In November 2017, the Internet Society hosted the inaugural Indigenous Connectivity Summit in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The event brought together community network operators, Internet service providers, community members, researchers, policy makers, and Indigenous leadership to work together to bridge the connectivity gap in indigenous communities in North America. One of the participants shared her story.
The Navajo Nation spans over 27,000 square miles across three states, making it the largest indigenous nation in the United States, in both geographic area and population. With such a sizable landmass, network building can face significant challenges.
“Infrastructure and coverage are tricky because of the way that the Navajo Nation is surrounded by highways and railways but none really cross through,” says Sylvia Jordan, Principal IT for the Navajo Nation Division of Community Development. “We are trying to bridge middle mile to last/first mile,” says Jordan, “while maintaining affordability for communities requesting access.”
The unique geographic features of the area can dictate connection quality in many areas on the Navajo Nation. Jordan explains that the ridge around Black Mesa, which is more than 8,000 feet high, is large enough that service can trickle down to some rural communities in the southern part of the Continue reading
In honor of International Cat Day, the Internet Society is sharing the journal of Internet Hall of Mane recipient, LOL Cat. LOL Cat first achieved fame with her humorous memes written in “kitty pawtois.” A graduate of Stanfur Universekitty, her work has earned her the Purritzer Prize and many other hon-roars.
Cattain’s Log, Day 1
Sunday night patrol. The dusty creature on the wall has not moved for days. This is my vow: I will bide my time and someday I shall pounce.
Day 8
My human taunts me with the shiny red dot.
Day 13
Bathroom remodel. My human has replaced my old litter box with a loud scary one. The flashing lights blind me. I am not feline good about this.
Day 14
When I hop out of this new litter box, a scary rake comes to gather the litter, ruining my sense of order. I shall spread litter around the house to rectify this mess, but first I must hide behind the new contraption.
I see the word “smart.” This must be a clue. I feel that I am onto something. I have no time to lose, and must dash to the room with the Continue reading
Internet access and the development of digital skills can transform lives of over 350 million people in the Middle East. With more than 60% of the population under 25 years old, the region is one of the most youthful in the world. However, at the same time, young people are the ones facing several challenges regarding education and employment.
In this context, it is imperative for the region to take actions, and the Internet is an opportunity to do it now.
This week, I had the opportunity to speak at a panel entitled “Digital Skills for the Labour Force and Entrepreneurs,” at MENA Innovation 2018. The session was moderated by Selim Eddé, from Google, and had the participation of high-level representatives from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and UAE.
While it was clear that there are many ways to overcome the challenges of the region, all panelists agreed on one key aspect: the importance of education and entrepreneurship for building the future that the region needs.
For the Internet Society, three key factors need to be taken into account:
Inside the framework of the 11th meeting of LACIGF, the Internet Society’s Regional Bureau in Latin America & Caribbean successfully carried out the 2018 edition of the Workshop for Chapter Leaders. In addition to addressing the key issues of the organization, the event included a session focused on personal development. The 34 participants, from 22 Chapters, also had the opportunity to talk with Andrew Sullivan, future Executive Director of the Internet Society.
Volunteering: A Shared Challenge
The Internet Society Chapters are a fundamental component of the Internet Society. Made up of people with diverse backgrounds and interests, the Chapters pursue a common and ambitious goal: the Internet should reach everyone. To achieve this, each member spends a significant part of their time working with their peers on diverse projects.
This is why, the first part of the Chapter Workshop focused on human development components related to leadership. Although the content was shared with the representatives of each Chapter that attended the workshop, the idea was to reinforce the message within the boards of the chapters of the given region, in order to facilitate the promotion of these ideas locally.
A Conversation with Andrew Sullivan
Securing the IoT: Internet of Things security spending is predicted to rise by about 30 percent a year through 2023 as the industry looks for some regulations, reports Cyber Security Hub. Possible regulatory standards are driving part of the growth.
Pornification of the IoT: This is bad news or maybe good news, depending on your perspective. Hackers recently took control of an IoT-connected parking kiosk and connected it to online porn content, Business Insider reports. The kiosk didn’t display the porn content, however, leaving researchers confused about the hackers’ motivation. Maybe, it was just because they could.
AI joins the army: The Indian military is considering the use of Artificial Intelligence for national security and military strategic purposes, says The News Minute. The Indian government is also studying AI uses in aviation, and for cyber, nuclear, and biological warfare.
AI vs. humanity: In a possibly related story, CNBC lists five of the most scary predictions about AI. Among them: Mass unemployment and the use of robots to wage war.
U.S. AWOL: The U.S. government lacks the resources and reputation to remain a leader in global conversations about Internet policy, according to an Engadget story about a recent congressional hearing. Continue reading
APAN 46 is being held on 5-9 August 2018 in Auckland, New Zealand, with the Internet Society being one of the sponsors. I’ll also be talking about IoT Security and the OTA IoT Trust Framework, as well as using the opportunity to continue to raise awareness of the MANRS Routing Security Initiative amongst network operators in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) supports the research and education networks in the region to help them to connect to each other and to other R&E networks around the world, provides opportunities to exchange knowledge, and coordinates common activities, services and applications for its membership. It was established back in 1997, and this is the second of its two annual meetings for 2018.
I’ll be speaking during the Internet-of-Things session next Wednesday (8 August 2018 @ 09.00-10.30 UTC+12), and will discuss how IoT is responsible for huge growth in the number of unmanaged or minimally-managed devices connected to the Internet, but do we really know who or what is communicating with them, and the information they are collecting and sending? I’ll also present ISOC’s Online Trust Alliance’s initiative to develop the IoT Trust Framework which is backed Continue reading
Azacualpa Yamaranguila, a village in the Intibuca region in Honduras, is celebrating. And not for nothing. Last Saturday was a historic day as they accessed the Internet for the very first time. For many of us, the Internet is taken for granted, but for the Lenca people it started like a dream 6 months ago when the Internet Society Honduras’ Chapter gave them the idea of connecting their village to the Internet. This idea became a reality thanks to the collective effort of the community and the support of Beyond the Net.
Las Marías
The party is for everyone but it focuses on them: Las Marías. With great curiosity, the women of the community came to the celebration early.
When I arrived after a 4-hour trip from Tegucigalpa, they were already there, dressed in colorful clothing. They were selling their products, taking care of their children, and anxiously awaiting the inauguration of the first community network of Azacualpa.
It was also the first anniversary of the radio ‘La Voz de las Mujeres’ (‘The Voice of the Women’) and María Santos, one of the heroes of the day and a leader of the community, was the first Continue reading
“If we can speak up for women today, we can further support other minority groups in future.”
Last year at the Taiwan Internet Governance Forum 2017, we launched TechGIRLs, where we exchanged our life, career, and schooling experience. We all agreed that women in Taiwan enjoy more rights and are more blessed than women in many other countries. But after I attended the Women in ICT session in APNIC 44 and APRICOT 2018, I found there are some differences in Taiwan and other countries, and these problems exist in the whole world. After reviewing ISACA Survey Identifies Five Biggest Barriers Faced by Women in Tech, I agree these are barriers for women, not just in Taiwan, but all over the world:
During the preparation for the Taiwan Internet Governance Forum 2018, I proposed that we discuss these issues in an independent session. We discussed 4 questions:
This month was even more special for our Internet Governance campaign, with two significant (back-to-back) activities in the Philippines.
Earlier this month, the Philippines’ Department of ICT (DICT) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Internet Society (ISOC) to facilitate the development of its National ICT Ecosystem Framework (NIEF) 2022. More details can be found here.
The following week, the Internet Society Asia-Pacific team conducted a face-to-face workshop on Internet Governance. The three-day workshop was organized as part of the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity 2018 work plan, and hosted by DICT.
Internet Society staff along with facilitators from the ISOC Philippines Chapter delivered this specially designed training workshop through presentations, Q&A sessions, individual and group activities, interactive quizzes, and a debate.
The majority of attendees were government officials from the Department of ICT, the National Privacy Commission, the National Telecommunications Commission, and the Upper and Lower Houses of Congress, but also included members of the technical community and civil society.
The sessions were highly interactive with participants actively asking questions and presenting their own ideas and arguments. The participant-led group discussions provided an opportunity for local issues to be openly discussed, and possible solutions to be considered.
For us, the workshop Continue reading
Without a doubt, this will be a busy week for the Internet Society in Latin America and the Caribbean! Various activities will take place alongside the 11th edition of LACIGF, including discussions on gender and youth, as well as the Workshop for Chapter Leaders of the region. As usual, ISOC will have an important presence in several activities.
LACIGF 11: the maturity of the regional space
From July 31 to August 2, the regional community will meet in Buenos Aires to celebrate the 11th edition of the Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Internet Governance Forum (LACIGF). More than ten years after the first meeting took place, LACIGF is now an established event of high importance, where issues related to Internet Governance in Latin America and the Caribbean are discussed.
The agenda includes diverse topics, in which ISOC will be participate. Raquel Gatto will join the discussions on personal data protection, in addition to co-organizing the session on National and Regional Internet Governance Initiatives. In addition, Sebastián Bellagamba will join the debate around Community Networks. And let’s not forget about the keynote speech that will be given by Raúl Echeberría about the future of the global IGF.
The event will be Continue reading
You look like a criminal: Amazon.com’s facial recognition technology falsely flagged 28 U.S. lawmakers as criminals in a test run by the American Civil Liberties Union, The Guardian reports. Whoops! Five members of Congress have demanded an explanation from Amazon, CNET says.
Amazon instead of libraries? It was a bit of a weird week for Amazon. After a Forbes article – since pulled from the website – suggested the giant retailer should replace libraries, the Internet went nuts, not in a good way. The Daily Dot looks at the controversy.
AI as the terminator: Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban has joined the ranks of luminaries warning about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence. “If you don’t think by the time most of you are in your mid-40s that a Terminator will appear, you’re crazy,” he said at a gathering of conservative high school students. CNBC.com has the details of his speech.
AI as a money saver: Meanwhile, AI backers say the technology can bring huge benefits. London’s Metropolitan Police Service could save £30 million and put 545 officers on the streets by using AI to analyze large volumes of data and cross-reference information from databases and surveillance systems, according Continue reading
In June 2018, in the city of Panamá, a parallel session was organized by the Internet Society during the international meeting of ICANN 62. This session had the aim of promoting a key discussion underlining our digital future: the impacts of technology and the Internet on future jobs.
This article is an outcome of the discussion carried out by a particularly diverse table of young people* from different stakeholder groups that choose the subject of “the future of education” as its central debate point.
The question that drove the debate was: what should basic education look like in the future? This inquiry originates from the fact that the mainstream method presently deployed across the world assumes memorization of information as the most substantial part of the learning experience.
Even schools that attempt diverging methodologies still need to invest in that route to some degree, as the selection processes of most universities and many job opportunities rely on some form of standardized testing.
A glaring problem with this approach, though, is that memorization is something that most machines are incredible at, while most humans can only hold on to a certain amount of information in a reliable manner.
So, why are we Continue reading
Last year, the Internet Society unveiled the 2017 Global Internet Report: Paths to Our Digital Future. The interactive report identifies the drivers affecting tomorrow’s Internet and their impact on Media & Society, Digital Divides, and Personal Rights & Freedoms. In July 2018, we interviewed Giles Rhys Jones to hear his perspective on the forces shaping the Internet.
Giles Rhys Jones is the chief marketing officer at what3words, which has developed an algorithm to convert complex GPS coordinates into unique and memorable three-word addresses; thus becoming the geographical equivalent of an IP address. In doing so, the company is helping to provide addresses to the more than 75% of the world, which still suffers from poor or non-existent addressing, meaning they struggle to open bank accounts, register births, or access basic services like water and electricity. By better or more simply mapping locations, W3W supports social mobility, growth, and development.
The Internet Society: W3W has divided the world into a grid of three-by-three meters and has assigned each square a unique three-word, rather than numbered, address. Where would the Internet Society’s address in Reston, Virginia be if we were to adopt the W3W system?
Giles Rhys Jones: The Internet Society’s Continue reading
Two innovative ideas to bring Internet access to hard-to-serve areas of the world – using drones and high-altitude balloons – seem to be progressing, even though the two companies pushing the projects aren’t offering a lot of details.
Facebook’s Aquila, using solar-powered drones as wireless Internet relays, and Google sister company X’s Project Loon, using large hot-air balloons in a similar way, both received significant attention when announced earlier in the decade.
In recent years, both projects have plugged along, even as some critics have doubted their long-term viability. While the projects have garnered less attention in recent years, Facebook launched test flights of an Aquila drone in June 2016 and May 2017.
Recent weeks have brought new updates about both initiatives, although the companies still aren’t talking much.
On June 27, Facebook announced it will stop building its own drones. While some early news reports suggested that Facebook was shutting down its drone-based Internet initiative, the company emphasized that it would instead depend on other companies to build aircraft.
“Going forward, we’ll continue to work with partners like Airbus on [high-altitude] connectivity generally, and on the other technologies needed to make this system work, like flight control computers and Continue reading
Research carried out primarily in North America and Europe shows that the most severe forms of online harassment are especially affecting women and girls. While anecdotal evidence suggests this is also true in Barbados, there is no available research to highlight the prevalence of online abuse against Barbadian women. Though legislation against online abuse exists in Barbados, few cases have been heard in court, and victims perceive the response of law enforcement to be inadequate.
The Internet Society Barbados Chapter, supported by Beyond the Net Funding Programme, has taken a major step towards ensuring online abuse awareness in their community through the project C.A.R.E – Combating (online) Abuse through Research and Education. The initiative, being hailed as the first of its kind in Barbados, will conduct an awareness campaign about the effects of online abuse on women and girls and create a dialog between law enforcement and victims.
“The project is managed by registered charity No! to Online Abuse and Harassment (NOAH) and all team members are members of the ISOC Barbados Chapter,” explains Ashell Forde, project manager and President of NOAH.
“There is a clear need for stronger strategies to help women Continue reading
When we talk about the impact of the Internet and technology on future jobs, is important to bring youth to the center of the discussion: they will live the future of work and can contribute to shaping it.
“The Internet and Jobs: A Youth Conversation,” held in Panama in June 2018, was a side event organized by the Internet Society in coordination with Y20 and the Youth Observatory that brought together a group of young people, students, lawyers, communicators, and entrepreneurs to discuss the topic.
What do young people think about the impact of the Internet on employment? How do they see themselves in this scenario? What tools are necessary to take full advantage of the opportunities that the Internet offers them? These were some of the most challenging questions addressed during the meeting.
While education was the key of the debate, several themes came up from the conversation:
The APAC & Middle East Chapters joined hands to organize their combined Regional Chapters Meeting from 11 to 12 May in Kathmandu, Nepal. 23 Fellows representing 18 regional Chapters and Women SIG were nominated by their respective Chapters/SIGs to participate in this meeting. Half of the meeting focused on collaboratively developing action plans that are aligned with the Internet Society’s 2018 campaigns, while the other half was to discuss and address regional and governance-related issues.
At the end of the workshop, 18 concrete plans were ready for implementation:
During the regional breakout sessions, Fellows from the APAC region voted for and discussed three major regional issues: 1) Cybersecurity, 2) Transition [of the Internet] to the younger generation, 3) Digital Literacy. They engaged in an open discussion and highlighted some of the specific issues under these topics, what is needed in the context of their region, and shared their plans to address them.
The regional Continue reading
Investing in hacking IoT: A startup in Israel has raised $12.5 million in investments to help governments hack the Internet of Things and other technologies, Forbes reports. What could go wrong? Toka says it’ll provide spy tools for whatever device its clients require, with a special focus on the IoT.
Encryption wars, part 348: U.S. FBI Director Christopher Wray says legislation allowing law enforcement agencies access to encrypted devices may be necessary if the government and private vendors cannot come to a compromise, Cyberscoop reports. The FBI has, for several years, complained that its investigations are hampered by encrypted devices, although many security experts say encryption backdoors will make us all less safe.
AI for good: More than 2,000 Artificial Intelligence experts have signed a pledge saying they will not participate in the development of legal, autonomous weapons systems, Gizmodo reports. Autonomous weapons posed a “clear and present danger to the citizens of every country in the world,” the pledge says.
Clamping down: The government in Iraq shut down the Internet for two days in response to protests there, CircleID says. The government ordered the disconnection of the fiber backbone that carries traffic for most of the country Continue reading
By bringing broadband to new areas, community networks can help end discrimination, fight climate change, and feed the hungry of the world, says a report newly available as an ebook.
Community networks can help the United Nations achieve its Sustainable Development Goals, including an end to poverty and universal clean water, by bringing Internet service, and along with it, investment into areas not yet covered, says the report, Community Networks: the Internet by the People, for the People.
For the U.N. to reach its Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, nations and organizations will need to spend approximately US$1 trillion, noted Kathryn Brown, president and CEO of the Internet Society and a coauthor for the report.
While the goals are ambitious, they can be accomplished, with help from Internet access, Brown wrote in the report. “The Internet itself is an enabler for the goals,” she said. “We will be able to get there faster and in a way that lasts, if everyone can access the Internet and benefit from it.”
The report, available online since December, was recently released as a ebook on Amazon.com as a way to more widely distribute it. Supported by the Internet Society, Continue reading
There’s just the couple of sessions to highlight on the last day of IETF 102 before we wrap up for the week.
V6OPS continues at 09.30 EDT/UTC-4 where it left off on Thursday afternoon. On the agenda are drafts relating to Multi-Addressing Considerations for IPv6 Prefix Delegation which considers prefix delegation considerations for both classic routing and various multi-addressing use cases; whilst IP over Ethernet (IPoE) Session Health Checking describes a mechanism for IP over Ethernet clients to achieve connectivity validation using PPP-style keepalives such as BFD Echo, or ARP and Neighbor Discovery functions.
The remaining draft proposes a method for Discovering Provisioning Domain Names and Data, which describes a way for hosts accessing the Internet via multiple interfaces and with possible multiple IPv6 prefixes, to identify themselves using Fully Qualified Domains as Provisioning Domain identifiers.
NOTE: If you are unable to attend IETF 102 in person, there are multiple ways to participate remotely.
The final session starting 11.50 EDT/UTC-4 includes IDR. This has been working on (amongst other things) the issue of route leaks, and is trying to pull together different conflicting approaches towards mitigation of these in favour of a more complementary approach. This work includes two drafts Continue reading