The city of Yaroslavl hosted a conference “The Internet and the school. Generation .РФ”

On 3 November 2010, the city of Yaroslavl hosted a conference “The Internet and the School. Generation .РФ” co-sponsored by The Coordination Center for ccTLD .RU, Department of Education of the Yaroslavl region and  Yaroslavl Center of Telecom and Information Systems in Education and supported by Sergey Vakhrukov, the Governor of the Yaroslavl region. The conference focused on the impact of the Internet on youngsters, the use of the Internet in education, safe Internet, and the new Cyrillic domain .РФ. These issues were addressed both at the plenary sessions and at a workshop on teachers community’s preparedness for the use of the Internet resources, and in the framework of a debate “Who Governs the Internet?” for the younger generation. The latter got together over 500 participants: pupils, students and representatives of NGOs. The ceremony of awarding the Yaroslavl region with the “Official Registration Certificate” in ccTLD .РФ was the focal point of the plenary session “The Internet and the School. Generation .РФ”, which opened the conference. The Yaroslavl region became the first one in the Russian Federation which received its domain name in zone .РФ - ЯРОСЛАВЛЬ.РФ. Awarding Mr. Sergey Vakhrukov, Governor of the Yaroslavl region, with the domain name certificate, the CC’s director, Аndrey Kolesnikov, stressed that, “Yaroslavl is the city of paramount importance for domain space in Russia, because it has two unique letters in its name which are impossible to write correctly using the Latin script - letters “я” and “ь”. Mr. Sergey Vakhrukov noted that while the Yaroslavl region is at the very bottom of the alphabetical list of Russian regions, it became the first one to receive its domain name in ccTLD .РФ. “We are flattered it happens on the 1000th year of the city of Yaroslavl and now on Yaroslavl will be called in the Internet exactly the way its founder Yaroslav the Wise had baptized the city,” – said the Governor. He vowed that only positive content will be posted on the Internet resources of the Yaroslavl region.

In his presentation “Generation .РФ. New prospects of domain space in Russia” Mr. Andrey Kolesnikov briefed on the preparation for the launch of ccTLD .РФ
and what is going on now, during the last days before the launch of the open registration. The procedure for allocation of domain names reserved for the government’s needs stirred considerable interest among the attendees. Mr. Kolesnikov explained why the list failed to embrace such domain names as УРАЛ.РФ or ВОЛГА.РФ. “Who owns УРАЛ.РФ? Does it belong to all citizens, to the Ural federal okrug or, for example, to the Chelyabinsk region which is also located in the Urals? This is impossible to determine. That’s why such a domain name, like many similar ones, will be given to one who is the first to submit an application. And there is a great deal of similar cases,” – said Mr. Kolesnikov. He also elaborated on how the open registration will operate and the way registrars and the CC will interact.

In their presentations Rector of the Yaroslavl State University, Mr. A.I. Rusakov, and President of the Moscow State Economics, Statistics and Informatics University, Mr. V.P. Tikhomiorv centered on principles which universities should be guided by while determining their Internet strategy. Ms. Vera Seregina, Foundation for Development of the Internet, highlighted research findings by experts of the MSU psychology faculty who analyzed the teachers’ vision on what children look for in the Internet and the actual behavior of the oncoming generation in the Internet.

A contest “Generation .РФ” which took place before the conference and attracted nearly 500 pupils, students and teachers from 60 regions of Russia, as well as from Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. The winners received awards at the conference.

The debate on “Who governs the Internet?” was held in the afternoon. Mr. M.Ya. Niankovsky, the Distinguished Teacher of RF, winner of the presidential award, and winner of the All-Russia competition “The Teacher of the Year” (1994) moderated the debate. In the course of the debate pupils and students presented their vision on the Internet structure and principles of its governance as well as asked experts innumerous questions. Such an open and candid exchange of views on the trickiest issues of the Internet – copyright, free dissemination of information and freedom of speech, safe Internet - formed a discussion provocative and illuminating for both the youngsters and the experts. Andrey Kolesnikov later commented on his page in Facebook: “The Yaroslavl children’s expertise in the Internet governance area is greater than many”Internet experts’”. Plus spontaneity. Plus no clichés. In the aftermath of such meetings one understands that one’s work in instrumental and important.”