The 8th Uganda Internet Governance Forum 2014 was held at Imperial Royale Hotel, Kampala on December 03, 2014. The forum was hosted by the Internet Society Chapter Uganda in partnership with the Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA). The theme this year was “Strengthening Uganda’s Critical Internet Resources’ and it brought together over 100 representatives from government, civil society, academia, private and individuals interested in shaping discussion on how Internet is run in Uganda.
This years’ forum followed a consultative process that involved soliciting comments from the Uganda internet community on key areas for IG discussion in Uganda. Discussions were run on the Internet Society Uganda Chapter and the I-Network mailing lists.
Key areas addressed included: – Status of implementation of the Universal Service Fund; Internet cost/bundling; Updates on IPv6 implementation road map; Whether Uganda complies with regional legislative and regulatory frameworks; Cyber security including violence against women online; Data protection and privacy in the new era of internet of things; Child Online Protection; .ug ccTLD management; Status on the operations of the Uganda Internet Exchange Point.
The event also served as the launch of the Global Information Society (GIS) Watch – East African report in Uganda. The GISWatch is a global publication that aims for an open, inclusive and sustainable information society. This year’s edition focused on “Communications surveillance in the digital age” and contains contextual analyses from 57 countries. The reports in GISWatch 2014 expose governments’ and businesses use of weaknesses in legal systems and user ignorance to monitor, intercept, collect, analyse, use, preserve, retain and interfere with global internet communications.