Internet Society

The 14th Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF 2019) took place in Berlin, Germany, from 25 to 29 November 2019.At the opening ceremony of #IGF2019 the Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres and Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany delivered welcome speeches.During the course of five days of IGF2019, 3,679 delegates participated in-person in 200 sessions. Berlin welcomed participants from 161 different countries. 53% of these were the first-time comers.Approximately 3,000 people participated online.The IGF 2019 programme featured 10 main thematic sessions; 64 workshops; 36 open forums; 4 individual best practice forum (BPF) sessions; 14 individual dynamic coalition (DC) sessions; 6 individual national, regional, and youth (NRIs) collaborative sessions; 16 sessions classified as “other”; 6 introductory & concluding sessions; as well as a dedicated track for legislators, for a total of 200 sessions in the overall programme.The reduced number of sessions in the programme compared to previous years is the result of the MAG’s new ‘programme shaping approach’, which aimed at having more concrete, focused discussions, and fewer parallel or duplicate sessions, with a clear thematic orientation to three key themes:

Internet Society NGO Board Members Lianna Galstyan, Kristina Hakobyan and organization member Katarina Gevorgyan on 31 October 2019 attended a two-day North American Internet Governance School in Montreal, Canada, where they had an opportunity to discuss Internet governance topics and share the Armenian experience. Speakers of the School included Andrew Sullivan, President and CEO of the Internet Society, 5 members of the ICANN Board of Directors, as well as senior representatives and experts from other global organizations.

On 11-12 September, 2019 the Coordination Center for TLD RU has hosted the 12th TLDCON, the International conference for ccTLD registries and registrars of CIS, Central and Eastern Europe in Vilnius, Lithuania. Anna Karakhanyan, .AM hostmaster, Internet Society NGO Board Member, participated to this event.

Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF) is one of the key regional initiatives on Internet governance. The 10th Asia Pacific Regional IGF was held in Vladivostok, Russia under the main theme “Enabling a Safe, Secure and Universal Internet for all in Asia Pacific”. After the DAY 0 - capacity building day for fellows and newcomers on July 17 was the opening session of the 10th APrIGF. The opening speeches were followed by a Plenary Session “Internet Governance in Asia Pacific: The State of Play and Outlook”. Lianna Galstyan, “Internet Society” NGO Board Member attended to the APrIGF and was a speaker of the Plenary Session as well as at the session about Universality, IDNs and industry developments. APrIGF was full of discussions on various IG issues.

This year EuroDIG took place in The Hague, The Netherlands on 19-20 June 2019 (with a day zero of pre-events). It was hosted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy of the Netherlands in cooperation with ECP – Netherlands Platform for the Information Society, the Municipality of The Hague and SIDN – the .nl domain registry. EuroDIG is not just a conference; it is a year-round dialogue of European stakeholders.“Internet Society” NGO Board Member Lianna Galstyan was participating to EurDIG 2019 meeting. The overarching theme for EuroDIG 2019 was “Cooperating in the Digital Age” highlighting the opportunities of multi-stakeholder processes. The meeting included topics around Media & Content, Access & literacy, Development of IG ecosystem, Security, Human Rights and etc. Find the program of EuroDIG 2019 here .The next EuroDIG will take place from 10 – 12 June 2020 in Trieste, Italy at The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP).For participation in EuroDIG and other detailed information visit to eurodig.org site.

The 65th ICANN Meeting took place in Marrakech, Morocco on 24-27 June 2019. ICANN65 Policy Forum included sessions about the GNSO-EPDP Phase 2 and ccNSO Members meetings, the At-Large Policy Workshop, ICANN’s third Accountability and Transparency Review Team (ATRT3) busy face-to-face meeting. It included interactions with several community groups and Board.In a special ceremony at ICANN65 in Marrakech, the 2019 Multistakeholder Ethos Award was presented to long-time member of the #ICANN community, Kurt Pritz. “Internet Society” NGO board members Siranush Vardanyan and Kristina Hakobyan participated to ICANN65 meeting and discussions. Full Schedule of ICANN65 Policy Forum here.Check out photos of the forum here.      

Internet Society NGO members took part in ENOG 16 / RIPE NCC Regional Meeting which is taking place in Tbilisi, Georgia on 3-4 June 2019.The goal of ENOG Meetings is for operators from the region to share experiences and discuss common interests and ideas for the local and global Internet community.Check out ENOG16 Meeting agenda and more information here >> https://bit.ly/315Xm0z

"Internet Society" NGO Board Member Lianna Galstyan, in the DotAsia Board Members meeting in Hong Kong. “From.Asia / For.Asia” is the main philosophy of the organization. DotAsia is the Sponsoring Organization and Registry Operator for the .Asia Sponsored Generic Top Level Domain (TLD). The organisation is promoting Internet development and adoption in Asia.

The main purpose of the 4th Central Asian Internet Governance Forum is to strengthening of the existing public platform for the discussion of policies regarding Internet governance in Central Asian countries. The forum has been held since 2016. This year it was held on 15-17 May, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The Forum started with discussions on such subjects, as: Internet governance to address the geographical limitations of Central Asia in the digital era, Digital rights in a transnational context, Transforming geographic challenges into digital opportunities in Central Asia, Using the Internet to strengthen the resilience of the region, Cybersecurity of individuals, society and the state and more. Interner Society Members Lianna Galstyan and Vahan Hovsepyan participated to CAIGF 2019. Lianna represented ALAC and APRALO at the Academic Engagement Day, which was held on 14 May, 2019 before the CAIGF.