IGF 2014

At present, the global broadband industry has entered into a high-speed development stage. The growth of bandwidth requirements and optical fiber access lead to a global fiber optic network construction wave. To provide ubiquitous broadband access for users, countries around the world makes efforts to wireless broadband seamless access through a variety of means, for example, developing the LTE mobile communications technology and market. Broadband development has also led to the emerging of mobile Internet, cloud computing, Internet of things, intelligent terminal that broadband has become an important part of the strategic emerging industries and competition cores.

Broadband is helpful to promote the economic growth, and the effect is more significant for developing countries. In improving productivity, broadband will help boosting a rise of 5% in manufacturing industry, 10% increase in service industry and 20% for the information industry.

However, many developing countries still encounter lots of issues, such as weak infrastructure construction, imbalanced urban and rural development, less developed application service and original technology, pressure on saving cost. It is an urgent task to strengthen infrastructure construction and capacity building, more importantly from the design policy.

The workshop will invite multistakeholder from different angles to discuss:
(1) how developing countries carry out effective broadband network construction,
(2) what's the roles of different stakeholders in this process,
(3) how to strengthen the capacity building,
(4) how to design better policy to promoting broadband access and service,
(5) the best practice and challenges etc.

Governance problem/question/challenged to be addressed.
This workshop discusses the technologies and policies needed to enable access for the next five billion. It will cover some of the most promising Internet technologies and the areas where they should be deployed. For instance, the workshop will discuss the need for wireless platforms in rural markets and other areas that will benefit greatly from a high degree of shared infrastructure, particularly with an electrical powering solution. It will also discuss the need, over time, for fiber-based networks to gradually fill across the network, migrating from the core to the edge.
Along with those technologies, a certain set of policies (many of which may not require laws) can facilitate the prompt and efficient deployment of broadband infrastructure. These policies include (1) promoting shared infrastructure, (2) liberalizing spectrum policy, (3) facilitating access and interconnection through Internet exchange points (“IXPs”), (4) creating an ecosystem that stimulates demand for broadband (and associated innovation, entrepreneurship, and technical experimentation), and (5) sharing information and discussing best practices among parties with common interests within geographical regions.

While lack of appropriate laws, inefficient implementation of the laws and lack of available financial resources can delay investment in fibre optic, there are other reasons that can be added to the list of impediments when it comes to some regions. Sanctions, political decisions, war, geographical condition, to name a few are the impediments that some regions are facing. However, while the regional needs are different there might be some commonalities among them and sharing these solutions may be to the benefit of policy makers. This workshop focusses on different regions such as Europe, Middle East, Pacific and Africa and addresses the following questions in order to provide policy solutions for facilitating access to the Internet through fiber optic: What investment indicators should be considered to encourage the investment in fiber optic? What policies should be in place for decision makers to make investment in fiber optic high on the agenda? What is the role of different stakeholder groups in making effective policies for investing in fiber optic? Which global policy shaping venus are available to discuss this ? What are the different regional and national best practices?

The Alliance for Affordable Internet’s Affordability Index of 2013 shows that the UN Broadband Commission target of entry-level broadband services priced at less than 5 percent of average monthly income is far from attainable at present. In the 46 developing countries A4AI studied, the cost of entry-level broadband exceeds on average 40 percent of monthly income for people living on $2/day, and in many countries exceeds 80 percent or even 100 percent of monthly income.

Technological solutions to this challenge are progressing apace, but the best technologies in the world will be rendered useless if policies and regulations governing access keep prices artificially high. Drawing upon the expertise of A4AI’s 55+ diverse members, this proposed workshop will explore and debate concrete policy examples that are designed to enhance affordability in emerging and developing countries and invite perspectives from diverse actors. What is working, what isn’t and how do we adapt some universal lessons and apply these to unique jurisdictions?

The workshop will also spur debate by sharing interim research results of the Affordability Index 2014. We hope that participants will help to shape the discourse and A4AI’s current and future policy recommendations towards greater access for the billions – three in five people globally - that are yet to be connected by broadband.

With the digital Data in volumes expanding beyond the petabyte and exabyte levels, open data and data publishing are rapidly advanced. The Big Data has changed and will continue change the styles of peoples, as well as the data-driven research and economics. There is an urgent need for decision makers, academics, civil societies and private sectors to work together closely to improve the existed governance system in the world in order to make the data-driven research and economy efficient.

The workshop will focus on the following issues in the discussions: (1) How the integrated governance mechanisms could enhance the data publishing actively and efficiently? (2) What international governance system could benefit Property ID for worldwide data publishing?(3) What are the government responsibilities and how to play its governance role in open data and data publishing?(4)What are the academic responsibilities and how to play its governance role in open data and data publishing?(5) What are the private sector responsibilities and how to play its governance role in open data and data publishing?(6) How government, academic and private sectors could work together in open data and data publishing?

There are one billion people with disability globally of which 80% live in developing countries according to the World Health Organisation. In many cases, they are the forgotten billion in terms of digital inclusion policies.

This workshop is designed to identify and discuss the key policy drivers to overcome the barriers to participation in the digital economy by people with disability. 2014 is a pivotal year for Internet governance with NETmundial and the transition of the stewardship of the IANA functions. The multistakeholder model is a key part of these Internet governance discussions.

However, if a substantial stakeholder group is forgotten, then do we have a real multistakeholder model?

This workshop will bring together representatives from key international organisations to discuss and debate what the barriers and challenges are but most importantly, how to break through these barriers to bring about significant policy change and to move towards a more inclusive multistakeholder model.

Through this gradual change, people with disability will in future have more opportunities for education, employment and participation through increased accessibility to and affordability of the Internet.

The participants in the workshop will be key representatives from the Internet Society, NETmundial, ICANN, ITU and W3C together with representatives from developing countries.

Inter-governmental and international organisations will bring a high-level perspective on developments and future plans. This will be balanced with reports of actual user issues in India and Pacific Island countries.


Agenda:
Introduction of topic
Introduction of panel members
5-minute key points provided by each panel member
Focused discussion on strategies to involve disability representatives as stakeholders in Internet governance policy development
Summary and suggested actions