Archive for: December 2009

As Chair of Internet Society Board of Trustees, I would like to take this opportunity to offer my best wishes for a wonderful New Year to Members, Chapters, partners, and friends around the world.

As a community joined by a vision of the Internet’s potential to foster global innovation and to benefit individual lives, I believe the past year provides us many reasons for confidence. Our collective efforts have helped make the Internet more accessible to an increasing number of people around the world. We have helped promote the adoption of technologies that are at the core of the Internet’s continued development.

Perhaps most importantly, we have helped those beyond our community understand that openness and transparency are not just chance features of today’s Internet, but properties intrinsic to its creation and continuing evolution, and that they must be preserved.

Thus, I look forward with much optimism to working with you in 2010 as we continue to advance the cause of an Internet for everyone.

Most sincerely,

Raúl Echeberría

Thanks for an Extraordinary Year of Achievements
from Lynn St.Amour, President and CEO of ISOC

Dear Members, Friends, and Colleagues,

The end of 2009 is here – and what a year it has been. The Internet Society continued to prosper in 2009, the results of our work reaching wider and deeper than ever before. So it is a pleasure to extend my sincere gratitude to all of you whose combined efforts, energy, and dedication have made this such a great year.

We often use the term “Internet community” and, looking back at the achievements of this year, it is clear that these are truly the result of a strong, committed community pulling together around shared values and principles.

It is impossible to list here all of the Internet Society’s achievements from such a busy and productive year, but I would like to single out a few highlights.

Community Grants Programme’s 10th round helps extend Internet’s reach and promote key technologies

[Washington, D.C., USA and Geneva, Switzerland--23 December 2009] The Internet Society (ISOC) today announced it is funding community-based projects around the world to promote Internet access and education in underserved communities, to track and highlight the deployment of IPv6–the next generation protocol key to the Internet’s continued growth, and to address issues such as online identity theft.

“These awards extend the Internet Society Community Grants Programme’s five-year tradition of providing tangible support for efforts by the Internet Society’s global community in realizing our shared vision that the Internet can be used to improve the life of people in all parts of the world,” said Jon McNerney, Chief Operating Officer of the Internet Society. “As the Internet becomes a larger part of everyday life in many parts of the world, it is even more important that we enable its use by the billions of people on every continent who today are without access.”

Dec 17: Vice President Biden announced initial recipients of grants in Round 1 of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) for an amount of $183m. The awards, spread across 17 states, will be matched by $46m from public and private contributors. A total of $2bn in awards are to be rolled over the next 75 days.

The National Economic Council today released a report, “Recovery Act Investment in Broadband: Leveraging Federal Dollars to Create Jobs and Connect America” which details how broadband investment will boost the economy.

Two funded projects are in rural New York State.

ISOC-NY is happy to once again be a community sponsor of the NY Tech Community Holiday Party. This is the premium event of the holiday season, if not the entire year, when the City’s tech community gets together to not just network and grab sponsor freebies, but to have a jolly good time. It’s always well attended so RSVP ASAP!!

What: NY Tech Community Holiday Party
When: Monday December 21 2009 7pm
Where: Forum, 127 Fourth Avenue (bet 12th & 13th)
RSVP: http://www.bootup.io/holiday-party

New York, NY – On Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 10 AM in the Council Chambers of City Hall, the New York City Council Committees on Technology in Government and Small Business held a joint public hearing to examine how small technology start-ups are surviving in this tough economy.  This hearing will help the Council understand the dynamics behind successful firms as well as what options are available to the City in aiding these important businesses in their struggle to remain competitive and viable in a global environment.

twitter:  #nycstartup
blog:  www.nycctechcomm.wordpress.com.

Archived webcast and the twitter feed are embedded below.

There have been two recent NYC events that have pitched supporters and opponents of Net Neutrality against each other – the TechDebate and the NYC Council Public Hearing. The FCC has mooted its six principles of net neutrality And Rep. Ed Markey has introduced the new bill H.R. 3458 aka the ‘Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009′ in Congress. For their part, Republicans have come up with two opposing bills. As noted in the Council hearing the Internet Society’s stance on this matter is somewhat neutral, suggesting that regulators concentrate on optimizing user choice.

Where do you stand? Please click the link below to vote!

TEDxNYED will be an all day conference in NYC on Mar 6, 2010. It is designed to examine education and the impact of new media and technology. Speakers are challenged to share innovative insights and inspire conversations about the future of education. Attendees are challenged to rise to the occasion: learn for themselves, educate each other and, following the spirit of TED, spread these ideas.

10 December 2009 – The ISOC Nominations Committee seeks statements of interest from individuals who wish to join the Board of Trustees.

In 2010, three positions on the Board of Trustees are open for election. Two Trustees will be elected by ISOC Organizational Members and one by ISOC Chapters. The Trustee positions are 3-year terms that start June 2010 and expire June 2013.

At this month’s meeting, the ISOC Board of Trustees passed a resolution in support of the W3C‘s efforts to provide a more agile, inclusive, and flexible organizational structure in support of the Web community. The resolution approved an agreement for ISOC to provide the W3C staff expertise in complementary areas, as well as funding.

ISOC-NY will be holding it’s end-of-year members meeting on Wed Dec 9 at NYU.

What: ISOC-NY Members meeting
When: Wed. December 9 2009 6.30pm-8.30pm
Where: Room 317, Warren Weaver Hall, 251 Mercer Street NYC (SW corner of West 4th) (See note below)