Geneva — In planning for the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Athens, Africa's focus include issues of universal access, security, legislation, freedom of expression, multilingualism and local content, infrastructure, Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), economic issues and social cultural issues.

This was observed at an on going Internet Governance policy makers training workshop at the United Nations Conference Center (UNCC) which started on July 2 and ends on July 6.

Director and founder of DiploFoundation, Dr Jovan Kurbalija after analysing the presentation of nineteen countries on their immediate, mid term and long term concerns at national level, presented a concern on young people to look at the emerging issues and issues of concern to youth, both from a technology and public policy perspective.

Under infrastructure issues raised include mainly technical issues related to running of the internet. These include the essential issues such as the telecommunications infrastructure through which all internet traffic flows, technical standards and services and the content and applications standards

East and Southern African countries all identified the connection to the under sea cable which is known as the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) which is the proposed international fibre optic network that seeks to link the eastern and part of Southern Africa to the international fibre optic system.

Communications Authority of Zambia (CAZ) and Information's Systems Manager, Garry Mukelabai said in his report back to IGF focus for both long and short term issues that if optic fibre was installed it would be cheaper to use than Satellite technology that is currently in use.

Security issues included data interception, data interference, illegal access, spy ware and identity theft. Possible perpetrators might include hackers, cyber criminals, cyber-warriors or cyber terrorists. It was leant that targets are numerous from individual to, private companies and public institution to critical infrastructures, governments and military assets.

Spam or unsolicited e mails mainly used for commercial promotion, social activism, political material was also one of the IG issues which affect the normal functioning of the core applications especially e-mail.

Internet Governance issues were also seen to have a legal component and that the internet was shaping a legal response to the rapid development of the internet but was still in its infancy. African policy makers observed that there was a need to form new cyber laws for cyber space.

Jurisdictions was said to be an Internet Governance issue requiring the most urgent attention because a number of internet related issues have been steadily increasing.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), knowledge and ideas were also identified to be the key resource in the global economy. Deputy Director, Internet Access and Soft Ware Development at the Department Communication in South Africa Palesa Banda, said that IPRs is becoming one of the most important internet issues, with considerable legal and political consequences. She observed that Africa has suffered a lot of harm under IPRs as it relates to Internet Governance aspects.

It was also observed that while technology was developed to be used it has very often been misused or even abused. In general cyber crime was described as something that deals with the abuse of information and communication technology (ICTs).

Freedom of expression was identified as something which was not addressed by the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS). Convener, African Networks Operators Group (AfNOG) Nii Quaynor said access to knowledge was a key to human development and that it was crucial in an information society and for democratic participation and social economic empowerment.

He pointed out that it was necessary for Africa to focus on the challenges arising out of the online environment to the free flow of information, to freedom of expression and to people being empowered through access to knowledge.

Under multilingualism it was clear that this was to help Africans communicate across communities and give effect to cultural expression and to access shared knowledge for development. The idea is to make internet users to navigate across langauge barriers and become content creators in their own languages.

On economic issues it was clear that issues of e-commerce and consumer protection or trust and regulation were vital.

Social aspects of the digital divides encompassed a variety of issues including literacy, ICT skills, training, education and language protection.