Nepal School of Internet Governance (npSIG) is a multi-stakeholder initiative jointly led by Internet Society Nepal (ISOC Nepal) and Forum for Digital Equality (FDE) in association with Department of Information (DOIT), Nepal Telecommunication Authority, ISPAN, CAN Federation, SICT, CIT and nPIX to enhance the capacity of young people on the Internet Governance issues and equip them so that they can participate and contribute at a higher level of the Internet Governance process.
NPCG 2018 is going to hold on this January 19 and 20 at Information Communication Center located at engineering institute Pulchowk, Lalitpur. The grand celebration and preparation of this Event have been done. Under this event, the platform is for the discussion on Internet governance. Internet Society Nepal Chapter with the collaboration of and Digital equality Forum the Event is going to organize where the related and selected stakeholders group can participate. The discussion with Event Committee Coordinator Advocate Baburam Aryal, Program Director of Forum for Digital Equality has presented.
Nepal School of Internet Governance (NPCG) is going to held on Jan 19 & 20.
What is the program going to perform?
The program has mainly focused on the youth generation. This program is going to hold for the capacity development of participator who are interested in Internet Governance Case and Internet Governance meeting. But, In Nepal, Internet Governance is not accessible for all youth, so we have to focus for Mid-level. The program on internet governance use, develop, and management is rarely organized on Nation. Can NPCG create a useful result on this?
Internet Governance Forum, the conference was held at Hyderabad in 2008. An informal discussion had made by Internet society Nepal Chapter and Forum for Digital Equality just before one month of that conference. The debate was for the enlistment of Communication technology. Then after, a decade at 2017, the discussion is held with the collaboration of Internet Society Nepal, Forum for Digital Equality and another government institute like NTA, ISPAN, etc. The other important fact is this program is held by different government agencies. That’s why Nepal School Internet Governance, Internet Society Nepal, Forum for Digital Equality, different government agency, media, Business communist, Technical Community are also included. So, I hope this will play an important role in Internet Governance Case.
What will be the type of discussion held?
I have also participated in Global Internet Governance held recently. The principal subject of this was ‘access as a right.’ The more complaint was on the no access to internet technology. According to Broadband “, Not more than 15% Nepalese are using the internet.” The quarterly report of Nepal telecom has shown that more than 60% are using the internet. But its only general accesses not meaning access.
Internet Governance is one of the essential themes nowadays. The Internet is becoming our life day by day. So, this program is mainly organized for the focus discussion of the internet and its management. World Summit on Information Society had held a conference in 2003 and 2005 at Geneva and Tunisia. This conference had defined Internet Governance.
Then after, with the initiation of UN, different program had been held worldwide which is the platform for the discussion of the internet governance and internet management related topics like rules and regulation, promotion, technical development, and so on. Recently, Internet governance is making its area on the National Level Regional Forum. So, this type of program is organizing in Nepal.
Nepal has operated Nepal IGF (Nepal Internet Governance Forum) on 2017. The central theme of this event is to develop the capability of internet governance. So, access is the major issue of the program. Under this event, along with different Internet question like what is the internet, why the internet is expensive or cheap, an effect on consumers, internet control, internet core value, architecture, we are discussing on internet governance and make it useful too. The primary discussion will be on the whole internet, Data privacy, cryptocurrency, the blockchain, web of things, artificially intelligent and so on and also their effects on internet governance.
Which are stakeholders going to participate?
Internet governance forum global has recognized five stakeholders like government, Business Community, Technical Community, Media community, and Civil Society. Last year we had the program on seven stakeholders done by Nepal IGF 2017 including academia and end users. The Internet is the choice for End users. Now, we are trying to participate with all seven stakeholders on NPCG.