Mohamed Ibrahim

Organization:	National ICT and Digital Economy Office
Affiliation:	I* Organization
Region:	Africa
Country:	Somalia
Email:	mi [at] ayuub.org
Website:	http://www.ayuub.org/
Facebook:	Mohamed Ibrahim
LinkedIn:	Mohamed Ibrahim
Twitter:	@https://twitter.com/MIsomalia
Featured in the ICANN 42 - Senegal playing card deck

Mohamed Ibrahim is Somalia's former Minister of Posts and Telecomunication. Founding Chairman of ISOC Somalia, the Project Manager of the .so registry, and a Research Fellow at University of Melbourne, Mohamed was also the Chairman of the Centre for Research and Dialogue, and Somalia's IGFHe has attended a number of ICANN conferences, and was involved in the ccNSO and GAC on behalf of Somalia; He also represents that country at other fora, such as in AfTLD.

Mr. Ibrahim has been in the IT industry for more than two decades and has worked at PNG Elcom, Kuwait Oil Company (80s-90s), UAE High-ed sector (2001-2007). Also in the Australian Public sector; Victorian Government's Health Superannaution Board ('80s), and CIO at Peninsula Health (1998-2003). IT strategy Manager at Deakin University, honorary senior lecturer at Monash University, Lecturer/EdTech at Higher Colleges of Technology, UAE.

Current Work

Before he elected to become the Minister of Post and Telecommunication, Mr. Ibrahim was an advisor to the previous four ministers of telecommunication. As a part of his other assignments, he was contracted to re-establish and modernize the Somali internet registry, which has only been active since June 2010; he led a number of important development projects. These include working to implement the fast track process for Somalia's Arabic based IDN, and launching an innovative program to give free email accounts and websites to all Somalis. The latter project involves giving individual domains based on their first and last names under the .me.so domain space and putting the Somali National TV online. He is still involved in both updating and implementing the basics necessary for the .so registry, as well as making .so available to the Somali community at large, albeit at a strategic and policy levels. In these capacities he has been instrumental in setting up opportunities for Somalis to lead unique projects such as digital currency and mobile money, e-learning initiatives for the education sector, online government e-business initiatives such as online visa, open data, national and regional ixp, and related inaitiatives.

Interests

While much of his career has been spent in the ICT sector, his interests as a scholar extend to globalization, to the role of NGOs in developing countries, to the place of ethics in responsive societies, religious radicalism, and to other areas where technology and humanity intersect. More recently his public service interest has taken him into the legal field. For this purpose he has upskilled his academic credentials to include, Masters of Public and International law from Melbourne University Law School . His various projects involving rebuilding Somalia's infrastructure stem from his interest in establishing functioning ICT and education systems (see ssog.edu.so, somtech.edu.so) in that recovering State. He is also interested in mobile and wireless technology, the use of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology in delivering the SDG for Somalia. His focus is on technology's potential for greater inter and intra societal communication (see igf.so, isoc.so, and cert.org.so) as well as how to balance these with its possible negative tendencies to distract and saturate social processes.