ICANN to hold 37th international meeting in Nairobi

Despite security concerns, ICANN has decided to hold its 37th international meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. The meeting will run March 7-12. It will be hosted by the Kenya Network Information Centre (KENIC), the operator of the country’s ccTLD.

Though ICANN has been criticized in the past for spending too much money on its international events, the non-profit claims its overseas meetings are necessary to foster international cooperation.

ICANN’s decision to convene in Nairobi is a key achievement in the development of African IT. Hopefully it will bring more attention to the continent’s technology needs. More details about the event can be found here.

Photo | hisks

Web founder Sir Tim Berners-Lee to visit Kenya

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a man widely considered to be the founder of the modern web, is embarking on a 4-day trip to Kenya. While there, he will collaborate with leaders about increasing Internet usage and also launch activities for the new World Wide Web Foundation.

The East African country has been host to a hotbed of Internet industry activity lately. The country has just been connected to a new cross-ocean fiber optic cable, significantly increasing the bandwidth available to the region. In 2010, it will host an ICANN meeting.

Currently, 8.6% of the population– 3.3 million Kenyans– has Internet access. This is a huge jump from the year 2000, when only 200,000 people, or 0.7% of the population, could access the web.

Source | Kenya Broadcasting Corporation

Africa may lead the world in IPv6 adoption

With IPv4 addresses set to run out by 2011, Internet administrators have been pushing for a switch to the new IPv6 system. Unfortunately, very few data centers have adopted the new system because of past investments made in IPv4 and the cost to upgrade.

This is why some industry experts believe Africa, a continent that has made very little investment in IT infrastructure, may lead the world in IPv6 adoption. As Calvin Brown, director of Uniform, the company that administrates the .co.za domain, put it:

The rate of IPv6 adoption in Africa seems to be higher than in other regions. It seems that this may be an area where being behind can help us get ahead

In Kenya, IPv6 has been running on the .ke registry servers since 2006. Other countries, such as Ghana, have held forums and training seminars in an attempt to educate server administrators about the need to abandon IPv4, but few have made the switch to IPv6.

One of the benefits of starting late in any situation is the ability to gain from already acquired knowledge. Though Africa may be late to the technology game, it can learn from the West’s past mistakes and build its infrastructure with the newest equipment.

Source | Computer World

Photo | Flickr