/issue/2017.10

By Pavan Budhrani, .Asia Director of Business Development

Being with .Asia from the beginning, when we were reaching out to Fortune500 companies to safeguard their online identity to the expansion of .Asia in a village in Myanmar, it has definitely been quite a journey with unforgettable experiences and a great learning curve.

One of the most vibrant markets is Malaysia, which has always had a steady uptake of .Asia registrations and more importantly, tremendous usage. We have seen big brands like Subaru (www.subaru.asia) and up and coming startups like the Big Box (www.thebigbox.asia) bolster their brand with a .Asia domain. During my many travels there, it was apparent that they did not need much explanation about the benefits of using a .Asia domain. They got the idea right away and they have always had a deep connection with the Asian region. I would really like to thank William Ng, President of Enterprise Asia (www.apea.asia), who has been with us from the start. He has aided our expansion in the region and has also adopted the usage of .Asia in several of his shows and exhibitions (www.smeexpo.asia).

Another market that has always shown tremendous interest is India. From 2014 to 2016, I had to honor to speak at the ResellerClub Reseller Summit In Delhi and Mumbai. One thing that struck me about the region was how knowledgeable and proactive they were during the sessions. BigRock and ResellerClub have been pivotal in aiding our growth in India. I visited their offices several times and our open discussions always brought about great ideas for expansion in the region. The numbers of registrations have been below our expectations but is gaining and the future is looking good. With more channel partners coming up in the region, we will be working closely to connect India with the Asian market.

Witnessing the rise of countries like Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar during my time here has also been exciting. The number of Internet users have expanded exponentially here. In 2016, I made my way to Yangon to meet the team from Myanmar Technology Gateway and some up and coming resellers in the area. The strength of the ASEAN market was a real eye opener. In 2017, during my visit to Ho Chi Minh City, I was able to meet the team at MatBao, P.A. Vietnam and some local resellers as well. Working closely with these players gives me great motivation of increased usage of .Asia in the flourishing ASEAN market.

Since the establishment of the "NetMission Ambassadors Program" supported by DotAsia Organization in 2009, we have been nurturing and empowering youth in Asia to take part in Internet conferences, forums and community projects. Through the years, our success in pushing more Asian youth to participate in the Internet Governance discourse in global level have established us as a leading voice in the IG community. As a result, more youth voices can be part of the policy making process in the Internet Governance ecosystem.

The youth Internet Governance Forum (yIGF) initiated by the NetMission Ambassadors, started in 2010 with Asian Pacific region Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF), and kick-started many new ways for young newcomers get involved in the Internet Governance discourse. Besides the traditional lecture-style capacity building courses, engagement activities created and led by youth allows for interactive participation to encourage self-learning.

In 2012, in collaboration with Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong, we successfully expanded NetMission to high school students. In 2015, in partnership with ICANN, we piloted the NextGen@ICANN program in which is an ambassador program that shares the same vision of bringing in and empowering the young generation to actively participate in the community.

Embracing the multi-stakeholder approach, we noticed that local engagement is crucial to build public awareness of Internet governance. To this end, the NMA started the first Hong Kong Internet Governance Forum in 2016 and created an open and scalable toolkit to share the experience and know-how of organizing a local yIGF. In addition, the NMA have been honored to serve in a co-organizer role in the Asia Pacific Internet Governance Academy (Seoul) to organize and facilitate mock ICANN conferences for youth participants from the Asia Pacific region in 2016 and 2017.

The future is bright and continuing our mission to "nurture young leaders in Asia on Internet Governance discourse", we believe one of the best approaches to create a sustainable, diverse, inclusive and open Internet Governance eco-system is embracing the multi-stakeholder approach by youth-led initiative.

"Your job as the NetMission Ambassadors is to spread the knowledge of IT and the access to the Internet. You also need to raise people's awareness of facilitating access to the Internet and contributing to the development"

- A quote from Father of the Internet, Vint Cerf

2017 marks the 10th anniversary of DotAsia and also a milestone for Go.Asia (www.go.asia), entering the 6th year of development across Asia.

With the support from our co-founder Mr. Donnie Yen & Ms Cissy Wang since 2012, we made a remarkable beginning to broaden our charity mission and vision via our online platform and charity actions. In the following years, we built up momentum and established our local communication network with extended campaigns such as Mandela Day "67 minutes to change the world" Movement (2012); the publication of Asia's 1st bilingual Food Education Book (2014); and collaboration with education institutions and organizations in forms of exhibitions, publications, seminars and PR interviews.

Most importantly, we are proud of running our flagship projects, including Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, our innovative "Think.Cook.Save." Health & Food Education Program, and Eat Smart Little Chef community program and will continue to do so sustainably over the next few years. Our next goal is to proactively search for social synergy between our charitable partners and one of our key .Asia partners, Give.asia, in near future.

With our redesigned web content this year, we aim to galvanize and inspire the young Asian generation by expanding their social innovative horizon with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a springboard.

Over the past decade, DotAsia has proactively engaged in youth education, leveraging entertainment initatives to advance domain and internet knowledge across Asia. Check out what we have done:



2008, Ella Koon - DotAsia Spokesperson and the First Asian GoDaddy Girl:
DotAsia worked with Ella's management agency to produce her official website www.Ella.asia and co-produced of some of her music works. Between 2010 and 2012, supported by DotAsia's coordination, Ella Koon became the first ever Asian GoDaddy Girl and was featured on the front page of the GoDaddy site for all Asian users.

2009, HK Film 100 Years:
Through HKFilm100.Asia, DotAsia along with RTHK, IFACT-GC organized and provided an online platform to promote a series of events under the "HK Film 100 Years" theme. Events included art exhibitions, celebratory ceremonies, movie screenings of classic Hong Kong films as well as contests. The online platform archived and commemorated memories for passionate Hong Kong film enthusiasts.

2010, Breakupclub.Asia:
DotAsia partnered with director Barbara Wong to secure funding from the Hong Kong Film Development Council to produce a Box Office hit Break Up Club. The movie features a mysterious website www.BreakUpClub.asia that allows users to win back lost love, so long as they agree to break up another happy couple. During pre-production, hundreds of broken-hearted souls were recruited to tell their story on www.breakupclub.asia which became a social media success and used as promotion and production of the film.

2010, Wonder Girls Concert:
Before PSY and the Gangnam style horse dance took the world by storm, there was Wonder Girls, the first South Korean group to make it on the Billboard charts. In 2010, DotAsia teamed up to bring the Wonder Girls Asia Tour to Hong Kong where over 12,000 screaming fans enjoyed the concert at the Asia World Expo arena. Tickets and promotional events were released on the www.WonderGirls.asia website.

2010, Asian Films Awards:
The Oscars of Asia Since the 4th AFA in 2010, DotAsia has been a technical partner for the awards supporting the production of the official website www.AsianFilmAwards.asia as well as online screening and voting for juries and an fans. In 2013, DotAsia's role expanded as AFA's Honorary Secretariat carrying diverse day to day operation of the academy using www.AFAAcademy.asia to establish and maintain relationships with various stakeholders, administrative operations and event management.

2013, iCity.asia:
The "iCity" www.iCity.asia initiative is supported by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) of the HKSAR. DotAsia partnered with the Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong and produced a series of events with a core mission to encourage secondary school students to select more Information & Communications Technologies (ICT) related courses and to pursue ICT related studies and careers.

2014, Elephant Parade Hong Kong:
The world's largest public art exhibition of decorated elephant statues – Elephant Parade came to Hong Kong in 2014. DotAsia lined up international action star Mr. Donnie Yen and his wife Ms. Cecilia Wang to hand-paint elephant statue - 'Shine Bright'. Along with Heep Hong Society's 1,700 elephant statues, "Shine Bright" was exhibited at Cityplaza Hong Kong. "Shine Bright" was auctioned by Sotheby's after the exhibition and rised HK$210,000 for Heep Hong Society to support children with special needs. www.facebook.asia/hhep.asia/

2017, GoDream.Asia:
DotAsia organized a three-day summer program and competition with DreamStarter for the youth in Hong Kong to boost their confidence, communication, creativity, entrepreneurship and adversity coping skills. The youth worked in small teams to propose a new school plan to bring a positive impact to their school life and presented their ideas to a panel of judges and competed for awards and prizes. www.GoDream.asia

I am so happy to be part of the 10th Anniversary celebration of DotAsia this year. I bet you didn't know that I am 1 year older than DotAsia! Although it has only been a short time I have been with the team, I feel so proud with all the achievements made in promoting a collaborative and sustainable Asia over the past 2 years.

Since my appointment as the Tx2 ambassdor at the 3rd Asian Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation in India in 2016, I attended countless events to meet new friends and create partnerships along the way in raising awareness on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Asia. We did tons of really inspiring events from promoting healthy individual well-being with Go.Asia, to learning cool moves with the Martial Arts Dance School, to charity events with Heep Hong Society, to encouraging the public to conserve our natural environment with brands such as CASS beer, and advocating an equitable society at various Internet governance meetings such as IGF Mexico and Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF). We have also taught over 3000 kids and youth through our Future Friendly Education Modules around Asia, including the "Challenging Shirase" event in Japan by WeatherNews Inc., training and capacity building sessions for technical students at ICANN Hyderabad, and educational visits to city-wide centers of Chinese YMCA HK, Hong Kong Family Welfare Society, as well as many local primary schools.

Last but not least, the Global Tiger Day (29 July) is certainly one of the highlights - my first time to be featured in international news in 2016 mobilizing Asians on the 2-thumbs-up campaign. This year, we partnered with WWF to advocate Tx2 at the "Be a Ranger Carnival" and the 1st Hong Kong Kids International Film Festival.

Looking forward to the next 5 years, we will be fighting hard to reach the Tx2 goal of doubling the wild tiger population by 2022. We believe our next generation will truly make a difference and planting the seeds now is more important than ever before. We hope to inspire more young people to contribute to the greater good of the Asian community with the new GoDream.Asia project initiated this summer and to continue our youth engagement work across Asia.