0

Nominations Open! Jonathan B. Postel Service Award 2020

Do you know someone who has made an outstanding contribution to Internet development?

Nominate them for this year’s Jonathan B. Postel Service Award!

Each year, the Internet Society presents the prestigious award to an individual or organization that, like Jon Postel, has made significant contributions to the technological development of the Internet.

The award commemorates Jon Postel’s extraordinary stewardship in the course of his 30-year career in networking.

The chosen candidate will be presented with a USD20,000 honorarium and the signature crystal engraved globe at a global conference with Internet technical leaders later this year.

Previous award winners include Steven Huter for fostering local Internet communities globally, Kimberly Claffy for her contribution to Internet measurement, Kanchana Kanchanasut for accelerating Internet development in Thailand, and Nii Quaynor for driving the spread of the Internet across Africa.

Special emphasis is placed on candidates who have supported and enabled others in addition to their own contributions.

Help us recognize the extraordinary people who have committed themselves to the technological development, growth, and strength of the Internet!

Submit a nomination!

Nomination period ends on 5 June 2020. For questions, email [email protected].

---

Image of Community Network Champions ©Atul Loke/Panos Pictures for the Internet Society.

Continue reading

0

Kids Need Encryption Too

With most of the world on lockdown, children are likely spending more time than ever online. Between virtual classrooms and keeping up with friends on social media, many kids are depending on the Internet to maintain a semblance of normal life amidst the global health crisis.

While parents may worry about how this might affect their children’s well-being, experts have warned that the surge in screen time could also expose kids to safety risks online more often.

In Asia-Pacific, a recent UNICEF report found that 32% of children between 10 to 17 years old in Bangladesh have faced cyberbullying, violence, and harassment online. Meanwhile, a McAfee study in India found that 70% of youngsters have posted their personal details on the Internet, making them an easy target for cybercriminals.

Earlier this month, the Internet Society ran a short webinar, Kids, the Internet and COVID-19, to show parents how they can protect their kids’ privacy and security online through encryption.

Encryption is a way of ‘scrambling’ information to make it unreadable to malicious actors who might want to access it, and works much like the codes that we used as children to send secret messages to each other – but better. Encryption protects our emails, our Continue reading

0

Lessons Learned from the Multistakeholder Process in the Philippines

In 2018, we began collaborating with the Philippines’ Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to develop the country’s National ICT Ecosystem Framework (NICTEF), a successor to the Philippine Digital Strategy for 2011-2016.

The DICT, like all Philippine government agencies, is mandated by law to hold open consultations as a means of improving transparency and encouraging public involvement in the policymaking process. But it took this initiative further by ensuring that NICTEF is fully reflective of the needs and priorities of different sectors across the archipelago. For one year, the DICT led capacity building workshops, focus group discussions, writeshops, an online public survey, and regional consultations in each of the country’s major island groups, localizing the multistakeholder approach in the process to reach important and difficult decisions.

The NICTEF is now an authoritative guide on the Philippines’ digital ecosystem, and a roadmap to harmonize and coordinate the country’s ICT programs. The multistakeholder process adopted by NICTEF has been documented in a case study, offering other countries in the region a reference in developing public policies that are forward-thinking, inclusive, and suited to the needs of a steadily-interconnected world.

Below are some of our key takeaways from the process:

Develop Continue reading

0

Asia-Pacific ICT Ministers Focus on Co-Creating the Future of the Internet

Last month, ICT ministers across Asia-Pacific got together in Singapore to decide on the direction of ICT development in the region. At the end of the three-day gathering, leaders adopted the Singapore Statement of the Asia-Pacific ICT Ministers on Co-creating a Connected Digital Future in the Asia-Pacific, a set of high-level policy guidelines that will set the tone for activities of the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) in the next five years. 
The Singapore Statement is significant in that it fortifies the principles that underpin a conducive environment for the digital economy to thrive:

• It reinforces support for the multistakeholder approach, with states highlighting their own efforts to make ICT policy processes more inclusive during the meeting.
• It renews its commitment to foster digital communities through collaborative projects to connect unserved and underserved areas.
• It makes explicit references to interoperability and the free and secure flow of information online, putting equal weight on protecting users’ privacy.

It is particularly encouraging to see that amidst the race to capitalize on the vast amounts of data collected from us and our online activities, ICT Ministers opted to focus on trust –  built on accountability, transparency, and ethics – as a fundamental pillar in the Continue reading

0

2018 Survey on Policy in Asia-Pacific: We Need to Do Something About IoT Security

Earlier this year, we asked Internet users across Asia-Pacific just how secure they thought their smart gadgets were. The findings, gathered from 950 respondents in 22 economies, yielded some interesting insights. Over half of those polled lack confidence that IoT devices are sufficiently secure. A similar percentage feel that they do not have enough information on the security of their device.

As connected devices move into our personal spaces – homes, offices and our bodies – amassing more and more data about us and our activities at a dizzying pace, our report, published last week, highlights how much work still needs to be done to build trust in the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem.

Asia-Pacific is undoubtedly a major area of growth for the IoT industry, with countries like China and India rapidly becoming some of the biggest markets for consumer IoT devices. We are also a formidable producer, with established brands like Xiaomi and Samsung churning out wearables, smart appliances, and virtual assistants, and numerous startups joining the fray.

Indeed, the report found that a substantial number of respondents already own IoT devices, with a further 73% planning to purchase an IoT device in the next 12 months. Continue reading

0

Philippines Department of ICT Sets the Multistakeholder Model into Action

Early this year, we embarked on an initiative with the Philippines Department of ICT (DICT) to co-develop the country’s National ICT Ecosystem Framework (NIEF) in a multistakeholder fashion. The NIEF, which succeeds the Philippine Digital Strategy, will guide the course of ICT use and development, as well as the priority areas for government, until 2022.

Our collaboration builds upon the success of the Philippine Chapter’s work with key stakeholders to advance open Internet development in the country, particularly in the policy sphere, and DICT’s sustained drive to expand avenues for participation in its policy formulation. Just last year, DICT and the Chapter, together with the Foundation for Media Alternatives, spearheaded the first Philippine Internet Governance Colloquium, which has been scaled up to a countrywide roadshow this year to help address pertinent Internet issues in different localities.

Having formalized our partnership in a memorandum of understanding, signed in July by DICT’s Secretary, Eliseo M. Rio, and the Internet Society’s Regional Bureau Director for Asia-Pacific, Rajnesh D. Singh, we pledged to support the DICT in embedding the multistakeholder approach not only in the framework’s development but in its implementation. Our engagement was complemented by an Internet Governance training workshop Continue reading