Tomorrow, 6 April, 9th Russian Internet Governance Forum (RIGF 2018) kicks off in Saint Petersburg. It has become a tradition to organize a so-called “zero day” before the Forum when RIGF experts and speakers meet young people and students. This year leading Saint Petersburg universities were chosen to hold these meetings. Given lectures covered a variety of topics related to Internet governance, its structure, security and international relations in this field.
Kleinwaechter Wolfgang, Professor at the University of Aarhus, visited the Higher School of Economics. He talked about the development mechanism of global policies and different models of Internet governance. His lecture was called “Digital War or Digital Peace? Do we need a Helsinki-Process for Cyberspace?” and was held in English. The lecturer was very pleased with his audience: “Students at the Higher School of Economics displayed keen interest in the topic of Internet governance and I was very pleased to share the results of my studies with them. I’m certain that they will bear fruit”, he pointed out.
Another lecture was given to the law students of the Saint Petersburg State University. Dmitry Afanasiev, the coordinator of the legislative work of the Expert Council of State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications, the adviser of the State Civil Service of 2nd class, who also holds a Master’s degree in private law, talked about blockchain, legal problems of crypto-currencies and smart contracts.
Technical experts gave lectures to tech students. Alexey Semenyaka from RIPE NCC gave a lecture to students of the Bonch-Bruevich Saint-Petersburg University of Telecommunications on the “multilayered” infrastructure of the Internet, how it is organized and managed. Students at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic University learnt more about a popular topic of the Internet of Things. Students found out how IoT developed and what risks accompany it from the lecture of Gleb Pyzhov, Director at the Internet Support Foundation and Deputy Director at the Internet of Things Association.
“Zero day” finished at Azimut hotel where a roundtable “Information security and children: consolidation of efforts of the state and society in the formation of norms and mechanisms to ensure a secure information environment” took place. The event united representatives of educational and cultural authorities, teachers, parents and representatives of public organizations. Together they discussed issues of children’s information safety and mechanisms of protection of children against negative content.
Tomorrow, 6 April, the main events of RIGF 2018 will take place, great attention will be paid to the security of the Internet. Forum participants will share their views on tendencies in the area of information security. Speakers representing different regions, communities, professions will talk about the near future of Internet’s cybersecurity.
