Morning Listers, As previously notified, today we kick off the Internet Governance discussions. The Internet is no longer restricted to being a technical issue but has grown into a global, socio-economic resource affecting all types of stakeholders. The rules, proceduers and practices governing the use and evolution of this (internet) resource should therefore be the concern of everyone. At the moment, the governance of the internet is heavily skewed in favor of developed countries in the north and the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS 2005) attempted to discuss how this could be rectified. Through the UN, WSIS suggested the formation of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF, http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/) to continue the deliberations on how governments, civil society, media, academia, telcos and other stakeholders could have a say and influence the evolution of the internet. IGF has since held 3 global summits to deliberate on the management and governance of Internet Security, Internet Critical Infrastructure, Internet Access, Internet Crime among other issues. Last year in Kenya, Internet Governance issues were discussed at a national level followed by the hosting of the regional E.A. Internet Governance Forum in November 2008. Key Achievement realised included: - Raising Awareness of Internet Governance (IG) Issues - Exploring Alternate views and solutions on contentious issues - Hosting the EA IGF meeting - Establishing locally relevant IG issues Notable challenges included: -Failure to launch the IG Course which was to be offered jointly by Strathmore University and Multimedia University College(formerly KCCT) -Failure to have a "Government" position on contentious issues at the IGF, Hyderabad 2008 Meeting Members are welcome for 1day to comment/correct/enhance my opening remarks...tomorrow we move onto the 2nd theme where we shall explore how the long awaited undersea submarine cable would impact our socio-economic realities. walu. +++rest of the 2week discussion program+++++++ 1. General Background (1day-Walu) *IG Defn and Rational *National IG Forum :- 2008 Status Report 2. Infrastructure Issues (4Days- Walu) Undersea Fiber Cable and its impact on: (2d) *Access, Affordability, Content and Quality Management of Critical Internet Resources (2d) *IPv6 & Country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) Management *National IXPs/NFOB 3. Cyber-Security and Trust (4Days-Mwende) e-Crimes against (2d) *Consumers/Users (Privacy Issues) *Data and Infrastructure (Data Security) Developing a national cyber-security strategies (2d) *What are the Legal Provisions (KCA Act 2008?) *Developing National Cyber-Security Strategies(CSIRT)/(CERT) 4. Socio-economic Issues (2Days - Walu) *ePayments (MPESA, ZAP, Digital Certificates)-(1d) *Regulating a Converged Environment-(1d) 5. Closure and Way Forward (1Day-Mwende) *Examine the desirability and continuation of the IG Forum ++++ends+++