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 Pakistan School on Internet Governance (pkSIG) 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.

Objectives

As part of the APNIC/ISOC/ICANN commitment to strengthen the understanding of Internet Governance within stakeholder groups, the organizations aim at developing and sponsoring outreach programs and initiatives in order to stimulate the Pakistani As part of the ICANN Middle East Strategy [1] devised by the Middle East Strategy Working Group (MESWG), ICANN aims to develop and sponsor outreach programs and initiatives in partnership with national and regional stakeholders in order to stimulate the regional Internet community and ensure effective participation in regional and global Internet Governance fora.To that end, ICANN through MESWG’s Task Force on Capacity Building and Awareness (TF-CBA) will be organizing the Middle East and Adjoining Countries School on Internet Governance (MEAC-SIG) 2015. This annual five-day event will be comprised of focused sessions tailored to fit the region's needs. These sessions will be covering a broad range of issues from technical to policy aspects of Internet Governance.

Objectives

The MEAC-SIG The pkSIG will help individuals from the MEAC region Pakistan 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 pkSIG will offer a 54-day intensive learning course spanning five several tracks. The course will cover the political, legal, economic, socio-cultural, technological and other dimensions of the Internet Governance within the context of the MEAC regional Pakistani national imperatives.

The program is expected to carry practical oriented workshops, round tables, and case presentations.

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

Target Audience

The target audience will be derived from the countries of the MEAC region that are expected to be comprised of students, practitioners, researchers and professionals from the following sectors:

1. Academia and Research
2. Civil Society and NGOs
3. Government and Public Sector
4. Technical Community
5. Private Sector and Business

The Inaugural Event

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

Material

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

• An Introduction to Internet Governance by Jovan Kurbalija (Several Languages)
• Governing the Internet by Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (EN)
• ICANN Handouts (EN)
• Exploring Multi-Stakeholder Internet Governance (EN)

Agenda

The final agenda can be found here. 

Slides

Students Contributions

Content Shared by Students

Event Pictures