DotConnectAfrica E-Participates at the Baku IGF 2012 - Contributes to ITU Changes

The Seventh Annual The Internet Governance Forum that was held in Baku, Azerbaijan from 6-9 November 2012 has finally come to a close. DCA was not present physically but participated in various sessions of the IGF meetings remotely.
 
The meeting's main theme was: 'Internet Governance for Sustainable Human, Economic and Social Development'. Internet experts and advocates from around the world attended the conference.
The Baku IGF comes at a time when major changes are happening to the internet and telecommunications landscape. For example ICANN is currently evaluating over 1390 applications that were made during this year's new gTLD program.

Other remarkable changes in the offing include the ITU changes for the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs). These regulations have not been updated since 1988. A broad consensus was made on the need to update the ITRs to comply with the 21st century's ICT landscape. Therefore, in 11 July 2012, the ITU Council decided that the Draft of the future ITRS be made publicly accessible for an open consultation process, where all stakeholders could express their views and opinions on the content of the Draft of the future ITRs or any other matter related to WCIT.
DotConnectAfrica as a concerned stakeholder in the ICT sector of the African continent submitted several recommendations to that effect. DCA's contribution has been published at ITU's Public Views and Opinions page.

DCA's submissions on ITU's ITRs looked at the various sections that need to be critically analyzed to take account of coming changes. These will include the current advancements to the Telecommunications sector including Mobile and Internet. With the major technological changes that have occurred, the world is looking at the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12) which runs from 3-14 December in Dubai.  Read More