meeting report - Internet Governance Forum

MEETING REPORT
September 2015
Contents
What is IGC?................................................................................................................................................ 3
What is ArmIGF? ........................................................................................................................................ 4
ArmIGF 2015 Milestones .......................................................................................................................... 5
ArmIGF 2015 Sponsors .............................................................................................................................. 5
ArmIGF 2015 Program ............................................................................................................................... 6
Opening Keynotes..................................................................................................................................... 7
Opening Keynotes..................................................................................................................................... 8
Opening Keynotes..................................................................................................................................... 9
Multi-stakeholder model of Internet Governance for Armenia ............................................................. 10
.հայ Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) for Armenia ...................................................................... 10
Universal Acceptance: Recent Achievements ........................................................................................ 11
Digital Public Library of Armenia: a Dream or a Reality ......................................................................... 11
Internet of Things - Big Data and Big Opportunities for Economies ...................................................... 13
ICANN accountability and IANA transition ............................................................................................. 13
New Media ............................................................................................................................................. 14
Round Table ............................................................................................................................................ 16
Network Neutrality ................................................................................................................................. 18
E-Tools for E-Society (Applications)........................................................................................................ 20
Children Safety on the Internet .............................................................................................................. 22
Problems of the National Research and Education Network (NREN) ................................................... 23
Intellectual Property Rights and Free Access to Internet Resources ...................................................... 24
The impact of Internet on further development of Armenian SMEs ..................................................... 25
Content ................................................................................................................................................... 26
Cybersecurity .......................................................................................................................................... 28
Participation.............................................................................................................................................. 30
Feedback from Participants .................................................................................................................... 31
ArmIGF 2015 Budget ............................................................................................................................... 32
Media Coverage ....................................................................................................................................... 33
Acknowledgment ..................................................................................................................................... 33
2
What is IGC?
The Internet Governance Council of the Republic of Armenia (IGC) is founded by the
Government of the Republic of Armenia in order to develop proposals and suggestions as well
as contribute to the solutions for Internet governance related issues in the Republic of Armenia.
The official website is http://igc.am/
IGC is a Multi-stakeholder advisory body including members from Government, Civil Society,
Private Sector, Technical Community and Academia. The Chair of IGC is the Deputy Minister of
Transport and Communication and the Secretariat is the Internet Society of Armenia.
Aimed at solving the Internet governance issues the IGC has the following functions:
1) Organizing discussions on global Internet Governance Forum (IGF) issues, Internet
Governance principles, challenges arising as a result of Internet development. Development
of approaches based on the discussions, their inclusion in the project proposals for the
Government of the Republic of Armenia, come forward with draft legislative proposals and
other legal acts.
2) Cooperation with the Secretariat of the global IGF, provision of current approaches of the
IGC, organizing of discussions adapting these approaches and proposals on changing or
developing new legal acts.
3) Organizing public hearings, regarding the approaches of Internet governance proposed
by international or intergovernmental bodies in order to form approaches of the Republic of
Armenia on their basis and presenting them in corresponding international or regional
bodies where the IGC also participates.
4) Providing suggestions and comments of the IGC to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the
Republic of Armenia on issues considered in other international or regional organizations.
5) Facilitating the participation of IGC representatives in the Internet Governance Forum,
providing the guidelines of the official approach of the IGC.
6) Facilitating the exchange of best practices among academic, scientific and technical
centers and implementation of this experience.
7) Providing consultations to all Departments of the Government of the Republic of Armenia
on issues of current and coming worldwide development of Internet.
8) Provision of public information to the Armenian Internet community on emerging issues
related to the Internet development.
9) Promoting the development of human capacity to manage the Internet usage with the
involvement of the potential of local experts.
3
What is ArmIGF?
The Armenian Internet Governance Forum (ArmIGF) is a national IGF initiative organized by the
Multi Stakeholder Internet Governance Council of the Republic of Armenia with the support of
the Ministry of Transport and Communication of the Republic of Armenia and the Internet
Society of Armenia.
The main objectives of the forum are:
•
•
•
•
to provide an open and transparent platform for all stakeholder groups
to bring up and discuss the Internet governance related issues
to give the floor to the wide community
to deliver the messages to the policy makers
The members of the Organizational Committee are:
N
Name, Title
1.
Gagik Tadevosyan
Deputy Minister of Transport and Communication of RA,
IGC Chair, ArmIGF OrgCommittee Co-Chair
Gagik Grigoryan
Head of the Staff at the
Ministry of Transport and Communication of RA
Igor Mkrtumyan
Internet Society of Armenia President,
ArmIGF OrgCommittee Co-Chair
Grigori Saghyan
Internet Society of Armenia Vice President, IGC Secretary
Lianna Galstyan
Internet Society of Armenia Board Member, IGC PR Officer
Hayk Chobanyan
UITE Deputy Director
Vladimir Sahakyan
Director of IIAP National Academy of Sciences of RA
Vahan Hovsepyan
ARMIX Foundation Director
Tigran Harutyunyan
Noyan Tapan News Agency
Samvel Martirosyan
iDitord
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Stakeholder Group
Government
Government
Civil Society
Civil Society
Civil Society
Business
Academia
Technical
Community
Mass Media
New Media
Expert
4
ArmIGF 2015 Milestones
The decision to organize the first Armenian IGF in September was made on March 18, 2015 by
the Internet Governance Council of the Republic of Armenia.
It was suggested to set up a website and publish the topics agreed by IGC members as well as
envisage opportunity to add topics proposed by community.
In May 2015, the website http://armigf.am/ was launched and voting process for the best and
most interesting topics was announced. The announcement was sent through ISOC members'
mailing list, Union of IT Enterprises mailing list, through Mass Media and Social Networks.
Based on the voting results closed on June 10, the Program Group within the OrgCommittee
prepared the draft agenda and started the work on inviting panelists, moderators, rapporteurs,
plenary session presenters. The Committee worked on funding necessary to organize the event,
contacted to the Internet Society for livestream availability and to the IGF Secretariat for
providing remote participation.
ArmIGF 2015 Sponsors
The Sponsors of ArmIGF 2015 are:
Platinum
Gold
Silver
5
ArmIGF 2015 Program
ArmIGF 2015 took place on September 7-8, 2015 in Yerevan, Armenia. Being the first IGF in the
country, it was aimed to be a capacity-building event, as well as a space for discussions on
Internet governance issues, challenges and define the way forward .
The theme of the forum was "Multistakeholder Approach to the National Internet
Governance". It was a one-and-half-day event with plenary and parallel panel sessions program.
Program
Day 1, Monday, September 7, 2015
Day 2, Monday, September 8, 2015
09:00 Registration
09:30 Opening Keynotes
PLENARY SESSIONS
10:00 Multi-stakeholder model of
Internet Governance for Armenia
10:30 .հայ Internationalized
Domain Name for Armenia
11:00 Coffee Break
11:30 Universal Acceptance:
Recent Achievements
12:00 Digital Public Library of Armenia:
a Dream or a Reality
12:20 Internet of Things
Big Data and Big Opportunities
for Economies
12:40 ICANN accountability and
IANA transition
13:00 Lunch
PANEL SESSIONS
14:00 New Media;
Round Table
15:30 Coffee Break
16:00 Network Neutrality;
E-Tools for E-Society
09:00 Registration
PLENARY SESSIONS
09:30 Children Safety on the Internet
09:55 Problems of the National
Research and Education Network
(NREN)
10:20 Intellectual Property Rights and
Free Access to Internet Resources
10:45 The impact of Internet on further
development of Armenian SMEs
11:10 Coffee Break
PANEL SESSIONS
11:30 Content;
Cybersecurity
13:00 Conclusions and Final Remarks
13:30 Lunch
6
Opening Keynotes
Gagik Tadevosyan
Deputy Minister of
Transport and Communication
Mr. Gagik Tadevosyan opened the
first Armenian IGF. He mentioned
the main topics of interest for the
Forum
and
importance
underlined
of
multistakholder
Armenia;
the
the
existing
approach
in
the high level of
freedom of expression in Internet
in Armenia; the full 3G coverage in
the Republic of Armenia;
the rich history of IT development in Armenia; the linkage
between the old and new
generations of IT specialists as well as the importance of implementation of .հայ Armenian
IDN.
Igor Mkrtumyan
ISOC Armenia
President
Mr. Igor Mkrtumyan mentioned the
distinctive opportunity of IGF to
represent the challenges of Internet
Governance within the country. He
also highlighted the importance of
integrating and implementing the
multi-stakeholder model.
7
Opening Keynotes
Fadi Chehadé
ICANN President and CEO
In his video-message Mr. Fadi
Chehadé told that it is very
important day as the Armenian
IGF is bringing the community
people together to advance the
work of Internet governance and
ICANN and all things related to
making the digital economy and
the digital society serve the
people of Armenia.
He congratulated on the gathering and recognized the people of Armenia that have been very
active in the community.
He also expressed his pleasure concerning the signing Memorandum of Understanding
between ISOC Armenia and ICANN in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He expressed his regard to the
commitment of ISOC Armenia to the Internet that is open and serving all people of Armenia.
Mr. Chehadé congratulated ISOC Armenia being the first to present a full proposal on using the
Armenian script in the global domain name system. He also mentioned that being a
representative of a small Coptic community having its own script, he deeply appreciates the
importance what ISOC Armenia is doing for the Armenian people for maintaining the beautiful
script and language that have united Armenians so many years.
He wished a success to the event, assured in ICANN’s support and said that he looks forward for
the success of the deployment of the Armenian script in the Internet domain name system.
8
Opening Keynotes
Frédéric Donck
Internet Society
European Regional Bureau Director
Mr. Frédéric Donck in his
recorded
welcome
speech
stressed the importance of IGF
and
congratulated
ISOC
Armenia with the event. He
indicated the role and mission
of the Internet Society as a
global movement, an open
platform
for
communities
creating
opportunities
of
solutions.
Mr. Donck told that the world is facing immense challenges, refugees, lack of confidence and
distrust between communities, political and social problems.
The Internet has the ability to bring people together to discuss problems and find solutions. The
Internet itself is facing many challenges and threats like security, censorship, Internet of Things
and net neutrality. He welcomed that all these issues will be discussed at the Armenian IGF.
He also mentioned that no single community, no single stakeholder can bring solutions to those
issues. Only the collaborative governance might generate solutions. The ISOC Armenia proved
that it believes in the value of a multistakeholder approach to the Internet governance. The
Internet governance ecosystem including IANA transition will be further discussed at the WCIT
conference at the end of 2015.
Mr. Donck wished a very fruitful discussion at the Armenian IGF.
9
Multi-stakeholder model of Internet Governance for Armenia
Grigori Saghyan
ISOC Armenia VP
IGC Secretary
Mr. Saghyan reported about the Multistakeholder Internet Governance Council of
Armenia, the history of its formation,
members selection principles, its ruling
mechanism, principles, members, structure,
goals and activity in general.
.հայ Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) for Armenia
Lianna Galstyan
ISOC Armenia Board Member
Armenian IDN Initiative Group Member
Ms. Galstyan told the audience about the
Armenian
community
IDN
.հայ,
the
history
of
discussion
and
application
period, the purpose and benefits of it, who
may be the Users of Armenian IDN.
She also represented details on the Sunrise
procedure, Registration Policy as well as the
Perspectives of .հայ Armenian IDN.
10
Universal Acceptance: Recent Achievements
Dušan Stojičević
Serbian National Internet
Domain Registry Chair
Mr. Stojičević represented the situation of
IDN in the world, the problems in regards
with the e-mail addresses in national scripts
other than Latin scripts, the works done so
far. He also invited those who are
interested in and capable of finding
solutions to IDN Universal Acceptance to
join the corresponding working group and
make any contribution.
Digital Public Library of Armenia: a Dream or a Reality
Tigran Zargaryan
National Library of Armenia
Director
Mr. Zargaryan reported about the situation with digitalization of Armenian libraries. He
underlined the importance of existing traditional libraries, implementation of modern
information management in Armenian libraries.
He also called the attention of the community to the fact that Armenia's libraries, archives,
museums, Matenadaran and the Holy City chancellery and library store an enormous amount of
material, most of which /archival collections, manuscripts, museum exhibits/ most of which are
unique. The nation's values and heritage, most of which are an integral part of world's cultural
memory was accumulated in these institutions over the centuries. Their long-term
preservation, as well as making available to end users is a matter of primary importance. Most
of these printed and handwritten materials can be considered as "endangered collections", as
temperature and humidity fluctuations, time and fungal diseases have their negative impact on
11
their physical integrity. Today the whole world is using digitization by high quality copying of
materials (mainly TIFF format scanning) for a long-term preservation. Access to materials is
usually provided by lower quality images (JPEG or
PDF format) placed on the Internet. But there is
one major problem, high-quality images require a
lot of memory. In case of millions of images
exabyte-scale memory farms will be necessary.
This is possible in case of availability of
supercomputer center.
Armenian library community had already started
the digitization of printed heritage and making it
available on the Internet.
A total number of pages of "The Book" and "The Press" databases are approaching 3 million.
Armenia is connected to the outside world by fiber optic cables passing through Georgia in a
close proximity. Given the current instability in the region it is unsecure and might bring in case
of emergency to the isolation of Armenia from the global Internet. Software and content
creator individuals have a clear understanding of commercial models of intellectual property.
However the public is not aware of "creative communities" model, which is widely practiced in
many countries. "Open Access" model and the "Open / Free source software" awareness is very
low.
Recommendations:
1. There is a need to create a data processing center equipped with devices providing
the continuation of work in case of emergency situation. Government ministries will
be allocated memory quotas a long-term protection of their data. Zettabyte memory
farms are required for that.
2. Armenia should have an alternative connection to the global Internet.
3. Increase the awareness of the local developers in the commercial models of
intellectual properties. Work with intellectual property agency to give to the local
"Creative Communities" a legal force. Develop appropriate legislation.
12
Internet of Things - Big Data and Big Opportunities for Economies
Vahan Hovsepyan
ARMIX Foundation
Director
Mr. Hovsepyan presented the current situation with
the Internet of Things (IoT), underlined the existing
problems with the implementation of IoT in general
and particularly in Armenia.
Recommendations:
1. Increase awareness of the community about the
impact of the IoT on the everyday life.
2. Increase the IPv6 readiness of LIRs and local ISPs.
3. Organize training courses on the technical solutions emerged because of the IoT.
ICANN accountability and IANA transition
Michael Yakushev
ICANN VP
Stakeholder Engagement
Mr. Michael Yakushev paid special
attention to the digital governance
saying that no one person,
government,
organization,
or
company
governs
the
digital
infrastructure, economy or society.
Digital governance is achieved through
the collaboration of Multistakeholder
experts acting through polycentric
communities, institutions, and
platforms, across national, regional, and global spheres.
He also described the mission and role of ICANN as a non-for-profit organization keeping the
Internet secure, stable and interoperable, maintaining the databases that ensure the
uniqueness of Internet identifiers, advocating the multistakeholder model, which is
community-based consensus-driven approach to policy-making, and running the Internet
domain name system. He paid special attention to the roles of NTIA (US government), ICANN,
and IANA. Speaking about IANA transition Mr. Yakushev highlighted the current situation, posttransition IANA, number proposals and protocol parameters overview.
13
New Media
The rapid development of the Internet, its diversity and dynamic changes led to the creation of
the New media, where the importance is not only given to the content, but also to the
participation of society in the creation and distribution of the content. The concept of the New
media is rapidly developing and continuously changing in contrast to "old", traditional medias.
The rapid development of
the Internet, its diversity and
dynamic changes led to the
creation of the New media,
where the importance is not
only given to the content,
but also to the participation
of society in the creation and
distribution of the content.
•
•
•
The fact, that the content is created by the
society of Internet users, that an individual can
become a media, that a trustworthy person can
be anonymous and other similar circumstances
make this sphere hard set, as well as difficult to
regulate. In analogical situations it is very
important to discover, discuss and give probable
solutions to the problems of the New media.
Questions discussed during the Session:
•
The influence of the new media on
traditional press. Positive and negative
developments.
How do the Mass Media Law and other RA laws deal with the problems arising in new
media?
International experience. What solutions are there about regulating the new media.
How do the human rights and national security deal with the anonymity in the sphere of
new media and detection of sources.
Panelists:
Keynote speaker: Boris Navasardyan, President, Yerevan Press Club
Key participants:
•
•
•
•
Samvel Martirosyan, New Media Expert
Tigran Kocharyan, Information Security
Specialist
Seda Muradyan, IWPR Director
Movses Hakobyan, SecDev Foundation
Moderator: Samvel Martirosyan,
New Media Expert
Rapporteur: Lusine Movsisyan, Journalist
14
Key messages:
1. Mass Media is an old-fashioned notion. Now, it is more accurate to use the term
Mass Information Disseminator that can be natural and/or legal person.
2. The rapid development of technological problems arise because the legal system
does not manage to fix timely what the new media does.
3. Coordination of comments for
the media assumes certain costs,
due to which it is possible that
some of the media disable
commenting.
4. The
activation
of
public
journalism brings with it a
number of problems: inaccurate
information,
spread
of
disinformation by fake accounts,
detour from important topics.
5.
Media literacy is a must for children from an early age to ensure the safety of
children on the Internet.
15
Round Table
A round table discussion was conducted with
Governmental, Civil Society, Technical sector
representatives from different countries (Armenia,
Russia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Belgium,
Australia) where the Deputy Minister of Transport
and Communication of Armenia Mr. Gagik
Tadevosyan represented the Armenian initiative on
establishment of permanent Council on Internet
governance. It was told that the Council is a
Multistakeholder and it functions based on the
Internet Governance principles adopted by the
Prime Minister of Armenia.
The model of Armenian
Multistakeholder
Internet
Governance
Council
can be applied in the
neighboring countries of the
Region.
It was extensively discussed whether it is possible to apply such experience of multistakeholder
cooperation in other countries as well, what then would be the outcome and benefit of its
activity, how they can be coordinated and share the best practices.
Participants:
•
Gagik Tadevosyan, Deputy Minister of Transport and Communication of RA, IGC Chair
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Arman Galstyan, Chief Specialist, Ministry of Transport and Communication of RA
Michael Yakushev, VP Stakeholder Engagement, ICANN
Siranush Vardanyan, ICANN, APRALO Chair
Luna Madi, ICANN, Communications Director, EMEA
Maarit Palovirta, Internet Society, European Regional Affairs Manager
Holly Rache, ICANN ALAC ALT, ISOC Australia
Lianna Galstyan, ISOC Armenia Board Member
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Grigori Saghyan, ISOC Armenia VP
Vladimer Svanadze, ISOC Georgia
Ucha Seturi, ISOC Georgia
Aleksandr Isavnin, The Open Net NGO
Aleksandr Semenyaka, The Open Net NGO
Dusan Stojicevic, RNIDS, Serbia
Yulia Elanskaya,
Ministry
of
Telecom
and
Mass
Communications of RF
Anton Baskov, Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of RF
Tattugul Mambetalieva, Civil Initiative on Internet Policy, Kyrgyzstan
•
•
16
Key messages:
1. It is suggested to establish an entity similar to Armenian Multi-Stakeholder Internet
Governance Council in the neighboring countries and in the Region. In such
structures there is an opportunity to carry out a direct link between the authorities
and the business, bypassing the bureaucratic barriers.
2. The establishment of Multi-Stakeholder entities is expedient provided narrowing the
fields of their activities and providing more specifics. In addition to increasing the
activity in specific fields of such structures in the Region, it is necessary to choose
non-politicized subject matters that will be common for all parties.
3. Common and non-politicized
subject matters for the
countries in the Region can be
considered the issue of
education, identification of
users,
terminology,
in
particular
"information
security" and "cyber-security"
with certain reservations,
online
casinos
activities,
betting and other gambling
systems, etc.
4. It is advisable to consider a number of issues within the National Entities on IGF, but
there may be such issues which should be considered in the framework of global
IGF.
5. Due to some structural peculiarities in some countries of the Region the
establishment of Multi-Stakeholder entity can be initiated not necessarily only
through bottom-up mechanism.
17
Network Neutrality
The sessions represents the concept of Network Neutrality, which has no clear and precise
definition by telecommunication regulatory authorities. A broad understanding of Net
Neutrality supposes that all Internet protocols have the same priority, they are all equal.
This means, that in the channels with low capacity the protocols will transfer the information
with the same problems – the video will be stuck, the voice will be cut, the characters of games
will be killed. Generally, International Telecommunication Union ITU does not refer to the
definition of the concept, moreover, ITU contradistinguish the concept of Network Neutrality
with the concept of Service Quality and consistently demands and provide quality standards set
for network.
The development of the Internet led to the fact, that operators has taken the role of the pipe,
nowadays, by which other companies provide their Over the Top services, such as Facebook,
Google, Viber, and gain huge income, that is not shared with the operators.
In the RA the law does not provide any distinction between telecommunication services, all are
called Electronic communications services. But according to the current practice, voice services
are called ''voice communications'' or ''voice services e. 164 numbering plan'', which are
missing in current law.
Voice services provided by Internet are regulated only with one document - to ensure the
required free peering between Internet service providers. The Law defines another category for
telecommunications on the basis of reciprocity, when the volume of minutes is compared and a
mutual settlement is done.
Among the European countries
The Netherlands defined the
Network Neutrality by Law, FCC
announced that will regulate this
issue in USA and in some
counties it is being discussed.
Armenia confirmed the network
neutrality
principles
on
governmental level, what needs
legislative
and
regulatory
changes for implementation of
the NN principles.
Questions discussed during the Session:
•
•
•
•
How do RA operators prepare to act in case of spread OTT services?
How does PSRC plan to regulate OTT services? Does it really plan?
Are the interconnections between local operators and Viber, Skype OTT service providers
legal?
Is it possible to unite concepts of peering and interconnection?
18
•
•
How can the Internet exchange point(s) provide the necessary volume without being in
the regulatory field? What criteria the traffic exchange point(s) should be guided by, to
ensure uninterrupted recording of e. 164 protocol voice services?
What should be done to ensure the use of the principle of network neutrality in cellular
networks?
Panelists:
Keynote speaker: Holly Raiche, ICANN ALAC ALT
Key participants:
• Armen Ghalumyan, Cullent
International, Telecoms Analyst
• Thomas Mazejian, Information
Systems Department Manager,
K-Telecom CJSC (VivaCell-MTS)
• Armen Muradyan, Arpinet LLC
Director
• Tigran Khachatryan, PSRC Leading
Specialist
• Aleksandr Isavnin, The Open Net NGO
Moderator: Grigori Saghyan, ISOC AM VP, IGC Secretary
Rapporteur: Misak Khachatryan, GNC Alfa Administrator
Key messages:
1. Current approach on Telecom Single market includes following items:
Free and neutral internet should be available to everyone, regardless of place and
services; Every type of traffic should be equal, regardless of content and nature; Traffic
engineering should be transparent; No traffic should be blocked, rate limited, except
law enforcement; Personal data and security should not be violated; National security
service should be able to put some restrictions; Customer contract violation
countermeasures.
2. ISPs should spend money to improve infrastructure leading them to irreversible financial
losses.
3. Zero rating is price discrimination which is net neutrality violation.
4. ITU should provide new frequency ranges for mobile operators to ensure network
neutrality.
5. Largest Armenian mobile operator revenue decreases from 5% to 7%, though they
spend 20-25 mln USD for the infrastructure development (2.2. mln mobile users).
6. Main OTT players do not have any interest to communicate with local mobile operators.
7. Armenian telecom regulator considers that OTT service provider licensing is not under
their regulation.
19
E-Tools for E-Society (Applications)
Since 1990s, we are talking about digital economy based on the Internet. Since then Internet
has been transformed from millions of interconnected computers to the virtual world of mobile
and electronic devices. In modern world the physical and the digital are paired with each other,
as people and organizations are becoming more and more interconnected.
Digital development is considered to be the main engine of social and economic development.
It is everywhere. Digital development boosts innovations, increases productivity, develops
economy in general. It annually creates economic result in the size of hundreds of billions of
dollars, new jobs, enhances the quality of life in society. It is considered that the increase of
digitization of the country by 14% leads to an increase in the gross national product by 1%.
Electronic tools and digital technologies revolutionize
businesses and jobs, radically change business models
and breaking down barriers. The best examples are
the VoIP technologies and e-commerce. Amazon
within 10 years increased the sales for 16 times from
3 billion to 48 billion. Digitalization facilitates
outsourcing. More and more organizations are
interested in transferring their non-core services to
other organizations with more experience in this area.
It is necessary to continue efforts to introduce eservices and e-governance, in order to become more
efficient. For the successful promotion it is necessary
to develop certain principles to define goals,
priorities, use native language, technical standards
and other events.
Digital development boosts
innovations, increases
productivity, develops
economy in general. It
annually creates economic
result in the size of hundreds
of billions of dollars, new
jobs, enhances the quality of
life in society.
Panelists:
Keynote speaker: Hayk Chobanyan, Deputy Director, UITE
Key participants:
• Ali Almeshal, ISOC Bahrain Chapter
• Arman Atoyan, Founder, Director,
X-TECH
• Armen Manukyan, Masis company
• Arman Poghosyan, Instigate
• Armen Nazaryan, ISOC AM Manager
of Blinds Program
Moderator: Hayk Chobanyan,
Deputy Director, UITE
Rapporteur: Anna Karakhanyan,
ISOC AM Board Member
20
Key messages:
1. Information technologies have a tremendous role in the development of the State.
2. Some international electronic payment systems are not yet established in Armenia, such
as Paypal. It is necessary to open up this issue on the state level and develop the
alternatives.
3. The state and the business should come together to solve problems and create new
infrastructure.
4. It is necessary to promote
the development and use
of internal resources in
Armenian language.
5. In Armenia the supply
exceeds the demand, the
society is not yet ready to
comprehend and use the
new electronic gadgets. It
is necessary to educate
the people, using all
possibilities:
media,
television,
educational
centers.
6. In order to implement electronic commerce it is necessary to have reliable, secure and
safe payment systems.
21
Children Safety on the Internet
Narine Khachatryan
Safer Internet Armenia
Ms. Khachatryan reported about the work
done by the Safer Internet Armenia during
the last years, which includes:
2011 - Child-specific and educational econtent developed, internet and media
literacy lessons organized
2012 - Over 15 000 children took part in Safer Internet workshops, covering 70 % of Armenia’s
schools, over 15 000 children through open lessons across 800 schools
2013 - 4th and 5th Armenian editions of the Introduction to Internet Governance Book of
DiploFoundation produced with support from ISOC Armenia
2013-2014 - 7 delegates, including 2 school children took part in ICANN meetings (Beijing,
Singapore, London)
2015 - over 120 Armenian schools joined European eSafety label Program
Safe.AM - ArmNet Awards 2015 nominee in the category of "Social Impact"
Recommendations:
1. Create child specific online content and services
2. Increase awareness and empowerment
3. Increase digital / media literacy in education
4. Develop tools and self-regulation for online safe environment
5. Work out legislation and law enforcement against child sexual abuse and
exploitation
22
Problems of the National Research and Education Network (NREN)
Vladimir Sahakyan
IIAP NAS RA
Director
Mr. Sahakyan presented the Academic
Scientific Research Computer Network of
Armenia (ASNET-AM), which is the National
Research and Education Network (NREN) of
Armenia. ASNET-AM functions as a joint
structure of several networking centers and
departments within the IIAP NAS RA. ASNETAM is a leading developer of Clustering
technologies
and
Scientific
GRID
infrastructure in Armenia and South Caucasus
Region. It implemented several projects like
ArmCluster, SEE-GRID-SCI, HP-SEE, Black Sea
Interconnection, EGIInSPIRE, GN3plus. It also
manages the Armenia-GÉANT Link.
ASNET-AM closely cooperates with GÉANT and provides the following services:
Eduroam the world-wide roaming access service
EduGAIN the service that interconnects identity federations around the world, simplifying
access to content, services and resources for the global research and education
community
EduPKI
the service that aims to support other GÉANT services in defining their security
requirements and to provide them with digital certificates
EduConf provides collaboration environment that will be easily accessible to research and
academic end-users
Mr. Sahakyan named problems that hinder the advance of the Armenian NREN:
• Unreliable and low bandwidth fiber-optic lines in Yerevan and outside
• Unreliable and non powerful servers and network devices
• Difficulties on the replacement of equipment in connection with the increase in traffic
• External security (hacking attacks, the abduction and destruction of data)
• Internal security (viruses, certificates)
• Failure Recovery
• AC power failures
Recommendations:
1. Minimize the traffic between nodes through optimal allocation of network servers
and creation of alternative paths
2. Virtualize servers and communication devices
3. Create an Administrators group, similar to CSIRT
4. Fast recovery of images from storages on virtual machines
5. Install the a powerful AC power generator, energy-saving equipment, Green
Technology
23
Intellectual Property Rights and Free Access to Internet Resources
Sarkis Knyazyan
Intellectual Property Rights Center of Armenia
IPRC
Mr. Knyazyan talked about Intellectual
property rights issues in Armenia. One of his
key messages was the balanced approach
to the freedom of Internet and protection
of Intellectual Property rights.
His key message
community was:
addressed
to
the
Do we promote the Progress of Science, Useful Arts and provide incentives to creators, if e.g.
•
•
•
we protect inventions by patents?
we publish patents?
we protect movies, music, software,
books from piracy?
•
•
•
we protect software for more than 100 years?
we protect statues, laws and contracts?
we protect the source code of “copy” &
“paste” functions?
Recommendations:
addressed to Government
1. To assure that the IP laws provide enough incentives (i.e. good laws and good
enforcement) to authors and inventors, so that they continue their intellectual
activities for the benefit of Armenia and its community. The lack of incentives and
bad enforcement of IP laws are extremely dangerous for the future of Armenia,
including from the stand point of national security.
addressed to Community
2. To think of counterfeit or pirated goods as of stolen goods.
3. The access to free intellectual property in the Internet (such as audiovisual works,
pictorial illustrations, software, scientific articles and other works of authorship) may
be used freely by anyone if: 1) authors or right-holder decide to make them available
to the public, 2) the law allows to use them freely, or 3) the term of the protection
has expired. This means that there may be a lot of free information online without
infringing anybody’s right.
4. To have a balance between protection of Intellectual Property rights and the free
use.
24
The impact of Internet on further development of Armenian SMEs
Gagik Sargsyan
Noy Firm
Founder, Director
Mr. Sargsyan represented a survey
on SME representation in Internet.
He highlighted the problems that
hinder
the
Armenian
SME
presence on the Internet. Of the
findings was that SMEs are not
well
informed
about
domain
registration, web hosting and web
site development and are a kind of
scared about that.
Recommendations:
1. Organize courses on web development and e-commerce for SMEs.
2. Set up a web development and e-commerce center for SME that will service many
SMEs with a modest fee.
3. Establish ISPs presence at the SME State Registry.
25
Content
Today there is a strong confrontation between supporters of open Internet and the copyright
owners. The situation in Armenia is regulated by Armenian Law on Copyright and related rights.
Today there is a strong
confrontation between
supporters of open Internet and
the copyright owners. The
situation in Armenia is
regulated by Armenian Law on
Copyright and Related Rights.
There is a National Commission on Television
and Radio, which requires to make royalty
payments to Intellectual property owners or
to their representatives.
There are collectors, who have rights to
collect royalties from licensed cable and
ethereal TV companies. Some Internet
providers also have to pay royalties for TV
movies and other video content, distributed
with use of IPTV technology in multicast
mode. But for Internet TV using unicast
technology there is no any practice to collect
royalties for watching TV programs.
Questions discussed during the Session:
•
•
•
Is it possible to provide any royalty to
the copyright owners in Internet era?
The Intellectual property law and
current practice.
How to monetize mass media
production in the Internet era?
Financing sources today.
•
•
How to create free of charge yet highquality content ?
Online education how to bring into line
traditional education sources in the
Internet education process. Is it possible
to use Wikipedia in this process?
Panelists:
Keynote speaker: Sarkis Darbinyan, RU BlackList Lawyer
Key participants:
• Mher Bekaryan, "Wikimedia Armenia"
Scientific-Educational NGO Co-Founder,
Board Member
• David Alaverdyan, Mediamax Chief
Editor
• Samvel Hovsepyan, RA Police
• Haykaz Baghyan, Media Education
Center
Moderator: Petros Ghazaryan, Journalist
Rapporteur: Siranush Vardanyan, ISOC AM Board Member, ICANN At-Large APRALO Chair
26
Key messages:
1. Traditional approaches for content regulation are impossible to implement in digital
era. Today no one is satisfied with the copyright regulations as copyright holders
believe that the law is too soft, and the Internet community believes that it is too
strict.
2. Wikipedia is a new approach, when content has no any copyright from traditional
legislation point of view. Armenian content in Wikipedia is being created by Eastern
Armenian language carriers as only Eastern Armenian has registered language
labeling. The Western Armenian lucks labeling thus is considered as dialect. It is
important to register a label for Western Armenian as a separate language.
3.
Internet
gives
new
opportunities for creating
resources.
The
quality
content and interactive
approaches to them are key
for being competitive in
content creation.
The
Internet
provides
potentially
unlimited
opportunities to reproduce
and distribute creations
without
authors'
permission.
Today, efforts are made by the Police of Armenia to protect the copyright by using
Internet specifications and taking into account the legal and technical means.
4.
5. The Police of Armenia does not apply content filtration in informational sources, in
general, and in Facebook, in particular. There is no any legal framework for that.
27
Cybersecurity
Convention on Cybercrime, signed by the RA in 2006, identifies cybercrime and cybersecurity.
But there is also an "information security" concept developed in 2012 by the Security Council of
RA. There is a fundamental difference between these two concepts, namely cybersecurity does
not refer to the content, does not contain propaganda and contra-propaganda components
while the information security does not exclude content-related components.
In this session the concept of "cybersecurity" is used.
From this perspective, the session promoted the
discussion about reliability of infrastructure
functioning, in particular, the accessibility in case
of DDoS attacks or Internet infrastructure physical
damages for the citizens of the RA as well as for
international users.
The second factor is security issues inside
companies: How to prevent data leakage? The
relevance of the issue is due to the new Law on
"Personal Data", which implies that all
organizations processing of personal data must
undergo an audit by public or private
organizations specializing in audit.
There is a fundamental
difference between the concept
of
cybersecurity
and
information
security.
Cybersecurity does not refer to
the content, does not contain
propaganda
and
contrapropaganda components while
the information security does
not exclude content-related
components.
The third factor is the implementation of the DNSSEC protocol which will distinctively identify
the source of the information.
These are all issues of the initiation, implementation and supervision.
Questions discussed during the
Session:
• The use of open source
operating
systems
for
processing personal data - is
there a risk of leakage?
• To what extend should the
influence be by the state on
private companies in order to
provide the cybersecurity?
•
•
•
•
•
•
What is preferable to ensure audit or not to demand it?
To ensure it by the state body or by the efforts of private organization?
Is the self-certification acceptable in terms of cybersecurity?
What are the corruption risks if State audit is conducted?
Is there enough professional potential in RA to force well-known organizations for audit?
Will the new Law succeed?
28
Panelists:
Keynote speaker: Ruben Muradyan, Panarmenian Media Group CIO
Key participants:
•
•
•
Karen Gasparyan, UCom Head of IT Security,
Vaagn Toukharian, OWASP Director
Inna Kholodova, ISOC AM Board Member, CERT-AM Administrator
Moderator: Ruben Muradyan, Panarmenian Media Group CIO
Rapporteur: Inna Kholodova, ISOC AM Board Member, CERT-AM Administrator
Key messages:
1. The controversies of RA Law on Protection of Personal Data put in doubts regarding
any positive impact this Law might have unless the necessary conditions - working
policies, standards, applications, obligations for disclosure - are developed.
2. Government position about censoring and neutrality of networks is still unclear. It is
essential to have national CERT/CSIRT supported and controlled by the Government.
3. Internet traffic to/from Armenia is mostly delivered through Caucasus Online and
this might become critical for country if the property if this operator (or company
itself) become acquired by Azeronline (Azerbaijani Internet Provider).
4. Serious
security
problem is created by
attacks
targeting
dynamic routes, so
monitoring
and
protection of dynamic
behaviour of traffic
becomes more and
more important.
5. ArmIGF can provide a platform for cybersecurity experience sharing - specifically for
CIS and EAEC countries.
6. Security of the webspace can be improved sufficiently if website owners sign blanket
agreement for penetration tests.
7. Government should take efforts to plan and implement continuous cybersecurity
diagnostic and mitigation program.
29
Participation
ArmIGF 2015 was attended by 170
participants, coming from 10 foreign
countries (14%) and mainly from Armenia
(86%).
Breakdown by country
14%
7%
Armenia
Russia
86%
Breakdown by stakeholder group
Private sector
8%
19%
Civil society
30%
Technical
community
Government
8%
17%
18%
Academia
Other
Other
All stakeholder groups were
represented at the meeting:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Private sector: 30%
Civil society: 18%
Technical community: 17%
Government: 8%
Academia: 8%
Other: 19%
In regards to gender representation, 62% of all participants were male and 38% female. Youth
were represented in 9% of all participants.
Breakdown by gender
representation
Male
38%
62%
Female
30
Feedback from Participants
An Evaluation Survey was published at the official website armigf.am and invitation was sent to all
participants to fill it in and share their impressions, degree of satisfaction and views on how ArmIGF
could be improved. The results of the survey showed that:
•
21% of the respondents overall evaluated the first Armenian IGF as excellent, 50%
evaluated it as good, 7% were neutral, and 22% considered that it can be further
improved.
•
56% of the respondents liked the Panel sessions for being more interactive, 44% liked
Plenary sessions for providing more useful information, and 78% of the respondents
thought that all sessions were relevant to current IG challenges in Armenia.
•
57% of the respondents were satisfied with the content of ArmIGF sessions, 36% were
neutral, while 7% were dissatisfied.
•
With regards to the level of interaction between panelists and participants, 50% of the
respondents considered themselves satisfied, 43% were neutral, while 7% were
dissatisfied.
•
77% of the respondents were satisfied with the venue, 69% with the room set-up, and
79% with catering, while 14% were dissatisfied with technical arrangements.
•
For 57% of the respondents the working language was Armenian, for 29% it was English,
and 14% used Russian during ArmIGF 2015. Those who used translation 66% were
satisfied at some extent, 17% were satisfied and 17% were dissatisfied.
•
64% of the respondents took part in Internet Governance Forum for the first time, while
36% were participants of RIGF, EuroDIG, IGF in Istanbul, Turkey and many IGFs in the
region and beyond.
•
42% of the respondents learned about ArmIGF from ISOC events calendar, 25% from
Facebook, 8% from IGF events calendar and ICANN announcement, while 17% indicated
other sources, such as mailing lists, invitation from the organizers, personal contacts,
etc.
The agenda was Up-to-date, interesting and
ambitious; there were a lot of really interesting
and passionate speakers from all groups so
truly multistakeholder; excellent attendance
with also young people and women.
(extract from Feedback)
31
ArmIGF 2015 Budget
In order to be well prepared for the first ArmIGF, the OrgCommittee applied and secured
external funding from various sources:
1. Sponsorship from international partners: ISOC European Regional Bureau and ICANN
2. International grand programs: ISOC's Beyond the Net program, IGFSA (Internet
Governance Forum Supporting Association)
3. Sponsorships from local partners: UCom, ABCDomain, HyperSpace
A general overview of costs from ArmIGF 2015 budget is presented below:
Budget Item
Website
Video for opening
Printing (banners, badges, invitations, certificates, etc)
Logistics
Webstream
Photo capturing
Participants travel, transportation
Participants accommodation
Translators
Catering
Social event
SME presence on the Internet Survey
T-Shirts for participants
Promotional items
Total
Cost (USD)
920
250
557
1,150
1,677
1120
3,700
3,540
2,202
2,412
2,100
750
1,600
440
22,418
32
Media Coverage
The first Armenian IGF was widely reported in media mostly in Armenian. However, some of
them published also in English and Russian. Below is the list of media coverage on ArmIGF.
• http://www.mtc.am/pages.php?lang=1&id=599
9&page_name=news
• http://armeniatv.am/hy/news/57546
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU2OtTk2
vlQ
• http://www.1in.am/1713459.html
• http://imyerevan.com/hy/billboard/view/4037
• http://www.erit.am/index.php?lang=1&id=345
98
• http://www.nyut.am/?p=82279&l=ru
• http://ittrend.am/2015/09/07/armigf/
• http://ittrend.am/2015/09/07/armigf-2/
• http://ittrend.am/2015/09/07/hay-4/
• http://ittrend.am/2015/09/09/icann-2/
• http://civilnet.am/2015/09/09/firstarmenian-internet-governance-forum/
• http://www.itel.am/am/news/7380
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=33&v=tO
tS8Qaoh84
• http://www.nt.am/am/news/210003/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiD69N9
Z_00
• http://armef.com/hy/news/menq/internetkaravarman-arajin-hamajoxovy/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=5&v=Pou
oB-sogQ0
• http://www.a1plus.am/1404320.html
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEtJwkk
rX4U
• http://arpinet.am/clients/54-armigf-2015.html
Acknowledgment
ArmIGF 2015 team acknowledges all sponsoring programs, international and local partners for
funding the first Armenian Internet Governance Forum, thus bringing all stakeholder groups
together and providing open and transparent platform for discussions on Internet related issues
within the country and beyond.
Special thanks to:
Internet Society, ICANN, ISOC Armenia, UCom, IGF Support Association,
ABCDomain, HyperSpace, Ministry of Transport and Communication of
Armenia, IGF Secretariat, SEEDIG, TLDCON, and all others who have
supported and volunteered for ArmIGF 2015.
33