by Francesca Nicolini
A new person in charge of the Registro .it, the events and initiatives of the Ludoteca of Registro, the newly elected members of the Registro Steering Committee (CIR) and the Internet Festival 2024: these are the main topics on the agenda in this new quarter of the year
Changing of the guard at the direction of the CNR Institute of Informatics and Telematics in Pisa (Cnr-Iit): as of 1 September, Andrea Passarella is at the direction of Cnr-Iit, succeeding Marco Conti, director of the Institute from 2019 to 31 August this year. With this role, the new director also gets, de facto, the position of head of the Registro .it.
The mid-year part holds few surprises in store for us, but many certainties: among these, there is the Ludoteca's commitment to “educate” young Internet users and teachers to properly use the Net and its digital tools. This year, the Ludoteca is also committed to “educate” on topics concerning the origins of computer science through its women pioneers: a new series has been created dedicated to women in computer science, who played a key role in the discipline, but who have not been valued and whose role as scientists in the era in which they lived has not been recognised. Nowadays the topic is interesting, not only to make these extraordinary women known to students and teachers, but to highlight once again the gender gap, even in the Stems disciplines, which are less chosen by female scholars and researchers than others.
With regard to the Steering Committee of the Registro .it (Cir - an advisory body, which expresses opinions in order to improve the service of registering .it names, according to principles of fairness, transparency, equal accessibility to the service, and the rights of third parties and consumers), online elections were held in June and Antonella Bianco of Register .it and Luca Luperini of Aruba .it were elected. Mrs. Bianco is the first woman elected by Registrars.
The second quarter of the year is the period in which preparations are concentrated for the events of the Registro at the Internet Festival (IF), an event promoted by the Registro .it and the CNR Institute of Informatics and Telematics, which this year will take place - in Pisa - from 10 to 13 October. On the programme, the usual presence of the Ludoteca at the T-Tour with ad hoc events, the Cybersecurity Day, an annual appointment on computer security, and a new event to show the importance of online presence with a dedicated website for companies and their brands. The keyword of the fourteenth edition of IF2024 is #generation, the natural and biological process by which human beings reproduce. However, by multiplying, generations draw the line between eras and generations themselves, and - at the same time - they build bridges connecting them through time, ensuring that information, knowledge and ideas are always shared. With technological evolution, we have moved into a complex scenario, where behaviour, roles, knowledge and social relationships are challenged by technology and, especially, AI, capable of creating new realities and content, imitating human talent and creativity.
Still on AI, the need has been felt, at the European level, to strive to implement technological solutions capable of increasing people's trust in the new AI systems and, consequently, increasing the balance of social relationships. The principles of transparency and the algorithmic ability to know are therefore the new tools needed to regulate relationships between companies and people throughout the data life cycle.
Finally, as always, the new issue of the Quarter .it brings updates on many different topics from the world of the Net, keeps us updated on the draft of the implementing measure of the NIS 2 Directive, on “.internal”, Icann's new TLD for private use, and on the latest programme of “New Generic Top-Level Domains”, which follows the launch of new gTLDs in 2012.