How does the Internet actually work, and who gets to shape its future? NetMission Academy’s first training session brought together leading experts to explore these questions.
The first training session of NetMission Academy 2026 was conducted successfully on January 8, 2025, with participants joining from across the Asia-Pacific region. The session brought together expert speakers from key Internet governance institutions to provide participants with a foundational understanding of how the Internet functions and how global, regional, and youth-led initiatives contribute to Internet governance.
This session featured insights from Ms. Subha Shamarukh (APNIC), Mr. Dhruv Dhody (IETF / IAB), Ms. Athena Foo (ICANN), Mr. Umair Ali (Youth IGF Pakistan), and Ms. Anja Gengo (IGF Secretariat). Together, the speakers explored the technical, policy, and community-driven dimensions of Internet governance, highlighting opportunities for youth participation and bottom-up engagement.
The session introduced participants to the core building blocks of the Internet Names, Numbers, and Standards and examined how institutions such as RIRs, the IETF, ICANN, and the IGF, along with National, Regional, and Youth Initiatives (NRIs), collaborate to maintain a stable, secure, and inclusive global Internet. Each segment concluded with interactive discussions and Q&A sessions that deepened participants’ understanding of real-world Internet governance challenges.
Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) – APNIC
The first segment of the session was delivered by Ms. Subha Shamarukh from the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC). She provided an accessible overview of how the Internet operates, emphasizing the three essential components that enable its functionality: Names, Numbers, and Standards. Her presentation focused primarily on the role of Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) within the Internet governance ecosystem.
Ms. Subha introduced APNIC as the RIR responsible for managing Internet number resources across the Asia-Pacific region, with headquarters in Brisbane, Australia. She outlined APNIC’s key responsibilities, which include the allocation and management of IP addresses and Autonomous System (AS) numbers, maintenance of Whois registration data, reverse DNS operations, community-driven policy development, capacity-building programs, and Internet measurement research.
An interactive exercise guided participants through identifying their own IP addresses using APNIC’s tools. This activity helped clarify the practical differences between IPv4 and IPv6, with particular emphasis on IPv4 exhaustion and the long-term scalability benefits of IPv6. She also discussed regional IPv6 adoption trends, noting strong uptake in countries such as India and China, mixed adoption in the United States, and continued reliance on IPv4 in several other regions.
Ms. Subha explained the global Internet number ecosystem, describing the relationship between IANA and the five RIRs: APNIC, RIPE NCC, AFRINIC, ARIN, and LACNIC. She highlighted APNIC’s open, transparent, and bottom-up policy development process, encouraging participants to engage through mailing lists and regional events such as APRICOT 2026.
During the Q&A session, Ms. Subha addressed questions related to digital justice and inclusion, highlighting APNIC’s fellowship programs, APNIC Academy, and foundation initiatives that support civil society organizations, women, and developing economies. She also clarified issues around accountability for IP address misuse, explaining that while RIRs do not police the Internet, they ensure accurate registration data, policy compliance, and coordination with relevant stakeholders to maintain trust and neutrality within Internet governance.
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
The second segment was led by Mr. Dhruv Dhody, an Internet Architecture Board (IAB) member and Industry Standardization Expert at Huawei-India. He explained the role of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as a technical standards organization rather than a policy-making or regulatory body. His session focused on how the IETF documents and improves the technical functioning of the Internet through open and collaborative processes.
Mr. Dhody emphasized that the IETF’s primary objective is to “make the Internet work better” by developing open, interoperable, and voluntary technical standards. These standards are adopted globally based on technical merit and consensus, rather than regulatory enforcement. He clarified that the IETF does not govern Internet content or user behavior, but instead provides the technical foundations that enable a stable, secure, and scalable Internet.
He described the IETF’s open and bottom-up working model, noting that anyone can participate without formal membership requirements. Contributors engage in their personal capacity rather than as organizational representatives. Decision-making is achieved through rough consensus, supported by the principle of “running code,” which ensures that standards are validated through real-world implementation.
Mr. Dhody explained the importance of Request for Comments (RFCs) as the primary outputs of the IETF, covering foundational protocols such as IP, TCP, HTTP, DNS, SMTP, BGP, and TLS. He highlighted that RFCs are immutable once published, ensuring long-term stability, with updates introduced through new RFCs as the Internet evolves.
He also outlined the IETF’s organizational structure, including its technical Areas such as Security, Routing, Transport, Applications, and Internet and supporting bodies like the IAB, the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF), and the IETF Administration LLC.
During the Q&A session, participants raised questions about low-bandwidth connectivity in the Asia-Pacific region and AI-driven DNS security challenges. Mr. Dhody explained that Working Groups such as Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) address connectivity challenges through bottom-up technical efforts, while AI-related threats are currently addressed through enhanced operational guidance rather than new protocols.
The session reinforced the importance of the IETF’s community-driven approach in maintaining a resilient and interoperable Internet.
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
The third segment was delivered by Ms. Athena Foo, who introduced the role of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in coordinating the global Domain Name System (DNS). She emphasized that while ICANN ensures the stability and security of the DNS, it does not control national Internet policies or how countries manage their own domain naming systems.
Athena explained that ICANN oversees generic top-level domains (gTLDs) such as .com, .org, and .net, ensuring that domain names function consistently across the global Internet. She described the DNS as a system similar to a phonebook, translating human-readable domain names into numerical IP addresses that computers can understand, making Internet navigation intuitive and accessible.
She distinguished between gTLDs, which are governed through ICANN’s policy processes, and country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) such as .sg and .hk, which are managed by local or national operators based on domestic needs. While ICANN does not control ccTLD policies, it provides a coordination platform for dialogue and shared technical standards.
Athena outlined ICANN’s multistakeholder model, which brings together governments, the private sector, civil society, technical experts, academia, and individual Internet users. She explained the three main components of the ICANN ecosystem: the Community, which develops policy ideas; the ICANN Board, which reviews and adopts policy recommendations; and the ICANN Organization, which facilitates and supports the policy development process.
She also described ICANN’s open, transparent, and bottom-up policy development process, including issue scoping, community discussions, public comment periods, and consensus-building before final Board decisions. Key policy areas currently under discussion include DNS abuse mitigation, expansion of the domain name space, and the promotion of a multilingual Internet through Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs).
Athena concluded by highlighting opportunities for regional and youth engagement in the Asia-Pacific region, introducing platforms such as APAC Space, APIGA, the ICANN Fellowship, and the NextGen@ICANN program.
National, Regional, and Youth Initiatives (NRIs & Youth Initiatives)
The fourth segment was delivered by Mr. Umair Ali, an AI consultant from Pakistan, Coordinator of Youth IGF Pakistan, and an Advisory Board member of NetMission Academy. His session focused on the role of youth initiatives in Internet governance and the challenges faced by youth-led engagement efforts.
Mr. Ali explained that youth initiatives aim to bring together young, socially conscious individuals who can identify grassroots-level challenges and develop context-sensitive solutions. Ideally, these ideas would flow upward into national, regional, and global Internet governance processes, strengthening bottom-up decision-making.
However, he highlighted significant challenges, particularly the digital divide between and within regions, which limits equitable youth participation. He also emphasized the lack of sustained structural and institutional support for youth initiatives, noting that the issue is not always funding, but rather legitimacy, continuity, and balanced stakeholder representation.
To support continued engagement, Mr. Ali encouraged participants to subscribe to mailing lists of institutions such as the IGF, ICANN, IETF, and APNIC, and to identify specific areas of interest for deeper involvement. He also emphasized the importance of engaging with local and national IGFs, youth IGFs, and regional programs such as APIGA.
He concluded by reminding participants that graduating from NetMission Academy marks the beginning, not the end, of their journey in Internet governance.
Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
The final segment was delivered by Ms. Anja Gengo from the IGF Secretariat, who provided a comprehensive overview of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) as a neutral, multistakeholder platform under the United Nations.
She traced the IGF’s origins to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), explaining the outcomes of the Geneva (2003) and Tunis (2005) phases, which ultimately led to the creation of the IGF. She outlined the IGF’s structure, including the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG), the Leadership Panel, and the IGF Secretariat under UN DESA.
Ms. Gengo introduced the IGF’s intersessional work, including Best Practice Forums (BPFs), Policy Networks on Internet Fragmentation, Meaningful Access, and Artificial Intelligence, and over 32 Dynamic Coalitions addressing diverse Internet governance topics.
She emphasized the IGF’s global reach through its network of national, regional, and youth IGFs, encouraging youth participation through platforms such as the Asia Pacific Regional IGF (APrIGF). She concluded by sharing the recent adoption of UN General Assembly Resolution A/80/L.41, which grants the IGF a permanent mandate, ensuring its long-term sustainability.
Contributed by:
Yashika Sharma, Minji Kim, Emaan Yasin Malik, Zakia Rahimi, Shweta, Abubakar Kamal, Vannakrothchanthyda Soth, Janeeta Ahmad Awan, Dahyun Chung
Edited by:
Nawal Munir, Sherry Shek