STOP PRESS (26 Jan 2010) Now is the time to let people know that you are interested in receiving Internet Governance training. Go to the IGF Blog for more details.


The Diplo Foundation are offering online study for Internet Governance

What is the Diplo Foundation?
Diplo Foundation Capacity Development Programme is designed to assist ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) countries in Information and Communication Technologies Policy and Internet Governance

The DiploFoundation? announces the opening of the ACP Information and Communication Technologies(ICT) and Internet Governance (IG) Capacity Development Programme call for applications to all government and sub-regional/regional institutions of ACP countries involved in ICT and Internet governance policy as well as civil society, business, academia, media and other interested individuals or groups.

The applicants are required to have:
• basic awareness of and interest in issues related to the Information society, Information and
Communication Technologies and Internet Governance;
• knowledge and/or experience of the multistakeholder approach in international affairs;
• fluency in English, as well as fluency in French for applicants to the bilingual group;
• good writing skills, ability to summarise information and focus on details;
• regular access to the Internet (dial-up connection is sufficient);
• minimum of 8 hours commitment per week during each phase of the programme. This is
perhaps the single most important requirement and should be evaluated seriously by
any potential applicant;
• readiness to participate in online consultations (once a week at specified times).

More info at
http://www.diplomacy.edu/acp/.

Please send an email to Maureen Hilyard if you are interested in this training.

PacGISRS 2008
PacGISRS 2007.

PICISOC Vice Chairperson Maureen Hilyard and Secretary Anju Mangal attended the recent Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt on 15-18 November 2009. Our PICISOC board members left the meeting feeling that there was a lot of work to be done in the Pacific about governing the Internet in ways that makes the Internet available to everybody but in a safe and secure way.

What is the IGF?
The IGF, formed in 2006, came out of the second meeting of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis, 2005. The purpose of the IGF is to support the United Nations Secretary General in carrying out the mandate from WSIS to convene a forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue about governing and regulating the Internet – hence the name the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).

If you have an interest in ICT policy in your country you should be interested in the IGF. You can find out more about its last meeting by going to the IGF website http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/.

ISOC has a IGF Blog which provides some more information about the conference http://isoc.org/wp/igf2009/.

Watch this space to find out ways to become more involved in Internet Governance in the region. The first thing you can do is to join PICISOC if you are not member (Look top right on this webpage.)

Also keep your eye on blog posts (left column)

The first meeting of the new PICISOC board was held on Tuesday 3 November 2009. The first task of the new board was to appoint office holders . The following board members were appointed as office holders:

1) President: Andrew Molivurae
2) Vice President: Maureen Hilyard,
3) Chapter Secretary: Anju Mangal
4) Chapter Treasurer or Financial Officer: Les Allinson

Other board members are:
David Leeming
Franck Martin
William Tibben

Before concluding its first meeting the PICISOC Board placed on the record a vote of thanks to the previous board members for the great job they did.

"We also thank our dedicated PICISOC members who continue to make a difference. You are the foundation we continue to build on. The success of PICISOC is directly attributed to your continuous efforts and support."

We have asked our members in Samoa what is urgently needed, and what we could offer. Green Power of Vanuatu has offered to sell at cost (about USD50) the radios. Digicel Vanuatu will pay for the shipping to Samoa, where our members there, coordinated by Dave Main from CSL, and the NDMO will distribute the radios to the families affected by the recent Tsunami. Tonga has been covered in this area by an other organisation. PICISOC will contribute FJD1000 or about USD500, we are calling on all our members to contribute to this cause. People there have lost everything and these radios will allow them to receive news. Today 8 October there was another Tsunami warning showing that communication are urgently needed for people with nothing left.

To contribute send the money to:

Account Name: Green Power
Account Number: 1219895
Currency: VUV (Vanuatu Vatu)
Bank: Anz Bank, Port Vila, Branch, PMB 9003, Lini Highway, Vanuatu
SWIFT: ANZBVUVX

Please send an email to our member David Stein at to alert him of the transferred money. Our objective is to raise USD5,000 before Friday 16th October to cover about 100 families in Samoa.

Statements from the candidates to the upcoming broard elections can be found here at
http://www.picisoc.org/PICISOC+Elections+2009

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