Leading African and international technologists and policy makers will gather in Cairo on Monday, 18 May, for the INET Africa Regional Conference, organized by the Internet Society, in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of Egypt, to explore emerging issues of regional Internet governance.
With the United Nations’ Internet Governance Forum (IGF) scheduled to meet in Egypt in November, this INET meeting presents an ideal opportunity for stakeholders from across the African Internet community to come together and foster productive dialogue on common issues.
“The importance of connecting with regional Internet communities has never been greater,” says Dr. Dawit Bekele, manager of the Internet Society’s African Bureau.
“Local conditions require local solutions, assisted and informed by the technical expertise and policy experience of leading Internet community experts,” said Dr. Bekele. The INET meetings meet this need, bringing together key members of regional Internet communities and global experts, with an agenda tailored to address critical current issues.
The agenda for the Cairo meeting includes an important introduction to the multistakeholder nature and processes of the IGF, before drilling down to key issues facing the African Internet community, such as backbone development, the importance of exchange points as a part of national infrastructure, IPv6 addressing, multilingualism, and the benefits of the Internet’s open architecture.
This INET Africa meeting also benefits greatly from the presence of the African Network Operators Group (AfNOG) meeting. AfNOG, now celebrating it’s tenth annual meeting in Cairo this week, has been one of the driving forces of African Internet development. AfNOG and the Internet Society have long enjoyed a close relationship, with several of ISOC’s past INET meetings held in conjunction with AfNOG.
More details of the INET Africa Regional Conference, Egypt are available here.
Details of the Internet Society’s INET programme are available here.