Institute for Internet Policy & Law @ Beijing Normal University

I spent a hectic week (September 13-17) at Vilnius, Lithuania for the 5th Internet Governance Forum. Although the local food is not very impressive to me, I got sufficient food for thought.

On Day One, I rushed to two sessions to give presentations. One was “Setting the Scene” in the Main Room. I’m the author on Chapter Diversity for “official” IGF book “Creating Opportunities for All.” Another was the workshop organized by Council of Europe on Framework of General Principles of Internet Governance, which is a very ambitious project that may have to be handled at UN forum.

On Day Two, I presented at a workshop “Internet Governance and Youth”, along with a critic lady from Pirate Party and a couple of young people. Frankly I don’t believe young people need to be arrogant to the “old” for establishment their own identity. Okay that session was not interesting. In the afternoon, I was the remote moderator for the workshop “Development Agenda.” An irresponsible commentator complained that he could not tweet the session but he lied for he did not even login the webex platform. At night, Prof. Drake and I went to UNESCO reception for a drink.

Day Three was comparatively relaxing to me. I went to the Dynamic Coalition’s workshop at the beginning and SSIG workshop before lunch. In the afternoon, I went to Russian IGF session and Intermediary Liability workshop before joining NomCom outreach. At night, around seven scholars were invited to join UNESCO dinner for a strategic talk. Everyone was so busy with talking or taking notes that we did not remember what we ate.

Last Day began with a Chinese workshop on open access to scientific data and library information. I later joined APrIGF report session. After having lunch with CNNIC friend, I went to city TLD workshop and had interesting dialogue on the large panel. The closing ceremony seemed endless. Prof. Ang, Mr. Tan and I ran into to heavy rain to catch the bus to go to the city for dinner.

On departure Day, Mr. Tan and I went to KGB museum and felt extremely depressed by the execution photos and other old files. Later we felt better in an open market in front of the City Hall. That’s my week by Baltic Sea and my second stay in the beautiful city. Nice to go home anyway.

The European Summer School on Internet Governance offers annually (end of July) a one week academic course (48 hours). 4th Summer School was on July 25-31, 2010 in Meissen, Germany.

The course covers the political, legal, economic, socio-cultural, technological and other dimensions of the governance of the Internet. The course includes also practical oriented lectures covering the management of critical Internet resources as well as the development of the domain name market. Each academic lecture is followed by a Q&A Session. There are smaller more practical oriented workshops, round tables and case presentations as well as students project. Evening events with “Snacks & Wine” are for interactive communication among faculty and fellows. Students will get a “Certificate” for the successful participation in the Summer School.

Apart from representatives from the governments of European countries and European Union, a line of distinguished international academic faculties, Prof. Wolfgang Kleinwaechter, Wiiliam Drake, Avri Doria, Hong Xue, Milton Mueller and Wolfgang Benedek gave the lectures on a variety of theoretical issues on Internet governance. Their research reflects remarkable academic quality and international vision. There were also a series of presentations from 5 ccTLD managers, RIPE, UNESCO, geo-TLD applicant and others. Technical community is supportive for the Summer School. Fellows were self-stimulating and highly interested in studying.

An International Association of Summer Schools on Internet Governance was initially launched by representatives from Asia, Latin America, Europe and North America.

Since July 2000, I have been attending almost all the ICANN meetings. I can make a long list of those meetings in different fancy locations. This time was in San Juan, Puerto Rico (June 23-29). Seven years later, I found I almost know more than 70% of the participants. Local participation is still limited and ICANN is still full of veterans.

I’ve been working with the ALAC since 2003. Since February 2007, I only working as an IDN Liaison of the Committee. In San Juan, I organized an IDN Workshop on June 28, presented at ALAC-Board Meeting on June 27 and public forum on June 28. An IDN WG is going to take off after San Juan and around 10 people have signed on.