Internet Society members from around the world are gathering online this week for Intercommunity 2016. But in a big, geographically spread out, international organization like ISOC, sometimes it’s hard to get to know your fellow members. We talked to a few members from around the world to find out what they love about the Internet, and ISOC, and what they’re looking forward to at Intercommunity.
“The Internet is the most democratic system of all, because the cost of sending signal is the same as receiving it unlike traditional media. That has allowed me to create content to influence changes in my country and in my community. I’m looking forward to IComm 2016 for the chance of meeting people that know about the power of change the internet has and can show me new ways of using that. I’m particularly interested in how to get more women involved in technology. Society has always described computer science as just for men, but it is not like that. Women involved in this science is because women can bring more innovation, different ideas, different projects and can develop and provide bright ideas in technology.”
– Manuela, Dominican Republic
“I first connected to the Internet at an Internet Cafe in the year 2002. It was when I created my first email address. It was such an exciting experience for me. I’d already read so much about computing and the Internet. Since then, the longest I’ve gone without being online is a week. I am looking forward to finding out ways the Internet can be made accessible to people in remote villages in my country, Ghana. Most rural areas have no means of connecting to the Internet or even cellular network.”
Julius, Ghana
“I learned that the Internet is the most democratic system of all because the cost of sending signal is the same as receiving it unlike traditional media. That has allowed me to create content to influence changes in my country and in my community. I’m looking forward to IComm because it gives me the chance to meet people that know about the power of change the Internet have and can show me new ways of doing that.”
Victor, Venezuela
“I learned to be a sysadmin online. I literally learned my job from the Internet. Back in 2001 I got a job, doing technical support, at a small local cable company called Sun Country Cable. Sun Country had just shy of 1000 customers that shared a 10Mb Internet connection. At the time I had almost no knowledge of networking. I honestly couldn’t tell you what the difference was between a router, a switch or a hub. My practical computer experience was mostly limited to messing around on windows 95, 98 and 2000. Shortly after I landed that job, the sysadmin/network admin, that had built the ethernet/IP network and all services, left. So an ASP programmer friend and I decided we could manage the network and systems together. My friend had never seen Linux before, so I was the “Linux expert”, but he had some ASP programming skills and was able to manage the NT web server that we had, so we got to work on figuring everything out. I would work my 8 hours at Sun Country and then go home to my wife and 1yr old son and stay up late into the night, online, reading articles and mailing list postings in an effort to understand what it was I had seen that day at work. The learning curve was pretty much straight up.”
Mason, Canada
“What I’m looking forward to about IComm is the open sessions and remote viewing from different parts of the world. I’m excited to have different people coming together to talk about policies, governance and technologies on Internet.”
Mel, Philippines
“In heard about the Internet Society in 2016. I was motivated to join because of the Society’s goal of connecting the unconnected globally. This goal align with the goal of my Digital Entrepreneurship project, which is to encourage Nigerian youth maximize income earning potentials of the Internet.”
Oulsoji, Nigeria
Want to join this awesome bunch?
Become a member and join our passion crew of volunteers who believe when people have access to the Internet and can make the most of – opportunity is right around the corner!