HEC is launching ‘Pakistan School on Internet Governance

Higher Education Commission (HEC) is all set to launch Pakistan School on Internet Governance (pkSIG), with an inaugral four-day workshop to be held from 5 – 8 October. The workshop is being organized in partnership with Asia-Pacific Network Internet Centre (APNIC), Internet Society (ISoc) and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Internet is a fundamental component of economic, social, and political life around the world. It currently connects more than 3 billion people, and it is estimated that 50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020. The stable and flexible functioning of the Internet is increasingly important for developed, emerging, and developing countries and their citizens.

The governance of our ecosystem has long been the concern of a selected group of stakeholders. Internet Governance is a contested topic, where the Pakistan School on Internet Governance (pkSIG) will try to offer understanding, framing, and actions to be taken in this Internet governance environment. At this point it should be mentioned that Pakistan is the first SAARC country to embrace e-governance and recently 13 of our ministries upgraded to the e-governance model.

The main aim of pkSIG is to provide a comprehensive course that will cover political, legal, economic, socio-cultural, technological and other dimensions of Internet Governance within the context of Pakistan’s national objectives. The pkSIG will help individuals from Pakistan to better understand the global and regional Internet Governance issues, settings, and processes while gaining access to comprehensive and structured knowledge on the various aspects of Internet Governance, and the actors, issues and settings surrounding it.

The program is expected to carry practical oriented workshops, round tables, and case presentations. The workshop will open to students, researchers and professionals belonging to Academia and Research, Civil Society and NGOs, Government and Public Sector, Technical Community and Private Sector and Business.

The workshop will offer potential governance scenarios and analyze its international, regional, and national political, economical, and technical implications and a complete history of the Internet starting from the early days. Speakers will try to highlight various topics like social media, local content and other relevant modern internet topics.

The event will be held from 5 – 8 October in the Lecture Hall of the Higher Education Commission, Islamabad.

-Via HEC