NCUC Event Assessment 1

Dates: 23-24 June 2017

Venue: Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct (Johannesburg, South Africa)

A cornerstone of the NCUC’s work within the ICANN ecosystem is fostering effective newcomer engagement in the Domain Name System (DNS). This two-day event, organised with our local partners the Association for Progressive Communications and the Internet Society Gauteng Chapter, brought together individuals and civil society organisations to explore why the DNS is a critical Internet governance issue with implications for human rights, economic development, and online access to information and the freedom of speech. Our speakers consisted of NCUC members from Africa and beyond, and guest speakers from Africa and beyond, who introduced evidence-supported ideas that demonstrated how the DNS is locally relevant to civil society in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.

On day one we opened the event with an icebreaker activity that saw the local delegates become the author of a conversation with an NCUC member. This was followed by an interactive introduction to the Internet governance landscape in Africa, led by African NCUC members, and an overview of the DNS. During this overview we introduced participants to issues such as internationalised domain names, and the availability of domain names in new languages, scripts, and strings. We then introduced the multistakeholder model of Internet governance, and explored in an interactive workshop what ICANN is and why ICANN is different from other bodies. Among our guest speakers was Bob Ochieng, Manager Stakeholder Engagement Africa, ICANN. After a short coffee break, a succession of fast-paced, exciting lighting talks took place where NCUC members spoke about why it is important that African civil society engages with ICANN and the NCUC, and introduced participants to some of the NCUC’s many victories.

On day two the event began with a quick recap of the previous day. Following this reflection, the participants were divided into groups at random, and were placed in the position of being either a registrar, registry, or registrant. A game was then played where the participants had to reflect on the challenges that their party may potentially face when a contentious domain name is registered. This activity was very successful and received much praise from participants. Following this activity, an NCUC member from the region moderated a discussion on different key policy issues which we felt were relevant to sub-Saharan Africa. This included conversations around privacy and data protection, developmental issues, and human rights online, among other topics. After a short break, a stimulating new panel was initiated which saw a more in-depth exploration of topics such as privacy and data protection, development issues, underserved regions, and geographic names, along with conversations around trademark overreach and freedom of expression, and the accountability of ICANN and its corporate social responsibility to protect human rights. The day concluded with a brief discussion on how policies are implemented at ICANN, and a small networking reception where NCUC members delivered personalised advice to the local participants on how they can become active within the NCUC and ICANN more broadly.

This event serves as a milestone for the NCUC, as it signalled to the ICANN community our growing role in shaping and diversifying the domain name policy agenda.

By design we sought for this event to illustrate to the attendees how the NCUC functions and works cooperatively and productively with other stakeholder groups, constituencies, and organisations to advance domain name policy making. We did not want this event to only deliver gains for the NCUC, but to set the baseline for future outreach activities across the various stakeholder groups of the ICANN community.

We also intentionally held the event before ICANN 59 to boost local attendance at the policy forum. This had the added advantage of enabling us to have many NCUC members in attendance, as they were traveling to Johannesburg for the ICANN meeting anyway. We have heard feedback from ICANN staff confirming that a number of our local delegates did later attend the policy forum and are reliably informed that these delegates now have a strong understanding of the multistakeholder nature of ICANN and its governance structure.  

For the NCUC, this event was the latest in a succession of high-profile outreach events which we have held in various fora, often without the financial support of ICANN, which have proven successful in growing our membership, demonstrating to our members how they can contribute to policy development or participate in leadership activities.