Digital era: HEC to hold workshop on internet governance

The programme aims to provide intensive learning through several courses

ISLAMABAD: An inaugural four-day workshop will be held from October 5-8 for the Pakistan School on Internet Governance (PkSIG) by the Higher Education Commission (HEC). 

PkSIG will offer an intensive learning course spanning several tracks and will cover political, legal, economic, socio-cultural, technological and other dimensions of internet governance within the context of the Pakistani national objectives, a press release issued on Sunday said.

It further said the programme will include practical oriented workshops, round tables, and case presentations.

The resource persons will share with participants the best international practices regarding 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.

PkSIG will offer potential governance scenarios and analyse its international, regional, and national political, economic, and technical implications.

The speakers will narrate the history of Internet since 1950s and the story how it evolved over the years. The session will cover internet users statistics, infrastructure, Internet QoS, ISPs in the country, mobile operators, sea cables, the ccTLD, the IDN ccTLD, root-server instances, IXPs, stakeholder groups, IPv4 and IPv6, international involvement, mobile apps, 3G/4G, smart-phones, research and educational networks, the role of academia in the internet development, social media usage, local content and various other topics of the interest of internet users.

The ISoc and its chapters and membership criteria will be introduced on the occasion along with the presentation on ICANN, its supporting organisations and advisory committees.

The school will also talk about the necessity of developing proper policies for today’s internet at the national level. It will also stress the need for cyber-legislations at the national and regional level due to the “border-less” nature of the internet.

The partners of the activity are premier international organizations in Internet Governance including Asia-Pacific Network Internet Centre (APNIC), Internet Society (ISoc) and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2015.