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Workshop Format. Please click here for a description of available Workshop Session Formats.
Panel
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Duration of proposed workshop
90 minutes
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IGF 2015 subtheme that this workshop falls under
Internet Economy
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Description
The eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) included the need to develop a global partnership for development as one of its goals. To achieve that goal, there was emphasis on the need to make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications so as to help achieve sustainable economic development. Our point of departure is that without having a strong Internet-centric economy, achieving that goal will be difficult because of the increasing reliance on the Internet to provide many global and national services.
While developed countries use Internet in positive ways to expand and speed up economic development, developing countries remained well behind in implementing policies to develop their Internet economy.
The workshop tries to understand what challenges developing countries face when trying to implement projects, companies and institutions that rely on the Internet to leverage and improve services. There are numerous opportunities for developing states in particular as they slowly and surely establish their Internet service sectors.
There are certain infrastructure, economic, and legal aspects that may have hindered progress in this area. What are they and how could they be addressed?
We believe that the outcomes of the workshop will have a direct positive contribution to meeting the eighth goal of the MDGs.
The workshop targets fall under IGF 2015 subtheme of “Internet Economy”. In line with the MAG evaluation and comments, we shall restrict the workshop scope to identify issue and possible solution to internet economy divide in low and Middle income economies.
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Name, stakeholder group, and organizational affiliation of workshop proposal co-organizer(s)
Dr. Walid Al-Saqaf
Technical Community/Civil Society
ISOC-YE
Mohit Saraswat
Technical Community/Civil Society
ISOC-UAE
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Has the proposer, or any of the co-organizers, organized an IGF workshop before?
no
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Subject matter #tags that describe the workshop
#internet-economy #entrepreneurship #e-commerce #development #MDGs
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Description of the plan to facilitate discussion amongst speakers, audience members and remote participants
The workshop starts with a level set talk by the moderator, and trigger the start of the conversation. To avoid broadening the discussion, the moderator will ensure topics are addressed with precision and notes taken to refine them as the discussion continues.
There will be a diverse set of speakers with different backgrounds, stakeholders, genders, coming from developed and developing countries. The workshop concludes with a concise list of main challenges and suggested steps to contribute to promoting development in an Internet economy. Remote moderator will elicit and track remote contributions. If conclusions remain too broad, outcomes could be refined via a small breakout session at the end of the workshop. A rapporteur shall record key discussions and outcomes.
The moderator will eventually conclude by providing a list of main challenges and suggested steps. A summary report shall be shared with the IGF secretariat within two weeks of the IGF meeting.
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Names and affiliations (stakeholder group, organization) of the participants in the proposed workshop
Name: Baher Esmat
Stakeholder group (civil society; government; intergovernmental organization; private sector; technical community): Technical community
Organization: ICANN
Describe why this speaker has been selected:
As the Vice President for Stakeholder engagement in Middle East from ICANN, baher has the experience and knowledge to give a perspective of an organization responsible for running Name and number operations for the Internet. He can also provide his perscpective on the various factors that contributed in recent years to the growing use if the Internet in economic sectors in Europe and the Middle East. He has worked in the Middle East and Europe and has hence the ability to discuss what works and what doesn't in developed and developing countries.
Have you contacted the speaker? Y (Confirmed)
Name: Dr. Walid Al-Saqaf
Stakeholder group (civil society; government; intergovernmental organization; private sector; technical community):
Academia/Civil Society
Organization: Stockholm University, Sweden & Internet Society Chapter, Yemen
Describe why this speaker has been selected:
As an academic scholar in Sweden, Walid's significant research experience on Internet access in the Arab world, particularly in Yemen, would be of value when connecting hypotheses to data gathered on the ground when it comes to Internet economy challenges and opportunities. He would give a perspective based on his academic and research work in the last three years through the Web Foundation's annual Web Index reports he wrote to highlight challenges and opportunities that exist in his country's Internet sector, which is among the least developed in the world.
Have you contacted the speaker? Y (Confirmed- Remote)
Name: Mike Blanche
Stakeholder group (civil society; government; intergovernmental organization; private sector; technical community): Private sector
Organization: Google
Describe why this speaker has been selected:
Mike leads Google’s peering and content distribution team covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The team works with ISPs and telecoms operators across the region, to find cost-efficient and high performance ways of serving Google and YouTube content requested by users. In Africa the team also supports Internet Exchange and Internet infrastructure development. Mike has 17 years experience in the Internet infrastructure industry, working in both startup and large operator environments.His perspective is important to understand the impact of Internet Access and Infrastructure development to enhance the economy in the mentioned regions
Have you contacted the speaker? Y (Confirmed)
Name: Steve Song
Stakeholder group (civil society; government; intergovernmental organization; private sector; technical community): Technical community
Organization: NSRC (National Startup Resource Center)
Describe why this speaker has been selected:
Steve Song is an advocate for cheaper, more pervasive access to communication infrastructure in Africa. He is the founder of Village Telco, a social enterprise that builds low-cost WiFi mesh VoIP technologies to deliver affordable voice and Internet service in under serviced areas. Previously, Steve worked at the International Development Research Centre, where he led the organization's Information and Communication Technology for Development program in Africa, funding research into the transformation potential of ICTs across the continent. He will focus on how such an approach would be a catalyst for change and continuous evolution within the telecommunications and ICT industry.
Have you contacted the speaker? Y (Confirmed)
Name: Ana Kakalashvili
Stakeholder group (civil society; government; intergovernmental organization; private sector; technical community): Civil Society
Organization: Internet Society Chapter, Georgia
Describe why this speaker has been selected:
Ana's experience as an active youth member of the Georgian Youth engagement, Internet-related entrepreneurial business models
Have you contacted the speaker? Y (Confirmed)
Name: Mohit Saraswat
Stakeholder group (civil society; government; intergovernmental organization; private sector; technical community): Civil Society
Organization: Internet Society Chapter, UAE
Describe why this speaker has been selected:
Involvement and experience with first hand challenges in Internet economy in the context of the UAE and similar fast growing economies.
Have you contacted the speaker? Y (Confirmed)
Name: Thijl Klerkx ,
Stakeholder group (civil society; government; intergovernmental organization; private sector; technical community): Private sector
Organization: NewTeam
Describe why this speaker has been selected:
Thijl Klerkx, the 20 year young entrepreneur from Amsterdam. He came up with his first business plans when he was only about 8 years old. His ideas ranged from starting an insurance company to car washing. His perspective is important to understand the challenges faced by the yound entrepreneurs in setting up their footprint in the internet economy.
Have you contacted the speaker? Y (Confirmed)
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Name of in-person Moderator(s)
Mohit Saraswat
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Name of Remote Moderator(s)
Kasek Galgal
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Name of Rapporteur(s)
Mohit Saraswat
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Description of the proposer's plans for remote participation
We plan to use various mailing lists to promote the activity and each of the organizers will be reaching out to networks interested in the subject of the workshop. There will also be an opportunity to promote it through various events each of the organizers will be attending so as to promote remote as well as physical participation. We also plan to promote the sub-theme on the various community forum and social media to create the interest in the event.
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Background paper
No background paper provided
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Agenda
15 minutes: Introduction to the workshop and why is this topic important to be discussed in the Internet Governance Forum and its relevance to the panel members in particular
60 minutes: Discussion on the identified issue areas as mentioned in the section #17 and understanding of the issue from the various stakeholders perspective. Suggestions/ recommendations from the various stakehodlers and audience on the identified issues. The moderator will write the main ideas on a flip chart and help the rapporteur keep track of the main discussion points that would be helpful to come up with the conclusions.
15 minutes: Conclusions presented to the group with an option to organize a focused break-out session for outcomes (if required)
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Key Issues raised (1 sentence per issue):
Gender Inequality- Gary Fowlie, Head of ITU Liason Office to the United Nations highlighted the issue of gender inequality in the Internet Economy ecosystem. The panel agreed that the the issue of gender inequality is of great importance to be addressed. However, it was commented that this issue is not only specific to Internet economy, but also effect the ecosystem in general and has to be dealt at the macro level in accordance.
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Please describe the discussions that took place during the workshop session (3 paragraphs):
Following were the main issues that were discussed during the session:
- Introducing Layers for Internet/Digital Governance (Including Economic and Societal Layer). Current governance mechanism of this layer/ phenomenon? Do we need global governance like in case of technology?
- Is globalization of Internet helping economies of developing countries, SME Business? If yes, how? If not, why?
-How to strike balance between Technology/ Business and regulatory/legal framework to achieve sustainable Economic/Social Development?
- Innovation in Economic policy definition and governance particularly in Internet Age where the issues need to be addressed immediately.
- Ways to increase Trust on the Internet as trust has proved to be helping Economies of internet?
- Who are the Key Stakeholders to Internet Economy and their respective roles (Youth, SME Business, Consumers, Children)
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If there were presentations during the workshop session, please provide a 1-paragraph summary for each presentation:
None
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Please describe any participant suggestions regarding the way forward/ potential next steps/ key takeaways (3 paragraphs):
Mike Blanche, the Google representative on the panel highlighted the need to have different yard sticks to gauge the Internet Economy Development. He emphasized by comparing the examples from the two geographies i.e. Africa and Europe. It was agreed that both the mentioned geographies have Internet economy development issue of its own kind. While Africa has still to deal with the Internet Access issue that is more affordable to the end users; Europe has to deal with the issue of internet scalability. Thijl Klerkx, a young internet entrepreneur from the Nederland highlighted the need of lowering regulations to register and Operate Internet business. Baher Esmat, VP of Multistakeholder management for ICANN in middle east raised the issue of capacity building to harness the total impact of internet in the region. Ana Kakalashvili, Youth representative from Georgia raised the issue of gender divide and lack of trust on the platform.
The panel members agreed that the following factors are important and need to be addressed to further develop the Internet economy particularly in the developing economies.
- Internet access and local infrastructure development leading to Affordable internet
- Support for creativity and Innovation
- The availability of the local content and relevance to all the cultural aspect of the end users
- Capacity Building ( In terms of training and Awareness)
- Trust on the Platform (Internet)
The mentioned issues can be followed up, by using discussions at various platforms and ensure sufficient resources are allocated to the identified issue areas.
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Estimate the overall number of the participants present at the session:
25-30
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Estimate the overall number of women present at the session:
Less than half of the participants were women
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To what extent did the session discuss gender equality and/or women’s empowerment?
It was raised by one or more speakers as an important aspect of the session’s theme
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If the session addressed issues related to gender equality and/or women’s empowerment, please provide a brief summary of the discussion:
Gary Fowlie, Head of ITU Liason Office to the United Nations highlighted the issue of gender inequality in the Internet Economy ecosystem. The panel agreed that the the issue of gender inequality is of great importance to be addressed. However, it was commented that this issue is not only specific to Internet economy, but also effect the ecosystem in general and has to be dealt at the macro level in accordance.
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