The second day of the TLDCON 2017conference opened with the Educational Projects in Domain Industry session. Maria Kolesnikova (ccTLD .RU/.РФ) spoke about projects of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ. “Today many top level domain registries, in addition to carrying out their regular activities, are also implementing various social and educational projects. Our center is no exception. We have several such projects: the Explore the Internet & Govern It! game, DOT Journalism, Positive Content and IP&IT Law contests, as well as the .ДЕТИ domain zone, which was created in order to build a “trust zone” of safe Internet for children. In addition, we hold seminars for government representatives, deliver lectures in universities and schools, publish study guides and educational material, and participate in various partner programs,” Kolesnikova said. According to her, the interest of school students and youngsters in these topics is growing from year to year. For instance, the number of participants in the Explore the Internet & Govern It! game has increased threefold over the past five years. The game will soon go international: it has already been translated into English, and now children from other countries will be able to participate in the game as well.
Other speakers presented their educational programs as well. Sarmantai Kasenov (1C-Bitrix) presented a new series of free seminars, The Website Formula, aimed at educating entrepreneurs in the regions in terms of using the Interned for business management. Since the project’s launch seven years ago, over 53,000 listeners from 51 cities of Russia have attended 350 seminars. Maxim Burtikov (RIPE NCC) spoke about the company’s training courses for IT experts on domain and address system infrastructure. Alexandra Kulikova (ICANN) spoke about educational programs of ICANN, and how they allow the company to fulfill its mission and help the work of the community. Anna Karakhanyan (ISOC Armenia) shared her experience in launching a summer school on Internet governance for youngsters and students. The session’s work concluded with a presentation given by Sergei Povalishev (Hoster.by), who spoke about the new formats of educational programs carried out by Hoster.by for the IT expert community in Belarus.
The last session of TLDCON 2017 was traditionally dedicated to law issues. The session opened with a presentation by Shavkat Sabirov (Internet Association of Kazakhstan) on the aspects of legal regulation of Kazakhstan’s Internet segment and the national practice of resolving domain disputes. Andrei Vorobyev, Director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, commented on the similarities in practices of Russia and Kazakhstan, noting that interests of companies’ shareholders in domain disputes caused by unlawful management actions require additional protection. The Coordination Center is currently formulating recommendations for registrars dealing with these cases.
Alina Akinshina (Online Patent) presented a joint project of Online Patent and the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ: a verification service for domains in the .RU/.РФ domain zones for matching with registered trademarks. Using this service will help avoid choosing domain names that coincide with registered trademarks and protect the administrator from subsequent claims. A similar service will be launched for trademark holders – it will give a full list of domains with names that coincide with their trademark.
The event was concluded with a presentation given by Sergei Kopylov, Deputy Director for Legal Affairs at the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, on Russian practice of regulating the domain market and launching new domain zones. He also emphasized the uniqueness of the Russian legal structure for governing the domain infrastructure, which is based on guidelines developed by the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, and which is using the unique mechanism of “competent organizations” to accelerate combating violations and cybercrime.
The 10th International Conference for ccTLD Registries and Registrars of CIS, Central and Eastern Europe (TLDCON 2017) has concluded its work. The next TLDCON will be held in Latvia in 2018.
