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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Internet awareness and importance of School of Internet governance

You may be an expert in Information Communication and Technology (ICT) but with rapid growth and changing technology you never know what you would be lacking when it comes to Internet and THIS IS A REALITY!
As things are rapidly changing and ICT is taking its leap towards the next billion, technology and internet has changed so much that keeping it within one form or idea is completely illogical. From the daily commodity to human rights, people have their own definitions and interpretations.

“Technology and internet with better innovation, INTERNET is CHANGING lives and societies which is a reality.” 

Though technology is taking its leap but still there are variations of internet laws, policies and standards practiced. There is a huge gap and definitions in terms of adaption and adjustment of open standards which is creating problems of digital divide and net neutrality. In most of the developing countries, at individual level there is a lack of awareness of internet rights and principles whereas on the same people use the latest and smartest technology which is pushing them towards exploitation and manipulation. These manipulation characterizes in various ways of standard of quality, limitation in use, access, cost, frauds, crimes, bullying, discrimination etc.

Apart from this the current threat of Cyber terrorism and warfare is yet another problem that has created a bigger problem in context of understanding the new technology. On one hand there are people who have limitation of use and standards whereas on the other side of the world people have no barriers in context of use and values. This difference in perspective and concept has created a new ideology of how can technology be more controlled in creating a better management system. Though it may sound very facilitating but on the other side it also invites threats of privacy and surveillance which is unavoidable. 

In a global perspective, if you look at the internet management and mechanism, in most developing and least developed countries there are problems of access and infrastructure and in some countries there are issues of awareness and concepts. These differences at individual level may not look big but at global level it creates huge gaps of technological barriers in terms of management and discrimination of rights.

As dynamic and collaborative as the internet, it functions in networks that integrate various fields and sectors. With such vast majority of applications and uses, the overall industry cannot be characterized in specific topics or issues as each region and nation has its own complexity in term of internet and its governance.  Today’s internet is all about collaboration. If there are any gaps in between the internet ecosystem there would be problems of communication and management. The world of internet has accepted the concept of MULTISTAKHOLDERISM where every voice and stakeholder counts. In such scenario the gaps in between nation and at regional level creates greater problems of communication and governance.

Reality of today, Internet has been passed on to most of the developing countries and least developed countries without preparation where externalities are manipulating the situation. In most of these countries they lack the basic concept of internet core values which results in failing to create better picture in the large internet hemisphere. 

Technological adaptation is happening so randomly where lack of standardization and open standards is creating barriers of digital divide and net neutrality and creating digital fragmentation at regional and national level.   

From Internet of Things (IoT) to the smart technology of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the expectation and the growth of the new age technology has taken its toll over the limitation of policy and control mechanism. Technology has driven over the expectation of the definition and interpretation where it’s exceeding the expectation of its own growth and popularity. This overwhelming outburst of knowledge and development cannot be controlled with limitations, where policy, rules and regulation can be a factor to facilitate but not a factor to control or to regulate.

Internet of today's is not popular or famous because it was developed for development or developed within developed country but it is popular and famous because it lobbies the main idea of openness and freedom. It spreads within the vast majority of people who thrive among the great distance crossing borders, culture and religion. Its acceptance to the human world is the great example of human evolution process that has never stopped and always moved on with the quest of building and find the new innovation for the best.

With the growth in information technology there is a great need to spread the awareness about the internet governance process. The way technology is adopting people is the way how technology should be applied and adapted in terms of policy and other mechanism. Technology is for the people and people should use it for development process for the benefit of humanity

In such course of action, spreading the awareness of open standards and internet core values there are various school of internet governance established.

In such aspiration of creating a better Internet in Asia Pacific, the Asian School of Internet Governance has been established. The school is the brain child of Prof. Dr Kilnam Chon who is called the father of internet in Asia. The APSIG2016 was held in Asian institute of Technology in Thailand from September 11 to 14. It had 38 participants from 20 countries including 3 guests. The school also offers 10 classes including Role Play Class and Hot Topic Session.

I participated as a civil society candidate and contributed to the brainstorming session and collaborated in creating a better understanding of internet governance perspective of the Asia Pacific region. Coming down from a least developed country and voicing issues of internet rights and principle is not just very overwhelming but at times it tests your skills and endurance. I think School of Internet Governance (SIG) is not just an eye opener for refreshing the knowledge buds to update with the new development but is good platform to share your knowledge and capacity.

The main objective of the APSIG is to train new generation leaders and to create a collaborative platform of knowledge sharing and networking of opinions in all aspects related with Internet Governance from an Asia Pacific perspective

Importance of APSIG

1.       Awareness of internet governance and collaborative issues

2.       Creating global platform of knowledge sharing

3.       Developing effective communication of issues and problems

4.       Promoting open standards

The APSIG 2016 was a support by various technology organization like Google, Internet society, ICANN  and APTLD 

I personally believe that capacity building and awareness program like these should be a priority of every nation and should have a national school of internet governance in every country. I think the time has come when people have to be given the basic core values of internet where people should have the right to tell the world what they want. Democracy of today doesn’t give the right to forecast control and surveillance but it focuses in growth and development listening and catering the voice of the public.

One world internet, one value humanity and one voice equality

By Shreedeep Rayamajhi

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What is APrIGF ?

Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF) serves as a platform for discussion, exchange and collaboration at a regional level, and also where possible to aggregate national IGF discussions, ultimately advance the Internet governance development in the Asia Pacific region.

In 2010, while the global IGF is already in its fifth and final year of its initial charter, and Regional IGFs have been established in many other regions, including Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, to date, Asia has seen no parallel forum for discussing Internet governance issues at a regional level. For the first time, the APrIGF is therefore being convened with objectives to raise awareness and encourage participation from relevant stakeholders around the region on Internet governance issues, as well as to foster multi-lateral, multi-stakeholder discussion about issues pertinent to the Internet in Asia.

The multi-stakeholder approach is a core principle of the APrIGF with the emphasis on the diversity of participants and openness of the discussion. Valuing the youth as an important stakeholder and the future generations of the Internet, a Youth IGF also become an integral part of the APrIGF whereby they are held in parallel annually featuring a simulation of the multi-stakeholder discussion model among the young people on various Internet governance issues.

Here is a list of previous APrIGF along with YIGF.

Event	Year	Date	City/Region
APrIGF	2016	July 26 - 29	Taipei, Taiwan
YIGF	2016	July 26 - 29	Taipei, Taiwan
APrIGF	2015	June 30 - July 03	Macao, SAR
YIGF	2015	June 30 - July 03	Macao, SAR
APrIGF	2014	August 03 - 06	Delhi, India
YIGF	2014	August 03 - 06	Delhi, India
APrIGF	2013	September 04 - 06	Seoul, Korea
YIGF	2013	September 03 - 06	Seoul, Korea
APrIGF	2012	July 18 - 20	Tokyo, Japan
YIGF	2012	July 19	Tokyo, Japan
APrIGF	2011	June 16 - 18	Singapore
YIGF	2011	June 16 - 18	Singapore
APrIGF	2010	June 14 - 18	Hong Kong, China
YIGF	2010	June 12 - 14	Hong Kong, China

Multi-Stakeholder Steering Group (MSG)

The APrIGF is managed by The Multi-Stakeholder Steering Group (MSG) of APrIGF is a self-organised committee with members from around the AP Internet Community formed with the below objectives:

• To support and ensure the proper conduct of the organizational work of the annual Asia Pacific Regional IGF,
• To promote and encourage dialogue among all stakeholders involved with Internet governance related issues in the Asia Pacific region, and
• To act as an interface between the Asia Pacific IGF community and the global IGF community.
• The membership emphasizes the inclusion of multi-stakeholders and so is open to any interested individuals within the AP region who are committed to:

The Organisational Principles of openness, transparency and multi-stakeholder cooperation,
Devote some time and effort in support of the APrIGF, and Maintaining and demonstrating respect for all other members.

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