Highlights 2016

JANUARY – [Read News]

New Chairman

Warder Maia of Brazil assumed his position as the new Chairman of the Board on 1st January 2016. Oscar Messano of Argentina, who chaired the LACNIC Board since its creation in 2002, continues to serve on the Board as its Vice Chair.

Casa de Internet Continues to Grow

Casa de Internet for Latin America and the Caribbean, a building located on Montevideo’s beautiful waterfront avenue and home to the region’s major Internet organizations, welcomed a ninth organization, the Latin American Internet Association (ALAI).

FEBRUARY – [Read News]

Closer to Our Community

LACNIC’s Services department began its annual tour to visit members and Internet organizations across the region to promote their participation and involvement in the topics of interest to the community and the regular activities of the Regional Internet Registry for Latin America and the Caribbean. The first part of the tour included meetings with 14 customers in Panama and Costa Rica.

RPKI System

LACNIC and NIC Mx signed an agreement for implementing its Resource Certification System (RPKI). This agreement allows more than 200 NIC Mx member organizations to directly certify their Internet resources and digitally prove they have the right to use their assigned IPv4 and IPv6 addresses and ASNs.

MARCH – [Read News]

IANA Stewardship

After nearly two years of hard work and with the valuable contributions of the three Internet operational communities including LACNIC, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (IANA) submitted a proposal to the US government for the global community to take over stewardship of the IANA functions. The proposal finally reached consensus in Marrakesh during the ICANN 55 meeting and puts an end to US government stewardship over a group of key Internet-related administrative functions —including management of the global pool of Internet number resources (IPv4 and IPv6 addresses and Autonomous System Numbers)— and replaces it with community-based stewardship mechanisms.

LACNIC Initiative

The Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG) unanimously approved LACNIC’s admittance as a full member of the organization. The LACNIC Initiative working group was created with the goal of engaging Latin American and Caribbean professionals and experts in security issues within the framework of M3AAWG.

Call for Proposals

The Regional Fund for Digital Innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean (FRIDA) announced that during 2016 the program would present US$235,000 in the form of awards, scale-ups and grants to innovative Information Technology projects in the region. Three calls for proposals were launched: FRIDA Awards, FRIDA Grants and FRIDA Scale-Ups.

Report on IPv6

Together with CAF, the Development Bank of Latin America, LACNIC presented the study titled IPv6 Deployment for Social and Economic Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, which seeks to contribute to the promotion, expansion and adoption of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).
The conclusions of the report highlight the importance of migrating to the new IPv6 format, as IPv4 addresses are running out and this will limit the chances for the successful development of the Internet of Things (IoT).

APRIL – [Read News]

Historic IETF Meeting

LACNIC co-organized a historic meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, of the IETF, the international group of engineers and professionals devoted to developing and promoting technical Internet standards. More than 1,000 professionals representing 55 different countries participated in the meeting, the first in the history of the IETF to be held in Latin America and the Caribbean.

LACNIC WARP Turns One

LACNIC WARP, the Computer Security Incident Response Team for members of the LACNIC community, completed its first year of operation. The team has already handled more than 140 incidents across the region.

MAY – [Read News]

The Warmth of Cuba

Thirteen year after its last event in Cuba, LACNIC returned to Havana to hold its most important meeting of 2016, LACNIC 25. The meeting was attended by 538 professionals from around the region and focused on the need to deploy the IPv6 protocol in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Two Policy Changes

During the Policy Forum held in Cuba, the LACNIC community reached consensus on two proposals for modifying the policies that define how IPv6 resources are managed in the LAC region.

JUNE – [Read News]

Funds for Innovators

FRIDA, the Regional Fund for Digital Innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean, announced it would provide financial support to six projects aimed at promoting social and economic development and Internet access in the region. These projects were selected as the winners of the 2016 FRIDA Grants call for proposals and will receive a total of US$235,000 from the Canadian International Development Research Center (IDRC), the Internet Society, and LACNIC.

Speaking with Julis and Open Router

Os The FRIDA 2016 Scale-Ups program awarded US$ 40,000 to each of two projects, a Colombian technology solution for people with speaking, reading and writing difficulties (Speaking with Julis) and an Argentine proposal for providing digital connectivity to community networks by means of open routers (Open Router).

Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago

AgriNeTT by the University of West Indies (Trinidad and Tobago) and Mexicoleaks (Mexico) were the projects selected to receive the FRIDA Awards.

Signing of the SLA

The RIRs and ICANN finally signed the Service Level Agreement (SLA) for the IANA Numbering Services. This agreement documents the arrangements for provision by ICANN of IANA numbering services after the IANA stewardship transition, which is expected to occur on 30 September 2016.

JULY – [Read News]

Congratulations, Alejandro Pisanty!

The 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Alejandro Pisanty for his contribution to Internet development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Online Training

Results of the annual survey conducted by international consultants Mercoplus showed that the Latin American and Caribbean community is increasingly making use of LACNIC’s products and services. This customer satisfaction study revealed important growth in the demand for LACNIC’s virtual training offerings, which were used by 42% of its members.

AUGUST – [Read News]

Sufficient Stock

Although the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) announced the exhaustion of the central pool of 16-bit Autonomous System Numbers, LACNIC reported it has sufficient ASNs in stock for its Latin American and Caribbean members.

Development in Haiti

During the last week of August, Ayitic launched its third edition with a training program on IPv6 deployment especially designed for local instructors and a 3D Printing Workshop inspired by the MakersLab model. For this edition of the project, LACNIC worked with the support of Canado Technique and Ecole Superieure d’Infotronique d’Haiti (ESIH), two organizations which played a major role in selecting participants, coordinating activities and teaching the workshops in Port au Prince.

SEPTEMBER – [Read News]

LACNIC 26

On 26-30 September, Costa Rica welcomed LACNIC 26 – LACNOG 16, an event attended by 486 members of the Latin American and Caribbean Internet community. One of the key topics discussed during the meeting was geolocation on the Internet.

A Historic Day

The Regional Internet Registry (RIR) community and other organizations took over responsibility for how the IANA functions are managed. September 30 marked the expiry of the contract maintained by the Department of Commerce with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization overseeing the IANA functions, and the US government handed over management of the Internet system. The LACNIC 26 closing ceremony coincided with this historic event. During the ceremony, Oscar Robles stressed the major responsibility assumed by the global Internet community.

Doctor IPv6

LACNIC launched Doctor IPv6, a mechanism that allows any member of the community to submit technical queries regarding Internet Protocol version 6 via email and receive a reply in podcast format.

OCTOBER – [Read News]

100 sponsored participants

LACNIC’s sponsorship program has allowed more than 1,000 members of the community to participate in LACNIC meetings, where they have received training and had the chance to interact and share their experiences with colleagues from across the region.

LACNIC Turns 14

LACNIC’s 14th anniversary found the organization in a stage of growth and consolidation. LACNIC members reached a total of 5,820 throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, a 17% increase compared to the previous year.

Everyone to the Caribbean

LACNIC headlined Sint Maarten on the Move, a two-day meeting during which the regional technical community and other stakeholders discussed and analyzed various Internet related topics of interest to the Caribbean.

NOVEMBER – [Read News]

Board of Directors Election

The process to fill two seats on the LACNIC Board came to an end. Out of the six candidates who participated in the election, the two candidates with the highest number of votes were declared the winners.
LACNIC members decided to renew their trust in Wardner Maia (Brazil) and Javier Salazar (Mexico), reelecting them to serve until 31 December 2019. A total of 1,942 votes were cast by the LACNIC community.

Incident Responses

The Global Forum for Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) and the Regional Internet Address Registry for Latin America and the Caribbean (LACNIC) signed an agreement to support the development of computer security incident response capacity in the region.

Among the Best

For the fifth year in a row, LACNIC was named as one of the best places to work in Uruguay according to the ranking prepared by international consultants Great Place to Work.
This year, LACNIC achieved an even better position in this prestigious ranking in the category of up to 150 employees, where it took the fifth place.

DECEMBER – [Read News]

At the IGF

LACNIC CEO Oscar Robles, participated in the so-called High-Level Dialogue at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), held during the first week of December in Guadalajara, Mexico. Along with the world’s top Internet leaders, Robles participated in the High-Level Meeting, the session that kicked off IGF debates.

Anycast Agreement

LACNIC signed an agreement for the Anycast Cloud Project with organizations in the LACTLD region, NIC.br and NIC.cl. Promoted by LACTLD, this project is a regional cooperation initiative through which Latin American and Caribbean ccTLDs seek to increase Internet robustness and resiliency in the region.

Awards

FRIDA held its awards ceremony within the framework of the IGF. Two winners received their FRIDA 2016 Awards: AgriNeTT by the University of West Indies (Trinidad and Tobago) and the Mexicoleaks platform (Mexico).

More IPv6

In 2016, LACNIC offered 16 IPv6training activities, including workshops and webinars presented by various experts. These activities allowed training 2,371 professionals representing the private sector, civil society organizations, governments and universities in Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Suriname, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Uruguay.