[EURO-Discuss] R: Trip to Caucasus

Fri May 24 03:48:12 UTC 2013

Dear Oksana,
I have also copied my report to the Outreach SC, with the recommendation
that we consider outreach in the former URSS Republics a priority.
I believe that your initiative in Kiev, and Grigori's participation, can be
very important also in helping going in this direction.
Cheers,
R.

> -----Messaggio originale-----
> Da: euro-discuss-bounces at atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:euro-discuss-
> bounces at atlarge-lists.icann.org] Per conto di EMP
> Inviato: venerdì 24 maggio 2013 00:02
> A: Discussion for At-Large Europe
> Oggetto: Re: [EURO-Discuss] Trip to Caucasus
> 
> Dear Roberto,
> 
> Thank you very much for your extremely interesting and useful information!
> Armenian experience really deserves special interest from ICANN!
> 
> Last month we organized round table in our Ukrainian ccTLD, and invited
> Grigory Sagnyan from Armenia for remote participation. He told us a lot
> about Armenian experience, and in Ukraine there is great interest for it.
> When we hear about Finnish experience, for example, it seems to us
> absolutely unachievable. But Armenia has a lot in common with us, and the
> gap in Internet Governance issues are more obvious. And namely Armenian
> ISOC Chapter (Igor first of all) is much more easier to understand our
> problems with our ISOC Chapter formation, than even Jacek.
> 
> And it's true not only for Ukraine, but for a lot of other post-Soviet
countries.
> Especially regarding Internet and media literacy. We just discussed this
issue
> with our national regulator on telecommunications, and we really need to
> work closer with our Armenian colleagues. Especially on cybersecurity
issues.
> 
> Just now we are working on inviting Grigory to visit Kiev in person. I
will
> discuss this issue next week with our Internews office, but it would be
very
> important, if ICANN will be also engaged in it. Grigory's role  in Dubai
and in
> RCC is difficult to overestimate, he has personal contacts with our top
> officials, and he really has a great potential to influence on Ukrainian
position
> in this sphere.
> 
> Roberto, it was extremely important for me to see your understanding of
> problems with geographical regions. We really have to do anything with it.
> 
> Once again - thank you very much!
> 
> Best regards,
> Oksana
> 
> 
> On Thu, May 23, 2013 at 11:41 AM, Roberto Gaetano <
> roberto_gaetano at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Hi all.
> >
> > I took the chance of a non-ICANN-related trip to Caucasus to contact
> > the internet people, and specifically the At-Large structures, in the
region.
> >
> > I was not on any official ICANN mission, but believe that it is worth
> > anyway to write a short report of my contacts and personal
> > considerations.
> >
> > I am addressing this to different mailing lists with separate
> > messages, to avoid cross-posting.
> >
> > As reference to earlier discussions, you can see that the issue of
> > ICANN regions has been extensively debated. Follow up contacts have
> > shown that the ccNSO is also not happy about the current subdivision.
> > As for the ASO, because of their special internal structure, they are
> > affected by the regions only when it comes to Board Directors
> > election.
> >
> >
> >
> > I had a very interesting meeting in Armenia, hosted by ISOC AM, with
> > the Armenian ALSes.
> >
> > The main points that came out from the discussion were (to the best of
> > my
> > recollection):
> >
> > .         The fact that the development of the internet in Armenia is
> > consistently more advanced than in some neighboring countries (for
> > instance, there are 3 ALSes) depends on a mix of elements, including
> > the presence in Armenia of highly skilled ITC professionals as well as
> > the vision that has identified since the early days the potential of
> > the internet. This experience will be very difficult to replicate in
> > other countries, at least in the short term.
> >
> > .         Thanks to the early vision, Armenia has developed the
> > "multi-stakeholder" concept also in the management of the internet at
> > the national level. The ccTLD operator, the ISPs, the At-Large
> > structures, commercial organizations, the government, are tightly
> > collaborating, and there is also the initiative of a permanent IGF
> > forum in Armenia. This has allowed to have very advanced positions in
> > international fora, where all stakeholders are contributing, and we do
> > not have the situation that can be seen in other countries, where the
> government is imposing its view.
> >
> > .         Looking at the map of the world, and the location of the
ALSes,
> > it
> > appears clearly that there is a wide area, namely the former Soviet
> > Union states in central Asia, where there is no ALAC presence. This is
> > felt to be tightly correlated with the fact that the position that
> > these countries bring in the international debate are only depending
> > on government opinions.
> > In order to promote ICANN's multi-stakeholder approach, ALAC should
> > make an outreach effort to these countries with the objective of gaining
> members.
> > The general opinion is that this will be a difficult objective to
> > achieve, but nevertheless it is strategically important.
> >
> > .         The current location of Armenia in APRALO is creating serious
> > problems. It should be noted that the Armenian ccTLD operator is a
> > member of CENTR (the European ccTLD operators organization), ISPs are
> > getting their addresses from RIPE (the European Regional addressing
> > organization), but the Armenian ALSes are forced to be associated to
> > APRALO. Considering the point above, i.e. the Armenian
> > multi-stakeholder model that brings together different interests to
> > cooperate at the national level, we have the strange situation that
> > national domain names and IP addresses depend from Europe, while
> > At-Large structures depend from a different region. Moreover, there
> > are at the At-Large level cooperation projects ongoing that are
> > coordinated by the European Union, and the location of Armenia in the
> > AP ICANN region does make little sense, if any. For instance, if
> > EURALO develops itself as the partner of the European Union for such
> > European projects, it would be extremely impractical to have
> > participating ALSes being in a different region. Further
> > considerations have been the location of Armenia in Europe in a number
of
> different international organizations.
> >
> > .         Armenia, being part of the former Soviet Union, has kept a
> > network
> > of contacts at the technical level with other operators that are part
> > of the Community of Independent States (CIS). One example is also the
> > Regional Commonwealth in the field of communications (RCC -
> > http://www.en.rcc.org.ru/index.php). This network is also important in
> > the discussions related to internet governance and for the decisions
> > in the ITU.
> >
> > .         One question was raised, about what can ALAC do for the users.
> > This is a key issue, because it is hard to motivate individuals and
> > organizations to join ALAC if the only thing that they get is the
> > opportunity to participate in policy development. Budget should be
> > earmarked for initiatives that are useful for the internet users, like
> > training.
> >
> > To this, I would like to add some personal considerations on the
> > development of ICT, and specifically Internet, in Armenia.
> >
> > I have travelled extensively, in cities and in rural areas, and have
> > been staying only once overnight in a place without internet
> > connection, and only once in a place that had internet connection but
> > not WiFi. Please note that I have never stayed in fancy hotels, but
> > rather in hostels or guesthouses, always in inexpensive places. This
> > gave me the feeling of the ubiquity of the internet in Armenia.
> >
> > Besides internet, I witnessed the diffusion of mobile communications.
> > It seems to me that everybody has a mobile phone. I have seen not only
> > bus drivers talking on their mobiles (a plague that I see very often
> > in my country), but also shepherds in the countryside with mobile
phones.
> > Considering that the next frontier of the internet is mobile devices,
> > this is promising.
> >
> > Unfortunately, I failed to ask confirmation at the meeting with ALSes,
> > but my impression is that Armenia took advantage of the progress in
> > technology in the years of their independence, and moved straight to
> > new technologies, when telcos in Europe and US (for sure this was the
> > situation in Italy 20 years ago) were resisting change in order to
> > protect and further exploit their investments in previous technologies.
> >
> > Another simple example of how the internet is affecting common
> > behavior is the police. This is the only country where I have seen
> > police cars displaying instead of the simple "Police" word in the
> > local language the url of the police web site: www.police.am. It might
> > be the case in other countries as well, but I have noticed it here for
> > the first time.
> >
> >
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Roberto
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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