Security is rising to the top of the list of issues that the Internet Society (iSoc) is tackling in Africa, joining its efforts to develop infrastructure and promote an inclusive “bottom-up” governance model for the Web.
“We are going to support the deployment of security technologies,” said Dawit Bekele, director of the iSoc African Bureau, in a webinar this week.
ISoc is a nonprofit international organization that works to promote standards and inclusive Internet governance policies. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which works on Internet standards .
ISoc’s African bureau plans to measure interconnection and promote open standards in Africa. It also will continue to help develop traffic exchange and DNS programs in partnership with ICANN, and promote local success stories, Bekele said.
“We believe that there are success stories with regards to Internet applications and we will like to promote those local stories because it is important that Africans start believing that Internet is important,” Bekele said. “In the past, it was true: there was lack of infrastructure and other reasons why we couldn’t see many success stories. But this is changing and not everybody realizes that.”
Much of iSoc’s activities are related to education and informing the public about the change in governance of ICANN, Bekele said. A large issue before Internet users, organizations and governments is the transition after the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration next year ends oversight of ICANN and its IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) unit, which manages the Domain Name System for the Internet.
Thirty of the 107 iSoc chapters worldwide are now in Africa, noted Christine Saegesser, in charge of iSoc chapter development in the Middle East and Africa. “Another very important project that was launched in 2014 is the online community platform called Connect which is an online platform that is there for all Internet Society members and chapters,” she said. “The platform is there for you to share information, start discussions and connect with other Internet Society members not only in Africa but also worldwide, to get connected with each of the leaders and create and promote events.”