Internet Society

The second face-to-face 2019 Open Consultations and Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) meeting took place at the ITU building in Geneva, Switzerland. The MAG member Lianna Galstyan participated in the discussions of shaping the IGF2019 to be held on 25-29 November in Berlin, Germany. In parallel, the 10th WSIS Forum 2019 gathered delegations from many countries at the ITU Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Minister of Transport, Communication and IT Hakob Arshakyan delivered a speech at the WSIS Forum, presenting the developments in the field of technology in Armenia and state policy and priorities for the sector development. For online participation in the Open Consultations and MAG meeting >> https://bit.ly/2I7CDTD To be updated on WSIS >> https://bit.ly/2GcPctJ

  On 8 April 2019 the 10th Russian Internet Governance Forum (RIGF2019) was held in Moscow, Russia. The forum was opened by Andrey Vorobyev, Director of the Coordination Center for .RU/.РФ ccTLDs, and TV host Sofiko Shevardnadze. This year among many plenary sessions and discussions, #rigf2019 also launched a series of anniversary events in celebration of the 25th anniversary of .RU. The forum participants witnessed an event - a jubilee postage stamp issuing ceremony, discussed the evolution of the Internet, global network management and other topics of Internet governance. Internet Society NGO Director Arman Nersisyan, members  Anna Karakhanyan, Armen Muradyan, Andranik Minasyan and Vahan Hovsepyan participated in RIGF2019. Internet Society NGO sincerely congratulated .RU for its 25th anniversary. Presentations and video-report of the forum will be published on the website >> rigf2019.ru.

ICANN64 took place on 9-14 March, 2019, in Kobe, Japan.  “Internet Society NGO” Board members Siranush Vardanyan, Lianna Galstyan and Kristina Hakobyan participated in ICANN64. Their participation contributed to many sessions and discussions around the most demanded issues. ICANN64 included topics such as: DNS fundamentals, IDNs and Universal Acceptance, Policy discussions, ccNSO and gNSO. For more information about ICANN64: https://meetings.icann.org/en/kobe64

On 20-21 February, 2019, Internet Society NGO members Lianna Galstyan and Vahan Hovsepyan participated to the 75th APTLD and 6th Middle East DNS Forum in Dubai, UAE. External Relations Manager Lianna Galstyan made a presentation on .am/.հայ ccTLDs at the Policy Session of APTLD meeting. The presentation is available here:

Internet Society NGO External Relations Manager Lianna Galstyan participated as a Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) member to the IGF 2019 First Open Consultations and MAG meeting held on 28-30 January in Geneva, Switzerland. The meeting was planned to receive inputs from the wide community and stocktaking of the IGF 2018 and to discuss the process and upcoming work towards the IGF 2019 to be held on 25-29 November, 2019 in Berlin, Germany.

The 4th Georgian Internet Governance Forum and the Georgian Network Operators meeting took part on 10-11 December 2018, in Tbilisi, Georgia. The forum created a platform for subjects that are the most discussed and demanded in Georgia, such as: Internet Access, Safe Internet Puzzle, ccTLDs and IDNs (.GE and .გე), Content, Copyright and about the Next Generation and the Georgian IG Community.Internet Society NGO members Armen Muradyan, Andranik Minasyan, Annie Dallakian, Arnak Melikyan, Grigori Saghyan, Lianna Galstyan, Siranush Vardanyan, Vahan Hovsepyan and Kristine Gyonjyan actively participated to these meetings.Internet Society Armenia Chapter members participated to GeoIGF2018 as panel speakers for “Stakeholder Engagement Opportunities” session. Lianna Galstyan, the Board Chair, gave a brief introduction about #MAG and spoke about #SEEDIG initiative and its capacity development programmes and engagement opportunities. Vahan Hovsepyan, Board Member, shared opportunities of RIPE NCC Fellowship Programs.For more detailed info on GeoIGF 2018 ` http://geoigf.ge/

 The 3-rd Eastern European DNS Forum was held on 4-5 December, 2018 in Moscow, Russia. EE DNS is a platform for Internet industry experts and everyone who watches its evolution. This forum gathers domain registries and registrars, Internet service providers, network operators, lawyers, marketers, technical specialists, non-profit organizations, state bodies. EE DNS 2018 discussed the evolution of the infrastructure supporting the work of the DNS root zone, the latest trends in the development of the Internet address system, latest breakthroughs in technologies used by the modern domain industry, the origins of initial working projects with foreign partners and more DNS related issues. Internet Society NGO Board member Anna Karakhanyan and members Katarine Gevorgyan and Kristina Hakobyan took part in the forum. Kristina also participated at session “Regional view on global policy making agenda” as a speaker.

The 13th Global Internet Governance Forum was held on 12-14 November at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France. The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the President of France Emmanuel Macron made keynote opening speech.The overarching theme was "The Internet of Trust" highlighting the Internet security and trust. The multiple topics of discussions included cyber security, emerging technologies, evolution of the Internet governance, human rights issues, media and fake new, and more. The Armenian IGF, represented by ISOC AM Board Member Lianna Galstyan, actively participated in discussions on various topics. The Internet Society NGO members Katarine Gevorgyan,Khristina Hakobyan and Ani Mkrtchyan also participated to the Forum.More information about the IGF key messages can be found here: http://www.intgovforum.org/multilin…/…/igf-2018-key-messages

Grigori Saghyan, Vice President of the Internet Society NGO, completed a Mission Report around ITU Technical assistance for .MV (Maldives) ccTLD registry. The Report of Mr. Saghyan had the certain aim of giving some recommendations to the Communications Authority of Maldives (CAM) on Governing Framework of ccTLD Maldives through analyzing the current situation at .mv, the best practices of other ccTLDs in the Asia-Pacific region, relevant instruments required for the management of the ccTLD. It is important to mention that the implementation of this project was facilitated by APTLD. Both ITU and APTLD are strong advocates of the establishment of a robust, modern .mv ccTLD registry system. *ITU is the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies.