Remote hubs in Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos and Tunis will feed Africa’s contributions in realtime to the NETmundial global multi-stakeholder meeting on the future of Internet governance, which will be held in São Paulo on 23 and 24 April 2014.
To date, a total of 33 remote hubs in 30 cities across 23 countries have now been set up in order to enable interested parties to gather in groups and contribute to NETmundial. In addition to being present at these hubs, any global citizen can provide feedback and interact with proceedings at the São Paulo conference on NETmundial.org.
The Johannesburg remote hub of the global multi-stakeholder meeting is an initiative of the Gauteng Chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC), in collaboration with the ZA Central Registry (ZACR) and Google South Africa, and is expected to help ensure that Africa’s voice is heard when it comes to shaping the future of Internet Governance.
The NETmundial meeting will specifically propose a roadmap for the further evolution of the Internet Governance ecosystem. The aim is that the meeting will fulfil its intention of serving as a global discussion where decision makers from government, academia, business and civil society deliberate on the state of Internet Governance globally.
According to Gabriel Ramokotjo, ISOC Gauteng Interim Chairperson, the Johannesburg remote hub will be free to attend, as long as prior conformation of attendance is received.
“Achieving greater transparency and participation within the wider Internet industry is a central focus of ISOC Gauteng. By making NETmundial accessible to interested South Africans in their own backyard, ISOC Gauteng is going a long way to achieving its mandate.”
Speaking on behalf of the ZACR, CEO Lucky Masilela emphasised the multi-stakeholder approach that flows through every aspect of the Registry Operator’s business.
“Whether it is the dotAfrica initiative where the ZACR has spent several years collaborating with multiple African governments and the African Union itself, or the upcoming NETmundial meeting, we pride ourselves on adding value through extensive collaboration.”
Fortune Mgwili-Sibanda, public policy manager at Google South Africa, says: “The remote hubs will surely make a greater African contribution to NETmundial a practical possibility and Google is thrilled to be able to play a part in the Johannesburg experience.”