2. What is the Internet Society?
The Internet Society (ISOC) is a cause-based organization that works with
governments, industries, and others to ensure the technologies and policies
that helped develop and evolve the Internet will continue into the future.
Our programs cultivate an Internet that is open to everyone, everywhere and
aim to ensure that it will continue to be a tool for creativity, innovation, and
economic growth.
MISSION: To promote the open development, evolution,
and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people
throughout the world.
VISION: The Internet is for everyone
5. What are Network Operator Groups?
• Network Operator Groups are groups that:
• Bring network operators, engineers, and other Internet
community experts together to develop stronger technical
expertise in a country or region
• Share information, operational experience, “know-how” and
“what-not”
• Create learning and training opportunities
• Help engineers meet other engineers and talk to each other
more openly and learn from each other
• Are neutral, non-commercial, and non-political by nature
ü List of Current NOGs | Resource Page at the end of the slide-
deck
6. Why are NOGs important?
• Allow anyone to join at a no (or low) cost and to learn
more
• Create a peer-group of experts for exchange of
information/knowledge
• Facilitate training and technical meetings
• Build collaboration among other NOGs and feed
Regional NOGs
• Localize and scale capacity building needs nationally
to reach more people
• Lower the costs of training by bringing trainings and
expertise to the community
7. Help out the African NOGs:
Only about 7 active NOGs in Africa at the moment. Growing the
NOGs helps out the tech community and you can help out by:
• Being an active participant in your NOG community
• Being helpful to others in the community
• Participating & suggest training opportunities
• Attending NOG meetings in the region
• Becoming a trainer
• Bringing in new operators to the NOG community
• Sponsoring your NOG’s events: provide connectivity or equipment
• Encouraging your peers to join the NOGs
9. ISOC’s Capacity Building Activities to date
• Began in the early 1990’s as “INETs”
• More recently:
– 5 day technical trainings on Unix/Linux and Internet Services
– Supporting NOGs eg: AfNOG, GhNOG, AfCHIX and many others
– Routing training under the ITE Program
– IXP technical training under AXIS Project
– NREN routing technical training
– AfNOG Track Zero localization in partnership with AFNOG and NSRC
– IPv6 Webinars under ITE (with AFRINIC and Orange)
– ccTLD Registry Operations Course in partnership with AfTLD, ICANN
and NSRC
– Supporting African Network Operators Groups: GhNOG, SdNOG,
EANOG, SAFNOG, TZNOG, RwNOG among others
10. ISOC’s Track Zero Localization Program
• Introduced by ISOC as a pilot in 2008 in partnership
with AfNOG and NSRC
• Objective was to localize the track and allow AfNOG to
focus on more advanced topics
• More than 31 trainings since 2008 in 15 different
countries
• Trained over 1,000 participants (English + French)
• Materials used are from the initial AfNOG Track E0 on
Intro to Unix System Admin and Services
• Facilitators from ISOC, NSRC and AfNOG community
11. Why work on Capacity Building in Africa?
• Africa urgently needs a much greater pool of skilled
experts and technical engineers to ensure the Internet
becomes the critical part of the infrastructure in African
countries.
• Significant investment is underway in Africa’s submarine
and terrestrial fiber from both Public and Private sectors.
• As a result, the demand for a pool of skilled experts and
trained engineers in Internet technologies and services to
manage, operate and maintain these investments will
continue to grow.
• A vendor neutral training is best placed to address these
skill gaps
12. Lessons learned from Localization Program
• High demand for the program on the continent
• The program was well received because;
– It is open source oriented
– It covers open concepts
– Is hands on oriented
• However, scalability was a challenge due to the size of the
region and available resources –
– only about 200 trainees per year
• Sustainability concerns due to long planning times and high
costs associated with each workshop – average of USD
10,000 just for 30 trainees
• Few trainers able to offer trainings in French
• New program and vision launched to address the issues
13. Number of trainees at past workshops
219
156
115
237
309
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
15. Past trainees recommendations:
• “The workshops should use at least 7 days to give time for the student to be able
to ask more question and the instructors/facilitators to have more rooms to
explore more experience to the participants”
• “If possible, please increase the frequency of these training workshops per year.”
• “Please keep it up and engage locals for better results (like including local
people knowledgeable in some aspects to train as well). We need to have local
trainers, not just learners. Thank you for affording us a chance to say something”
• “The workshops are very essential so should involve more college students,
especially the science and engineering students in the various universities.”
• “Provide more regular trainings on Unix platform as Unix has benefits but people
do not understand”
• “Contents were enough but need extra time to deliver so as the facilitators could
have much explain without a rush to finish the content”
• “Increase awareness about the course without limiting it to few individuals
around Universities.”
• “ISOC should also reach out to the private sector where these days capacity is a
big issue.”
16. New Program Vision and Objectives
Vision:
§ To provide Internet technical capacity building in the region
§ To be a modern program that meets the changing Internet
environment in Africa and the new Internet users’ needs
Objectives:
§ A scalable program that reaches more people – make content
available online
§ Sustainable program with more partners
§ Increase local ownership by growing NOGs
In 2014, the Track Zero materials were converted to an online
course called “Introduction to Network Operations Course”
19. Face to Face Trainings Online Trainings
ü require lots of planning – 3 to 4
months prior to the event
organizing participants, localhost
and logistics.
ü An online training session can be
put together in 2 weeks or less
(assuming course is ready)
ü are expensive – at least USD 300
to train each participant. This
includes costs to cover the
facilitator travel and
accommodation, venue fees, lab
etc.
ü Online trainings are expensive in
the beginning (acquiring the
platform and hosting fees) but
even out in the long run.
Currently, at about USD 100 and
decreasing
ü do not scale – maximum class
size of 30 per session
ü can scale to large numbers with
proper infrastructure. Multiple
streams of 30 trainees
ü depend on the facilitator
maintaining high standards.
ü materials can be updated when
necessary and are always
available. Multiple facilitators can
be made available via mailing
lists, online calls etc
ü require the trainees to be done in
5 days
ü are more friendly to the trainee. 2
to 4 weeks
20. Face to Face Trainings Online Trainings
ü The right people don’t always
come for the trainings
ü Trainees can take the course from
their workplaces over the 4 weeks
or take a 1 week off from work
ü Face to face has a personal touch
with real interaction between the
trainers and the trainees
ü Interaction with facilitators and
other trainees mostly online
ü Attrition – not a major issue ü Attrition – can be a major issue if
not well managed
ü Participants may need to leave
the platforms they build during
the training
ü Participants remain with the
virtualized machines and are free
to experiment further – test out
new DNS software, Email filters
etc
21. Objectives of the Online Course
The objectives of the online course are to increase the technical
hands on skill levels among upcoming Network and System
Engineers - fresh graduates, new recruits or job seekers in Network
and System Administration. The topics and concepts covered in the
course include:
• How to install a UNIX/Linux OS in a Virtual environment
• Networking concepts – IPv4 and IPv6
• How to install 3rd party software on a UNIX or Linux platform using
Software management tools
• How to edit files in UNIX and Linux and create simple scripts
• How to build and activate a caching DNS Server and
The course intends to provide trainees with real world skills useful
to them in their careers and which will improve Internet services
available in the continent
22. Who can take the course
The course is aimed at novices wishing to learn/
reinforce knowledge on Unix/Linux, Networking and
DNS. Its available to:
• African NOGs, African ccTLDs, ISPs, NRENs
Universities:
• Use it to grow numbers in the NOG or start new NOGs
• Increase skill levels of NOG members/ISP Staff etc who can then
carry out trainings locally
• Increase a NOG’s popularity and reach
• Use it to increase skill levels among member University staff or
NREN staff
• Grow a community of skilled engineers who will then pass the
knowledge to others
23. Comparison of Capacity Building for NOGs/NRENs
Using the Online Course Using the Offline (face to face)
Less resources & logistics requirements
per workshop
Difficult to quantify actual expenses in a
virtual planning process
Provide local instructors as online course
moderators
Requires strong commitment from local
instructors
Easier scheduling & tracking for
participants
Workshop period are longer (4 months)
compared to 5 days.
More workshops can be scheduled per
year = more participants trained
Requires advanced planning and
coordination with the participants
NOGs/NRENs can focus on advanced
training workshops
There are no advanced courses online at
the moment. Multi Tracks
NOG/NRENs can focus on 2 – 3 day
conference activities for ideas sharing
Reduced face-to-face networking time
and hands on training
Easier to demonstrate value for
sponsors and participants
Requires a mind shift of sponsors to see
value on the online course approach
24. Online Training Plan – Phase 1 and 2
a) Phase 1- Unix and DNS Fundamentals
Phase 1 introduces Unix and covers the Unix/Linux shell,
Unix/Linux Editors, Networking (IPv4 and IPv6) and DNS
Caching. This course has been developed and piloted and
is called “Introduction to Network Operations: UNIX/
LINUX, Networking, and DNS” or “Intro to NetOps” in
short. This course carries on from the Face to Face
trainings and is a foundation for other courses
b) Phase 2 – Internet Services
This will build on phase one and will cover topics such as
advanced DNS, Email services, Web services, network
monitoring and firewalls. Will be taught using a Linux
operating system (likely Ubuntu or Debian)
25. Introduction to Network Operations Course
(Phase 1)
• The online course took 9 months to develop. Several
experts involved in material preparation.
• ISOC’s Internet Leadership Team managed the design
and deployment of the course via InForum – ISOC’s
online platform
• Online platform was successfully piloted in late 2014
Ø Participants from South Africa, Ethiopia, Botswana, Kenya,
Cameroon, Rwanda participated
• The Online course has been launched as of March 2015
(139 are enrolled or have completed the course)
• Objective is to train participants over the course of 4
weeks in a moderated online course
• On Completion, participants are a given a “Certificate
of Completion” from ISOC
26. About the Intro to NetOps course
• All one needs is a laptop/PC running a VirtualBox
supported Operating System
• There are 9 modules spanning:
ü Introduction to Unix
ü Introduction to Networking (IPv4 and IPv6)
ü Working with the Unix Shell and Intro to Shell Scripting
ü Editing with ViM
ü Introduction to the Domain Name System (DNS)
• The course is practically oriented, trainees build a Unix
server in a virtual environment then at the end run a
Caching DNS server first on BIND then using UnBound
• Can be completed in 2 to 4 weeks
• Remote moderation, FaceBook weekly calls,
TeamViewer
27. Why offer the training to NOGs and NRENs?
• NOGs and NRENs are an aggregation point for the
target audience for the course
• Stronger NOGs and NRENs will mean better online
services available locally and more local expertise
• The training can be used to strengthen existing NOGs
and NRENs or assist in the creation of new ones
• Strong National NOGs and National NRENs will result
in stronger Regional NOGs and Regional NRENs
28. I am interested in the course, what do I do?
• It is easier for ISOC to deal with an entity – a NOG or an
NREN who can then bring together a group of people to
be trained
ü Ask your NOG or NREN to get in touch with me
• If you are a Entity (eg NOG or NREN), you will need to
manage the selection process and contact your members.
Once you have a number of 20 or more trainees, the
training can begin. The trainees will be given 4 weeks to
complete the course
• There are weekly calls, a mailing list and a Facebook page
to keep the trainees engaged and allow for Q/A
• If you are knowledgeable in the material, you can help
facilitate/moderate for your group
30. Some testimonials from online participants
Dorcas from Uganda: ”Quality content, always accessible; not at any
one point was the course page inaccessible; so precise and
explanatory. Very good for first time users of Unix.”
Otieno from Kenya: ”The 2014 Introduction to Network Operations was
very educative. The lessons were well structured and adequate
references and comparisons provided. ……I also liked very much the
simulations of FreeBSD installation, editing with VIM and Introduction
to Scripting. This provided a very practical platform for learning and
understanding the lessons. ”
Jean-Baptiste from Cameroon - ”The illustrations and pictures were
very useful for conveying meaning. I also liked the practical exercises”.
Abraham from Ethiopia : The Course materials are very helpful and
interesting to learn and the methdology also nice.
Nkosikhona from South Africa: ”Coverage of the material and step by
step instruction on performing tasks on FreeBSD VM (was very good)”
31. Current Numbers in 2015 since March
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
AfCHIX Kenya (NREN) Tanzania
(NOG)
Uganda
(NREN)
Sudan (NOG)
Currently
Enrolled
or
Complete
d March
to May
Expected
by end
July
Total expected by end of July = 300
33. Translation of the Course
• In order for more engineers to benefit from the course
it is important to make it available in more languages
• ISOC is seeking partners to support the translation of
the course into more languages
• Moderators for the new languages will also be needed
• We are hoping to develop Phase 2 as well which will
also need to be translated
34. Sponsorship
We need to keep the courses free:
• You or your company can be a part of this program and help by
sponsoring the program. Sponsorship packages are available
• Funds will be used to cover more “seats” and develop Phase 2 of
the course and translations
• 1,000 have been trained in 6 years, can we train 1,000 in 1 year?
35. Future plans for the Online courses
• Once trainees complete the Introduction to Network
Operations Course, more courses will be made
available to them via INFORUM including:
ü Introduction to Wireless
ü Introduction to IPv6
ü Managing Online Identities
ü Phase 2 – Internet Services (when completed)
