Tuesday July 16, 2024, saw the beginning of another milestone in the life of the young lawmaker from the Tubah/Bafut Constituency of the North West Region of Cameroon, Hon. Agho Oliver, as he engaged with young enthusiasts from across the world on exchanging experiences and good practices on the thorny issue of Internet Governance, Artificial Intelligence and what the Global Digital Compact, GDC, would mean for the global South that has since been grappling with issues of a huge digital divide.
This opportunity that is providing a unique platform for the Member of Parliament to present the challenges faced by Africa in general and his Tubah/Bafut constituents in particular, in enjoying their inalienable rights to the internet as a public good as wished by the United Nations, has been offered by the leading European Summer School on Internet Governance.
The one week summer school that ends Friday July 19, 2024, with deep discussions on international guidelines on Artificial Intelligence, principles for internet governance and digital policy, and a summary presentation by the stakeholders on the global digital compact, will also see participants to the European Summer School on Internet Governance acquiring state-of-the-art skills and cutting edge knowledge from top-level faculty members drawn from around the world on cyber diplomacy, protection of the public core of the Internet, incident handling, the detection, prevention, disruption and defence of Domain Name System (DNS) abuse, advantages of New Top-Level Domains, functioning and management of critical internet resources, Internet Cooperation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Root server and IP address management, management of country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs) and generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs), the role of registrars, Internet and jurisdiction policy, Internet Governance and geo-strategy, and above all, practicums on the summit of the future or Global Digital Compact, GDC.
Hon Agho Oliver
The school which brings together some of the world's top scholars, policy makers and practitioners on Internet Governance, functions with the understanding that the internet (with more than 5 billion users worldwide), is the most important infrastructure in the information age. It influences policies, economics and cultures, global and local. Internet issues like security and stability, freedom of expression, privacy, eCommerce, new market opportunities, protection of intellectual property, cyber security and cybercrime, infrastructure development, digital divide, network neutrality, internet of things (IoT), are central to and directly affects the lives of individuals in Hon. Agho Oliver's constituency. His mandate puts a high premium on the affordability and accessibility of the internet because it offers job-seeking youths in his constituency huge opportunities.
The European Summer School on Internet Governance therefore, would enable Agho Oliver to be able to understand better the global Internet Governance intricacies and how the local community which he represents, can benefit from it. Apart from enabling him to get comprehensive and structured knowledge on the various aspects of internet governance which will in turn inform his policy advocacy and lawmaking while back in Cameroon (given that the course covers the political, legal, economic, socio-cultural, technical, and other aspects of the governance of the internet), Hon. Agho Oliver is out there actively canvassing for investment back in his constituency especially in the critical domain name market. What with the new top level domain names to be introduced in the market beginning next year.
This will mean that institutions and individuals would have the latitude to either acquire domain names bearing the names of their institutions or their personal names. What with the University of Bamenda having as their new assigned domain name (dot)UBa or Tubah Council having (dot) Tubah.
However, this can only be possible once there is a consensus on the Global Digital Compact which is a framework for international digital cooperation that is currently being negotiated as an annex to the Pact for the Future, an intergovernmental agreement that seeks to “build a multilateral system that delivers for everyone, everywhere”. This will entail making the internet and the internet infrastructure public goods to be available everywhere and enjoyed by everyone. It is in a bid to achieve this lofty principle of a "digital commons" that Agho Oliver is currently forging and fostering policies out there at the European Summer School on Internet Governance in Germany.
Coming after his remarkable and outstanding involvement with the Council of Europe, his participation at the Octopus Conference last year in Bucharest, Romania, the 30th Plenary Meeting as well as the 1st Steering Committee meeting on Internet Governance in Strasbourg, France, Hon. Agho Oliver and his peers from Africa are gradually moving towards maturing the idea of an Internet Governance Summer School for local communities back in Africa.
By
Colbert Gwain
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