Johnson elected chairperson of UNCSTD

ITRealms:

The Minister of Communication Technology and Supervising Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr (Mrs.) Omobola Johnson has been elected as the Chairperson of the United Nations’ Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) reports ITRealms.

The election of Dr Johnson, according to the special assistant on media to the minister, Mrs Efem Nkanga, took place at the end of the 17th Session of the Commission that was held from May 12-16, 2014 in Geneva, Switzerland.

ITRealms also gathered that the position of Chairperson is for a period of one year and presents an opportunity for Nigeria to play a role in discussions that will shape the role of science and technology in development.

These discussions,  ITRealms reports also included deliberations on the manner in which the internet could be governed globally.

The CSTD is a subsidiary body of the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and plays an advisory role to the UN General Assembly and ECOSOC on a range of relevant issues.

These issues pertain to the contributions of science and technology to development, particularly in developing countries. Furthermore, since 2006, CSTD has also advised ECOSOC on the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The CSTD is composed of forty-three Members States that are elected by ECOSOC for a term of four years, and who meet annually for a period of one week. Nigeria is one of the eleven African States that are Members of the Commission, and its tenure on the Commission ends in 2016.
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‘No more IPv4 addresses in Latin America, Caribbean’ says LACNIC

ITRealms:

The Latin America and the Caribbean region have entered the IPv4 exhaustion phase, just as the slow in deploying Internet Protocol version Six (IPv6) in the region has become a cause for concern, reports ITRealms.

The Internet Address Registry for Latin America and the Caribbean (LACNIC), the organization responsible for assigning Internet resources in the region, announced the exhaustion of its IPv4 address pool and expressed its concern regarding the fact that operators and governments throughout the region are delaying the deployment of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).

ITRealms reports that LACNIC disclosed that its pool of available IPv4 addresses reached the 4.194.302 mark, which triggered stricter Internet resource assignment policies for the continent.

In practice, ITRealms gathered, this means that IPv4 addresses are now exhausted for Latin American and Caribbean operators.

"This is an historic event; the fact that it was anticipated and announced doesn't make it any less significant," said Raúl Echeberría, LACNIC's CEO, stressing that from now on, LACNIC and its National Registries will only be able to assign very small numbers of IPv4 addresses, and these will not be enough to satisfy the region's needs.

Since it began operating in 2002, ITRealms reports that the organization has assigned more than 182 million IPv4 addresses throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

As agreed by the regional community, now that only 4,194,302 available IPv4 addresses (/10) remain, LACNIC's pool of IPv4 addresses is considered officially exhausted and the Gradual Exhaustion and New Entrants policies have come into effect, introducing new procedures and requirements for those requesting resources.

The policy on Transfers of IPv4 Blocks within the LACNIC Region, which allows and governs the transfer of resources among different organizations within the region, is now also in effect.

"Today, the need to deploy IPv6 is now more pressing than ever. It cannot be delayed any longer if connectivity providers still wish to meet the demands of their customers and those of new users. LACNIC and the Internet community have been working for years in preparation for this very moment," said Echeberría.

Accordingly, ITRealms gathered some 67 per cent of LACNIC member organizations have already been assigned IPv6 addresses by LACNIC and National Registries, NIC.br and NIC.MX.

LACNIC's CEO, however, expressed his concern that "10 years after LACNIC and National Registries, NIC.br and NIC.MX.  began promoting IPv6 deployment, many operators and companies still haven't taken the steps needed to duly address this circumstance."

2,097,150 of the remaining 4,194,302 addresses may be assigned during this phase, in blocks of limited sizes (assignments) comprising between 256 and 1,024 IP addresses. Likewise, an organization may only request additional resources six months after receiving a prior assignment. Once these 2 million IPv4 addresses are exhausted, LACNIC members will no longer be able to receive any IPv4 assignments.

At that point, the reserve for new members (/11) will be activated, thus triggering Phase 3 of the IPv4 exhaustion plan designed by LACNIC and the National Registries. According to the policies in force, during this final phase only new members will be able to request IPv4 addresses, which will be assigned in blocks of between 256 (/24) and 1,024 (/22) addresses. Each new member will only be able to receive one assignment from this space.

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ICANN releases final report on 'Mitigating the Risk of DNS Namespace Collisions Phase One'

ITRealms:

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Wednesday announced the publication of the final "Mitigating the Risk of DNS Namespace Collisions Phase One" report by JAS Global Advisors ("JAS").

The JAS study, which was commissioned by ICANN, provides a set of recommendations that describe a comprehensive approach to reducing current and future DNS namespace collisions, alerting operators of potential DNS namespace related issues, and providing emergency response capabilities in the event that critical, for instance life safety, systems are adversely impacted. 

ITRealms gathered that the final Phase One report takes into consideration feedback received during the public comment period that closed on 21 April 2014.

The JAS report, along with additional community feedback and other pertinent data, will be considered prior to providing the ICANN Board New gTLD Program Committee with a proposal to address name collisions for new gTLDs as part of the New gTLD Collision Occurrence Management Plan adopted on 7 October 2013.

ITRealms recalls that a session to discuss this proposal and collect feedback from the community will be held at the ICANN meeting in London on 23 June 2015 at 17:00-18:30 local time.

The report could be download here.

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CPN ready for IT Assembly 2014, Prof. Bacon leads keynote

ITRealms:

The Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN) has advanced plans for the hosting of its 2014 edition of the Information Technology (IT) Assembly slated to hold between June 18 and 19 at Nicon Luxury, Abuja, ITRealms reports.

Confirming this, the chairman in council of CPN, Hajia Sekinat Olusola Yusuf, told ITRealms the assembly is an exclusive networking event for senior and upcoming IT decision makers, consultants, entrepreneurs, practitioners, teachers, students, systems administrators and other interested members of the public, on the theme: Harnessing the potentials of IT professionals for national development.

She disclosed ITRealms that President, British Computer Society, Prof. Liz Bacon, would give the keynote at this year’s IT Assembly.

Mrs. Yusuf also told ITRealms that the rationale for the assembly is based on the fact that development of any nation is usually measured by the degree and extent of the socio-cultural, economic and political improvements that are brought to bear through the enterprises of IT.

“There is no gainsaying that the present world order is one strictly ruled by the power of information,” she declared, adding that there is a direct link between a nation’s material prosperity and that of her information-wealth, hence, IT is the vital resource which provides impetus for a nation’s technological advancement.

She described this year’s IT Assembly as unique in many ways including that it’s issue-based and topic focused.

“We’re doing so many things differently this year. There will be no parallel sessions this year. This is to enable all attendees participate fully in all the plenary sessions,” she said, pointing out that this would enable all attendees to participate fully in all the plenary sessions.

Mrs. Yusuf accompanied by the CPN registrar, Mr. Shehu Sekiru, Head, Corporate Affairs, Mr. Idowu Olusile and Head, Technical, Mr. Ibrahim, emphasised that IT Assembly believes that it is time Nigeria begins to take advantage of its vast resources and enormous potentials in IT to address daunting national challenges.

In furtherance of achieving its theme, CPN, she said, would be comparing notes with the keynote address to be delivered by the President, British Computer Society, Prof. Liz Bacon, to ensure that CPN approach is in tandem with the global best practices.

Equally, the Assembly, she said, would provide a platform for some industry innovative showcase of products and services, thus offering participants the opportunity to appreciate emerging technologies, trends and risks associated with transformation of various industries using IT.

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Johnson, Juwah commend DigitalSENSE Africa on IG4D, IPv6 2014

ITRealms:

The Honourable Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson and the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah, have commended the management of DigitalSENSE Africa Media Limited, for consistency in hosting the Internet Governance for Development (IG4D) and the Nigeria IPv6 Roundtable to educate Nigerians on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry issues.

Both spoke at the two-day 2014 edition of the Nigeria DigitalSENSE forum series held at Welcome Centre Hotels in Lagos with the theme “Internet Governance, eBiz and Open Access in Nigeria and IPv6 and Broadband Penetration.”

Mrs. Johnson who was represented by the Assistant Director, Computer Services at the ministry, Engr. Olufeko Olufemi, applauded DigitalSENSE Africa for the role it has played over the years, especially in the last six years.

She urged other reputed organizations to emulate DigitalSENSE Africa and encouraged industry stakeholders support for such a forum as Nigeria DigitalSENSE, because government and her agencies cannot do the job of public awareness for instance, along, more so on Internet Governance as part of the bottom-up process.

Also speaking at the event presided over by the Head, Computer Sciences, University of Lagos, Prof. Charles Uwadia, the EVC of NCC ably represented by the Deputy Director, Projects at NCC, Mr. Bashir Idris, in his keynote commended DigitalSENSE Africa for providing the relevant platform to address very topical issues such as the theme of this year’s forum across the many topical issues and developments across the ICT industry in Nigeria in recent times.

“We believe these are healthy for the quest to create the needed awareness among the stakeholders and beneficiaries of the potentials that abound in the industry,” he said.

NCC, he said, has plans to be very present and visible at the international level of discussions on all issues surrounding the ICT industry, stressing that the reason for this is to ensure that NCC impacts on discussions and decisions on global trends and regulations that evolve in the dynamic ICT space.

“This is why we are now paying more attention, and participating in the activities of the International Telecommunications Union, ITU, which is the global regulator of the telecom industry,” he said.

The Internet Governance Forum, he emphasised, is particularly of interest to NCC, which have currently raised a team in the Commission that is taking part on all the Internet Governance Forum discussions taking place around Africa and beyond.

“The reason is to ensure that our interest as a nation is fully represented at these discussions and to also ensure that we have first hand knowledge of how best to exploit the potentials that abound on the Internet,” EVC said.

Pointing out that as is in many issues where the global community has different views and interests in a technology platform, Internet Governance has become an issue of discussion over the years.

“It is yet to be seen if the world would gravitate to accept common laws regarding access and use of the Internet,” he said.

Welcoming participants earlier to 2014 edition of NDSF on IG4D, the Executive Director, Operations at DigitalSENSE Africa, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, said the platform was created and nurtured to date as a think-tank platform where Nigerian internet stakeholders converge annually to raise and address germane issues concerning the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector with particular reference to Computing, Internet Governance-related issues towards helping to further advance Nigeria in the ever-rapidly advancing phenomenon of global ICT.

This year’s forum on  ‘Internet Governance, eBiz and Open Access in Nigeria.’ offers Internet Service Providers (ISPs), telecom operators, value added service providers as well as all other stakeholders, the enabling ground to articulate a stand on Internet governance issues and accurately align NDSF on IG4D position into the national, regional, Africa and global agenda.

“It is pertinent at this juncture, to remind all young internet users particularly, to always be mindful of what they post on the internet because everything posted on the net is traceable to the author. Therefore, you are passionately advised to mind the stuff you post and the language with which such materials are posted on the internet for global consumption,” she asserted, stressing that this is important because the result of what people send or share online for the consummation of the global village remains their permanent signature and model of image which will definitely rub off on such an individual in all their future contacts.

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Day1 - IG4D Forum 2014: L-r Representative of Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah represented by Mr. Bashir Idris, chairman, Nigeria DigitalSENSE Forum on Internet Governance for Development (IG4D 2014) Prof. Charles Uwadia, Executive Director, Operations, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, the Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson represented by Engr. Olufeko Olufemi taking the nation anthem held at the Welcome Center Hotels, Lagos

Day2 - IPv6 Roundtable 2014: L-r Chairman, Nigeria IPv6 Roundtable 2014, Engr. Titi Omo-Ettu, Executive Director, Operations, DigitalSENSE Africa Media, the organisers, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, guest speaker and chief executive officer, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) Mr. Muhammed Rudman held at the Welcome Center Hotels, Lagos.