Asian Bureau 

Rajnesh Singh, ISOC’s Regional Bureau Manager for South and Southeast Asia attended APECTEL 39 in Singapore in April and made a statement on behalf of ISOC at the plenary. The full text of his statement is available below. ISOC recently received guest status with APECTEL and this provides ISOC with the opportunity to engage with a range of stakeholders from the Asia Pacific region in matters related to Information and Communications Technology policy and the role of the Internet.

About APECTEL

The APEC Telecommunications and Information Working Group (TEL) aims to improve telecommunications and information infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region by developing and implementing appropriate telecommunications and information policies, including relevant human resource and development cooperation strategies. The TEL was formed in 1990. In 2006, a new TEL structure designed to ensure a better response to information and communication technology (ICT) challenges in APEC was agreed upon. Three steering groups on Liberalization (LSG), ICT Development (DSG), and Security and Prosperity (SPSG), and a Mutual Recognition Arrangement Task Force (MRATF) were established to propose, implement and monitor projects and activities.

ISOC Statement at APECTEL 39, Singapore, April 2009
by Rajnesh D. Singh, Regional Bureau Manager, Internet Society

The Internet Society (ISOC) is a non-profit organisation founded in 1992 to provide leadership in Internet related standards, education, and policy. With offices in Washington, USA, and Geneva, Switzerland, it is dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world. ISOC provides leadership in addressing issues that confront the future of the Internet, and is the organisational home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards, including the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB).

For over 15 years ISOC has run international network training programs for developing countries and these have played a vital role in setting up the Internet connections and networks in virtually every country connecting to the Internet during this time.

Today, ISOC has more than 80 organisational and more than 28,000 individual members in over 80 chapters around the world. ISOC has also established regional bureaus to provide better regional focus. Currently there are 3 bureaus and these serve Africa, Latin American and the Caribbean, and South and Southeast Asia respectively.

From commerce to education to social issues, our goal is to enhance the availability and utility of the Internet on the widest possible scale.

In 2008, ISOC launched a set of longer term, strategic activities, called “initiatives” which cover a cross-section of issues related to policy, education and technical standards.

As part of the Enabling Access initiative, ISOC addresses fundamental impediments to Internet advancement, particularly in such areas as policy, regulation, and access; technical capacity building; and the availability of Internet technologies in underserved communities.

The InterNetWorks initiative targets the continued operation of the global Internet in three critical areas: common and open Internet, global addressing, and security and stability. The need to move to IPv6 is also a large part of this initiative and ISOC has been active in encouraging discussions on transitioning to IPv6. In 2008, ISOC embarked on a study of how its organisational members use IPv6 in their networks. ISOC’s Organisational members are diverse types of organisations from around the world. All of these organisations operate a network of some sort and, due to their diversity, provide a wide cross section of usage models for IPv6. As part of the study, ISOC was keen to determine the level of operational penetration that IPv6 has in these networks, to understand the thought processes organisational members went through in evaluating the usefulness of IPv6, and to learn of their experiences in adopting it. The full report is available on the APECTEL 39 website under the Plenary documents.
(On ISOC website at http://www.isoc.org/pubs/2009-IPv6-OrgMember-Report.pdf)

In March 2009, in conjunction with the 74th IETF Meeting in San Francisco, ISOC organised a panel of experts from industry and other thought leaders to discuss the pressing need to adopt IPv6 to ensure the continued growth of the Internet as a platform for innovation. An audio recording of this very interesting session is available on the ISOC website, and a transcript of the session is available on the APECTEL 39 website under the Plenary documents. (On ISOC website at http://www.isoc.org/isoc/conferences/ipv6panel/)

ISOC’s Trust and Identity initiative ensures that users’ needs for security, transaction protection, and identity assertion and management get met by building bridges that connect the research, standardisation, development, and deployment of new Internet technologies.

ISOC also actively engages with a range of international organisations and fora. ISOC co-ordinated the Internet technical community’s participation and input to the OECD Ministerial meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy in Seoul, Korea in June 2008. This laid the groundwork for the formation of ITAC (Internet Technical Advisory Committee) to the OECD’s Information, Computer and Communications Policy Committee. ITAC was formally recognised by the OECD Council in January 2009. Later this month, ISOC will participate in the ITU World Telecommunication Policy Forum (WPTF) and provide factual information about the Internet to help shape discussions at the Forum. Various information related to ISOC’s participation at WPTF are available on our website. (On ISOC website at http://www.isoc.org/pubpolpillar/community/wtpf.shtml)

In closing, I would like to thank APECTEL for according ISOC guest status recently. We recognise APECTEL as an important forum which addresses many aspects related to ISOC’s mission and objectives, and we look forward to positively contributing to APECTEL’s activities.

Thank you.