PacINET 2011 EVENT SUMMARY
The PacINET Conference is an annual event of the Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society (PICISOC). This year the event was held in American Samoa and coordinated jointly by the PICISOC and the American Samoa Government’s Information Technology Department. The theme for this year’s PacINET conference was Strengthening Pacific Communities – shaping the future with Information Communication Technology (ICT). The event ran from November 7th through 11th and was held at the H. Rex Lee Auditorium in the village of Utulei. A mix of government representatives, members of the private sector, the community and non-government organizations gathered to take part in the event. The conference was comprised of presentations, demonstrations, workshops, panel discussions, on internet topics both technical and non-technical in nature. Presenters and panel members were made up of experts from throughout the Pacific region, including American Samoa and the United States.

Organizing Team
The PacINET conference was organized in a joint by the PICISOC Board Members and the staff of the American Samoa Information Technology Department. A combination of local presenters from American Samoa and the Pacific region were assembled to speak about various ICT topics for the week of the event. PICISOC members coordinated the presenters from the Pacific Island countries and territories while the ITD staff coordinated local presenters and panel members as well as securing Thomas Duffy from the US Federal Government.

APNIC Workshop
As part of the PacINET conference, Mr. Champika Wijayatunga, Training Unit Manager for the Asia-Pacific? Network Information Centre, and his staff – Ms. Elly Tawhai and Ms. Sheryl Hermoso – provided technical training to IT professional staff from American Samoa. The major topics covered by the APNIC trainers DNS Security, internet routing basics, and IP address notation and subnet allocation. Feedback from attendees of the workshop was incredibly positive, and there was a sense that additional training was going to be sought after to keep the momentum after the workshop and further the professional development of those who attended the week’s workshop.

Presentation Abstracts
The presentations were diverse and wide-ranging in their scope. While there were many technical topics that were aimed at professional IT staff, there were also topics that were designed for leaders of government and non-government, as well as the private sector and public. Panels of local presenters highlighted ICT work being done in the territory along with the individuals who are fueling the IT movement in the territory.

Below is a list of abstracts from the presentations given during the week of the PacINET conference. Any accompanying PowerPoint? presentations and documents are available and will be sent to registered attendees as well as PICISOC members.

Keynote Address – Information Technology: Not Just Hardware and Software
Keynote speaker from the event’s opening ceremony was Mike Monroe, the founder and owner of Koa Hills Consultants. His address was on the expanding realm of information technology. Among the components of a successful IT strategy, Monroe highlights strong project management, a thorough business process review, a well-educated staff, committed vendors and a strong communication plan. He stressed the need for communication planning, outlining methods of communication, marketing strategies, and outlining a plan that suits all involved parties.

The Church in the E-World: The Future of the Church in the 21st Century
Reverend Dr. Niuatoa discussed the ways in which the church has begun using the internet and particularly social media sites to expand their outreach efforts. In recent years, there has been a concerted effort on behalf of several local churches to utilize the internet for furthering their recruitment and keeping members up to date on key issues and upcoming events. Several pastors are now posting their sermon messages online for the congregation as well as visitors to the websites to view.

Questions were raised during the discussion as to whether there were issues – bullying, stalking, vulgar material for example – which stemmed from the use of social media. Reverend Niuatoa said that he was not aware of any, and that the church had made it a priority to educate members, particularly the youth, on sound practices in the social media online realm.

Reverend Niuatoa stated that the church would continue to expand upon the use of the internet in the near future. According to him, the internet provides a great tool to enhancing the church’s mission. It is the responsibility of church leaders everywhere to take advantage of the technology available to them to reach out to people. While many church leaders shun the internet because of amount easily accessible material that is deemed inappropriate by Judeo-Christian? standards.

A Day in the Life of an ICT Enabled Pacific Village
In his presentation, Don Hollander painted a vivid picture of how a Pacific island community can take advantage of various information communication technologies to not only streamline business and government processes, but also enhance quality of life. Touching on many Pacific island commonalities such as religion, agriculture, education, commerce, and health care, Hollander was able to illustrate how ICT is a powerful tool for enhancing the overall quality of life and improving on dated processes in the Pacific region.

Access for All
In a joint presentation, Gunela Astbrink of ISOC Australia, Suria Apulu and Fa’aolo Masunu Utumapu of NOLA in Samoa, and Rheema Misa of NATA in Tonga discussed issues surrounding providing internet access for all. The three main hurdles involved in offering universal access are accessibility, affordability, and availability. Gunela reminded the audience that it is imperative that to include the entire community, people with disabilities must be included. She also provided information on organizations that advocate accessibility for individuals with disabilities in the Pacific region.

Astbrink stressed the need for technology to be developed ad hoc, with the needs of the whole community considered rather than trying to create peripherals and work-around solutions post-development. Such inclusive design strategies would be central in providing truly universal access. There was discussion on how the internet can be either a way of imposing barriers to people with disabilities or a tool for enabling those same individuals.

In her presentation, Astbrink suggested to the audience that perhaps American Samoa should sign and ratify the document created at the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, joining over 100 countries that have previously done so.

Center for Internet Security
Thomas Duffy of the Center for Internet Security (CIS), discussed the need for American Samoa to take its recently formed Cyber Security Working Group’s mandate very seriously in his presentation. He discussed the role that the Multi-State? Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) plays in collaborating and cooperating with state, local and territory governments through centralized outreach, awareness, and bidirectional information sharing. This digital infrastructure he spoke of has in fact been identified by the country’s President as a strategic national asset. Cyber security, according to Duffy, is the responsibility of everyone. Using a very staggering statistic to drive home the reality of the threat, Duffy shared that the US has annually lost $1 trillion dollars to cyber crime. Reasons for this incredible amount of loss include the enormous amount of interconnectivity between people, businesses, government and non-government entities, software vulnerabilities, systems not being properly updated, poor application coding, human factor of targeted phishing attacks, and the fact that adversaries are sophisticated, organized and extremely intelligent.

Duffy urges American Samoa to reach out to Asian-Pacific? partners to work together to address cyber security issues. The new model for security includes state, local and federal levels with private and public, domestic and international layers. He warned that we are all being targeted, and the threat is growing. The time for collaboration and action is now.

Business Process Re-Engineering?
Keynote speaker Mike Monroe of Koa Hills Consulting spoke to the audience about BPR and how its successful implementation can assist members of a team how the organization does things while implementing changes that will help them streamline operations in a more cost-effective manner. Any organization or office undertaking the task of BPR must avoid the tendency to replicate legacy systems while installing a new system or overhauling an existing one. Innovation and practicality are the keys to developing such a plan. A successful business process review needs the following items to be drawn up for proper implementation: an as-is map, a to-be map, a set of recommended changes, and a gap analysis. A thorough collection of relevant forms and reports – mandated local, state, and federal reports, organizational charts, project statuses, inventories and policies and procedures – must be undertaken when a BPR is undertaken. Pertinent questions must be asked in the BPR process, why it’s being done, what is the driving reason for undergoing a policy or process change and whether there is a lack of functionality in the current system which is at the root of the need for a change.

Digital Solidarity Fund
Presented by PICISOC Chairman, Maureen Hilyard, this report was put together by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service and described the Hong Kong Council’s role, some background on the Digital Solidarity Fund, the process involved in grant creation, and some of the current funded projects with a look at challenges and next steps. According to Hong Kong Census and Statistics figures, only 34.4% of households earning less than $10,000HKD had internet access. Another figure provided by the census showed that the majority of computer users are younger than 35 years of age, with people aged 65 or older, only 9.4% reported that they used computers. The Hong Kong Council of Social Service’s mission is to seek out funding for digital inclusion programs in Hong Kong and engage multi-stakeholders in designing and implementing digital inclusion strategies. Those parties which are beneficiaries to the Council’s work include the elderly, persons with disabilities, single parent families, low-income families, new arrivals, women, at-risk youth, and ethnic minorities. The three major types of programs funded by the Council’s grants are ICT access and infrastructure, ICT knowledge and skills, and integration of ICT disadvantaged groups into society. In concluding, Hilyard listed finding suitable funding sources and grant evaluation as two of the major hurdles for the Council’s work.

GIS Applications in Spatial Planning
Dr. Mohan Seetharam of the AS Department of Commerce delivered a presentation on Geographical Information Systems. He provided an overview of spatial planning and the benefits of its utilization, and described how using a geographical information system assisted in multi-criteria decision making. After a brief description of GIS and spatial planning in general, Dr. Seetharam spoke about some of the important criteria involved with using GIS in a remote, insular area. Those criteria include aquifer recharge zones, flood risk areas, road and shoreline setbacks, shallow soils, landslide risks, stream and well setback and protected areas. GIS takes these criteria and creates and modifies spatial data in various layers. While the technology provides a way to combine several key data layers, there are still inherent challenges to using GIS. In the presentation, Dr. Seetharam outlines the need for an iterative and flexible planning process to be a truly community-based plan. Additionally, successful GIS initiatives require a great deal of interagency cooperation to share data and collaborate on projects utilizing GIS. Lastly, there needs to be a more solid data infrastructure to support the gathering, processing, storage and maintenance of geospatial data.

ICANN Update and New
Presenter, Save Vocea, of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), gave the audience an overview of ICANN’s history and current work. ICANN uses a multi-stakeholder model which includes multi-level participation from a wide variety of members. The presentation included information on the commercialization of domaining, which has provided new opportunities for business globally. According to Vocea, internet users today do not interact with registry operators but can register names by using ICANN-accredited registrars. ICANN is currently undergoing work to enable unlimited top-level domain names or extensions into domain name space. These will be managed by ICANN. Vocea commented that removing limitations to ASCII gTLDs, creating a platform to innovation in internet commerce, and opening doors to increase market competition are all reasons for expanding the top-level. ICANN’s work will potentially have a vast, global impact on business, creating opportunity, competition and being a catalyst for system upgrades, and applications to accept new TLDs. ICANN’s work will allow for more globally and culturally inclusive internet communities with an increase in cultural, linguistic and geographic communities.

Internet Governance
Mr. Keith Davidson, the International Director for InternetNZ, provided led the discussion on internet governance in three sessions which included an introductory presentation to IGF, two panels of IGF discussion, and a look at next steps and immediate actions. Davidson set the tone very early in his presentation telling attendees that they are in the midst of the next big revolution in human history. With the potential to have an even larger impact globally than the industrial revolution or Iron Age, the technical revolution has been vaulted forward with advances to internet technology. Davidson walked the audience through the history of IGF and the necessary multi-stakeholder structure. Challenges posed include the deployment of new technologies without interference from governments, and individuals understanding that the internet is everyone’s domain, and that it requires as many people as possible to become a part of the solution.

During the first panel discussion of the IGF session, Ms. Maureen Hilyard used a beach picnic to illustrate how Diplo Internet Governance operates. Hilyard walked attendees through the infrastructure and its three levels (content and applications, protocols and standards and services, and telecom infrastructure), likening the levels to building a campfire through different levels of burning material. The legal portion of the IGF involves establishing consumer protection and building a regulatory framework while outlining jurisdictions and intellectual property and consumer protection rights, and whether a real law or cyber law approach is preferable. The third tier of the Diplo IGF discussion centered around commerce, and the exchange of multiple partners. Hilyard quoted an ICANN report that stated that “The private sector should lead…enforce a predictable, minimalistic, consistent and simple legal environment for e-Commerce.” (1997) The other branch discussed was the socio-cultural tier, in which education, R&D, security, privacy and multilingualism must be accounted for in order to breakdown barriers and create new patterns of social communication. The need for IGF is constantly growing to meet the growing needs of ever-increasing users. The Diplo IGF model depends heavily on infrastructure, and exponential growth and development of the internet and associated governance responsibilities will translate to a system that is constantly being upgrading and revised to suit the ever-growing needs of users.

In a second presentation from the panel, Ms. Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro, of the Global Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus, discussed the Diplo Foundation and what it can offer people in the Pacific. The presentation began with an overview of the foundation and its history. Also covered in the presentation was the localization and translation between the development of e-Content (training and outreach materials to multistakeholder target group) and the capacity development program which looks at online training, research, policy needs and immersion and facilitating communities of practice. According to Tamanikaiwaimaro, over the past 7 years, over 1,000 professionals from more than 140 countries have been trained while national, regional and global expert communities have been established. She urged the attendees to become directly involved by joining PICISOC, the Pacific IGF, and signing up for training.

Transparency and Accountability in Grants System
Presented by Miss Petti Matila of the American Samoa Economic Stimulus and Recovery Office, the information in this session was pertinent to any individuals who work with federal grant funding and seek more efficient grant management capabilities. According to Matila, the system was devised as a direct result of the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, the Federal Financial Management Assistance Improvement Act of 1999 (PL 106-107), the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, President Obama’s Transparency and Open Government Directive, and GAO 10-347. The system is designed to help address such issues as improper grant recipient activities, redirection of funds, grant management data discrepancies, a lack of grant management, transparency and accountability, and increased single audit findings on unallowable costs. TAGS was developed specifically for Pacific insular jurisdictions to report DOI grants while granting public access and allowing for future expansion to include non-DOI grants for more transparency and accountability. The system is set up to assist government leaders, the public, grantors and grantees. CNMI, American Samoa and Pohnpei have all endorsed the system and will adopt TAGS thus far.

---