Macau played host to the 2015 Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF 2015) from 30 June to 3 July.
Welcoming 150 regional delegates including 30 youth participants, the APrIGF 2015 continued with its objective of advancing Internet governance development and engaging the next generation of Internet leaders with the Youth IGF, held in parallel with the main event. The sub themes included:
- Internet economy
- Critical Internet resources
- Cybersecurity and Trust
- Enhancing multistakeholder cooperation
- Internet and human rights
- Inclusiveness and diversity
- Openness
- Emerging issues
APNIC activities:
- As Chair of the Multistakeholder Steering Group (MSG), Paul Wilson led a face-to-face meeting that centred on the election procedure for the Chair and Vice Chairs. The MSG is a committee that, among other things, supports the APrIGF process and promotes dialogue of Internet governance issues in the Asia Pacific region.
- Paul participated at a number of other sessions:
- At the Opening Ceremony, he welcomed delegates to the APrIGF.
- Paul, with Edmon Chung, the CEO of Dot.Asia, facilitated two community discussion sessions on the APrIGF 2015 “Synthesis Document”.
- Paul and Klée Aiken also joined a drafting team for the APrIGF Synthesis Document, a new experiment to document items of common interest to Internet governance in the Asia Pacific region.
- Paul talked about critical Internet resources at Day 2 of the Asia Pacific Internet Leadership Program (APILP), which covered the DNS and IP addresses.
- At the “Developing IG Principles with Geographic Diverse Perspective” session, Paul joined Nan Chu (CNNIC), Lianna Galstyan (ISOC AM), Leonid Todorov (APTLD), and Edmon Chung (Dot.Asia) on a panel to discuss why and how we should consider diverse regional perspectives when interpreting Internet governance principles.
- Paul explained the technical values on which the Internet was founded at the “Core Internet Values” session.
- On Day 3, Paul presented an overview of the WSIS+10 process during the “From Periphery to Core: Towards an Asia-Pacific Agenda for the WSIS+10 Review” session.
- Adli Wahid presented “Security and the Internet of Things” at the “Information Security and Privacy in the IoT Era” session, addressing the current cybersecurity issues seen with the growth of the IoT, for example, an increased vulnerability due to items being designed for functionality rather than security.
- Akinori Maemura presented remotely on “How to help your local community understand and participate in Internet governance” panel.
- Kenny Huang spoke at the “Democracy 3.0: Constituency, Representation & the Multistakeholder Model” session.
- Klée volunteered to be the rapporteur for “Track 5: Security & Privacy; and Openness” and reported on the sessions at the Closing Plenary.
- Klée and Paul also participated at the Youth IGF, with Paul leading a discussion group during an “Idea Wall” session.
APNIC support
In collaboration with Google, APNIC supported the development of the agenda for the workshop “Broadband Infrastructure and Services for The Next Billion Users” and organized travel logistics for three speakers to join the event: Ulrich Speidel (University of Auckland, New Zealand), Jon Brewer (Telco2/NSRC, New Zealand) and Rohan Samarajiva (LirneAsia, Sri Lanka).
APNIC also supported Nica Dumlao (Foundation for Media Alternatives – Philippines) through a travel grant issued by ISIF Asia.
The 2016 APrIGF will be held in Taipei, Taiwan in July 2016.
The views expressed by the authors of this blog are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of APNIC. Please note a Code of Conduct applies to this blog.