<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:verdana, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12pt">Very many thanks, Dawit.<br><br>I recall one sleepless night drafting the ARAPKE. Because I also am in the Cote d'Ivoire IXP working group, I could tell this was a media rendition of the meeting. <br><br>Thanks for the clear explanation and specifically for highlighting country-specific realities. Lately I have had to engage several IXP managers - In Cameroon, Nigeria, Tanzania. Every story is different. In Côte d'Ivoire, ours will end up as a state law. The bill has already been drafted.. hopefully, we will all be "obliged" <br><br>Long life to AXIS<br><br>Best<br><br>N<br><div><span><br></span></div><div><span></span></div><div> </div><div><br style="font-family:courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family:courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif;"><br>Nnenna Nwakanma |
Founder and CEO, NNENNA.ORG | Consultants<br>Information | Communications | Technology and Events | for Development<br>Cote d'Ivoire (+225)| Tel: 225 27144 | Fax 224 26471 |Mob. 07416820<br>Ghana: +233 249561345| Nigeria: +234 8101887065| http://www.nnenna.org <br>nnenna@nnenna.org| @nnenna | Skype - nnenna75 | nnennaorg.blogspot.com</span><br><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-style:italic;"></span><br></div> <div style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <hr size="1"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Dawit Bekele <bekele@isoc.org><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> governance@lists.igcaucus.org; 'Mawaki Chango' <kichango@gmail.com> <br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cc:</span></b> Moses Bayingana
<BayinganaM@africa-union.org> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Friday, October 19, 2012 1:07 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> RE: [governance] Africa to launch own Internet exchange point<br> </font> </div> <br>Hi all,<br><br>As the implementer of the African Union's African Internet Exchange System<br>(AXIS) project under which this workshop in Gambia is organized, I would<br>like to give some information on this particular workshop and the AXIS<br>project in general. The AXIS project is an African Union project that aims<br>at promoting the development of IXPs around Africa. The first phase of the<br>project consists of organizing IXP Best practice workshops in 30 African<br>countries where there is no IXP followed by technical workshops in these<br>same countries. The Internet Society has been selected by the African<br>Regional Bureau to implement this phase in a period of 2 years. I
have<br>attached a press release concerning AXIS (sorry the website is not ready<br>yet).<br><br>The African Union and indeed the Internet society are conscious that setting<br>up an IXP is not an end by itself and there are many IXPs that never took<br>off from the ground. This is why the Best Practice workshops will discuss<br>about what works and what doesn't work based one the experiences of IXPs in<br>Africa ad around the world. The facilitators that we send to these workshops<br>have practical experience in developing IXPs and can advise the stakeholders<br>invited at the workshops on the way forward.<br><br>As David rightly mentioned the training is technology neutral. Every country<br>follows its own pace in developing the IXPs. The Internet Society and the<br>African Union can only advise the stakeholders on the steps to take. We<br>organized these workshops in four countries in the last two months: Burkina<br>Faso, Burundi, Senegal and
Gambia. We will organize the following workshops<br>in the coming two months:<br><br>Namibia 23 - 25 October<br>Guinea 30 Oct- Nov 1<br>Niger 6-8 November<br>Benin 13-15 November<br><br>Most countries where we have organized the workshops have adopted a clear<br>plan to set-up an IXP within a few months and established task forces to<br>that effect, as in the case of the Gambia.<br><br>Finally, AXIS is not an isolated program but part of a holistic ICT<br>development plan for Africa (African Regional Action Plan on the Knowledge<br>Economy -ARAPKE). AXIS is one of the 11 flagship projects of the ARAPKE<br>(attached description).<br><br>Best regards,<br>Dawit Bekele<br>Director, African Regional Bureau<br>Internet Society<br><br><br>> -----Original Message-----<br>> From: <a
ymailto="mailto:governance-request@lists.igcaucus.org" href="mailto:governance-request@lists.igcaucus.org">governance-request@lists.igcaucus.org</a> [mailto:governance-<br>> <a ymailto="mailto:request@lists.igcaucus.org" href="mailto:request@lists.igcaucus.org">request@lists.igcaucus.org</a>] On Behalf Of Mawaki Chango<br>> Sent: Friday, October 19, 2012 1:33 PM<br>> To: <a ymailto="mailto:governance@lists.igcaucus.org" href="mailto:governance@lists.igcaucus.org">governance@lists.igcaucus.org</a>; Jean-Louis FULLSACK<br>> Subject: Re: [governance] Africa to launch own Internet exchange point<br>> <br>> Thanks, Jean-Louis! That was part of the reason why I was surprised an IXP<br>in<br>> Africa would make such headline still today, and why I was wondering about<br>> any integrated strategy from the part of AU. Without a vision that takes<br>into<br>> account elements you have outlined, it's hard to appreciate real,
long<br>term<br>> progress.<br>> <br>> In your view, what are we missing right now in order to develop a<br>> "consistent, survivable network" keeping in mind that Africa is a huge<br>place<br>> where policy is mainly made through government planning, etc.?<br>> Where does it make more sense to start from --both technically and<br>> strategically-- in order to realize that "minimum of consistency"<br>> which can make any subsequent efforts more efficient? I think any long<br>term<br>> advocacy effort in Africa should itself be led by a vision of this kind,<br>where<br>> policy goals are well informed by technology capabilities and best<br>practices,<br>> and then try to win over policy-makers to it.<br>> <br>> A whole other challenge is, of course, to get policy-makers and any<br>> incumbent stakeholders to embrace the notion (and reality) of creative<br>> destruction, which has never been a given in any
place at any era.<br>> Here I can only think of CS using a range of strategies and tactics and<br>sharing<br>> information globally in order to help shape the events and try to shift<br>the<br>> power dynamics.<br>> <br>> Best,<br>> <br>> Mawaki<br>> otherwise Africa Internet Policy coordinator at APC, the one and only<br>> Association for Progressive Communications :)<br>> <br>> On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 3:36 AM, Jean-Louis FULLSACK<br><<a ymailto="mailto:jlfullsack@orange.fr" href="mailto:jlfullsack@orange.fr">jlfullsack@orange.fr</a>><br>> wrote:<br>> ><br>> ><br>> > Dear members of the list<br>> ><br>> ><br>> ><br>> > The basic issue in Africa isn't the lack of IXPs, since there are<br>> > around thirty ones. Of course this number is to be extended and<br>> > spatial distribution is to be improved, and the Gambia IXP is a step<br>> > in this
direction.<br>> ><br>> ><br>> ><br>> > But there is a lack of appropriate networks at the national, regional<br>> > and continental level. In most cases there are a more or less<br>> > continuous series of optical fiber or microwave routes but not a<br>> > consistent, survivable network. This strongly limits the very<br>> > functions of the IXPs i.e. switching, routing and thereby maintaining<br>> > IP traffic that is exchanged in specific spaces (country, sub-region,<br>> > part of African continent) in their respective limits, saving high<br>> > costs of transiting through out-of-Africa Internet nodes and<br>consequently<br>> bandwidth waste on international routes.<br>> ><br>> ><br>> ><br>> > Finally, there are severe power issues in most countries that limit<br>> > seriously the availability of both the IXPs and the interconnecting<br>> >
network(s).<br>> ><br>> ><br>> ><br>> > Of course, some progress has been done for improving this situation<br>> > but the<br>> > (expensive) efforts lack a minimum of consistency and therefore take<br>> > too much time for being efficient. Reponsibility for this<br>> > mismanagement is mainly the neoliberal ruling that promotes hard<br>> > competition instead of genuine networking, but also the African Union<br>> > and the ITU, despite the n°1 and 2 of which are Africans.<br>> ><br>> ><br>> ><br>> > Best regards<br>> ><br>> ><br>> ><br>> > Jean-Louis Fullsack<br>> ><br>> ><br>> ><br>> ><br>> >> Message du 18/10/12 21:10<br>> >> De : "David Conrad"<br>> >> A : <a ymailto="mailto:governance@lists.igcaucus.org" href="mailto:governance@lists.igcaucus.org">governance@lists.igcaucus.org</a><br>>
>> Copie à :<br>> >> Objet : Re: [governance] Africa to launch own Internet exchange point<br>> >><br>> >> Hi Norbert,<br>> ><br>> >><br>> >> On Oct 18, 2012, at 12:18 PM, Norbert Klein wrote:<br>> >> > I thought it was also interesting that this effort of ISOC is<br>> >> > reported here by Xinhua via the China Daily. Maybe an indication<br>> >> > that the internationally experienced and active hardware supplier<br>> >> > Huawei will help the Banjul efforts, and whoever will by trained<br>> >> > with the experience of ISOC when new IXP will be set up in more<br>places<br>> in Africa.<br>> >><br>> >> My understanding is that the training (done by folks from ISOC<br>> >> partnering with AfriNIC and other Africa-based organizations is<br>> >> technology neutral. I'm told by one of the folks involved in
Gambia<br>> >> that they expect the IXP to be set up in 6 months or so. As far as I<br>> >> know, there hasn't been any decision on hardware in the IXP.<br>> >><br>> >> Regards,<br>> >> -drc<br>> >><br>> >><br>> >><br>> __________________________________________________________<br>> __<br>> >> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:<br>> >> <a ymailto="mailto:governance@lists.igcaucus.org" href="mailto:governance@lists.igcaucus.org">governance@lists.igcaucus.org</a><br>> >> To be removed from the list, visit:<br>> >> <a href="http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing" target="_blank">http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing</a><br>> >><br>> >> For all other list information and functions, see:<br>> >> <a href="http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance"
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