[governance] Africa to launch own Internet exchange point

Mawaki Chango kichango at gmail.com
Fri Oct 19 14:08:07 EDT 2012 

Thank you, Dawit, for this clarification that helps find answers to my
questions.

Mawaki

On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 9:07 AM, Dawit Bekele <bekele at isoc.org> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> As the implementer of the African Union's African Internet Exchange System
> (AXIS) project under which this workshop in Gambia is organized, I would
> like to give some information on this particular workshop and the AXIS
> project in general. The AXIS project is an African Union project that aims
> at promoting the development of IXPs around Africa. The first phase of the
> project consists of organizing IXP Best practice workshops in 30 African
> countries where there is no IXP followed by technical workshops in these
> same countries. The Internet Society has been selected by the African
> Regional Bureau to implement this phase in a period of 2 years. I have
> attached a press release concerning AXIS (sorry the website is not ready
> yet).
>
> The African Union and indeed the Internet society are conscious that setting
> up an IXP is not an end by itself and there are many IXPs that never took
> off from the ground. This is why the Best Practice workshops will discuss
> about what works and what doesn't work based one the experiences of IXPs in
> Africa ad around the world. The facilitators that we send to these workshops
> have practical experience in developing IXPs and can advise the stakeholders
> invited at the workshops on the way forward.
>
> As David rightly mentioned the training is technology neutral. Every country
> follows its own pace in developing the IXPs. The Internet Society and the
> African Union can only advise the stakeholders on the steps to take.  We
> organized these workshops in four countries in the last two months: Burkina
> Faso, Burundi, Senegal and Gambia. We will organize the following workshops
> in the coming two months:
>
> Namibia 23 - 25 October
> Guinea          30 Oct- Nov 1
> Niger                     6-8 November
> Benin           13-15 November
>
> Most countries where we have organized the workshops have adopted a clear
> plan to set-up an IXP within a few months and established task forces to
> that effect, as in the case of the Gambia.
>
> Finally, AXIS is not an isolated program but part of a holistic ICT
> development plan for  Africa (African Regional Action Plan on the Knowledge
> Economy -ARAPKE). AXIS is one of the 11 flagship projects of the ARAPKE
> (attached description).
>
> Best regards,
> Dawit Bekele
> Director, African Regional Bureau
> Internet Society
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org [mailto:governance-
>> request at lists.igcaucus.org] On Behalf Of Mawaki Chango
>> Sent: Friday, October 19, 2012 1:33 PM
>> To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org; Jean-Louis FULLSACK
>> Subject: Re: [governance] Africa to launch own Internet exchange point
>>
>> Thanks, Jean-Louis! That was part of the reason why I was surprised an IXP
> in
>> Africa would make such headline still today, and why I was wondering about
>> any integrated strategy from the part of AU. Without a vision that takes
> into
>> account elements you have outlined, it's hard to appreciate real, long
> term
>> progress.
>>
>> In your view, what are we missing right now in order to develop a
>> "consistent, survivable network" keeping in mind that Africa is a huge
> place
>> where policy is mainly made through government planning, etc.?
>> Where does it make more sense to start from --both technically and
>> strategically-- in order to realize that "minimum of consistency"
>> which can make any subsequent efforts more efficient? I think any long
> term
>> advocacy effort in Africa should itself be led by a vision of this kind,
> where
>> policy goals are well informed by technology capabilities and best
> practices,
>> and then try to win over policy-makers to it.
>>
>> A whole other challenge is, of course, to get policy-makers and any
>> incumbent stakeholders to embrace the notion (and reality) of creative
>> destruction, which has never been a given in any place at any era.
>> Here I can only think of CS using a range of strategies and tactics and
> sharing
>> information globally in order to help shape the events and try to shift
> the
>> power dynamics.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Mawaki
>> otherwise Africa Internet Policy coordinator at APC, the one and only
>> Association for Progressive Communications :)
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 3:36 AM, Jean-Louis FULLSACK
> <jlfullsack at orange.fr>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > Dear members of the list
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > The basic issue in Africa isn't the lack of IXPs, since there are
>> > around thirty ones. Of course this number is to be extended and
>> > spatial distribution is to be improved, and the Gambia IXP is a step
>> > in this direction.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > But there is a lack of appropriate networks at the national, regional
>> > and continental level. In most cases there are a more or less
>> > continuous series of optical fiber or microwave routes but not a
>> > consistent, survivable network. This strongly limits the very
>> > functions of the IXPs i.e. switching, routing and thereby maintaining
>> > IP traffic that is exchanged in specific spaces (country, sub-region,
>> > part of African continent) in their respective limits, saving high
>> > costs of transiting through out-of-Africa Internet nodes and
> consequently
>> bandwidth waste on international routes.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Finally, there are severe power issues in most countries that limit
>> > seriously the availability of both the IXPs and the interconnecting
>> > network(s).
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Of course, some progress has been done for improving this situation
>> > but the
>> > (expensive) efforts lack a minimum of consistency and therefore take
>> > too much time for being efficient. Reponsibility for this
>> > mismanagement is mainly the neoliberal ruling that promotes hard
>> > competition instead of genuine networking, but also the African Union
>> > and the ITU, despite the n°1 and 2 of which are Africans.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Best regards
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Jean-Louis Fullsack
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >> Message du 18/10/12 21:10
>> >> De : "David Conrad"
>> >> A : governance at lists.igcaucus.org
>> >> Copie à :
>> >> Objet : Re: [governance] Africa to launch own Internet exchange point
>> >>
>> >> Hi Norbert,
>> >
>> >>
>> >> On Oct 18, 2012, at 12:18 PM, Norbert Klein wrote:
>> >> > I thought it was also interesting that this effort of ISOC is
>> >> > reported here by Xinhua via the China Daily. Maybe an indication
>> >> > that the internationally experienced and active hardware supplier
>> >> > Huawei will help the Banjul efforts, and whoever will by trained
>> >> > with the experience of ISOC when new IXP will be set up in more
> places
>> in Africa.
>> >>
>> >> My understanding is that the training (done by folks from ISOC
>> >> partnering with AfriNIC and other Africa-based organizations is
>> >> technology neutral. I'm told by one of the folks involved in Gambia
>> >> that they expect the IXP to be set up in 6 months or so. As far as I
>> >> know, there hasn't been any decision on hardware in the IXP.
>> >>
>> >> Regards,
>> >> -drc
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
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