More than 70 participants from more than 15 countries from the region of Latin America and the Caribbean gathered the 21 and 22 of July in Curacao (Netherland Antilles) at the LACNIC CARRIBEAN event. The event was held back to back with the 4th Caribbean Internet Governance Forum hosted by the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) and counted with the support of the Bureau of Telecommunication and Post from Curaçao.
During the opening ceremony there where present the Executive Director of LACNIC Mr. Raul Echeberria, the CTU General Secretary Ms. Bernadette Lewis and the Minister of Traffic and Communication of the Netherland Antilles, Mr. Maurice Adriens.
Among the objectives of this meeting, the following were highlighted:
a) To discuss recently completed activities, initiatives and proposals with members and sector representatives;
b) To construct and articulate collaborative efforts for Internet development and stability in Latin America and the Caribbean;
c) To foster a greater participation of the Caribbean members in LACNIC priority work areas.
The high assistance and diverse participation in its two technical sessions made it a very successful, interesting and dynamic meeting. The first technical workshop on IPV6 adoption was held on Monday morning and beginning of the afternoon with Mr. Jordi Palet (CEO Consulintel/ 6 deploy, Spain) and Yves Poppe (TATA communications, Canada) as the ICT experts. During this workshop, IPv6 as a matter of urgency was emphasized, as the IPv4 addresses are expected to run out in 2010.
The second technical workshop on Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) was held later in the afternoon with the participation of: Mr. Bill Woodcock (PCH, USA), Mr. Jose Miguel Guzman (Google, USA), Ms. Bernadette Lewis (CTU, Trinidad and Tobago), Mr. Hugo Zanon (Terremark, NAP of the Caribbean Project, Dominican Republic ), Mr. Eldert Louisa (Open Caribbean Internet eXchange –OCIX, St. Marteen), Mr. Reynold Guerrier (Multilink, Haiti) and Mr. Nico Scheper (Caribbean Internet Exchange -CAR-IX, Curacao).
This meeting gave the Caribbean Internet community an opportunity to learn a lot more about LACNIC, its institution and activities such as the development of policies for the assignment of internet resources, the IPv4 and IPv6 resources allocation, initiatives to strengthen the region, participation mechanisms, discussion forums, etc. In addition to the above, Mr. Oscar Robles, LACNIC Board of Directors, made a presentation of LACTLD, Latin American and Caribbean ccTLDs organization.
During the closing remarks, Mr. Raul Echeberria was thankful for the support of all the sponsors for this meeting: UTS, Terremark, Google, ICANN and OCIX, as well as for the local assistance of the Bureau of Telecommunication and Post and the participation of the Minister Maurice Adriens. Mr. Echeberria was hopeful regarding the greater collaborative actions between the Caribbean and the Latin American countries as well as regarding the next LACNIC activities to be held in the Caribbean region.
The organization of this meeting followed the main purpose of the active policies of LACNIC which are to foster the participation and the involvement of the Internet community of the region in its activities.
