PacINET 2007 kicked off today at the FFA Conference Centre in Honiara, with some 200 participants in attendance. The meeting was officially opened this morning by Solomon Islands Prime Minister, Hon Manasseh Sogavare.

“At that time, Sam Taufao, who was then working at the FFA and currently the IT Manager of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), had returned from a UNESCO-sponsored meeting where he had heard about the Internet Society,” explained Mr Singh.

“He proposed the establishment of the Pacific Islands Chapter at a regional gathering of ICT managers being held at these very premises, and thus, PICISOC was born, chartered by the Internet Society in July 1999.”

Mr Singh remarked that much had happened with the Internet and technology world since.

“Our membership has grown in leaps and bounds, and is approaching 500 across the region and beyond,” he said.

“PacNET, which is PICISOC’s annual conference and AGM, is now firmly established as the region’s premier ICT event, and attendance numbers from local, regional and international participants continues to grow year after year.”

Mr Singh added that the PacINET 2007 agenda and programme was rich and diverse, covering various issues facing the Internet and its use today.

These include developments in Internet governance, ICT in education, approaches to SPAM and security, the introduction of the new Internet numbering standard (IPv6) and Voice over Internet (VoIP), among others.

Guest speakers at PacINET 2007 include John Crain, ICANN CTO and Dr Jimmie Rogers, Director General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC). Dr Vinton G. Cerf , considered one of the fathers of the Internet and Vice President at Google, has also prepared a keynote message to participants via video.

The main conference is split in two streams - policy and technical - where workshops will be conducted providing training to participants.

Some 30 participants at PacINET 2007 were sponsored to the meeting by Pacific Internet Partners (PIP), Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.

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