The Internet Society has organised a special workshop at eIndia 2009 highlighting some of the most important public policy issues in Indian Internet development today. More information on the workshop is available here.

Rajnesh Singh, ISOC Regional Bureau Manager, shared some perspectives on Multilingualism and the Internet. Slides from his presentation are available here.

The APNG Camp brings together the next generation of Internet community leaders from the Asia Pacific region and exposes them to a range of activities and initiatives, and has now been running for eleven years. ISOC has been providing support to the APNG Camp for the last couple of years.

The next APNG Camp is scheduled for Hiroshima, Japan in July 2010.

Further details on the event, including the agenda is available here.

Presentations/slides from the event are available here.

ISOC specific events included an ISOC Advisory council meeting (agenda, minutes), ISOC Chapters and Members meeting (agenda, minutes), “ISOC in ICANN” meeting (agenda, minutes) and a speech by Lynn St Amour, ISOC CEO/President, at an ISOC Australia social event. Rajnesh Singh, Regional Bureau Manager and Bill Graham, Strategic Global Engagement, also featured on a panel discussion on Internet Governance preceding the ICANN Sydney meeting which was organised by auDA, the Australian Domain Name Administrator.

The next ICANN meeting is scheduled for Seoul, Korea from 25-30 October 2009.

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.

]]> http://isoc.org/wp/asianews/2009/04/28/isoc-at-apectel-39/feed/ 0 http://isoc.org/wp/asianews/2009/03/16/un-apcict-regional-workshop-on-academy-of-ict-essentials-for-government-leaders/ http://isoc.org/wp/asianews/2009/03/16/un-apcict-regional-workshop-on-academy-of-ict-essentials-for-government-leaders/#comments Mon, 16 Mar 2009 06:00:19 +0000 Rajnesh Singh http://www.isoc.org/tools/blogs/asianews/?p=45 The United Nations Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development (UN-APCICT) held its second Regional Training of Trainers Academy Workshop in Seongnam, Republic of Korea from 9-14 March 2009. In attendance were over 40 participants comprising senior government officials from information communication and technology (ICT) ministries and trainers from national training institutes covering 18 countries in the Asia Pacific region. Representatives from five international organizations also attended the workshop.

The workshop focused on ICT trends, Internet governance, network and information security and privacy. There were also sessions on how participants could customize the training content to best suit their local environments. The Academy is a comprehensive ICT for development training curriculum that aims to equip policy makers with the essential knowledge and skills to fully leverage opportunities presented by ICTs to achieve national development goals and bridge the ‘digital divide’. The Academy has been developed in response to the World Summit on the Information Society’s call for international and regional cooperation in the field of capacity building, with an emphasis on creating a critical mass of skilled ICT professionals and experts.

Rajnesh Singh, ISOC’s Regional Bureau Manager, facilitated sessions at the workshop covering topics such as Internet infrastructure, network building blocks, IPv6, convergence, and current and emerging ICT technologies and practices.

Co-located with APRICOT 2009 were a series of other meetings, including AP* Retreat, APNIC and APTLD. Rajnesh Singh, Regional Bureau Manager, spoke at AP* and the APNIC Internet Governance session.  John Schnizlein, Technology Program Manager from ISOC’s Standards and Technology Department, was also in attendance at the APRICOT and APNIC meetings. ISOC provided fellowship support to APRICOT to allow individuals from the developing economies in the Asia Pacific region to attend APRICOT and interact with their peers.

The AP* Retreat is a regular gathering of Asia Pacific organisations who meet (usually twice a year) at regional events to exchange knowledge and provide updates on their programmes and activities. The event is valuable as it provides an overview of what major Internet related organisations are doing in the Asia Pacific region. Singh provided an update on ISOC’s global and regional activities.

ISOC sponsored the Internet Governance session organised by APNIC. This was divided into two parts, with the first being Philippines focused, and the second covering regional/global issues. The second part was headed by John Klensin providing a presentation on IDNs, followed by APNIC’s Paul Wilson on Internet Governance issues relevant to APNIC, N. Ravi Shanker from the Indian Government on India’s Internet Governance focus (and the results of IGF Hyderabad), followed by Singh on ISOC’s Internet Governance focus and its priority areas.

Topics of discussion with chapter leaders and members included membership fee strucuture, interaction with other Philippines-based organisations, local priority issues as well as the status of the Internet in the Philippines.

The Chapters/Members meeting, had some 12 members in attendance, representing the Philippines, Cambodia, and Japan. John Schnizlein from ISOC Standards and Technology gave a short talk about ISOC’s work on IPv4 and IPv6 issues, and this was followed by wide-ranging discussions on a variety of Internet-related topics (as well some not quite Internet-related topics!).

The meeting with Chennai chapter members covered a wide range of topics including what local activities the chapter
could engage in as well as identifying some high priority issues. Singh provided an overview of ISOC’s global activities and programs, together with information on ISOC’s interaction with other organisations in the Internet space.

Kolkata is a newly chartered chapter, and Singh’s visit allowed timely engagement with the chapter leadership in the early stages of chapter establishment. Various topics were discussed, including membership fee structure, how working groups may be set up, ISOC’s global focus and what the chapter could focus on at the local level, and an overview of ISOC’s programs and activities.

It is expected that similar visits to other chapters in the region will be scheduled in due course.