Internet ‘founding father’ Dr. Steve Crocker announced as 2013 auIGF Keynote Speaker

Internet ‘founding father’ Dr. Steve Crocker announced as 2013 auIGF Keynote Speaker

12 September 2013

The .au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA), organisers of The Australian Internet Governance Forum are pleased to announce Dr. Stephen D. Crocker as the auIGF’s keynote speaker for 2013.

Dr. Crocker is the Chair of Board of Directors of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and is widely regarded as one of the Internet’s ‘founding fathers’.

Dr. Crocker has worked in the Internet community since its inception. As a University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) graduate student in the 1960s, Dr. Crocker helped create the ARPANET protocols, laying the foundation for today’s Internet. Dr. Crocker was first area director for security for the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and has also served on the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), the IETF Administrative Support Activity Oversight Committee (IAOC), and on the Board of the Internet Society.

For his vast body of work, Dr. Crocker was awarded the 2002 IEEE Internet Award and was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2012.

Dr. Crocker’s keynote speech will kick off two days of discussion on a wide range of Internet-related issues among business, government and community stakeholders on 16-17 October at the Park Hyatt Melbourne.

The auIGF

The Australian Internet Governance Forum (auIGF) is based on a global multi-stakeholder model established by the United Nations.

It is proudly presented and hosted by .au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA), with the support of partners including Google, the Internet Industry Association, Facebook, Macquarie University, Linux Australia, ACCAN and the Internet Society.

The event brings government, industry and community members together in an open, apolitical forum, to discuss Internet-related policy issues, exchange ideas and best practices, and help shape the future of the Internet in Australia.

The 2013 auIGF will be held in Melbourne on 16 & 17 October, as a pre-cursor to the global IGF in Bali on 21-25 October.

The first day will consist of a series of expert panels on the main themes of the auIGF:

•        The role of the Internet in breaking down national, social and cultural borders – from the Arab Spring to Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden and the PRISM programme

•        Applying traditional legal frameworks and the Internet: A recipe for failure? Law enforcement, privacy, censorship and  Intellectual Property considerations

•        Children and the Internet – protections, rights, dangers and opportunities

•         New generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) – are they are consumer choice or consumer constraint?

Day two will consist of in-depth workshop discussions on topics including:

·         Digital Intellectual Property in Australia – The TPP, the ALRC’s copyright review and beyond

·         Does the Internet need a “Delete” button? Should Australia implement a Right to be Forgotten in its Privacy laws?

·         Children online: Digital citizenship vs Cybersafety

·         Accelerating the growth of the Australian tech startup ecosystem

·         Digital Equality: Narrowing the participation gap

·         Will DisabilityCare Australia be a game-changer in the provision of accessible online services?

For further information, visit http://www.igf.org.au. Students and media may attend free of charge. To register for media passes email media@auigf.org.au