Technology with Purpose: Vashkar Bhattacharjee’s Story

In honor of today’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we are sharing part one of Vashkar Bhattacharjee’s story. He is the National Consultant, Accessibility, A2i, Prime Minister’s Office of Bangladesh, and the Program Manager, Young Power in Social Action (YPSA).

I am Vashkar Bhattacharjee, a visually impaired person from Bangladesh. And this is the story of how I have excelled in life and career, not through sympathy and charity, but through inspiration and assistance.

In Bangladesh, every 1 in 10 persons experience at least one kind of disability. I am one of approximately 4 million Bangladeshis who are visually impaired.

In 1979, like most of the villages in Bangladesh, my village in the district of Chittagong did not have doctors or hospital facilities. On July 1^st in the same year, in a small remote village called Bagdondi, I was born in my parental home without any medical supervision. Right after my birth, I was bleeding through my nose and mouth. My parents and relatives could not figure out what was wrong. After a while, the bleeding stopped and everything seemed to be normal. By the time I was two years old, my parents realized the heartbreaking truth that Continue reading

The Future Is Limitless

In September 2017, the Internet Society celebrated its 25th anniversary in Los Angeles. Here are the stories of some who are using the Internet to shape tomorrow. 

“I made my first computer program at 18 and it felt like I had a new superpower.”

To get to the buzzing banquet hall where Akah Harvey N stands, filled with Internet pioneers, visionaries, and trailblazers, requires navigating the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Athletics Hall of Fame. Glass cases featuring old sequined spirit uniforms and uniforms worn by Jackie Robinson (the first athlete to letter in four sports at the university) line the way to the room where people from around the world are seated at tables, excitedly chatting away.

Harvey N is at the front of the room, speaking into the microphone like he belongs there. And that’s because he does. The 25-year-old from Cameroon is in Los Angeles, California to be recognized as one of the Internet Society’s 25 Under 25 – young people who are using the Internet as a force for good. Harvey N and his team of engineers developed Traveler, an app that can predict and detect motor vehicle accidents. Along with providing Continue reading

The story of kc claffy and measuring the Internet – 2017 Jonathan B. Postel Service Award winner

Appreciated by some, taken for granted by many, the Internet is understood by few who use it. Underneath the ability to communicate instantaneously with people across the globe, conduct major business transactions with a click of a button and have the latest news and entertainment at our fingertips lies a vast landscape of data, unfettered by regulation, and spurred by competitive growth.

kc claffy, this year’s Jonathan B. Postel Service Award winner, has been with the Internet from nearly its very beginnings. She’s watched its evolution from military project to government-funded point-to-point communication to its current iteration as a private sector behemoth.

claffy is one of the few brave scientists who measure the Internet. She’s leading the way to the future by opening our eyes to the layers of data beneath the surface along with the Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA), a group she founded in 1996.

“The work that we do isn’t easy to get funded because the Internet itself isn’t yet its own subject,” claffy said. “It’s even a struggle for the agencies to get funding, since infrastructure isn’t very sexy.”

Sexy or not, claffy has been measuring the Internet since the early Continue reading

Celebrating 25 Years of Advocacy

It’s been a week of jubilation: The Internet Society celebrated 25 years of advocacy for an open, globally-connected, and secure Internet with events that crisscrossed the globe. The festivities kicked off at the University of California Los Angeles campus where in 1969 the first message was sent over ARPANET – the Internet’s predecessor.

On 18 September, the 25 Under 25 award ceremony honored young people around the world for their extraordinary work. Born in the age of the Internet, these everyday heroes are passionate about using it to make a positive impact on their communities. Their projects include connecting people with disabilities to employment opportunities, using AI to identify fake news, and humanizing issues affecting refugees and the LGBT community.

Learn more about the 25 Under 25 awardees

Watch the 25 Under 25 Award Ceremony

Just a few hours later, the 2017 Internet Society Global Internet Report: Paths to Our Digital Future was launched. The interactive report, the result of in-depth interviews, roundtables, and surveys conducted in 160 countries and 21 regions around the world, offers a glimpse into how the future of the Internet might impact humanity. The report encourages you to explore paths to our digital future, asks thought-provoking Continue reading

Abidjan Holds a Successful AfPIF 2017

Abidjan became the third West African city to hold the annual Africa Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF), attracting top African and global players in the Internet ecosystem.

This year’s forum attracted 227 participants working in IXPs, ISPs, governments, content carriers, network providers, hardware providers, and software service providers among others. The meeting tool, which allows participants to discuss ways to exchange content, had 276 registered users who scheduled 170 meetings. Twenty networks introduced themselves during “Peering Introductions” session, held every day. This year there were 23 sponsors: Seacom, Liquid Telecom, Angonix, Angola Cables, De Cix, Linx, Adva, Afrinic, Akamai, Dolphin, Facebook, Flexoptix, France IX, Google, icolo.io, Main One, Netflix, Netnod, Yahoo, Medalion, MTN, Teraco, and ARTCI.

Getting more statistics

Research conducted by PCH reinforced the fact that most peering agreements have no formal agreement. The study done in 2016 found that 99 per cent of peering agreements in 148 countries were through a handshake. The study asked questions such as: are there formal agreements, is the peering arrangement symmetrical, is the content is IPv6 or IPv4, and what are the laws governing the agreement. Out of the 1,935,822 agreements, 49 percent comprised of matching peers, meaning it was easy Continue reading

AfPIF Day Two: Identifying Challenges and Opportunities

AfPIF Day Two Summary 

The second day at the Africa Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF) is dedicated to plenary presentations and discussions between the technical community, private sector, and government representatives.

The discussions aim to foster understanding of the landscape the various players operate in, the challenges faced, opportunities and ways to create synergies that guarantee increased connectivity, and exchange of content within the region.

The first session of the day was the formal opening ceremony, with Yves Miezan Ezo, representative of the Conseiller Technique du Ministre de la Communicatiln, de l’Economie Numerique et de la Poste de la république de Cote d’Ivoire, Caliste Claude M’Bayia, representative of l’ARTCI, and Moctar Yadaly, head of Infrastructure and Energy at the African Union Commission (AUC).

In his speech, Dawit Bekele, Head of the Internet Society Africa Bureau, welcomed participants to the 8^th AfPIF session, noting that great strides have been made in Africa’s technology landscape, and it will get better.

The first AfPIF session was held in 2010 by the Internet Society out of the realization that too much African Internet traffic was exchanged outside the continent, and the region could save costs by exchanging the content locally.

Bekele noted Continue reading

AfPIF 2017 Kicks Off In Abidjan

The annual Africa Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF) kicked off at the Azalai Hotel in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The first day is known as “Peering Coordinators Day” where peering managers from various networks, operators, and policy makers meet and deliberate on the various ways to exchange content locally, lower the cost of connectivity, and increase the number of internet users in the region. In the course of the three days, participants get a chance to discuss, exchange ideas, and agree to exchange content, known as peering. Most peering agreements are through the handshake and AfPIF encourages participants to take advantage of the various social events and share contacts. There is a session at the beginning and end of every day, where participant share their AS numbers, peering policy, and contacts, allowing those willing to interconnect to reach out. The first session explored the general data and interconnection landscape; Telegeography presented the latest statistics, which is derived from its annual survey. Statistics show that the growth of submarine cables has led to growth in Internet bandwidth and local content. Five years ago, International transit was growing at 40 per cent, but this year, the growth is at 30 per cent, owing Continue reading