NPOC Trip/Event Assessment 1

NPOC at the Africa Internet Summit (AIS) 2016

Gaborone, Botswana

May 29 – June 10, 2016

Report by Olévié KOUAMI

I traveled to Botswana from May 29 to June 11, 2016, to participate in the 4th Africa Internet Summit (AIS) through the CROPP program, which was recently established at ICANN. The summit was held in the capital of Botswana, at the majestic Grand Palm Hotel, where the Gaborone international conference center (GICC) is located.

The CROPP program was established to enable members from SOs, ACs, SGs and Cs to promote their organization at major events taking place in their geographic region and within the field of ICTs and/or Internet governance (IG). Having met all the requirements, my colleagues in the ExCom approved my participation at this event on behalf of "ICANN-NCSG-NPOC" (that is exactly how it was registered on my badge.)

Three hundred and sixty six (366) participants attended the conference (see the picture at the end of the report.)

My report on the mission will be follow the structure below:

1) Activities before the ICANN day

2) The ICANN day

3) Activities after the ICANN day

4) Conclusion and Recommendations

1) Activities before the ICANN day

I arrived at Gaborone on Sunday, may 29, 2016 at around 3 p.m. local time after 12 hours of transit at Addis Ababa, in Ethiopia. I checked in at my hotel (booked in advance with the gracious help and the friendly inquiries of my beloved big brother Dr. Sam Lanfranco, whom I thank very much) after stopping by the conference venue to register and get my badge.

From Monday, May 30 to Friday, June 3, 2016, I attended and participated in the training workshops organized by AfNOG. This was a first approach to the participants of the summit. I had the chance to attend sessions and to introduce myself as a representative of ICANN's NPOC. Several people knew ICANN but hardly anyone had heard of NPOC. AfNOG kindly accepted my registration for the CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) workshop and I therefore followed the training successfully from beginning to end, having chosen the CERT management option.

The other training workshops held at the summit are as follows:

1. AR – E : Advanced Routing Techniques

2. SI – E : Scalable Internet Services

3. SS – E : Scalable Network Infrastructure

4. NM – E : Network Monitoring & Management

5. CT – E :  CERT

6. NM- F ; Monitoring and Network Management

7. AfTLD - AROC

2) The ICANN day

Within the 4th Africa Internet Summit, the ICANN day was celebrated on Saturday, June 4, 2016. This day had been well prepared prior to the event and with the support and guidance of Adam Peake, from ICANN's GSE team, I got to deliver a presentation that the attendants enjoyed. I have already shared such presentation with the whole NPOC community.

There were dozens of participants in the dedicated room.

The day began with a slight delay, as the "Conference Opening Cocktail" had been held the night before.

The ICANN day was inaugurated with a welcome speech by Pierre Dandjinou, GSE VP for Africa, on ICANN and the Africa Strategy. It was followed by an official opening speech addressed by Dr Jeff Ramsay, Vice-PS, Government, Office of the President, representing the head of Government Communications.

He was followed by Mr. Georges Sadowsky, member of the ICANN Board of Directors, who gave a brief presentation of ICANN and the I* (stars): ISOC, IETF, IAB, ...

This presentation was followed by a panel discussion entitled  "Policy Development at ICANN." The panelists were Alan Greenberg (ALAC Chair), Mike Silber (ICANN Board of Directors), Georges Sadowsky (ICANN Board of Directors), and Abibu Ntayigiye (tzNIC). Pierre Dandjinou was the moderator.

After the coffee break, it was Mrs Anne-Rachel Inne, member of ICANN staff, who gave a 45 minute presentation which consisted of "An update on the transition of the IANA Stewardship." She was followed by Mr. Yaovi Atohoun, another member of ICANN staff, who presented the NextGen program and its fellowship program.

Mr. Sarmad Hussein, also a member of ICANN staff, subsequently made his presentation remotely, which enabled him to deliver it on time. The topic of his presentation was the "ICANN IDN program."

This presentation was the last of the morning and was followed by the lunch break.

The activities resumed with our panel, formed by Seun Ojedeji on behalf of AFRALO, Gaongalelwe G. Mosweu of BITS, Rafik Dammak on behalf of the NCUC (remotely), and yours truly, Olévié Kouami, on behalf of NPOC. The panel was moderated by Mr. Yaovi Atohoun, of AfrICANN. The subject discussed was "The civil society at ICANN." After a brief introduction by Mr. Atohoun, the floor was given to Mr. Ojedeji to introduce AFRALO, and then to me to present NPOC. This gave me the privilege of drawing the participants' attention to NPOC and its current configuration for 5 minutes.

This suite of presentations was followed by a question and answer session. What most struck me was the avidity of the African youth to receive more information on ICANN and its presence in their region.

Our intervention was then followed by the presentation on "The online learning platform." The latter was addressed by the DPRD.  In turn, Mr. Bob Ochieng of AfrICANN gave a brief update on "ICANN's new gTLD program."

Then, Mr. Mukesh Chulani, member of ICANN staff, gave a remote presentation on "How to become an ICANN-accredited register." This presentation was followed by the afternoon coffee break, after which we heard a presentation by Mike Silber, member of the ICANN Board of Directors, on "The Domain Name Dispute Resolution."

He was followed by Mrs. Fiona Asonga, from Kenya, who gave a presentation on her constituency, the ISPCP.

The ICANN day thus ended at around 5.30 pm local time with a message of thanks delivered by Mr. Tshoganetso Kepaletswe of BOCRA, the ICT regulator of Botswana and our local host.

3) Activities after the ICANN day

A series of tutorials and programs were scheduled to take place between Saturday, June 4 and Monday, June 6 starting at 9.00 am, in parallel with the ICANN Africa forum, the ISOC Africa forum, the AfriNIC forum, etc.

The conferences at AIS '16 started with a brief opening ceremony on Monday, June 6 at 5 pm. Tuesday, June 7 was the day chosen for AfNOG's General Assembly and AfriNIC's plenary session, which lasted from June 8 through to June 10. The Af* (star) forum also took place on June 10. Several other meetings and conferences were also held at the same time in different rooms (the FIRE program, the AfREN education network, our sister constituency NCUC (always present), etc.)

I had the chance to make a second presentation on behalf of NPOC in the room where the NCUC conference had been held. The subject I addressed this time was "Everything a nonprofit civil society organization should know about the use of Internet: a win-win partnership."

I was allowed fifteen (15) minutes for this presentation, which was followed by roughly 10 minutes of debates. The discussion focused on the difference between NCUC, NPOC, and AFRALO, as well as on other issues more specific to ICANN than to the NPOC. I was not always easy to participate at the debate. However, I humbly think I managed to do so quite well. I seize the opportunity of this report to express my deep gratitude towards Mrs. Anriette Esterhuysen (NCUC/APC). Her presence by our side not only helped us to substantially enrich the debate; it also raised the level of the discussion.

It should also be noted in this report that as of June 8 AFRALO had an exhibition booth in the GICC hall where documents on ICANN and AFRALO were handed out. I made a modest contribution to it by manning the stand from time to time with my friend and brother Daniel Nanghanka of AFRALO, from Uganda. Once again, this gave me the opportunity of presenting ICANN and NPOC; to discuss the GNSO, the NCSG and NPOC with some of the participants.

4) Conclusion and Recommendations

I think that my participation at the AIS '16 was absolutely fruitful. For me, for ICANN, and for NPOC. It provided the setting to raise awareness about ICANN as an international, non-governmental, public interest organization. I also think that my participation helped the various participants, mostly from the business, academic, and governmental sector, understand the difference between being a member of ICANN staff and being a member of a stakeholder organization such as NPOC and/or the NCUC. I specifically mention this in this report because I find it important to raise this distinction.