Introduction

The Internet is a fundamental component of economic, social, and political life around the world. It currently connects more than three billion people, and it is estimated that 50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020. The stable and flexible functioning of the Internet is increasingly important for developed, emerging, and developing countries and their citizens.

The governance of this ecosystem has long been the concern of a selected group of stakeholders, but the number of interested parties, both state and non-state stakeholders, is increasing as global connectivity spreads. Internet Governance is a contested topic, where the Middle East and Adjoining Countries School on Internet Governance (MEAC-SIG) will try to offer understanding, framing, and actions to be taken in this Internet governance current environment. It will offer potential governance scenarios and analyse its international, regional and national political, economical and technical implications.

Objective

MEAC-SIG aims at stimulating the MEAC regional Internet community and ensure effective participation in regional and global Internet Governance fora.

The MEAC-SIG will help individuals from the Middle East and Adjoining Countries [1] to better understand the global and regional Internet Governance issues, settings and processes while gaining access to comprehensive and structured knowledge on the various aspects of Internet Governance, and the actors, issues and settings surrounding it.

Format

The MEAC-SIG will offer a 5-day intensive learning course spanning five tracks. The course will cover the political, legal, economic, socio-cultural, technological and other dimensions of the Internet Governance (e.g. academia and research) within the context of the MEAC regional imperatives. The program is expected to carry theoretical sessions, role-plays, and participants engagement activities.

Future Aspects

The MEAC-SIG program intends to continue community development by creating an alumni network and have students engage in ICANN, ISOC, IGF, Arab IGF and other relevant regional activities and fora. Those involved will ensure that the MEAC-SIG program is rotated on yearly basis to various countries of the region.

Target Audience

We are inviting Academia and Research, Civil Society and NGOs, Government and Public Sector, Technical Community, in addition to the Private Sector and Businesses from the Middle East and Adjoining Countries to take this unique opportunity to attend taking into consideration the limited seats available.

Call for Applications

The window for applying to attend the school is now closed.

Past MEAC-SIG Events

The first edition of the MEAC-SIG took place in Kuwait during May 25-29, 2014 with a generous invitation and host from the Kuwait Information Technology Society (KITS). More can be found at MEAC-SIG 2014.

The second edition of the MEAC-SIG took place in Tunis Gammarth, Tunisia during May 25-29, 2015 with a generous invitation and host from the ISOC Tunisia Chapter. More can be found at MEAC-SIG 2015.

The third edition of the MEAC-SIG took place in Beirut, Lebanon during 8-12 August 2016 with a generous host from Social Media Exchange (SMEX). More can be found at MEAC-SIG 2016.

About the Local Host

Nic.tr (".tr" Domain Names) Administration has been registering second level ".tr" domain names since 1991 within Middle East Technical University, which had provided internet connection to the country for the first time with the guidance of IANA and ICANN. Nic.tr Administration is currently located in METU Campus - Informatics Institute. It is a full member of CENTR since 2007 and attends to international working groups and meetings regularly. Along with domain name registration and administration, Nic.tr also organizes trainings about the issues like DNS Security and internet governance with the participation of people from different institutions and countries. Nic.tr also hosts some international activities from time to time, such as Menog (2016) or Meac-Sig (2017).

Nic.tr strives to provide the very best in technology and quality and adopts an objective, active, innovative and a non-discriminatory approach that puts public's interest first. Nic.tr continues to put the foregoing description of its mission into practise with an increasing service quality through its experienced and knowledgeable staff and high quality technical equipment in accordance with the socio-cultural conditions of the country.

Venue

Middle East Technical University

Ankara, Turkey

Google Maps (here)

Ankara Travel Guide

You can download the guide here (PDF)

Material

For further reading, folks are encouraged to read/watch content found at the following links:

• The History of Internet Governance (Video | 1 hrs 22 min)
• Internet Governance Outlook 2016: Cooperation & Confrontation (EN)
• The Start of a New Beginning: The Internet Governance Forum on Its Road to 2025 (EN)
• An Introduction to Internet Governance by Jovan Kurbalija (Several Languages)
• Guidebook Internet Governance (EN)
• Governing the Internet by Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (EN)
• ICANN Handouts (EN)
• Exploring Multi-Stakeholder Internet Governance (EN)
• Internet Fragmentation - An Overview (EN)
• The Working Group on Internet Governance - 10th Anniversary Reflections (EN)
• BCG Report on e-Friction (Report and Appendix | Supplement)
• Read Between the 0s and 1s - Reclaim your Digital Rights (EN)

Contact Us

For any questions or inquiries, please write to the MEAC-SIG 2017 Steering Committee at meac-sig-sc [at] icann [dot] org .

Agenda

Agenda can be found here (PDF)

Lecture Slides

• Day 1 - Introduction to the ISOC - Ceren Unal (PDF)
• Day 1 - Global, Regional, and National IGFs - Adam Peake (PDF)
  
• Day 2 - Introduction to ICANN - Baher Esmat and David Olive (PDF)
• Day 2 - Introduction to RIRs and RIPE NCC - Hisham Ibrahim (PDF)
• Day 2 - Understanding Domain Names - Fahd Batayneh (PDF)
• Day 4 - Internet Governance and Sustainable Development Goals - Salam Yamout (PDF)
• Day 5 - The Digital Economy - Fahd Batayneh (PDF)
  
  

Participant's Slides

• Ahmad Waleed Khaliqi - Afghanistan School on IG (PDF)
• Enas Kanaan - The Current Jordanian Market Experiences Related to IoT Services (PDF)
• Houssem Kaabi - Privacy and Personal Data Protection (PDF)
• Mona Elswah - Copyright in the Digital Era (PDF)
• Muhannad Hameed - Internet Governance in Iraq (PDF)
• Mujibullah Shams - Bringing the Universities in Afghanistan Online (PDF)
• Nooria Ahmadi - Women's Rights, Gender, and IG - Afghani Perspective (PDF)
• Sogand Ghorbani - An Overview of  Internet Events and Statistics in Iran (PDF)
  
• Yosr Jouini - Privacy and Local Mobile Apps (PDF)
  

Session Recordings

Video recordings of the different sessions can be found on YouTube (here)

Event Pictures

Post-School Articles

• IG Toolkit: 6 Simple Ways Young People can Join the Discussion - Yosr Jouini (Online)
• MEAC-SIG 2017 held Successfully with Three Participants Representing Afghanistan - Ahmad Waleed Khaliqi (Online)
  

[1] The MEAC Region covers the 22 Arab States, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.