12th May 2012, presented the
first ever African Internet Standards forum (IETF) that was streamed live from
Serekunda Gambia In Kenya IHub provided the venue and resources .There was
excitement that finally one of the most meaning internet events was happening
in Africa, I can’t though say the number of attendees in the forum, but most of
the people attended via the WebEx, an online conferencing platform, therefore
most people participated virtually, remote.
The matters on Agenda were an
Introduction to IETF, its processes and why individuals need to join, there was
even encouragement that it was not only reserved for geeks and tech giants but
every person that was interested was invited to be part of the global IETF.
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| Photo Adapted from ISOC website |
The issue that was the point of contention
was the way to improve the number of graduate students, engineers and tech
individuals to engage more actively in the IETF affairs, Africa is the mostly
affected in terms of Attendance, physical attendance is very important vis a
vis remote attendance which was also low even though it did not need any
transport or accommodation to attend.
Apparently most people are not
aware of IETF especially in Africa and it’s even more surprising that most
people evidenced by those interviewed were academicians who have earned their
PHD’s and Masters degrees from participating and using IETF conferences as
forums to present their papers. This is a positive indication that more people and
more so in Africa can gain much from research and involvement in IETF
activities.
The African research has been
said to mostly rely on the natural knowledge like Agriculture, and culture, as
opposed to their more advanced counterparts from western countries whose
research is based more on issues bordering on Academia, engineering,
technology. Speakers urged African scholars to broaden their scope by involving
themselves more to utilize resources offered by platforms like IETF Forums.
Fellowships were stressed on with
many remote delegates demanding for more opportunities and sponsorships to
attend such conferences, with more even arguing how easy it was from a delegate
from London or USA to attend vs a delegate from Africa who even getting a
simple fortnight Visa t cost him a fortune , let alone travel and accommodation
: a great disadvantage indeed.
The most interesting topic to
most delegates was the remotely presented by Dan York on the new RTC WEB/WebRTC
which relied on the upcoming HTML 5, this platform would offer direct video
communication eliminating the need for plugins and vendor based applications
which have often complicated communication via the Browser platform, Many organizations have been involved in the
development of this all inclusive platform using huge resources, Invitations
were even more rife that ideas were still needed infact calling on the young
netizens of Africa to involve themselves, read the articles on the amazing
platform and give ideas.
Amid this interesting development
are the Bandwidth issues that continue to dog African internet infrastructural
advancement despite the major submarine fiber connections, would Africa be able
to embrace this technology before the broadband prices and connectivity
stabilizes, Africa can however be useful in involving themselves in how to make
the RTCWeb friendly.
Another issue that still attracts
a lot of Attention is the IPv6 , talk of how many African organizations are
compliant from the IXP, ISP to the last mile user, its evident that more investment
has to be done in terms of training , infrastructural development and most
importantly for the courage by organizations to actually take a step forward
and implement IPv6 its 10 years already since preparations of IPv6 began.
Its Key also that the DNSEXT ,
matters of how to develop the DNS standards better in the times when security
and increase in the number of people now utilizing the internet rich resource,
especially now in the times when the mobile internet access is no longer a
dream but a reality that organizations have to concentrate resources in
advancing infrastructure that will fully serve the mobile client in terms of
mobile applications, Security , Access ,less platform dependent software.
