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Community Power and Collaborative Action 

Blog 12-06-2024

From May 28th to May 31st, the CENTR Community gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark, for its 13th Jamboree. The Jamboree is the annual meeting where the whole European ccTLD community comes together. Unlike most CENTR meetings that are typically structured around the 6 CENTR Working Groups (e.g., Legal, R&D, or Marketing), the Jamboree focuses on broader topics and facilitates conversations between different corners of the CENTR ecosystem. This year was special as, for the first time, we welcomed external participants who actively contributed to the program. With 250 in-person attendees and 60 joining online, this year’s edition was the largest CENTR meeting ever.

 A Jamboree is always an inspiring event, and its 2024 edition was no exception. Both CENTR members and the Secretariat went home with a long list of ideas and actionable conclusions. Here are a few highlights that illuminate the road ahead:

  1. Sustainability Plans: Following a plenary session on how ccTLD registries can work towards sustainability, we saw an influx of participants for the sustainability group and clear actions on sharing benchmarking tools.
  2. AI Policies and Readiness: An outstanding working session on AI policies led to the creation of a resource repository for members. We are also looking into creating an AI literacy course for all CENTR members’ employees.
  3. Website Classification System: Members worked on developing a website classification system, which is an essential step towards better understanding the usage of domains.
  4. NISFITS Group: This group gathered to share ongoing plans and status of implementing the verification requirements from the NIS 2 directive.
  5. Cloud Migration: Members discussed the advantages and pitfalls of moving parts of their systems to the cloud. Given the multidisciplinary impact of this trend, expert groups will explore the technical, legal, and communication aspects.
  6. DNS Abuse: A dedicated morning session focused on DNS abuse. There is a clear trend towards relying on data, pattern recognition, and prevention. We can expect that collective efforts in this area will yield better insights, and as a result will benefit the ongoing efforts of increased trust and safety online
  7. Crisis Management Exercise: The European TLD ISAC ran a ccTLD crisis management exercise. It was one of the highest-rated sessions and provided a very concrete tool to increase and maintain high levels of cybersecurity across the membership.

These are just highlights from 7 out of the 45 sessions held in Copenhagen. The willingness of the CENTR community to share and collaborate makes this an exceptional environment and is a key factor in the quality of services CENTR members provide to their communities.

Thank you to all who submitted a proposal, thank you to the session chairs and facilitators, and a grateful thank you to Punktum DK for the generous hosting and warm welcome to wonderful Copenhagen.

Published By Peter Van Roste
Peter Van Roste is the General Manager of CENTR, overseeing all of CENTR’s activities and liaising with governments, institutions and other organisations in the internet ecosystem.