ISOC invests $70,000 on Internet Protocol Six

Approximately US$70,000 has been invested in community-based Internet projects around the world to tackle issues ranging from Internet Protocol (IPv6) deployment to providing access and training of girls in an impoverished and isolated community.

The Internet Society (ISOC), announced the latest round of grants to African country chapters including Sierra Leone and Congo, to boost the evolution of Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

Vice President, Strategic Communications and Business Planning at the Internet Society (ISOC), Mr. Scott Hoyt, said that as part of the group’s project funding initiative, each project would receive up to US$10,000 for work that promotes ISOC's mission and goals.

He said that some of the projects funded in the latest round include the development by ISOC's Argentina Chapter of an IPv6 handbook and training materials to help Information Technology (IT) professionals accelerate IPv6 address deployment in that region.

ISOC said that a project by the Congolese Chapter to increase and improve Internet training for students in universities and academic institutions in the central Africa region would be covered in the latest.

Work by ISOC's Sierra Leone Chapter, in collaboration with the Sierra Leone National Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Task Force to help in the establishment of the Sierra Leone Internet Exchange Point (SLIXP) for important performance and economic benefits to the national Internet community is included in the current list.

Also, he disclosed that a pilot project by ISOC's Taiwan Chapter to deploy IPv6 dual-stack infrastructure on education campuses as a way of providing IPv6 training and materials to students and teachers as well as a conference and workshop with follow-up materials, organised by ISOC Global member, Kevin Quinn, of the Waterford Institute of Technology, aimed to stimulate the regulatory reform and industry awareness needed to raise the standard of Irish broadband penetration and performance were covered.

Equally, an innovative use of solar-power, digital imaging, and satellite connections to bring the benefits of the Internet to healthcare workers, educators, conservationists, and mirco-credit participants in a remote area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) organised by ISOC's DRC Chapter.

In addition, a project by ISOC Global member Kaprie Thoronka for the use of ICT via Internet training and facilities to help improve the health, economic, and social conditions of girls and young women in a remote area of Sierra Leone came under the list.

According ISOC, the next application round for project funding will open on March 2, 2009, soliciting for project details of the initiative to visit ISOC website.

The Internet Society is an international, non-profit organisation founded in 1992 to provide leadership in Internet related standards, education, and policy with offices in Washington DC and Geneva, Switzerland, dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world.

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