Issues of Youth in IG process

Internet Governance has become the pivotal point that drives the overall internet ecosystem. It has been handed over to the Multistakeholder process but more or less it is still ruled by the transcended values of limiting internet as a commodity of technology that is within the reach of people who have access and money only.

Internet for all or open standards has always been a global issue of creating layers where internet dynamic are creating variable limitation and difference. There has been subjective efforts towards mitigating the problem but with just the limitation of expertise and lack of intervention at the grassroots level youths are bound to suffer the consequence.

When we talk about internet governance and youth there is a huge gaps where things are complicated in many complexity of diversity, and knowledge. More or less the internet politics hinders the process of adaptation.

The major challenges for youth has been subjected not just with the limitation  but it is further targeting the youth with the externalities. In many of these cases youth are suffering the consequences of being victims of  just being users. 

Some of the issues of youth are: 

1. Lack of Internet core values 
2. Lack of awareness about the internet governance process
3. Internet politics around Internet governance process 
4. Orthodox and limited mentality 
5. Limitation of networking and participation in IG events 
6. Lack of diversity 
7. Favoritism and nepotism 
8. Social media and policy 
9. Lack of research and survey about the indicators 
10. Funding and fellowship
11. Lack of proper training

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Smart City a concept or reality

The definition of  of Smart City, varies from city to city and country to country, depending on the level of development, willingness to change and reform, resources and aspirations of the city residents. A smart city would have a different standards according to geography and technology as per the region and location.

Basically a smart city is a system that works with integration of emerging trends such as automation, machine learning and the internet of things (IoT) that configures the smart system in a certain geographic location adopting certain rules and regulation in  facilitating various services and amenities.

To be precises, a smart city is a municipality or a societal form of city management system that uses information and communication technologies to increase operational efficiency, share information with the public and improves both the quality of government services and citizen welfare. It create better management overarching and  improving quality of life for its citizens using smart technology and data analysis.

In today's context  of smart cities,  energy conservation and efficiency are major priority  where using smart sensors, and IoT devices are the need which is changing rapidly. Every year the standard of smart city is changing with the evolving technology and system. Likewise, smart grid technology can be used to improve operations, maintenance and planning, and to supply power on demand and monitor energy outages.

Focusing on Climate change and resource optimization, smart city initiatives also aim to address environmental concerns and other human threats. Using better technology,   Health, Sanitation and hygiene  can also be improved with smart technology. Similarly, daily necessity needs like food, water, gas can be efficiently control and distributed minimizing the risk of contamination.

Apart from that Smart city technology can be used for  improving emergency preparedness with sensors that can save hundreds and thousands of lives from natural disaster like droughts, floods, landslides or hurricanes.

Smart city challenges and concerns

The major challenges and concern are assumption of cyber attack, surveillance other infiltration to the system of centralized control which can disrupt the services and in major cases can cause devastation in terms of management.
Another aspect of the challenge is the fear of  the exposure of the data that citizens produce on a daily basis to the risk of hacking or misuse is an issue of concern for all.  Additionally, the presence of sensors and cameras may be perceived as an invasion of privacy or government surveillance. To address this, smart city data collected should be anonymized and not be personally identifiable information.

One thing that is very important is when there is opportunity there are risks. This requires a firm backbone of critical infrastructures such as Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) for management of the system and back up of the network.

The CIRT team  is responsible for responding to security breaches, viruses and other potentially catastrophic incidents in enterprises that face significant security risks. In addition to technical specialists capable of dealing with specific threats, it should include experts who can guide enterprise executives on appropriate communication in the wake of such incidents. The CIRT normally operates in conjunction with other enterprise groups, such as site security, public-relations and disaster recovery teams.

Without a functional CIRT the operation and management of a smart city is impossible.

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Cyber Attack and Ransomware

A cyber attack is any type of offensive set of action or program that attacks any system or algorithm in a sequence of disrupting regular services or creating harm to  individuals, groups, or organizations that targets computer information systems, infrastructures, computer networks, and/or personal computer devices by various means of malicious acts usually originating from an anonymous source that either steals, alters, or destroys a specified target by hacking into a susceptible system.

What is a RANSOMEWARE ?
A ransomeware is a computer viruses that is designed to lock down your files and threatens to delete your files unless you pay a ransom are known as ransomware. According to security experts warned that ransomware is the fastest growing form of computer virus exploiting a security hole in vulnerable software by tricking somebody into installing it and then taking in control the system.

Ransomware works by encrypting all your data in the computer making it a situation of lock down with a permanent message demanding a payment to release the files blocking access to a computer system or data, WannaCry encrypts data on the device and demands a ransom of USD$300 to be paid to a given bitcoin wallet within three days or USD$600 within seven days. Unlike other viruses however, WannaCry propagates through the network and infects computers like a worm, which means that their users do not have to activate the infected file or link for the software to continue spreading.

Protection Against RANSOMEWARE?
Microsoft has already issued an update for Windows 10 and other system. Till the time
your operating system is up-to-date, you should be protected from this strain of ransomware. Always make sure you are running the latest version of your operating system with the latest security fixes installed – and run up-to-date anti-virus software from a trusted company. Take in consideration email attachments and always beware suspicious emails asking you to click links or download attachments.

What are loss in Figure ?

It is estimated that ransomware-related bitcoin wallets, in 2016, ransomware attacks cost more than USD$1 billion. The numbers are uncertain as many companies will not reveal that their systems have been compromised by ransomware, and accept payments openly. The average ransom demand has more than doubled, from USD$294 at the end of 2015, to USD$679 in 2016. Bitcoin’s open ledger allows anyone interested to trace the payments being made to the criminals in the WannaCry ransomware attack.

According to Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith said on Sunday: “We have seen vulnerabilities stored by the CIA show up on Wikileaks, and now this vulnerability stolen from the NSA has affected customers around the world.
“An equivalent scenario with conventional weapons would be the US military having some of its Tomahawk missiles stolen.”

Source: RAYZNEWS  

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Internet Governance, Multistakeholder Environment and Diversity

In a Least Developing Country (LDC) like Nepal, Internet governance is a very least expected topic that makes it to any national level dialogue process. Though various concepts and technologies find its way for communication and discussion, internet governance is still in progress of finding a channel among various stakeholders. Its identity struggles among various stakeholders, who shift their responsibilities in being carefree of putting a monster in a box and criticizing the  negative aspect of internet or social media. We fail to address the issues of its development and values where the current evolution in terms of diversity and adaptation matters.

We have made it or we have created it and we need to accept and move forwards towards finding a proper solution giving it the collaborative approach of multistakeholderism and trust.

Our society of today is not just limited within countable use of internet which prioritizes the involvement and openness of how the internet has evolved and will be further interpreted.

Whether you talk about leadership or technical people, the scope, role and objective of internet governance is very much hidden within the text  where most of the people in power and chair even fail to even address the issue. In recent development, Nepal has updated or upgraded with various wireless broadband technologies and policies,  but when it comes to awareness of internet and its core values people at leadership and normal layman still uses the internet without the knowledge of its basic core values.

THIS IS THE REALITY AND  WE ARE BLINDLY USING AND SPREADING THE USE OF INTERNET, MAKING PEOPLE MORE VULNERABLE.

It is used basically for a  number of applications where these devices are related to its output rather than giving a fair value of understanding or building the moral values of using the internet and its related technology. And maybe because of this the wrong use or the wrong interpretation is happening in most of the cases.

“I strongly believe, internet has been passed on to the developing world not as a service or facility, but it has been passed on as a part of a business promotion strategy which is more focused towards generating revenue rather than awareness and value.”

Reality of today, is  these gaps have been hindering people for its development in countries like Nepal, where internet is treated just as a business commodity and  the government is more focused about the taxes, the private companies are worried about their revenue and subscription and user groups are always worried about their connection only. More or less policies are made limiting the scope and role where survey and research at done at a very minimum criteria of fulfilling the gaps. Likewise diversity is yet another issues which has been long addressed as well. There is no point of talking or discussion about the core value or for what reason it has been phased out or how can we use it in a proper way of ensuring human values.

It is the limitation of human boundaries where we have created this gap and we need to overcome it by creating better core values.

Recently, I was invited to host a program called guffgaff organized  by LoomNepal which is a social organization working towards the rights of women and LGBT group. The program was themed internet freedom and FoE in Internet but with the level of participation, interest and queries I was pretty surprised interacting with the various stakeholders  that internet of today was no different than internet of yesterday. It was a great learning opportunity talking with youths, & other stakeholders, including the #LGBT community leaders. the LGBT group leaders expressed their level of concerned about how the internet is wrongly being used in slashing their rights and FoE. They have been deprived from the government and from polices which even fails to address their issues and rights at times of need.

Certainly, #FoE & #internetfreedom are issues of our concern, they are basic right of any individual ensured by the constitution of Nepal but how many of the citizen know about it is a question.

We need more #collaboration & #cooperation in terms of making governance visible & practical. It still is repressive, offensive and unsecured for the citizen from various angles . It was still the same at various levels of policy enactment and cooperation that was focused more towards promoting business to organization only.

In absence of proper internet core values we have made the internet a compulsive, addictive, un-manged daily commodity which was evolving as a bad habit.

The government was focused more towards regulation, the private sector towards business and the people are lost in communication and adaptation of social media and entertainment redeeming the real values of the internet.

Let's talk & let's be sensitive about these issues only then we can #change our society but first we have understand these core values of internet and further work towards creating awareness. Only then things can change or else  it is just a funding project that works without sustainability option.  

Event Link: Internet Freedom and FoE discussion

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Why is it important to attend APrIGF?

Building on the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals, and the mandate given at the Second Phase of the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis in 2005, the IGF (Internet Governance Forum) is a United Nations activity initiated in 2006 as a global platform for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue on prevailing and emerging issues on Internet governance so as to foster the sustainability, robustness, security, stability and development of Internet.

Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIG) is a regional event of the Asia Pacific which basically served as a platform for discussion, exchange and collaboration at a regional level.  It is an open platform of dialogue for all stakeholders in discussing their technical and other issues in context of national and regional level .


The importance of APrIGF event  are

1. To provide broad platform for discussion at regional level 
2. Better communication of ICT issues and challenges 
3. Easy communication and networking 
4. Diversify internet issues and challenges
5. Collaborative approach to the problem
6. Standardization of internet policy and law
7. Problem identification and collaboration 
8. Creating values and better opportunities 
9. Adopting dynamics of internet 
10. Promoting equality and diversity among stakeholders
11. Discouraging internet fragmentation  
12. lessening digital divide 
13. Promoting net neutrality 

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7 Tips to Stay Safe on Social Media

Social Media is the next big things in our society. We virtually do everything where it has become our existence. To be more precise it has taken the form of addiction that has more cons than pro.
As coming down from the decade old infestation the social media  has evolved with various aspect of vulnerability that are more threatening than benefiting:

1. Privacy and safety issue 2. Human psychology issue 

Here are some of the top 11 tips to stay safe on social media:

1. Always use secure passwords with better integration of security features or authentication methods like phone validation and email validation.
2. Keep your Privacy setting tight keeping your geography data and location to a  limited circle. In case of social media always  turn off your  location and GPS as it draws more battery and make your vulnerable in case of surveillance.
    
3. Most of the times, the security features include security question which can be a life savers at times of revival or retrieval of social media account. try to use this feature following your own secret question and answer.
4. Always use different passwords for your devices and accounts.
5. Keep your friendship list tight and be selective with friend requests. If you don’t know the person, don’t accept their request.  It could be a fake account. Always try personal verification then verifying random search or mutual friends listing.
6. Social media these days have been intervened by lucrative adds and messages always be cautioned about links and adds. Just be careful about what and where you are clicking.
7. Always read the privacy policy and check the various features of the privacy and security
     

"SOCIAL MEDIA CRISIS is an unwanted situation which is a wrong representation or interpretation of statement. A social media crisis is a viral situation that occurs at a time of any statement with compliment to various meanings and interpretation occurs randomly being shared #viral. For addressing the issues, it cannot be derailed or dropped in the viral post or cannot be defied with justification. It can settle down with only a strategic compliance of secured answers and data's minimizing confrontation and communication."  

Process of facing Social Media Crisis

Protocol of Social media Attack or threats 

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11 Tips to Stay Safe Online

Online or internet safety is a major issue for everyone, especially daily users who use it 24/7. Considering the boom of Social Media and smart phone, our privacy has been compromised at various levels of just one password or click or even with downloading an app . You will not even have an idea and your information can be compromised at various levels.

Similarly, with the ongoing attacks and cyber frauds, things seem to be very uncontrollable and unavoidable. But you can escape these situation simply following major steps or being aware of certainly situation or things that can help you identify the threat. Here we are not talking about the threat but about taking precaution about being safe and secure:  

1. Do not accept any sort of email or link that you do not know or trust. If you receive any unwanted email in spam check it and be sure its from the owner or friend or else report it or delete it. The phishing emails are well written with links that lead to websites that can lure you in giving your personal information or download malware to your computer. They can even ask for your contact number and may call you for gaining your trust.
   
2. Always keep your Personal information tight to your self, do not upload any personal information or data related to your daily life. identify theft is a very commonly evolving problems in the cyber space. Especially with social media keep your privacy locked.
   
3. Beware of marketing and online shops, scammers are getting better at replicating sites by making fake profile and creating fantastic designs. Personal information and financial records are in their only target and make sure it’s not asking for information it shouldn’t be.
   
4. Always use mixed alpha numeric password.  Try to avoid typing your password directly in the password box, try using display keyboard for safeguarding your password and always check your financial statements for questionable activity.
   
5. Update your operating system with new updates and security features that are generally time consuming but on the bright side it will be securing your computer or laptop or phone  with addressing the cyber security loop holes and issues.   


6. Secured your network and wifi with password, if possible hide your network and used MAC number for validation of devices in wifi.
   
7. Always install a firewall, it is not a complete protection but it can always buy you time in securing better chance of  surviving a cyber attack. Most of the OS comes with a pre-installed firewall you might want to update it regularly  or check if there are any issues running.
    
8. Trying using genuine and original key and  software which will ensure proper security and operation. I know and understand its expensive but using a cracked software can severely compromise your data, privacy and system.
    
9. Downloading and uploading are major activities of internet, always be cautious about who what and where? Always use certified sites and be wise enough to take your time to check.
   
10. Never compromise your situation, internet is a networks or network so anything you upload is never deleted or can be restored or shared so always be in the position to understand in securing yourself first and then rest.
    
11. If possible use a good Antivirus and regularly tweak your system of trash and other necessary steps for better operation and management.  

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Awarness and Capacity Building program for Nepal IGF abut IG process

A program was organized by Internet Society Nepal Chapter on 1st May 2017 in view of sharing ideas and thoughts about the Internet Governance Process in Nepal.

The local alliance had formed a Multi-stakeholder Steering Group (MSG)  which has been managing the Nepal IGF. Internet Society Nepal Chapter had submitted the proposal to host the Nepal Internet Governance Forum for 2017, in view of raising 
awareness and resource Shreedeep Rayamajhi from Learn IG, gave the presentation about IGF and its process and various aspect of conducting National initiative. 


Presentation Link: https://www.slideshare.net/ShreedeepRayamajhi/igf-and-its-process

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Why we need youth leadership and involvment in Internet governance process ?

Internet has been very dynamic in its operation, management and logistic. From the day it was created to this day it has been very dynamic about its growth and popularity but very stable and fixed about its core values. To this day it has proved that controlling and trying to rule internet is not a question of efforts or argument but it is an issue of its management and operation. Like the 4 core values of internet, it needs to be open and collaborative in every aspect of its cooperation and existence.     

Core values of Internet 

1. End to End Principle
2. Open standards
3. Freedom of Expression (FoE) 
4. Universal Access

Though created as a military project, internet  has currently adopted the form of basic human rights and is growing to the extent of making lives easier and sustainable. 
With a long history of infiltration and surveillance, internet has never been separated from being limited within a community or limitd values. It has always been dynamic and adaptive in every action and in communication process. It's progressive nature created its popularity where it grew from a small network to a hub of  world of world wide web that is easily accessible, reliable and safe. 

With this growth and development today internet is not just the property of the people who developed it but has significantly stood as a representation of human achievement and endurance.

Today when we talk about Internet governance, we certainly make a point of highlighting  the concept of multitstakeholderism. It is basically  a dynamic concept of idealizing and accepting the values of cooperation and collaboration with respect to stakeholders and their  respected jobs where the role of stakeholder cannot be ignored. IG is process driven by various stakeholders at levels of communication. 

The basic reason for youth involvement in the IG process are given as below    

1. Leadership 
2. Communication
3. Equality and open standards 
4. Collaboration and cooperation 
5. Adaptation
6. Innovation
7. Dynamism 
8. Growth and development  
9. Standardization
10. Diversity 
11. Sustainable Development 
12. Creating New values 
13. Building trust 

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A new opportunity for the youths: 25 Under 25

The world of today mostly buzzes with social media and Hash tags. For a youth it’s a complicated dynamic world of internet where everything is yellow and every other day is blue. It is just the tons and tons of messages and notifications that pops up every other minute where no internet means no life.

Internet has become the thing where it is just incomparable to anything except being alone with a nightmare. Everyday my mom shouts waiting on me for food, how many hours do you sit in front of your laptop and yet the answer goes silence in view of keeping it still. I tell her, mom it’s the world of dreams where everything is possible. Even at 70, she uses Facebook and owns a smart phone so she is pretty reluctant about using the Alien device.

Talking more about the past, it is just an endless story that really excites and makes me feel contained within the world which is so easy to navigate and which absorbs my energy. I have seen the rendition of big bulky computers to the slimming smart technology which literally changed our lives. Money was always an issue but the interest always fought to find a solution. From Nokia mobile to Dell laptop to Gmail invitation, technology has fought back in neutralizing popularity and interest. It is what we people have created and believed in rather than how it has transcended.

A journalist, blogger, activist and a consultant, internet made me who I am and still I am exploring the possibilities of my virtue. Nothing was easy but the point is standing for change and adapting technology was one of the best thing that life gave me. Moreover, being associated with Internet Society(ISOC) was an accident that changed my life forever. It was just by accident when I search for Internet Society in the web and became a member in 2006. I guess I was destined to be associated with ISOC.    



Once someone told me that, till the time you realize how life changes, things slip away, so it is better to go with the flow accepting than complaining. Internet and change goes hand to hand, using the technology to the ultimate level of exploring the possibilities was something highly questionable then.

I started my career as a journalist. A fair and square storyteller with values of creating change. Those were the days when I use to search the available search engine and scope the possibilities of my name and nothing would come up. In view of creating my name in the World Wide Web, I started blogging, writing stories and voicing issues.

I realized, the power of internet when I published a story in one of the citizen journalism site Ground report and it was picked up by Access now and they launched an international campaign “Nepal Shutdown Showdown”, Man I felt powerful !!!


It was not only standing for change but I think it was more about standing for your rights and voicing what can be done.

In 2011 with the revolution of social media we launched internet activism in Nepal. Various campaigns against the political leaders were launched voicing issues of concern. We used the available technology and network in creating a solution for the frustration of what we believe in. The campaign created a ripple in the political hemisphere and we made our point.


Working with ISOC was a rendition of my skills where I grew from a limited scope to an attitude of multistakeholder perspective that broaden my vision and leadership skills. Being the ISOC Ambassadors for 2014 and 2015, it was limitless opportunity, that changed my life forever. Who could have thought a guy coming from a least developed country like Nepal was standing in-front of hundreds and thousands of people of the internet world and voicing the issues of human rights, FoE and internet standardization. I felt proud in everyday to say I represented Nepal for being a youth for change. ISOC gave me the opportunity, leadership, communication skill and networking to be who I am.


It was not just the attitude but it was more of a support that the leadership and the community that gave me. For me internet was not only a means of communication but slowly I was moving on to understand Internet was changing my life in every possible way of giving new vision and leads.

Moreover, the thing that changed my perspective about internet was during the earthquake of 2015. It was massive and everything was doomed but one thing that came as a rescue was the internet.

Every day I would open the TV and was sick and tired of seeing people crying and saying the government was not doing nothing so we decided to do something. We took it to ourselves and started posting messages in our social media, one after the other people showed their interest. Some gave away spare food, some with medical supplies, some with material and we helped people. That day I realized the importance of internet and how we could bridge the gaps of changing the world. Complaining was not an option but finding a solution was always the task. Helping people coordinate and distribute food and material was something that changed my perspective of how we can use technology. Touching the hearts of thousands of people was something special which was possible just because of the internet and we helped people to the possibility.  


That day the definition of internet changed, internet for me was not just possibilities but it stood as a helping hand, it was humanity for all those people ………………… Internet is not just for entertainment speak up, voice out and be the change

BE YOUTH…………….

Stop being vulnerable, start being the CHANGE: 25 Under 25

Show the world what you are made of……………………

BE THE CHANGE

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Internet Society Launched 25 under 25

Celebrating its 25 years anniversary, the Internet society has launched a new youth leadership campaign "25 Under 25 " to promote youth leadership and innovation working towards change. 

The Basic Criteria for participating in the Campaign are:   

1. Between the ages of 13-25 as of 31 December 2017
2. Who use the Internet to make a positive impact
3. Demonstrate commitment and passion to serve society
4. Are making a difference where they live
5. Show promise for continuing their outstanding work on the Internet
6. Have ideas that can be implemented around the world
7. Are recognized and respected by peers

The Awardees will be guests at a reception in their honor co-located with the 2017 Internet Hall of Fame induction ceremony in September. There will be plenty of opportunities for the 25 under 25 awardees to network with the Internet pioneers, innovators and global connectors who made significant contributions to the development and advancement of the Internet.

The  Nominations open from 16 March  and closes on 31 May. Awardees will be notified by 27 June.

Link: https://www.internetsociety.org/25th/25-under-25

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IGF and its Best Practice Forums(BPFs)

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) serves to bring people together from various stakeholder groups as equals in discussions on public policy issues relating to the Internet. While the IGF has no negotiated outcomes, it serves the important function of informing and inspiring those with policymaking power in both public and private sectors.  

The IGF facilitates a common understanding of how to maximise Internet opportunities and address risks and challenges that arise. One of the ways in which it does so is through its intersessional activities, which are conducted following recommendations from the UN CSTD Working Group on Improvements to the IGF and form part of a broader effort by the IGF community to produce more tangible outputs to “enhance the impact of the IGF on global Internet governance and policy”.

About the IGF’s intersessional activities

The IGF Best Practice Forums (BPFs) continue to offer unique platforms to investigate topical Internet policy challenges by collecting community input and experiences in a flexible and bottom-up manner. Through their substantive outreach efforts and continued calls for input and contributions, the BPFs have already enabled more diverse and varied participation in IGF processes, including from a richer variety of regions and stakeholder groups. By continuously involving new people in their work, the various BPFs also contributed to enlarging the global footprint of the IGF.  BPFs worked throughout the year in an open and inclusive way via open mailing lists, regular virtual meetings, and BPF workshops during the 11th IGF meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico, from 6 to 9 December 2016.

About the BPF Gender

The BPF Gender’s second publication, entitled ‘Overcoming Barriers to Enable Women’s Meaningful Internet Access’, builds on its work in 2015, when it also published an extensive resource on online abuse and gender-based violence. In 2016, the BPF furthermore produced a user-friendly infographicroadmap for addressing online abuse and gender-based violence, based on the key recommendations for diverse stakeholder groups from its 2015 report. The BPF Gender is also partnering with ITU and UN Women’s EQUALS partnership, a global initiative aimed at addressing gender inequality, to raise awareness of its outputs. Further details of this collaboration will soon be announced.

About the BPF Cybersecurity

The 2016 IGF BPF on Cybersecurity built upon the previous work of the IGF CSIRTS and SPAM BPFs. Its work was also guided by the WSIS +10 review process which produced an outcome document with a strong focus on "building confidence and security in the use of information and communications technologies", making an IGF BPF related to cybersecurity even more relevant. The 2016 discussions and output report addressed cooperation and collaboration on cybersecurity issues between stakeholder groups as an overarching theme.

About the BPF on Internet exchange points (IXPs)

The BPF Contributing to the Success and Continued Development of Internet exchange points (IXPs) collected best current practices that have proven to contribute to building strong and successful IXPs. Exchanging traffic at an IXP has a number of benefits that can contribute to a more affordable, stable, faster and more reliable Internet of a higher quality in a region. The success of an IXP will be measured by its ability to sustainably contribute to the development of its local Internet ecosystem. The BPF on IXPs focused on the management and operation of an IXP and identified factors that can contribute to success.

About the BPF IPv6

IPv6 is the Internet’s addressing system that was developed to deal with IPv4 exhaustion and to make the Internet future-proof. The fast growing number of networks that already supports IPv6 today proofs that IPv6 is a technically feasible option for business. The BPF Understanding the commercial and economic incentives behind a successful IPv6 deployment collected case studies on commercial experiences with IPv6 deployment to better understand challenges and incentives, and provide an opportunity to learn from each other.

About Policy Options for Connecting and Enabling the Next Billion(s) - Phase II

In 2016, the IGF furthered its seminal work on Policy Options for Connecting and Enabling the Next Billion(s) by investigating challenges and opportunities for addressing and overcoming barriers to meaningful Internet access, promoting meaningful access in diverse contexts and regions, and ensuring that meaningful access also supports the achievement of the UN sustainable development goals. Read the report here.

Source: IGF 

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The World Summit on the Information Society Forum (WSIS)

The World Summit on the Information Society Forum (WSIS)  represents the world's largest annual gathering of the ‘ICT for development’ community. The annual WSIS Forum is a global multi-stakeholder platform facilitating the implementation of the WSIS Action Lines for advancing sustainable development. The Forum is co-organized by ITU, UNESCO, UNDP and UNCTAD, in close collaboration with all WSIS Action Line co-/facilitators and other UN organizations (UNDESA, FAO, UNEP, WHO, UN Women, WIPO, WFP, ILO, WMO, ITC, UPU, UNODC, UNICEF and UN Regional Commissions). It provides an opportunity for information exchange, knowledge creation and sharing of best practices, while identifying emerging trends and fostering partnerships, taking into account the evolving Information and Knowledge Societies.

In follow up to the outcomes of the UN General Assembly Overall Review of the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes (Res. A/70/125) and with the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Res. A/70/1), the WSIS Forum is constantly evolving and strengthening the alignment between the WSIS Action Lines and the Sustainable Development Goals. The WSIS Forum will therefore serve as a key forum for discussing the role of ICTs as a means of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and targets, with due regard to the global mechanism for follow-up and review of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UNGA Resolution A/70/1).

The WSIS Forum is the only event of its kind where the programme is completely crowdsourced. Therefore, as organizers, ITU, UNESCO, UNCTAD and UNDP, are pleased to announce the Open Consultation Process on thematic aspects and innovations on the format of the WSIS Forum 2017.

The process aims at ensuring a participatory and inclusive spirit of the Forum, scheduled to be held from 12-16 June 2017 at ITU in Geneva. This process actively engages governments, civil society, the private sector, academia, the technical community and intergovernmental organizations in the preparatory process to ensure broad ownership and further improvements of the Forum.The Open Consultation Process will include a collection of inputs from regional and national WSIS related events. The physical meetings of the Open Consultation Process will benefit from remote participation.

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is a unique two-phase United Nations (UN) summit that was initiated in order to create an evolving multi- stakeholder platform aimed at addressing the issues raised by information and communication technologies (ICTs) through a structured and inclusive approach at the national, regional and international levels. The goal of WSIS is to achieve a common vision, desire and commitment to build a people-centric, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information. The UN General Assembly Resolution 56/183 (21 December 2001) endorsed the holding of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in two phases. The first phase took place in Geneva from 10 to 12 December 2003 and the second phase took place in Tunis, from 16 to 18 November 2005. In 2003, the number of participants was 11,000 representing 175 countries and in 2005 the number of participants was more than 19,000 representing 174 countries. Since then, a cluster of WSIS-related events was held on an annual basis. In 2009, the cluster of WSIS-related events was re-branded as WSIS Forum.

-WSIS Forum 2016
-WSIS Process

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What is Data Revolution ?

The need for a ‘data revolution’ was first expressed by the High Level Panel, appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to advise on the global development agenda after the 2015 millennium development goals (MDGs).

The High Level Panel report was quite brief, leaving quite a lot of room for interpretation:

“Better data and statistics will help governments track progress and make sure their decisions are evidence-based; they can also strengthen accountability. This is not just about governments. International agencies, CSOs and the private sector should be involved. A true data revolution would draw on existing and new sources of data to fully integrate statistics into decision making, promote open access to, and use of, data and ensure increased support for statistical systems. ” (HLP Report, P23)
Most people are in broad agreement that the ‘data revolution’ refers to the transformative actions needed to respond to the demands of a complex development agenda, improvements in how data is produced and used; closing data gaps to prevent discrimination; building capacity and data literacy in “small data” and big data analytics; modernizing systems of data collection; liberating data to promote transparency and accountability; and developing new targets and indicators.

There are different actors in this field, focusing on the different elements above. At the heart of this agenda is an acknowledgement that timely, usable data is critical to informed decision-making, monitoring of progress , and evaluation of outcomes—especially in the the context of the post-2015 development agenda.What is the ‘data revolution’?

The need for a ‘data revolution’ was first expressed by the High Level Panel, appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to advise on the global development agenda after the 2015 millennium development goals (MDGs).

The High Level Panel report was quite brief, leaving quite a lot of room for interpretation:

“Better data and statistics will help governments track progress and make sure their decisions are evidence-based; they can also strengthen accountability. This is not just about governments. International agencies, CSOs and the private sector should be involved. A true data revolution would draw on existing and new sources of data to fully integrate statistics into decision making, promote open access to, and use of, data and ensure increased support for statistical systems. ” (HLP Report, P23)
Most people are in broad agreement that the ‘data revolution’ refers to the transformative actions needed to respond to the demands of a complex development agenda, improvements in how data is produced and used; closing data gaps to prevent discrimination; building capacity and data literacy in “small data” and big data analytics; modernizing systems of data collection; liberating data to promote transparency and accountability; and developing new targets and indicators.

There are different actors in this field, focusing on the different elements above. At the heart of this agenda is an acknowledgement that timely, usable data is critical to informed decision-making, monitoring of progress , and evaluation of outcomes—especially in the the context of the post-2015 development agenda.

http://www.undatarevolution.org/report/

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