Today I'm excited to give you a glimpse into our future! As James Wood recently wrote, we have been working on a new website that makes it tremendously easier to find information and take action on issues important to you. I also shared the vision we have for this new site.
The big news is this: we have now released an "early beta" version of the new site that shows the overall design direction and look-and-feel. It is important to note: Most of the site is INCOMPLETE. Most links will not work and many pages are missing.
Artificial Intelligence has the potential to bring immense opportunities, but it also poses challenges.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is dominating the R&D agenda of the leading Internet industry. The Silicon Valley and other startup hubs are buzzing about artificial intelligence and the issue has come at the top of policymakers’ agenda including the G20, the ITU, and the OECD, where leaders gathered this week in Paris.
On 6 June 2017, Internet Society President & CEO Kathy Brown spoke at the Opening Session of the Next Generation Internet Summit at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. These are her remarks as prepared.
Good Afternoon ladies and gentleman, Honorable colleagues and friends.
Thank you, President Bonvicini for your very gracious invitation to speak at this prescient Summit on the Next Generation Internet.
Africa has made considerable gains with regards to the Internet in the last decades. It’s Internet penetration grew by more than 400%; its international bandwidth has been multiplied by 20 just in just 5 years between 2009 and 2014; during the same period Africa’s terrestrial backbone has doubled (Internet Society, Internet Development and Internet Governance in Africa, 2015). This achievement required considerable private and public investment and brought hope for Africans, particularly its youth.
How do we create a more secure and trusted Internet within the multistakeholder model of Internet governance? That will be among the many questions addressed this week at the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) in Tallinn, Estonia. From June 5-7, we will have an Internet Society team on site participating in many sessions. Our EuroDIG 2017 page has all the details - including links to live video streams - but at a high level here are some of the workshops we are participating in:
In 1997, we finally got the Internet in Nepal. Unfortunately, it was only available in the capital, Kathmandu, which is very far from my village of Nangi. But almost immediately, I started thinking of ways we could get Nangi online. I was already familiar with the Internet from studying in the United States, and I had a lot of ideas about how being online could improve life in Nangi.
For the next four years, I talked to a lot of people about how we could get connected, but nothing seemed feasible. Nangi is in a remote, mountainous part of the country, so we didn’t have wireline phone service. That meant the traditional methods of connecting to the Internet were out, and satellite Internet was prohibitively expensive.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is not just a device connected to the Internet - it is a complex, rapidly evolving system. To understand the implications, analyse risks, and come up with effective security solutions we need to look ahead and take into account other components, such as Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Have you struggled to find information on our current website? Have you found it difficult to know what actions you can take on important issues such as connecting the unconnected and building trust on the Internet?
You are not alone.
In one of the most visible and important changes we are making this year, we are working hard on giving our website a deep refresh. We are building it to be a direct vehicle for action. We are redesigning it from the ground up to help us achieve our objective of connecting everyone, everywhere to a globally connected, trusted Internet.
It will look different, it will feel different, it will be more accessible and will be more aligned with this strategic goal.
Editor's Note: At the Internet Society’s Annual General Meeting in June 2017, Gihan Dias will be leaving the Board. Thank you Gihan for your service and contributions.
Although I have been a Trustee of the Internet Society for three years now, my relationship with ISOC goes back much further – to 1995 when I attended the ISOC networking workshop for developing countries, held in Prague, Czech Republic. It was a really fantastic experience. Not only did we learn how to build the Internet, but we also met many of the people who actually built it!
The first ever Internet Infrastructure Security Guidelines for Africa (“the Guidelines”) was launched at the African Internet Summit (AIS2017) in Nairobi, Kenya on 30 May 2017. The Guidelines are developed by the Internet Society jointly with the African Union Commission (AUC) and advances four essential principles of Internet infrastructure security -- Awareness, Responsibility, Cooperation, and adherence to Fundamental Rights and Internet Properties. It aims to help African Union States in approaching their cyber security preparedness and is a significant first step in producing a visible and positive change in the African Internet infrastructure security landscape.
This year, the Internet Society celebrates its 25th anniversary. Our own history is inextricably tied to the history of the Internet. We were founded in 1992 by Internet pioneers who believed that “a society would emerge from the idea that is the Internet” – and they were right.
As part of the celebration, this September we will launch a comprehensive report that details the key forces that could impact the future of the Internet. The report will also offer recommendations for the Future and we need your input.
The Internet Society is deeply concerned with the increase of Internet blocking and recent reports of growing content surveillance on the Internet in Venezuela.
On May 13th, Venezuela issued the Presidential Decree no. 2849, which has declared an State of Exception and Emergency, enforced immediately for the period of 60 days, extending a pre existing State of Exception and Emergency in the country.
According to the Official Gazette publication, the purpose of this decree is to adopt urgent, severe, exceptional and needed measures to ensure people's rights, to preserve the internal order and access to goods, services, food, medicine and other essentials for life.
Lambaré es una ciudad paraguaya ubicada en el Departamento Central, hoy es una de las ciudades metropolitanas más pobladas e importantes del Área Metropolitana de Asunción.
El Colegio Nacional de Lambaré (CNL), es la más importante institución educativa de la ciudad, contando con 1300 alumnos de nivel socio económico bajo y Medio-bajo comprendidos entre los 12 y 18 años de edad, desarrolla una tarea estratégica en la superación de las barreras sociales para las clases carenciadas.
El año 2015 algunas aulas del CNL se derrumbaron y varias más fueron demolidas por problemas estructurales en su construcción, entre ellas las destinadas al laboratorio de informática, uno punto de contacto de los jóvenes con la internet real libre y abierta.
On May 11, 2017, the Internet Society in collaboration with the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House hosted a panel discussion on the impact of the Internet on societies.
According to the most recent statistics from the International Telecommunication Union, 53% the world is still lacking access to the Internet and all the opportunities it brings. This week at the annual STI Forum in the United Nations headquarters in New York, the Internet Society shared its views on one of the solutions: to ensure that people can connect themselves and their communities.
What is happening with the WannaCry ransomware that has been attacking unpatched Windows computers around the world? How will it all end? What do we need to do collectively to deal with attacks like this? (Hint: Read Olaf's post.)
To learn more and pose questions to a panel of experts, you can join our partners at the Geneva Internet Platform and Diplo Foundation for a webinar on "Decrypting the WannaCry ransomware: Why is it happening and (how) is it going to end?"