The MEAC-SIG offers a 5-day intensive program covering core Internet governance issues. This program integrates political, legal, economic, socio-cultural, and technological dimensions of Internet governance into a coherent curriculum, focusing on regional imperatives critical to the Middle East. Structurally, the program provides a pragmatic mix of theoretical foundations, presentation skills, and practical participant engagement skills and activities. The MEAC-SIG faculty includes experts from academia, civil society, business, the technical community, and government stakeholder groups.

The 2021 edition of MEAC-SIG will be conducted in English, and will be held virtually using ZOOM.

The dates are 4-8 July 2021, and the time for the sessions on each day is 08.00 - 11.30 AM UTC. Prior to the start of the SIG, participants will be requested to read some material and enroll in some online courses. MEAC-SIG 2021v is organized by ICANN, ISOC, and the RIPE NCC.

Agenda Topics

The agenda for MEAC-SIG 2021v will cover the following topics:

1. The History of the Internet and Internet Governance
2. Introduction to Internet Governance and its Stakeholders
3. ICANN and the Domain Name System
4. Introduction to Regional Internet Registries and RIPE NCC
5. Standards and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
6. Internet Policy Development Processes
7. National, Regional, and Global IGFs and SIGs
8. Cybersecurity & Encryption
9. Internet and Privacy
10. Fragmentation and role of national governments in IG
11. Internet Governance and Economic Development
12. Content Regulation and Platforms