LACNIC honours Wooding with 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award

NEWS - The Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry (LACNIC) honoured Caribbean-based technology expert and philanthropist Bevil Wooding with its 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Wooding, who wears many hats in his work around the world, is the Chief Knowledge Officer at the international non-profit Congress WBN. He received the award at a special ceremony during the international LACNIC 21 conference, on May 8th in Cancun, Mexico.

Since 2009, LACNIC has presented the award to individuals who have a significant impact on the development of the Internet and the information society throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Wooding, an Internet Strategist and Caribbean Outreach Manager for the US-based research non-profit Packet Clearing House, is globally recognised for his tireless work in improving Internet access and resilience, particularly in developing countries.

Raúl Echeberría, executive director of LACNIC, lauded Wooding's work in the areas of improving Internet connectivity and building capacity in the region.

“His selection as the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Awardee was unanimous,” he said.

Echeberría, LACNIC's chief executive from its inception in Uruguay in 2002, singled out Wooding's work in strengthening Internet infrastructure, particularly in supporting the development of Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) in the Caribbean.

“Wooding has earned the trust and respect of the global community. The community values his dedication, his integrity and his consistency. It is clear his work is his life mission and the region has benefitted enormously as a result.”

He also praised Wooding for his role in designing and spearheading the Caribbean Telecommunications Union’s Caribbean ICT Roadshow, which promotes novel uses of technology across all sectors of society.

In the development of technology solutions and educational resources, Wooding’s involvement has been far-reaching. He is a founding member and chair of the Caribbean Network Operators Group (CaribNOG), a volunteer group which provides a forum for the technical community to exchange ideas and experiences.

He is also founder and Executive Director of BrightPath Foundation, a non-profit organisation focused on technology education solutions for young people and communities across the world. The foundation provides youth-focused mobile app development and digital training programs. In 2012, BrightPath facilitated the development of the Caribbean Examination Council's first-ever digital media syllabus.

In thanking LACNIC for the award, Wooding said that he felt his work is far from done.

“There remain communities to empower, policies to develop, stakeholders to educate, IXPs to deploy, local content to create, and research to conduct on how the Internet and our actions are impacting our region. My commitment is to continue working and to continue believing in the power of the Internet as a driver for development and as a force for good."

His Technology Matters column appears in the weekly Business Guardian magazine.

South School on Internet Governance comes to Trinidad

EVENTS - The Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) and the ICT Training Centre for Latin America and the Caribbean (CCAT-LAT) are bringing a five-day intensive training programme to the Caribbean, which aims to improve the quality of regional representation at international Internet Governance meetings.

The South School on Internet Governance, or SSIG, is a programme to prepare Caribbean and Latin American participants to actively participate in international meetings that determine the future of the Internet. The aim is to increase the level and quality of representation of Latin American and Caribbean countries at regional and international Internet Governance fora.

The Trinidad and Tobago Government, through the Ministry of Science and Technology, will be hosting the sixth edition of the SSIG. The event will take place in Hilton Hotel, Port-of-Spain, from April 28th to May 2nd. It will be the first time in its history that the SSIG will be held in the Caribbean.

“The CTU fully supports of the convening of the South School on Internet Governance in the region, as that venue gives Caribbean stakeholders greater access to benefit from the programme,”  said Bernadette Lewis, CTU Secretary General.

With more than half of the registered participants from the region, the programme is preparing participants to engage in the formulation of national, regional and international Internet policy, addressing with a special focus on Caribbean issues. Participants are interacting with local, regional and international experts in a range of technology-related areas.

“The Internet is a global resource, and governing it requires a multi-stakeholder approach. That’s why SSIG participants are given an understanding of the global Internet ecosystem and its evolution,” said Dr Olga Cavalli, Director of the SSIG.

Cavalli, a Lecturer in Networking, Telecommunications and Informatics at the University of Buenos Aires, is Argentina Representative for ICANN and a member of Advisory Committee to the United Nations Secretary General for the global Internet Governance Forum.

Director of Institutional Relations at SSIG is Adrian Carballo, a former coordinator of the ICT Financing Group in the Strategy for the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean (e-LAC), coordinated by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) of the United Nations.

“The principal objective is to create a new kind of leader, one who is better equipped to represent the needs of the region,” Carballo said.

SSIG 2014 participants, drawn from the public and private sectors, civil society as well as academia, will have the opportunity to network with members of organisations such as the Latin America and Caribbean Network Information Centre (LACNIC), the Internet Society (ISOC) and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which help to shape the future of the Internet.

Since its inauguration in 2009 in Argentina, the location of the SSIG has been rotated annually to Sao Paolo, Mexico City, Bogota and Panama City. Emily Fitzpatrick, Business Development and Research Officer at CTU, completed SSIG 2012 in Bogotá, Colombia. Initiatives like the SSIG can play an important role in fostering healthy dialogue about Internet Governance in the Caribbean, she said.

“SSIG is a diverse and safe forum where people with varying levels of expertise, knowledge and capacity can have meaningful dialogue. The real beauty of SSIG is the ability to sit in small groups with colleagues converse and reflect on the flow of information coming from the presenters. The cross-pollination that takes place in that forum is healthy and needed in the region.”

Selected SSIG sessions will be livestreamed online and open to remote participation in Spanish and English. Full course details are available on the official SSIG website, www.gobernanzainternet.org and on the CTU’s official website, www.ctu.int.

Dominica hosts seventh regional CaribNOG meeting

EVENTS -  Regional and international technology experts are gathering in Dominica to address Caribbean technology challenges and to collaboratively derive solutions that are relevant to the region. The Caribbean Network Operators Group, CaribNOG, is hosting its seventh regional meeting in the island’s capital city, Roseau, from April 28 to May 2.

CaribNOG is a forum for network technicians and technology professionals from across the region to share experiences and participate in expert-led, high-tech training exercises and hands-on technical workshops.

“The Caribbean is at an interesting juncture with respect to its growing dependence on Internet-related technologies. The region is extremely vulnerable to cyber attacks and has to take steps to develop its technical human resource capacity. CaribNOG is key part of the response to that challenge,” said Bevil Wooding.

Wooding, one of the founders of CaribNOG, cited examples from around the world where similar volunteer groups have emerged and now collaborate to help protect local networks against mounting threats, and to keep pace with technology change.

CaribNOG 7 follows a series of workshops and training events held across the Caribbean in 2013, including two regional meetings in Barbados (CaribNOG 5) and Belize (CaribNOG 6). Sessions will focus on network design, mobile network infrastructure, cyber security, Internet Exchange Point management and cloud infrastructure.

Stephen Lee, CaribNOG’s programme coordinator, described the work of the volunteer-based group as “invaluable for advancing the technical skills of ICT professionals in the region who design, manage or secure the network infrastructure”.

The CaribNOG meeting is being streamed via the Internet for remote participants. Participants are drawn from the Caribbean, Latin America and North America and as far away as Europe and Africa. The event is being hosted by the Dominican National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (NTRC) at the Fort Young Hotel in the capital city of Roseau.