond its 2015 mandate.
Key IGF 2014 statistics
* 2,374 onsite participants
* 1163 remote participants
Onsite Participation by Region
Onsite Participation by Stakeholder Group
Africa
Asia Pacific
Eastern Europe Host Country
Host Country
Latin America and the Caribbean
Western Europe and Others
215
423
153
706
158
714
Civil Society
Government
Intergovernmental Organizations
Host Country
Private Sector
Technical Community
836
542
98
516
289
Briefing by the Academic Community on Multistakholder Research Projects
On 3 September, the IT Law Institute at İstanbul Bilgi University and the
Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society, both members of
the Global Network of Interdisciplinary Internet & Society Centers (NoC
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/network_of_centers> ), introduced a
preliminary report of ongoing research to members of the ICANN Board, senior
ICANN executives, members of the Turkish Internet Improvement Board, and
other Internet stakeholders.
As an academic community, an integral part of the multistakeholder Internet
governance approach, this group decided to make an academic contribution to
the ongoing debate on the distributed, decentralized Internet governance
ecosystem. They prepared a report based on the foundational principles of
NetMundial and framework for a global, collaborative, and decentralized
Internet governance ecosystem as described in the report of the Panel on
Global Internet Cooperation and Governance Mechanisms.
http://networkofcenters.net/event/evolution-internet-governance-ecosystem
Future Activities Planned in Istanbul
Taking place on the 18th November 2014 in Istanbul, is the Turkey DNS Forum
where participants from ICANN, registries, registrars, registrants, ccTLDs,
new gTLD applicants, policy makers, Internet service providers, IT
businesses, brand owners, and legal firms all will attend in an attempt to
build bridges between interested parties in Turkey and the world's experts
in these fields, to share experiences and best practices, inform the
audience of what is taking place in the domain name industry at a global
level, and to discuss emerging business opportunities.
The first edition of the forum is expected to be the building block for
future annual forums. The purpose of an annual forum is to spread the
message and introduce interested parties to the key players in the DNS
industry, hopefully leading to a stronger domain name industry in the
region. More details will be provided soon.
_
EMEA News & Activities
September 2014
3 SeptemberICANN signed an MoU with the Ministry of Information Society and
Administration. Read more here
<https://www.icann.org/news/blog/macedonia-and-icann-sign-cooperation-agreem
ent> Skopje, Macedonia
8-11 SeptemberDNSSEC Workshop:
http://dnssec-deployment.icann.org/training/AMM/Amman, Jordan
15 SeptemberDanish IGF <http://www.fremtidensinternet.dk/> – Panel:
Internet Governance – Who is in Control. Speaker – Jean-Jacque Sahel, VP
Stakeholder Engagement, EuropeCopenhagen, Denmark
17-19 SeptemberDNSSEC RoadshowYaounde, Cameroon
17-19 SeptemberSouthern Africa IGF
<http://giplatform.org/events/saigf-malawi> - Speaker: Bob Ochieng
Lilongwe, Malawi
24-26 SeptemberDemo Africa
<http://www.demo-africa.com/events/event-details/demo-africa-2014> ,;
Speaker: Bob OchiengLagos, Nigeria
28-30 SeptemberConnect to Connect
<http://extensia-events.com/events/connect-2-connect-2014> ,; - Main topic :
Internetworking in Africa; Speaker: Bob OchiengTanzania
22 SeptemberPanel “Roundtable on Internet Governance”
<http://www.chathamhouse.org/event/multi-stakeholder-model-internet-governan
ce-developing-new-governance-model-21st-century> , Speaker: Sally Costerton,
Senior Advisor to the President, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN)London, UK
23 SeptemberTunisian ICT Association Panel on “Internet Governance, present
situation and new approaches”, Speaker: Baher Esmat, VP, Stakeholder
Engagement, Middle East Hammamet, Tunisia
October 2014
2-3 OctoberHigh Level Workshop on Internet Governance
<http://www.smartrwandadays.rw> , ICANN Africa team and Mike Silber, ICANN
board Member will be speaking. Kigali, Rwanda
Government Engagement Group Activities
8 SeptemberUN New York briefing hosted by the Polish and Mexican Permanent
Missions to the UN - 40 attendees and active dialog with China, Egypt, the
Philippines, Turkey and othersNew York
15 SeptemberRegional IGFMacedonia
22 SeptemberLunch briefing in Geneva to all missions and most IGOs and
Internet organisations - Keynote by Fadi ChehadeGeneva
29 SeptemberParis meeting convened by SG OIF of the steering committee on
Forum de la Langue FrançaiseParis
1 OctoberWTO Public Forum: Presentation on Internet and Trade by ISOC and
ICANN
_
ICANN Regional Insights
The Internet Governance Forum: From Dialogue to Action
By Baher Esmat, VP Stakeholder Engagement, Middle East
IGF Photo Gallery:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/icann/sets/72157647157492522/
When the Internet Governance Forum (IGF <http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/> )
came to birth nine years ago, many perceived it as a mechanism for damage
control. During its first couple of years, skepticism was rife about both
its continuity and its ability to address controversial IG issues. However,
over time, the IGF succeeded in bringing different stakeholders closer by
offering them an open space for dialogue, very much like the Internet
itself, where they can debate IG related issues. It has even gone further in
building bridges of trust and knowledge transfer across stakeholders.
The 9th IGF meeting was held in Istanbul, Turkey during 2-5 September 2014,
bringing together more than 3,500 onsite and remote participants. This is
credit to how the IGF has become a meeting point for those who are
interested in the broad spectrum of Internet Governance, to come together,
engage in discussions, interact with one another, and perhaps launch new
ideas and initiatives. In fact, the very first IGF meeting took place the
same year Twitter was created and Facebook was opened to the public. This
was only eight years ago, yet the Internet has evolved tremendously since
then. While one could argue that the IGF has evolved at a much slower pace
than the Internet, the fact of the matter is that it is the IGF participants
who have been shaping its evolution in a bottom-up, multi-stakeholder
fashion, which by its very nature takes time to develop and thrive. But
nevertheless, the IGF has continued to improve, particularly following the
recommendations
<http://unctad.org/meetings/en/SessionalDocuments/a67d65_en.pdf> of the
CSTD working group on improvements to the IGF.
This year’s IGF had a lot on the agenda, covering the current affairs of
Internet Governance with a wide range of topics inclusive of ICANN
accountability, network neutrality, Internet rights, digital trust,
empowering youth, spam, content creation, to name just a few.
Improvements to the IGF this year were manifested in many aspects that may
be hard to cover in full here; but some are worth noting. In an attempt to
make outcomes of the IGF more visible and tangible, the MAG Chair has put an
open call for information on concrete actions and decisions taken by
organizations as a result of their participation in the IGF. Feedback along
with a summary document is available online
<http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/documents/contributions/call-for-information
> . Best practice forums have been introduced with an aim to have more
informed discussions on specific topics and produce outcome documents. The
IGF website has been given a facelift and become in some parts more
streamlined. On the financial side, an IGF Support Association has been
launched
<http://www.internetsociety.org/news/new-association-launched-support-intern
et-governance-forum-and-its-essential-role-addressing> to support and
complement existing funding, and to strengthen the IGF secretariat as well
as regional and national IGFs.
As in previous IGF meetings, ICANN was present
<https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-3-2014-08-25-en> in Istanbul with
staff, Board, and community members organizing and taking part in various
sessions. The IGF offers ICANN the opportunity to reach out to a wider
community that is not regularly present at ICANN meetings. The ICANN Open
Forum attracted more than 100 participants who came to hear from ICANN
leadership and have a dialogue with them on any issues related to ICANN.
This year, the issue of IANA stewardship transition and ICANN accountability
was the subject of discussion in several sessions. A Town Hall meeting was
held on Day 1 to further engage with community and clarify any points in
relation to the Enhancing ICANN Accountability and Governance Process
<https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-08-2014-09-05-en> . This was yet
another opportunity for ICANN to listen to community members and assure them
that we are taking their feedback seriously.
Statistics in the Chair’s summary
<http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/documents/igf-meeting/igf-2014-istanbul/246-
chairs-summary-igf-2014/file> show that almost half of the IGF attendees
this year were from developing countries. Enhancing participation from
developing countries and involving new stakeholders was one of the key
recommendations of the CSTD working group. Obviously, IGF Istanbul has made
progress in this direction. Another issue the IGF has been looking into is
how to strengthen its linkages with regional and national IGFs. Such
regional and national forums, particularly those in developing countries,
deem the global IGF as the place where they can showcase their work and at
the same time get to learn from other experiences and return home with
homework to do. As one participant from Yemen told me during the meeting
“there is a lot going on in Internet governance and we’ve got enormous work
to do back home”. So, “action” is what the IGF community is after, and many
have felt that the IGF this year was more focused on the action side of the
things, or as the Chair’s summary puts it: “From dialogue to action”.
The importance of the 7th annual conference of registries and registrars in
Baku this year
TLDCON-2014 was held on Sept.10-11 in Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan
By Michael Yakushev, VP Stakeholder Engagement
Traditionally this conference attracts not only regional companies and
organizations, but also a wider number of stakeholders and jurisdictions.
This year more than 100 delegates from 24 countries gathered in Baku.
The TLDCON-2014 was preceded by a regional ENOG conference, organized by
RIPE NCC. The week was packed with interesting and fruitful discussions, by
both the IP/Telecom and DNS business communities, on the most current
Internet issues. Naturally, discussions focused on the new technical issues
and legal challenges that arise with the evolving nature of the Internet and
its ecosystem; becoming more complex and more diverse.
The DNS industry, which was considered at the TLDCON-2014 as a ‘cornerstone’
of the Internet infrastructure, is heavily influenced by the nGTLDs Program,
and we can see not only rapid regional development of some new domains, but
also a certain decline of the growth rate of many ccTLDs, and failed
expectations of the business success of other new GTLDs. This factor raised
discussions on the future of the Internet, its technical infrastructure and
its role in the global economic processes. Which is healthy and helps bring
more awareness to the issues and processes that need to be followed in order
to circumvent and overcome the hurdles faced with the growth of the
Internet.
Both events (TLDCON and ENOG meeting) are important for our regional efforts
to engage stakeholders, to share best practices, and to understand better
regional and global trends in the development of the network infrastructure,
Internet-related business, and government regulation. Events in Baku were
really cross-regional: people came there not only from the region of the
Eastern Europe and Central Asia, but also from different Western and
Southern European Countries, United States, and Asia. There were also
proposals on better integration of such regional events into the overall
ICANN meetings strategy, as many ‘Regional-specific’ issues may be
fruitfully discussed and solved at the regional (or cross-regional) level,
saving more room for global questions of the Internet Governance at ICANN
meetings.
ICANN had good presentation at the TLDCON-2014 by myself, Patrick Jones -
Global Stakeholders Engagements Senior Director, and Sarmad Hussein-IDN
Program Senior Manager. Issues like new GTLD Program implementation,
development of the L-Root infrastructure, IDN Variants and Label Generation
Panel for Cyrillic names, NTIA transition project, and forecasts for the
“Internet-2020”, were covered. All such issues are among the most discussed
in the local technical and business communities. A lot of commercial
companies and government agencies expressed their interest to the possible
new cycle of the nTLD program. Many regional companies would like to install
L-Root servers for improving their global connectivity. As the official
languages of many countries in the region are based on Cyrillic letters, and
there may be new IDN gTLDs in the future, the corresponding technical issues
should be solved as soon as possible. And, finally, any proposals for the
regulation and/or technical projects should be based on the vision, what the
main trends in the Internet development are now and may be visible in the
future.
Further information on the conference may be found at
http://meeting.cctld.ru/en/.
>From Westphalia to Sao Paulo: building our future (governance) together
By Jean-Jacques Sahel, VP Stakeholder Engagement, Europe
Evolution is happening at an exponential rate in our time. You need only
remember, the Radio took 38 years to reach a market of 50 million users;
Television took 13 years to reach 50 million users - and the Internet took
only about 4 years to reach the same number. Today, close to 3 billion users
have increasingly come to rely on Internet access to facilitate basic,
everyday needs and aspirations, all over the world. In less than one
generation, the Internet exploded in the number of users, mobility, data
volumes, economic importance, and global reach.
These achievements are due in some significant part to the Internet’s
peculiar bottom-up, multi-stakeholder model of governance which, by bringing
together different stakeholders' particular remit and expertise, helped to
achieve a scalable and robust Internet.
Yet, for all the progress enabled by the multi-stakeholder model we are
mindful that the Internet is relatively young, and likewise is our
pioneering system of governance. The very pace and magnitude of the
Internet’s development has also brought with it a whole set of new
challenges we have to address as we build our future Internet governance
together. It is a long road ahead of us. Relying on, and improving, our
decentralized, collaborative, multi-stakeholder model of governance is the
best way to address these new challenges and evolve the way the Internet is
governed in the future. One of the major steps in consolidating and
improving the model is happening right now with the transition of oversight
for the IANA functions, and the accountability & governance review that
comes with this change.
It is perhaps interesting to look at what the multi-stakeholder model often
gets compared to, or contrasted with: the nation-state model enshrined in
the treaties of Westphalia in 1648; when the major powers in Europe agreed
on a number of peace treaties aimed to end the wars that had plagued much of
continental Europe for most of the century. As often, nothing happens
overnight. The model did not achieve its aim of peace immediately: France
and Spain were at war for another 11 years after the treaties were signed.
In short, what this experience could tell us is: give peace – and
multi-stakeholderism – a chance to develop.
It is incumbent on us all to engage positively and constructively towards
improving our processes, and to allow for the necessary time for the model
to develop and thrive – we are after all, experimenting with a model, which
could solve more than just the Internet’s problems. Just over 20 years ago,
Samuel Huntington famously raised the prospect of a looming ‘clash of
civilizations’, of cultural conflicts. Others since – and many more
recently, in the wake of the multiplication of regional and transnational
conflicts – have expanded to talk about the end of the nation-state system
as initiated in 1648. As we enter the 21st century and are waking to the
realization of the immense benefits of the Internet - our first truly global
tool of human ‘inter-connectedness’ - the multi-stakeholder model presents
an interesting evolution in governance possibilities. One that could not
replace, but coexist with and relieve, the nation-state system.
Over the next year, in taking forward the Net Mundial Roadmap and
transitioning the USG oversight of IANA to the ‘global multi-stakeholder
community’, we have a great chance - and a common responsibility: to work
together to build on and reinforce the multi-stakeholder global model of
governance that has permitted the Internet to serve the whole world so
amazingly over the past quarter of a century. As someone stated once:
‘Internet Governance in in Your Hands’. Or as I would say, in my understated
fashion: ‘the future is in your hands’ – together we can build a better and
evolving Internet that serves all of our needs and aspirations.
Monetization of the Africa domain name space
By Pierre Dandjinou, VP, Africa
Domain monetization is one of the largest and most profitable online
industries. Simply put, a company or an individual decides to purchase
domain names either to sell, lease, or to park them with the purpose of
making money. The ROI (return on investment) rate through domain
monetization depends on the entrepreneur’s plans and initiative. Registries
and registrars also can reap benefits through the potential of domain
monetization. Why should one discuss monetization in Africa? The recently
held Africa Domain Name Forum in Abuja Nigeria offered many examples of how
African registries and registrars have taken advantage of new opportunities
through investment and monetization. Moreover, registries feel the need to
increase their customer base; hence the necessity for engaging in targeted
marketing activities. The ICANN African strategy calls for a series of
initiatives including capacity building that could boost the African domain
name market and business. One obvious result of increased monetization of
the domain name space in Africa is the potential transformation of the
current ecosystem, with a total of approximately 1,200,000 registrations
(out of a population of 1.2 billion). Of these, nine hundred thousand
(900,000) are solely from South Africa. This alone shows how much work we
need to do to fully capitalize on the domain industry. Indeed there are
different methods of monetizing domain names:
* Developing Affiliate Websites
* Developing Pay Per Click(PPC) Websites , which originates from PPC
advertising systems such as Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network.
* Domain Parking
* Domain Leasing – Renting the domain name to advertisers or other
interested parties
* Domain Purchase and Resale
* Domain Development which entails development of a website with unique
content and a business model
For African registries, one way of monetizing is the development of
registrar and reseller friendly TLD policies. Other avenues include the
development of local content and scalable automated registry platforms as
well as through the improvement of the technical and business capacity of
registry operators through continuous training and packaging of domains as a
service and not as a commodity.
For registrars and resellers, the reduced taxation, which has a direct
impact on the overall cost of domains, should be the norm as this will lead
to a reduction in the cost of registering domain names. Consequently,
African Governments should also consider tax waivers for ccTLDs to promote
uptake.
Marketing is another key element, which starts by the registries offering
reliable and predictable service to their clients. Hence, the technical
staff plays as equal a responsibility in marketing as the business staff by
ensuring stable, reliable and secure registries.
Moreover, registries should look for agile and adapted payment solutions.
For example, e -payment and cash payment should run in parallel. Many online
payments solutions (especially PayPal) exist but have yet to be implemented
in most parts of Africa.
As was noted in the Africa strategy, there is a need to build capacities for
business development within African ccTLDs and registrars; issues pertaining
to quality of service (QoS), and quality of experience (QoE) as well as
trademarks and Intellectual property concerns should be considered and
embedded within comprehensive and operational policies and procedures. In so
doing, one paves the way for the advent of an African business and industry
of the domain name.
The Story behind ICANN’s BCG Road show
By Chris Mondini, VP Stakeholder Engagement, Global Business and North
America
The work of ICANN in coordinating the names and addresses of the Internet
helps keep it global, expanding and interoperable. Furthermore, increased
access to a global, expanding, and interoperable Internet is good for
business and national economies. Support for this point can be found in the
Boston Consulting Group’s report on E friction, “Greasing the Wheels of the
Internet Economy”
<https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/bcg-internet-economy-27jan14-en
.pdf> .
The BCG report came out in January, and continues to resonate with
governments and business leaders around the world by providing a clear
roadmap of how businesses and national economies can continue to benefit by
fully embracing a global, borderless Internet.
Why did ICANN commission the research? In part because much of the current
reporting in global Internet governance has focused on the “doom and gloom”
scenarios of an Internet fragmented or “balkanized” by a patchwork or
national regulatory regimes. And in part, not much research has been done on
the effect of barriers and hurdles in the online world, and the drag they
have on economic growth. The E friction report has made it easier to
identify the areas of friction that hold back the digital economy and at the
same time has helped ICANN to emphasize the opportunities for advancement
that come from making the most of the ever expanding, globally interoperable
Internet.
This last point is especially useful for business users of the Internet and
the Domain Name System. In conducting their research, BCG found that Small
and Medium Enterprises with a robust web presence, who make the most of
online marketing, sales and systems management, and who embrace cloud
computing can considerably grow their revenues.
By creating an index and measuring the performance of 65 countries, BCG has
provided a valuable benchmark against which future gains can be measured.
But it is all predicated on an Internet that remains borderless and
interoperable, hence complementing other reports that highlight the benefits
of reducing or eliminating barriers to Internet access and its affect for
both countries and companies.
Each ICANN-BCG roundtable gathers a mix of government officials and business
leaders and takes on its own regional characteristics. A representative from
a global telecommunications firm described the discussions a “crisp and
brisk … full of innovative thinking and interesting people”. Another
participant asserted: “the world needs to know about the risks faced by the
global Internet. It is up to business to help governments understand what’s
at stake”.
In creating a country index, BCG has opened the door to possible future
iterations of the report to see how countries perform. In the meantime, at
least one ICT ministry has reported that they will use the report as a menu
of ways to work with business to improve their country’s friction score. The
report has also successfully underscored ICANN’s role as a partner in a
shared aim to maintain an open, scalable and interoperable Internet.
ICANN Business Engagement meeting successfully held in Africa
By Bob Ochieng, Manager; Stakeholder Engagement - East Africa
ICANN's work is crucial to the interoperability and growth of the Internet
on which so many businesses depend regardless of geographical location..
Furthermore, ICANN is an open and participatory model – business advantage
and useful information can be gained simply through participation. Knowing –
and actually shaping – Internet policy related to the Domain Name System and
other unique identifiers is a primary reason many companies participate
today. But while participation has increased over the years, private sector
involvement in general, especially in Africa, is minimal. This has prompted
ICANN to engage this constituency to stimulate better and meaningful
participation from across the world.
And so as curtain came down on the 9th global IGF in Istanbul, Chris Mondini
headed to Nairobi, Kenya where he convened a business engagement
roundtable.. The event was titled “Sustaining the power of the global
Internet for transformative economic growth” and was designed to encourage
participants to focus on the Internet as a global business resource with the
potential of contributing significantly to the growth of a national GDP as
evidenced by the recent report by the Boston Consulting Group on
“e-friction”. This meeting was just the first of many that will be held in
various parts of Africa, targeting the business sector in line with the
Africa strategy.
In preparation for the Nairobi meeting, we collaborated with the Ministry of
ICT, the Director General of the Kenya regulator (Communications Authority -
CA) and key Telco’s and ISPs in Kenya while coordinating with the ISP
Association in Kenya (Telecommunications Service Providers Association –
TESPOK) and KeNIC (.KE registry) to widen our reach to the community. The
two-day meeting engaged over 60 participants from two groups of business
stakeholders, namely, telecommunications businesses - those involved in the
ICT business including Telco’s – as well as other businesses involving
banks, and the Chamber of Commerce. The mixed panel presentation areas
focused on the ICANN Africa Strategy and the BCG report with a panel
discussion on Business Engagement – the How & Why Engage?
It was stressed during the panel discussions that the BCG report is meant to
stimulate countries and its policy makers to refocus their attention in
addressing key areas of e-friction (infrastructure; industry; information;
and individual) by having all parties siting on the same side of the table
to deliberate.
All in all, the reception to the panels was positive with candid and
constructive engagement from the attendees. The key takeaways from our panel
was how to localize the data presented to better engage the African business
community, and the recognition that there is definitely a need to spread
this engagement through other parts of Africa.
_
Spotlight
The Lebanese Internet Center (LINC) – A Democratic Multistakeholder
Governance Initiative in EMEA
By Nabil Bukhalid, CEO
The Lebanese Internet Center (LINC) is a public/private, not-for-profit
organization characterized by a democratic multistakeholder governance
structure (Figure 1). LINC’s strategic alliance between civil society
organizations, corporations, syndicates, universities, research
organizations and the government of Lebanon emanated from major and long
standing gaps in Internet governance in Lebanon affecting the sustainability
and growth of the Internet and more specifically the operation and business
continuity of the Lebanese Domain Name Registry (LBDR).
LINC is initially responsible for the Internet’s Lebanese top-level domain
(.lb ccTLD and .لبنان AIDN), including the registration of domain names, and
the administration and technical maintenance of the national domain-name
registry infrastructure. LINC will also promote the positive development of
the Internet in Lebanon. A share of the fee that LINC intends to charge for
domain name registration will be invested in capacity and community building
activities and projects that promote the positive development of the
Internet in Lebanon.
There are currently less than 4,000 registered .lb domains. LINC intends to
file with ICANN for the re-delegation of the .lb ccTLD, apply for the .لبنان
AIDN, and develop the DNS industry in Lebanon by establishing friendly,
efficient, secure and competitive registration processes based on the
registry/registrars business model. LINC aims to grow into the natural
choice for companies, organizations and individuals that want a domain name
associated with Lebanon by providing the best services to the local Lebanese
market, the globally spread Lebanese diaspora and the global market at
large.
The necessity for a multistakeholder body to assist in the amalgamation of
different and competing interests was pinned by Fadi Chehadé, ICANN CEO,
during a reconnaissance visit to Beirut in February 2013. The partners
engaged in long sessions of critical thinking on governance structure
outcome, impact and alternatives and, while they acknowledged that
multi-stakeholder governance will introduce complex processes with insecure
outcomes, they made a conscious decision that multi-stakeholder governance
is a strategic and preferred option for the Internet governance in Lebanon.
On June the 2nd, 15 months later, Fadi Chehadé returned to Beirut to
celebrate with Lebanon the launching of LINC from the Ministry of Economy
and Trade.
As the incumbent .lb registrar and one of the key facilitators in the making
of LINC, I would like to share my reflections and observations on the
multi-stakeholder building process:
* In a multi-stakeholder development initiative, the democratic process is
as important as the outcome. Democracy is a complex and testing evolutionary
process.
* The Internet is a network of complex interdependent networks at the
physical, economical, political and social levels. With growing complexity
and interdependence comes growing needs for collaborative efforts.
* In a multi-stakeholder development process confrontational parties develop
trust relationships as a byproduct of: working together; sharing problems,
concerns and dilemmas; and facilitating the exchange of information and the
alignment of goals. Trust-building among the stakeholders is crucial for
success.
* Engaging in multi-stakeholder governance efforts opens the way to
gradually introduce multi-stakeholder practices and get them transcribed in
governmental policies and regulations.
* The execution of multi-stakeholder governance requires from the partners
to address the sustainability issues. The partners should secure sustainable
means to finance the operation while neutralizing the power of money. I.e.
since power equal money, the corporate partners’ financial might should not
give them additional privilege over the NGOs, etc.
* Interest diversity is at the core of multi-stakeholder governance, the
more diverse interests are; the more diverse stakeholders should be involved
in order to increase the effectiveness of the process. The target is to
engage all stakeholders and leave nobody out. The price to pay is that this
makes collaboration more complex and difficult.
* Interest diversity in a dynamic and continuously evolving and mutating
environment, such as the Internet, require a dynamic and flexible
multi-stakeholder governance structure. Interests can change over time, new
parties might want to enter the partnership and others might want to exit.
* The success of the multi-stakeholder process dictates utmost transparency
and open communication.
* Participation in a multi-stakeholder initiative requires considerable
resources and consumes a lot of time.
_
Key Regional Upcoming ICANN Events
Please view the ICANN calendar for a more detailed look at all events
<https://features.icann.org/calendar?keys=&field_date_value%5Bmin%5D%5Bdate%
5D=&field_date_value%5Bmax%5D%5Bdate%5D=&field_region_value=All&field_event_
source_tid%5B%5D=19&field_event_source_tid%5B%5D=24> in the ecosystem.
October 2014
12-16 OctoberICANN51Los Angeles, USA
19 Octobercollaboration with I* organizations to monitor Internet related
resolutions and discussions at ITU PP 14 in Busan, Korea – [Government
Engagement Group Activities]Busan, Korea
22 OctoberJoint IIC-ISOC-London School of Economics workshop on IG
evolution; http://www.iicom.org/iic-chapters/iic-uk-chapterLondon, UK
30 October“The Internet Today and Tomorrow”: ICANN – NASK- Polish
Government-FOSSF Workshop Warsaw, Poland
November 2014
4-7 NovemberRIPE 69 <https://ripe69.ripe.net/> London, UK
4-5 NovemberWorkshop on building sustainable domain names business in Africa
and the Middle East - Organizers: ICANN, NTRA (Egypt), AfICTA (African ICT
Association).Cairo, Egypt
5-6 NovemberWorkshop on Investigating DNS Abuse/Misuse for Law Enforcement
Agents; ICANN team participating. Organizers: Lebanese University and
Ministry of InteriorBeirut, Lebanon
18 NovemberTurkey DNS Forum
<https://community.icann.org/display/MES/Turkey+DNS+Forum> Istanbul, Turkey
19-21 NovemberRegistry Roadshow Workshop
<https://community.icann.org/display/RH/Agenda+for+Registry+Roadshow+Worksho
p> Istanbul, Turkey
24-25 NovemberInternet Day Sweden <http://internetdagarna.se/english/> :
Panel “Internet governance – who will shape the future of the Internet?” and
a panel session on the new gTLDs Speaker: Jean-Jacques SahelStockholm,
Sweden
26-27 NovemberArab IGF Beirut, Lebanon - Theme: “Arab Perspective for
Shaping the Future of the Internet”
http://beta.igfarab.org/ArabIGF2014.jspBeirut, Lebanon
December 2014
7-10 DecemberITU Telecom World 2014
<http://www.itu.int/en/ITUTELECOM/Pages/world2014.aspx> - Panel “The Next
Big Internet Step: Moving to IPv6 to Enable Everything” Speaking: Baher
Esmat
<http://www.itu.int/net4/Telecom/webs/TelecomWorld/session/description/C-000
00418/http://www.itu.int/net4/Telecom/webs/TelecomWorld/session/description/
C-00000418/> Doha, Qatar
18-19 DecemberAfrica Telecom People 2014Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire
ICANN51 in Los Angeles
This could very well be one of the largest international Internet
conferences of the year. The meeting is filled with interesting and engaging
sessions on a wide variety of topics, such as:
* The SO/AC-Led High Interest Topic Session, which will discuss the role of
government representation in ICANN
* Enhancing ICANN Accountability, which will address the issue how ICANN can
remain accountable in the absence of its historic contractual relationship
with the U.S. government, and the
* Community Discussion with the ICG where the IANA Stewardship Coordination
Group (ICG) will discuss the transition.
Registration for ICANN51 is free – just go to
https://registration.icann.org/. If you can’t attend in person, remote
participation is highly encouraged – and easy to do. Just visit the online
schedule and select the session you’re interested in – almost all have
options for joining in from wherever you are.
_
ICANN News Highlights
Accountability / NTIA IANA Functions Stewardship transition
You need to be involved. All of the Accountability track information can be
found here:
https://community.icann.org/category/accountability
https://www.icann.org/en/stewardship
NMI launch in Geneva
The Initiative is being undertaken by the World Economic Forum, in
collaboration with various partners including ICANN and key governmental,
industry, academic and civil society stakeholders.
This collaboration will facilitate a distributed environment of effective
multistakeholder cooperation through innovative and legitimate mechanisms
to:
1. Help solve global Internet challenges, especially the non technical ones
2. Inform and equip capacity development initiatives to ensure global
participation in Internet cooperation, especially from under-represented
regions;
3. Build trust in the Internet and its governance ecosystem.
For more information:
http://www.weforum.org/issues/global-internet-governance
GDD News
* ICANN Approves Name Collision Occurrence Management Framework | Special IP
Address (127.0.53.53) Alerts System
* Administrators of Potential Issue: http://goo.gl/vlDDMa.
* Current statistics
<http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/statistics> as the
applications work their way through to the Internet:
* Over 300 strings have been delegated. You can view them here
<http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/delegated-strings> .
* Look here to view the “new gTLD programme” timeline
<http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/timelines> .
* For more information about the GDD, follow this link:
http://goo.gl/4A7wDQ.
Latest posts by Fadi Chehadé
Internet Governance is in Your Hands
Who will run the Internet and how?
The question is now galvanizing the mainstream media. Numerous stories are
appearing on both the reportorial pages (i.e. WEF unveils 'crowdsourcing'
push on how to run the Web)
<http://news.yahoo.com/wef-unveils-crowdsourcing-push-run-210507320.html> ,
and on the opinion pages (i.e. The Internet Power Vacuum Worsens
<http://online.wsj.com/articles/l-gordon-crovitz-the-internet-power-vacuum-w
orsens-1410124265> ). In that context, this seems like an appropriate time
to set the record straight and to correct some inaccuracies that are being
spread across the media landscape.
Read More >>
An Initiative for Action
Back in May, I wrote a blog titled "Turning Talk into Action after
NETmundial."
<https://www.icann.org/news/blog/turning-talk-into-action-after-netmundial>
In it, I promised to work tirelessly on coalescing governments, private
sector and civil society to operationalize the NETmundial roadmap. I did not
make this promise lightly
Read More >> <https://www.icann.org/news/blog/an-initiative-for-action>
"We Need Your Input"
Public Comment is a vital element of ICANN’s decision-making process. Here
is an opportunity for all stakeholders to provide input and feedback on all
facets of ICANN’s work. Find and participate in Open community discussions,
review past work and browse upcoming topics. Visit
https://www.icann.org/public-comments#open-public
Stay in touch!
We hope this edition gave you a glimpse into the issues at hand in our
region, and our ongoing community activities to help pave the way to a
sustainable multistakeholder governance enabling our Internet to stay open,
secure, stable and resilient. Our newsletter focuses primarily on Europe,
the Middle East and Africa.
We look forward to hearing your feedback on the newsletter, and perhaps
suggestions you might have on topics of interest.
On ways to participate at ICANN, please browse here
<https://www.icann.org/search/#!/?searchText=participating> .
For more information, please send an email to: emea.newsletter at icann.org.
Luna Madi
EMEA Communications Director
ICANN Europe, the Middle East and Africa Offices
Istanbul, Turkey Hub Office
Tel: +90.212.381.8727
Geneva, Switzerland Engagement Office
Tel: +41 22 819 1844
Brussels, Belgium Engagement Office
Tel: +32 2 894 7400
<https://twitter.com/ICANN> <https://www.facebook.com/icannorg>
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