Prof. Nii Quaynor Wins Internet Society’s Jonathan B. Postel Service Award for Pioneering Work to Advance the Internet in Africa

The Internet Society has awarded pioneering Internet engineer Nii Quaynor the prestigious Jonathan B. Postel Service Award for 2007 for his leadership in advancing Internet technology in Africa and galvanizing technologists to improve Internet access and capabilities throughout the continent. The Internet Society presented the award, including a $20,000 [USD] honorarium, during the 70th meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

“Dr. Quaynor has selflessly pioneered Internet development and expansion throughout Africa for nearly two decades, enabling profound advances in information access, education, healthcare and commerce for African countries and their citizens,” said Internet Society president Lynn St. Amour. “Today, Dr. Quaynor continues to champion not just technological advances but also African involvement in Internet standards, processes and deployments, discussion on Internet policies and regulations, and ensuring African interests are well-represented globally. He has shaped a community of Africans who share his vision and reflect the dedication shown by Jon Postel.”

“I am humbled by the award and what Jon Postel represents to our community in Africa. Jon Postel’s efforts and the global view he maintained on the operation of the domain name system and the numbering services assured that Africa would share in the Internet growth and early. I thank the Internet Society for the recognition and am very pleased to be associated with Jon’s memorial,” said Dr. Nii Quaynor. “We will work to develop more African engineers to meet the fast network growth needs of the region, being a late starter, and to join the technical policy processes. Our overall objective is to strengthen education and research in network technologies in Africa.”

The annual Internet Society award is named after Dr. Jonathan B. Postel to commemorate his extraordinary stewardship exercised throughout his thirty-year career in networking. Between 1971 and 1998, Postel managed, nurtured and transformed the RFC series of notes, which encompasses the technical specifications and recommendations for the Internet and was created by Steve Crocker in 1969 as a part of his work on the Arpanet, the forerunner of today’s Internet. Postel was a founding member of the Internet Architecture Board and the first individual member of the Internet Society, where he also served as a trustee until his untimely death.

Dr. Quaynor is chairman of Network Computer Systems (NCS) Ghana.COM and a professor of computer science at University of Cape-Coast, Ghana. He is also the convener of the African Network Operators Group (AfNOG), a network technology transfer institution since 2000 and the founding chairman of AfriNIC, the African numbers registry.

Dr. Quaynor began his pioneering Internet work in Africa in 1993 when he returned to his home country of Ghana to establish the first Internet Service operated by NCS in West Africa. At NCS, he and his team worked on the early development of the Internet in Africa. Today, there are more than 43 million Internet users in Africa.

Prior to NCS, Dr. Quaynor worked with Digital Equipment Corporation in the United States from 1977 till 1992. In 1979, he established the Computer Science department at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Dr. Quaynor graduated from Dartmouth College in 1972 with B.A (Engineering Science) and received a Ph.D. (Computer Science) in distributed systems in 1977 from State University of New York at Stony Brook.

About the Jonathan B. Postel Service Award

The Jonathan B. Postel Service Award was established by the Internet Society to honor those who, like Postel, have made outstanding contributions in service to the data communications community. The award is focused on sustained and substantial technical contributions, service to the community, and leadership. With respect to leadership, the nominating committee places particular emphasis on candidates who have supported and enabled others in addition to their own specific actions.

Previous recipients of the Postel Award include Jon himself (posthumously and accepted by his mother), Scott Bradner, Daniel Karrenberg, Stephen Wolff, Peter Kirstein, Phill Gross, Jun Murai, Bob Braden, and Joyce K. Reynolds. The award consists of an engraved crystal globe and $20,000 [USD].

This year’s award is sponsored in part by Afilias Global Registry Services.

About the Internet Society

The Internet Society is an independent international nonprofit organization founded in 1992 to provide leadership in Internet related standards, education, and policy. With offices in Washington, DC, and Geneva, Switzerland, and with more than 80 chapters worldwide, it is dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world.

Source: Reston, VA and Geneva , Switzerland – 5 December 2007

 

ICT – A platform for Accelerated Development in Ghana’s Goldern Jubilee

GINKS’ Week celebration is on the use of ICT for Ghana’s accelerated development. As part of activities, Two officers of GINKS were interviewed by GTV on their popular Breafast Show on Monday 29th October 2007.

This video is a recording of the interview. Present were Mr. Edward Addo-Dankwa, Board member and the Chair of Events sub committee of GINKS, and Mr Ibrahim Inusah, Executive Secretary of GINKS. The interview focused mainly on GINKS and it’s role in ICT for Development, with special emphacies on Agriculture. Activities for the GINKS week were also discussed

Formats available: MPEG4 Video (.mp4)

 

The Mesh Technology

The Mesh Technology is one of the presetations made at a workshop (Tech Forum) organised by GINKS, and other partners, with support from IICD.

 

GIMPA upgrades Computer Labs on Campus

In April 2007, I did a Post Graduate course in Agricultural Administration (CAA) at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).  GIMPA is situated on a small hill between the University of Ghana, Legon and the Achimota School.  GIMPA is popualarly known as the Green Hill, depicting the greenery scenery and the serene atmosphere on the campus. GIMPA is currently refered to as the most pregressive university in the whole country of Ghana.  I have no data to support this assertion though, but I am inclined to believe it.  I can however say that it has one of the best and most recent facilities that can be found on any university campus in Ghana.  These not withstanding, GIMPA has some very very serious challenges.  Hospitality is a total mess, an opinion shared by many who have currently taken any residential program in GIMPA.  This is however not the mail focus of this story.  Let’s move on then……..

Being a systems person, the first thing I looked for when I got on campus was how I was going to access my mails.  It took me over a week after I had enrolled in my program, to get my ID card, and therefore my student ID.  This ID is one’s passport to any facility on campus.  It took me another one week to get my details in the computer database, which gave me access to computer facilities on campus.  Well at least, I got access to my emails at last.  I wondered why they did not have a centralised computerised system to manage students.  It would have be excellent if after registering with my school (The Public Service School) my date is sent to all relevant sections, without having to manually send the same date to all these sections for inputing.

 GIMPA had about 4 computer labs, not counting the Video Conferencing facilities.  Computers in these labs were some very old pentium III systems with very slow processing speeds.  Although GIPMA has a couple of VSATs, it took almost forever for one to open a web page.  It was even more frustrating if one had to download files bigger that 1 mb.  OS on some of these machines kept on crashing at least twice a day.  Computers in the lecture room were even worse.  Oh, these were even stand alones.  They were not connected to the GIMPA LAN.  Some of these were breeding places for viruses.  This was because each lecturere had to bring his or her own pen drive to use it, hence spreading the viruses.  “A center of Excellence Indeed” were some of the comments you hear on campus at least five times a day.

I came back again this September to do another program and had a pleasant surprise.  The processes have not improved at all.  Again, it took clsoe to 2 weeks to get my ID in the database to enable me access my email.  The shocker was the computer labs.  GIMPA has now set up a huge computer lab with very new computers with flat screens and very high processing speeds.  The old PIIIs in the biggest lab has also been replaced with very new systems.  Of course I have a problem with the network setup, but hey, a very progressive improvement there!!! I am hearing that they are going to replace the systems in all the other labs, and also implement a wi fi system to cover the whole campus.  Hmmm!!! I can’t wait to see that.  I am also told that they are working around the clock to implement a management system that will take care of issues about student registration and others.  I am told the contract has either been awarded already or is about to be awarded.   A Center of Excellent Indeed !!!!!!!.  But I think something serious should be done about Hospitality.  It is really a very dark spot.  More on GIMPA later.  Cheers !!!!

 

ACCASI Club in School

ICT is not only the for schooled. The unschooled also have the opportunity to interface with ICT … but at least they should have some training. They should at least know what the tools are to be able to use them effectively. This is what GINKS did it its reserch project at Ekumfi Atakwaa. The test group was called ACCASI – (Atakwaa Community Center for Agri-info Sharing through ICT). The name is self explanatoty. To be able to use the tools effectively, there was the need to take the club members who were mosly uneducated adults between the ages of 45 and 50, through an adult literacy programme. They were trained in how to read the vernacular for that community – Fante. The faciltator was Teacher Isaac, also from the community.

This video shows one of the class session. They are going through spelling and reading two and three letter words. The video is in the Fante language. Enjoy it