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Community Grants ProgrammePast AwardsThe Internet Society here presents the recipients of awards from its Community Grants Programme. The goal is to enhance the Internet environment around the world. This program initiative is intended to help ISOC Chapters and Members establish creative local programs in support of ensuring the "Internet is for Everyone." The project leaders will be making periodic reports on their progress that will all be made available on the ISOC website. November 2008 AwardsArgentina: Experiencing IPv6
The project’s objective is to create a handbook to be used as a training book by IT people and service provider’s staff that have not yet experienced IPv6, to help them to configure IPv6 in different environments through detailed instructions and experiments. Easy to be followed by the reader, the handbook will have the structure of a training book containing a brief explanation about what’s going on during the configuration in each part of the network during the experience and will not include any theory or deep protocol specifications. The Argentina Chapter of ISOC believes that later, rather than earlier, implementation of IPv6 protocol would be more complex, and that the delay of implementation could be attributed to the lack of printed material that helps all parties (home user, ISP, academia, etc) to implement IPv6 for each environment. Final Report (PDF) Congo: Capacity Building Programme in Internet and ICT Policy for Students from Academic Institutions in Central Africa
The project aims to inform and train students from universities and academic institutions in the central Africa region on Internet, the implications it has for development, the current debates handled at the international basis, and governance principles resulting from the WSIS. The advent of new protagonists is necessary today to fuel the ICT stakeholders’ forum. In this way, students from academic institutions are the ideal group to foster and inform the current debates on Internet policy and governance. The project team will reach out to students via lectures, local workshops in six African countries, online courses, training of trainers, and an alumni mailing list. Sierra Leone: Sierra Leone Internet Exchange
In collaboration with the National ICT Task Force, ISOC funding will support the second component of a four-prong project, creating a Sierra Leone Internet Exchange Point. The larger project aims to extend the Internet in Sierra Leone, equitably and affordably through the development of a national ICT policy, establishing a Sierra Leone Network Information Center (NIC.SL) and creating guidelines for the development and use of ICT applications in critical sectors. Creating the Exchange Point will allow Sierra Leone’s ISPs to interconnect directly, via the local exchange, rather than having to send messages across international hops to their final destinations, thereby reducing costs, increasing speed, and reducing latency. Taiwan: IPv6 Training on Campus
ISOC-TW aims to complete the deployment of dual-stack IPv6 network access on four schools and provide a series of training courses to teach the students what IPv6 is and how to use IPv6 applications. For this joint project, the Ministry of Education, Republic of China (Taiwan) will provide the in-kind support to set up the dual-stack IPv6 network access on the four campuses. ISOC-TW will be responsible for the IPv6 training program to the teachers and students. This project is just the first step to promote IPv6 network to all the schools. If the project model is successful, the team would collaborate with the Ministry to apply the framework to different levels of schools. This pilot experience will be published as a handbook for other schools when they upgrade to an IPv6 network environment. See report (PDF). Ireland: 6ASSIST
Irish broadband access remains at the lower end of the European table with only 16.8% of the population having broadband access. At the Waterford Institute of Technology, the project team proposes to improve Internet services provided in Ireland by encouraging service providers and regulators to improve technical understanding, to promote regulations to encourage higher-quality Internet access for all, to improve the security of Internet connections for the end user, among a few. To achieve these objectives the team will hold a conference and workshop targeted at organizations in Ireland – both government bodies and private and public companies – and following the conference, create a website to provide ongoing education and encouragement for Internet improvements. Democratic Republic of Congo: Enable Internet Access in an Underserved Community in a Remote Area
Kokolopori, DRC is a community of 8,000 people who are severely impoverished due to their extreme geographic isolation and the complete deterioration of infrastructure in the region during the Congo War. Without cell phone towers or electricity, Kokolopori’s communication with the outside world is limited to a single satellite phone powered by diesel generator. The team will install solar panels capable of powering a laptop and an Internet satellite dish and modem. In addition, three refurbished laptops, a digital camera, and a satellite Internet connection will be provided. Training will be provided in the use of the solar panels, internet and email proficiency, to Kokolorpori’s healthcare workers, educators, conservationists and mircocredit participants. Sierra Leone: Unleashing the Power of Adolescent Girls
Girls face isolation and a sense of powerlessness all over the world today particularly in Sierra Leone. In Sierra Leone economies, girls are physically isolated in their homes by virtue of their role in domestic labor, and frequently emotionally isolated by silence – not just their own silence but their communities’ silence toward early marriage, early childbirth, sexual violence, HIV/AIDS and other results of girls’ social and economic vulnerability. Building upon the success of the local ICT Youth Corps of ChildHelp Sierra Leone, the project seeks to fortify the power of networking programs, both on and off-line, to connect girls in rural Sierra Leone, outside the confines of their homes and community norms. The project shall deal with a multitude of equipment software and services, with full range of ICTs using mobiles with Internet access, computers, and the Internet. Interim Report (PDF: 38KB)
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