The winner of this year’s Chapterthon was announced this Tuesday, 4 December during InterCommunity 2018.
Chapterthon is a global Internet Society (ISOC) Chapters and Special Interest Groups (SIGs) marathon, where all the Internet Society members can participate by developing a project within a timeline and budget to achieve a common goal. The project winner is selected by the community through online vote.
This year our community worked on the Internet of Things (IoT) – The future is ours to shape.
Every year, the Chapterthon brings enthusiasm and excitement amongst our community. During two and half months, 43 Chapters and Special Interest Groups (SIGs) from across the globe worked alongside to bring awareness on the Internet of Things (IoT) to their communities. They ran over 200 training sessions and workshops, engaging students, entrepreneurs, and local governments. They organized national campaigns, their projects were mentioned in local newspapers, and their message was brought to the most remote places. The Chapters also developed IoT applications that may in the future improve the lives of people in their communities, and amongst some of the projects are improved transport systems, agriculture, energy management, home protection, and healthcare.
The projects that received the highest number of votes are:
First Place: Benin Chapter – IoT LowHightech – A connected object creation workshop
The project is a connected object creation workshop with recycled material followed by a public lecture. An awareness campaign and training in the creation of connected objects took place during 5 days of activities at the University of Abomey Calavi with a free initiation of 20 people (10 women and 10 men) over a period of 4 days. The project reached out to approximately 150 people in relation to possibilities offered by connected objects and the challenges of security.
Second place: Brazil Chapter – InspetorNET – A smart device to inspect small ISP infrastructure
The project goal was to develop an IoT device to help small ISP and community networks to deliver better service, particularly in regions lacking proper infrastructure. The device will help to monitor and predict potential problems in the network due to environmental conditions and electrical network problems.
Third place: Afghanistan Chapter – Incredible IoT
The project proposed an awareness of IoT topics, where school and university students will learn from technologists and IoT experts through information sessions, a bootcamp, and a hacking project in target schools. Students will develop IoT pilot projects using Arduino kits and conduct ethical hacking showing the importance of IoT security. A wrap-up event and an exposure visit will be held in Kabul University.
Congratulations to the Benin Chapter, Winner of Chapterthon 2018, and to the three finalists!
We would also like to thank all of the Chapters that participated in this year’s Chapterthon and helped make it a success!
While we are all excited by the success of the projects implemented and proud of our community, we are also aware of how much still needs to be done to make the Internet of Things a reality in all parts of the world, as said by the many testimonials from our Chapters:
Mali Chapter: “In a word, this project has made it possible to highlight that the Internet of Things is no longer a myth for developing countries, it is a reality. Everyone can implement it to help their community.”
Bangladesh Dhaka Chapter: “Our workshops are completed, but we want to continue. We want to spread IoT at all school levels in Bangladesh.”
Barbados Chapter: “We identified 500 individual students who were exposed to the Co-Pilot Pass Wi-Fi system and the IoT videos. Just imagine how many people could be exposed to safe IoT usage if this method was introduced on a busy transit system with hundreds of users.”
The Chapterthon, once again, was a success not only by the global level it reached, but also by showing that through commitment and hard work, we can shape the future!
Thank you Internet Society Community!
Watch the projects video:
https://youtu.be/YUPjngQrF9Y
We’re looking for new ideas from people all over the world on how you can empower your community using the Internet. The Beyond the Net Funding Programme funds projects up to $30,000.