AfNOG

Type:	Non-profit
Industry:	Inernet
Founded:	2000
Headquarters:	16 Boundary Road, East Legon P.O. Box 3035 Accra
Country:	Ghana
Website:	www.afnog.org
Key People
Nii Quaynor, AfNOG Convener Nancy Dotse, Secretariat

AfNOG (African Network Operators Group) is a forum organized by the African Network Information Center (AfriNIC) dedicated to promoting the exchange of technical information and the cooperation and coordination among network service providers regarding the discussion and policy implementations on issues affecting the internet community, and to maintain the stability of the Internet within the African Region.

AfNOG's main objective is share experiences on technical challenges in setting up, building and running IP networks on the African continent.

Activities

During the AfNOG Conference, tutorials and technical workshops are provided to participants, and African Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are given advance training they can utilize to help improve the country's Internet connectivity.

Tutorial and meetings are conducted after technical workshops and topics are centered on technical tutorials regarding networking and other related about ISP operations and issues relevant to the Internet community.

Since its inception, AfNOG has operated in close connection to with the Internet Society, which contributes to its network training workshops and the AfNOG Fellowship programme, which provides financial assistance for African engineers to participate in AfNOG’s annual meetings and training sessions.

Projects

At present, AfNOG is working on two significant projects which include:

• AfNOG Chix - This program is intended for female network engineers in three countries in Africa to learn the Unix Systems Administration
• AfNOG Localization - this project aims to teach and migrate the AfNOG Unix/Linux System Administration Course known as the AfNOG Track EO into several African countries. The project is a collaboration between ISOC, AfNOG and the Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC), a non profit organization involved in helping with the deployment of networks in Asia/Pacific, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East, and to new independent countries or territories.

Awards

AfNOG recognizes African individuals who have made great contributions to the development and growth of Internet in Africa with the following awards:

• Abha Ahuja Fellowship Award - was created by the Internet Society (ISOC) in memory and recognition of the contributions of the late Abha Ahuja in improving the Internet and participanting in different organizations such as ARIN, RIPE, APNIC, AfNOG, the IRTF, ISOC, etc., who was also a Senior Research Engineer at Arbor Networks in Ann Arbor, and Director of the Routing Area at IETF. The grant is given annually to qualified applicants who are actively engaged in improving the internet in Africa such as Network Engineers, Operational and Infrastructure Support Personnel, or Educators, to attend a regional operators meeting particularly, the RIPE Meeting.
• NII Service Award - The Network Information Infrastructure (NII) Service Award was established during the 10th year anniversary of AfNOG; it was initiated by the 2007 Jonathan Postel Award recipient, Dr. Nii Quaynor, to recognize African individuals who made significant contributions to the African Internet community.

Recipients of the 2010 AfNOG NII Service Awards include:

• • Anne-Rachel Inne- NII Service Award
  • Michuki Mwangi- NII Junior Award

Conferences

• AfNOG 2000 - Cape Town, South Africa
• AfNOG 2001 - Accra, Ghana
• AfNOG 2002 - Lome, Togo
• AfNOG 2003 - Kampala, Uganda
• AfNOG 2004 - Dakar, Senegal
• AfNOG 2005 - Maputo, Mozambique
• AfNOG 2006 - Nairobi, Kenya
• AfNOG 2007 - Abuja, Nigeria
• AfNOG 2008 - Rabat, Morocco
• AfNOG 2009 - Cairo, Egypt
• AfNOG 2010 - Kigali, Rwanda
• AfNOG 2011 - Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
• AfNOG 2012 - Serekunda, The Gambia
• AfNOG 2013 - Lusaka, Zambia
• AfNOG 2014 - Djibouti, Djibouti
• AfNOG 2015 - Tunis, Tunisia

Internet Service Provider

Internet Society