Should Uganda care about how the Internet is "governed"? Should we be on the same page with much of the world which has placed issues such as Openness, Security, Diversity and Access among those that need to be addressed by the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), and by respective national and regional bodies? Or should we have a set of other issues that should be a priority for Uganda?

Have your say in preparation for the first Regional East African Internet Governance (IG) Workshop scheduled for November 2008 in Nairobi, Kenya.

At the Uganda National Internet Governance Forum Workshop held in October 2006 and organised by UCC in collaboration with the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) and the Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), agreement seemed unanimous that Uganda's IG issues were under the broad themes of:

a) Openness - Freedom of expression, free flow of information, ideas and knowledge

b) Security - Creating trust and confidence through collaboration

c) Diversity - Promoting multilingualism and local content

d) Access - Internet Connectivity: Policy and Cost Capacity-building as a crosscutting feature.

Details of the workshop are available in the National Internet Governance Forum (NIGF) Workshop Report .

But some people feel much of the issues above are only relevant for developed countries and in reality are not key to Internet usage in Uganda. In the run-up to the IGF due in India in December 2008, CIPESA and its partners would be happy to hear what Ugandan stakeholders (private sector, governmental, CSO, academia, etc) think are the issues that need to be addressed for Uganda to make greater and more inclusive use of the Internet. And is sufficient attention being paid to these issues by the respective actors?

As part of this discussion, whose output will feed into the 1st Regional EastAfrican IG workshop due for Nairobi in November 2008, we would also be happy to receive contributions what you think in Uganda's case are the:

- infrastructure issues of IG: Who assigns/ manages IP addresses, Internet - interconnection tariffs; Internet security, control of SPAM?

- the legal issues of IG: Copyright/intellectual property rights, privacy and data protection.

- economic issues of the IG: e-Commerce/ e-Payments – what's being done?

- socio-cultural issues of IG: Content control vs. freedom of Expression, e-Learning; Ugandan languages on the Internet?

All contributions will be much appreciated, thanks!

Lillian Nalwoga

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it