Internet Symposium Bangladesh (ISB) held at Dhaka

Internet Society Bangladesh Dhaka Chapter arranged Internet Society Internet Symposium 2014 on 27 December at Department of Agriculture Extension Auditorium (DAEA), Khamarbari, Dhaka 1207.

The first discussion was on the Internet Governance towards more accessible and safer Internet in Bangladesh.

The Non Profit Organizations members were present there. The panel member was from the renowned organization of the country. As part of its commitment to ensuring the open development and evolution of the Internet, the Internet Society Bangladesh Dhaka chapter arranged the half day long event titled “Internet Symposium Dhaka: Internet Governance towards more accessible and safer Internet in Bangladesh”.

The symposium included keynote speeches and two plenary sessions on affordable Internet and Internet Safety for kids, attended by network professionals, educationists and policy makers of Bangladesh. The goal of this event was to raise awareness about the importance of multi-stakeholder dialogue in improving Internet access by making the Internet more affordable as well as in tackling internet related issues like ‘safe Internet for the kids.

The discussion panel notice, Although the Internet penetration and usage is growing rapidly in Bangladesh, there are significant barrier for Internet access for a large number of population due to the end user’s cost, coverage, lack of localized content and internet enabled services. The goal of this symposium is to facilitate multi-stakeholder discussions in order to provide important insights towards breaking some of these barriers.

Role of Internet Governance for a more accessible Internet

Like many developing countries, lack of affordable Internet is often a major obstacle for ensuring ‘Internet for all’. Despite significant reduction of per megabyte cost of Internet bandwidth, the end-users’ bandwidth price is significantly high in Bangladesh. There are still ways to bringdown the end-users’ Internet cost by devising effective policies and through establishing private-public partnership. This plenery will bring together industry experts, academia, civil society and policy makers for a stimulating discussion on these. The speakers will be asked to comment on the role of IXPs in reducing Internet costs, to explain the importance of devising effective policies for Broadband, to exemply the role of private-public partnership and multi-stakeholder dialogue in tacking Internet related issues.

Internet Governance towards a safer Internet for Kids

As Internet becomes more available, particularly the mobile Internet’, there is a growing concern about the safe Internet usage for the kids. It is well known that there are things on the Internet which are inappropriate for the kids. Certainly, restricting Internet access to the kids is not a solution. There is a lot to do in raising awareness among the parents, school teachers and the children about safe Internet usage. The second part of the event will address this issue by bringing the parents, policy makers and the technical people all together to brainstorm and devise a set of DOs and DON’Ts in terms of Internet access list.