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Enhanced cooperation on public policy issues pertaining to the Internet critical resources. The present report seeks to take stock of steps taken for enhanced cooperation on the management of Internet critical resources (domain names and IP numbers) to enable governments, on an equal footing, to carry out their roles and responsibilities, in international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet. Even if the Internet governance is not restricted to the activities of governments, in recent years, heads of state and government acknowledged that the Internet system is a central element of the emerging information society, essential to provide a baseline level of services to every resident of a country [security, health, ....]. Internet is a global system; UN has been fully engaged in the Internet governance debate, since the need of international agreement and regulation became more apparent. However there are different positions about Internet coordination, operation, development, regulation, and legislation. The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) reaffirms that governments have to achieve their full potential and to attain internationally agreements to build a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society. Therefore, governments should take action, in the framework of national development policies, in order to support Internet governance and related issues, as well as to maintain the security, continuity and stability of the Internet, and to protect the Internet and other ICT networks from threats and vulnerabilities. The international community is committed to harmonise present set of governmental positions and steps that are significantly not matching: some governments prefer to participate directly in the Internet system management; others ? like Italian Government ? are working to increase governmental participation inside the existing international organisation, which are managing Internet, like ICANN.

The present report seeks to take stock of steps taken for enhanced cooperation on the management of Internet critical resources (domain names and IP numbers) to enable governments, on an equal footing, to carry out their roles and responsibilities, in international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet. Even if the Internet governance is not restricted to the activities of governments, in recent years, heads of state and government acknowledged that the Internet system is a central element of the emerging information society, essential to provide a baseline level of services to every resident of a country [security, health, ....]. Internet is a global system; UN has been fully engaged in the Internet governance debate, since the need of international agreement and regulation became more apparent. However there are different positions about Internet coordination, operation, development, regulation, and legislation. The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) reaffirms that governments have to achieve their full potential and to attain internationally agreements to build a people-centered, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society. Therefore, governments should take action, in the framework of national development policies, in order to support Internet governance and related issues, as well as to maintain the security, continuity and stability of the Internet, and to protect the Internet and other ICT networks from threats and vulnerabilities. The international community is committed to harmonise present set of governmental positions and steps that are significantly not matching: some governments prefer to participate directly in the Internet system management; others - like Italian Government - are working to increase governmental participation inside the existing international organisation, which are managing Internet, like ICANN.

Il CNR, prima attraverso l'Istituto CNUCE e attualmente con l'Istituto di Informatica e Telematica (IIT), assolve al ruolo di Registro italiano dei nomi a dominio sotto il ccTLD ".it" fin dal dicembre 1987. Fu allora, infatti, che IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, oggi ICANN: Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) riconobbe il country code Top Level Domain ".it", assegnandone la gestione al CNUCE-CNR in virtù delle competenze tecniche e scientifiche maturate dai suoi ricercatori, tra i primi in Europa ad adottare il protocollo IP. Principale erede delle competenze specialistiche nel campo delle sviluppo delle reti e delle applicazioni telematiche che furono del reparto Applicazioni Telematiche del CNUCE, lo IIT è stato costituito come punto di riferimento nei settori di frontiera delle tecnologie dell'informazione, con particolare riferimento alle reti, alle tecnologie web e ai nuovi ambiti interdisciplinari al confine tra informatica, comunicazioni, matematica, biologia ed economia. Una realtà dinamica, dove ricerca e tecnologia si fondono nel rispetto dei diversi ruoli con l'obiettivo di rispondere in modo adeguato alle sfide del nuovo millennio nel settore delle tecnologie dell'informazione, nella consapevolezza che la cultura scientifica guida lo sviluppo tecnologico, ricevendone a sua volta continui stimoli. Non a caso l'Istituto rivolge un'attenzione particolare alla formazione, al trasferimento e alla valorizzazione, creando competenze che si traducano in nuove opportunità per i giovani: obiettivo strategico e fondamentale per un settore in costante evoluzione. Tra le varie attività svolte dallo IIT, la registrazione dei nomi a dominio sotto il ccTLD ".it" ha assunto, con il passare del tempo, un ruolo di grande rilievo. Tale attività, svolta inizialmente solo a favore della comunità accademica e scientifica, ha infatti vissuto negli anni uno sviluppo imponente: le potenzialità insite nel nuovo mezzo di comunicazione hanno spinto, e spingono, le imprese commerciali a registrare nomi a dominio per qualificare la propria attività. Ad essi si è aggiunto un numero sempre più cospicuo di enti, associazioni e privati cittadini che hanno costruito la propria "casa virtuale" nella Rete. In questo ambito il Registro si pone come l'organismo responsabile della gestione dei nomi a dominio sotto il ccTLD ".it", del mantenimento del database di tutti i nomi a dominio registrati e del nameserver primario ".it". Un ruolo che lo IIT assolve con impegno, costanza e tenacia, e che oggi regala all'Italia il quarto posto mondiale nella classifica dei 247 ccTLD.

The RINAF (Regional Informatics Network for Africa) project was conceived by the Intergovernmental Informatics Program (IIP) of UNESCO and financed by a grant of the Italian Government and by a contribution from the Republic of Korea; the project implementation phase was started in the second half of 1992 and is planned to last till the end of 1994. Decisions regarding grants currently made available from the Italian Government are taken by the Steering Committee, which will operate for a period of two years in order to carry out the project goals.An Africain Committee was set up for the approval of all actions to be taken in order to get the best advantage of the available funds; the African Committee, which is destinated to survive to the RINAF project, will represent a forum whereby the African regions define the status of utilisation of information technology means in their countries along with the requirements within the RINAF project. Stefano Trumpy, Director of the CNUCE Institute of the Italian National Council of Research (CNR), has been nominated Technical Coordinator of the RINAF Project. The task of the Technical Coordinator is to propose a set of initiatives and investments to the African Committee, based on the knowledge of the situation concerning network infrastructure and computer usage in the African countries. A structure has been set up in Pisa which supports the Technical Coordinator in taking the initiatives, testing the technical solution and starting the training activities. The project is meant to bring basic Internet services (e-mail, bulletin boards, access to data bases, discussion lists, etc.) to several African countries. The plan is to establish five regional nodes and ten national nodes. RINAF relies on the cooperation with other initiatives operating in the African continent like the IDRC-Canada project, the RIO network of ORSTOM-France and other existing network initiatives; therefore, the protocols used and the technical solutions adopted have to be heterogeneous in order to get the maximum result from the project.

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