Lagos- The Internet (Society Nigeria Chapter) hosted the maiden edition of the Nigerian school of internet governance in at the Nigerian Internet Registration Association (NIRA) headquarters Lagos Nigeria, the 6-day the intensive programme brought together a few selected fellows out of about 600+ applicants nationwide a number of 30+ individuals from different backgrounds, works, sector and state were eventually selected to be the first-ever fellows to the Nigerian School of Internet governance and I was privileged to be one of them, I saw this as a great opportunity to actually learn, network and connect with like minds in the IG ecosystem and in turn contribute my own quota and lead discussions about arising issues on Internet Governance in my space. This the report will cover a few of the many knowledge, experience and insights gained from school.
The fellows selected were from 4 stakeholder groups which are 1. Technical community 2. Civil society 3. Academia 4. , I was selected as the Technical Community fellow, we kicked off on day 0 with a webinar, which was held on zoom (Video conferencing application)... Participants of the webinar included all fellows and members of the organizing committee the purpose of the Video conference was to familiarize us more with the concept of Internet Governance, well obviously after taking several online certification courses on internet Governance
Day 0 Friday: July 5 Time : 2:00 pm WAT Webinar Topic: Internet Governance 101 and preparatory briefing
On Arriving the residential hotel in Lagos, we had a welcome conference and dinner night, where we all got the chance to introduce ourselves, get to know one another and a few members of the faculty. We were also briefed on our practicum projects and topics and how we would go about them and making a corresponding policy brief before we proceeded to dinner.
July 7, 2019
16:00 Session 1: Getting to know one another, an overview of the school and introduction to the practicum Practicum Topics: For 5 Groups 1. Privacy issue and Human rights 2. Internet Shutdown in Africa 3. Fake News and Dis-Information 4. Digital Rights and Emerging Issues 5. Access and digital Inclusion 6. Internet Governance Issues in Nigeria. 7. Cross border data governance (e-commerce) and data localisation.
On day 1 we began the school proper, and here is a sneak peek of our agenda, the school usually last until 6pm and sometimes 7pm with tea breaks and lunch in-between
Day 1 July 8, 2019
08:00-09:00 Session 2: History Overview of the Internet and Internet governance (Global, Regional and National ) Scope: A brief story about the internet and Internet governance. How it got to Nigeria, How the internet works, who develops internet protocols and standards, and a general overview of internet architecture. Who are the key players?
09:00-10:00 Session 3: Broader mapping of IG and the institutional Ecosystem: who does what, where? What IG issues are dealt with by which institutions or forums at regional, national and global level. Scope: Overview of the Internet governance ecosystem and of key institutions and role players in internet governance at the national, sub-regional, regional and global level. The presentation will look at the role of government, and or other stakeholders, and where the multi-stakeholder approach fits in
10:00-11:00 Session 4: The Internet addressing system: numbers and names Scope: Overview of internet names and numbers and how they are managed globally, regionally and nationally focusing on ICANN and AfriNIC and NIRA as ccTLD …
We were engaged in serious educative sessions were we gained more insights into the nits and grits of Internet Governance issues, we talked about diplomacy, multistakhoderism and implementation of a sustainable IG Ecosystem in Nigeria Session 5: Diplomacy and Multi-stakeholder approaches to internet governance at the international/regional level: achievements and challenges Scope: What is Diplomacy and the multi-stakeholder approach? Who are the internet’s stakeholders? How to understand the GeoPolitics. Perspectives from industry and from government and civil society. Power, inclusion and exclusion in decision-making that impacts on the internet. Stories and analysis of national experiences
12:00-01:30 Session 6: The state of internet access and infrastructure in Nigeria. Scope: Overview of availability and affordability of internet access and how policy and regulation impacts on this. This session will also look at different solutions to the access divide, including the role of the regulator. These and more were what we did for day 1 at the school of internet Governance.
On day 2 we learnt quite a lot it was indeed a drilling and tasking experience because we had to take in all of this information as fast and efficiently as we could owing to the fact that it was a crash course. We were split into groups and had a faculty member each as our guide in formulating our policy briefs, each group consisted fellows from all the multistakeholder group and we worked together as a team to achieve our the goal with the guidance and supervision of our faculty member.
Day 2 July 9, 2019 Theme: ( Emerging Issues)
08:00-08:20 Review of Day One: Questions and answers. 08:20-09:20 Session 10: Data protection and privacy challenges in Nigeria. (Legal Issues) Scope: An overview of the data protection and privacy landscape in Nigeria including .the status of data protection legislation in Nigeria. Issues around the so-called “right to be forgotten”, and global discussion on the GDPR
09:20-10:20 Session 11: Privacy, Encryption, Cyber Security, IoT Scope: The state of IoT in African and initiative around Nigerian. Cybersecurity in Nigeria: concepts, trends in policy and issues at stake for all stakeholders. Regulations around cybercrimes and cybersecurity
We further learnt about Digital Rights, Advocacy and Emerging Tech Issues we examined the intersection of Digital Rights, Advocacy and emerging technologies such as AI, ML, Algorithmic Justice and how the bias affects us and our daily life.
Also, we talked on Gender Issues / Inclusion in Internet governance we interrogated issues surrounding gender, those affected by terrorist acts depriving them of access, vulnerable
We then Addressed Internet Governance Issues in Nigeria. Subset: Youth Initiatives in Multistakeholderism Then we had a Panel Session it was a general interaction with specific industry and next-generation leaders which will interrogate, we had lunch and then proceeded to our group presentations.
Key takeaways from NIG2019
The controversy surrounding Internet governance starts with its definition. It is not merely linguistic pedantry. The way the Internet is defined reflects different perspectives, approaches, and policy interests. Typically, telecommunications specialists see Internet governance through the prism of the development of technical infrastructure. Computer specialists focus on the development of different standards and applications, such as XML (eXtensible Markup Language) or Java. Communication specialists stress the facilitation of communication. Human rights activists view Internet governance from the perspective of freedom of expression, privacy, and other fundamental human rights. Lawyers concentrate on jurisdiction and dispute resolution. Politicians worldwide usually focus on issues that resonate with their electorates, such as techno‑optimism (more computers = more education) and threats (cybersecurity, cybercrime, child protection). Diplomats are mainly concerned with the process and protection of national interests. The list of potentially conflicting professional perspectives of Internet governance goes on.
What does Internet governance mean?
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)1 came up with the following working definition of Internet governance: Internet governance is the development and application by governments, the private sector, and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision‑making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet
DOMAIN REGISTRATION
• Domain names are organized in hierarchies (levels). • Conforming Domain names can be registered at any of the levels below the root level. • NiRA presently supports registration on three levels either at the second, third or fourth level depending on the choice and availability of the name. • Board approval is required for registration of premium names
FEATURES OF .ng • Adopts the hierarchical domain structure • Until April 2013, regular domain name registration on .ng was consigned to the third and fourth levels. • This made the second level exclusive for NIRA's own second-level zones. • Now, the second level has been opened up for registration. • Some domain names have been marked as Premium, and they attract a premium price on the Second and Third Levels • Registration of single character and 2-character domains (except premium) are not available for registration. • The Four vowels of the Latin character – “a”, “e”, “o”, “u” are reserved. “i.ng” was opened in 2016 for registration • There are currently 11 SLDS in the .ng Registry under which domains could be registered. The SLDs are classified into closed or open SLDs.
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