intERLab targets at infrastructure organizations who in turn provide the Internet or push for further development on the Internet either in terms of technology or social impacts. We are not an information center for the general public at-large.
Under the umbrella of AP*Retreat which is being co-ordinated by intERLab, we work in close collaboration with the Internet resources organizations such as Asia-Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC) who manages the Internet IP addresses in the Asia-Pacific as well as a regional co-ordinating body for country-code top-level-domain names, APTLD. AP*Retreat is a meeting point for leading Internet organizations for the purpose of information exchanges, updates and collaborations.
As our role as the Asia-Pacific Internet Information Center, intERLab plays this crucial role in supporting the regional development of the Internet through this function.
intERLab is working closely with Asia Pacific Networking Group (APNG), a non-profit Internet organization who has been promoting the advancement of networking infrastructure in the Asia Pacific region and to the research and development of all associated enabling technologies. It aims at, among others, contributing to Internet Growth in the Asia Pacific (AP) through:
- Learning its history in each country and experience from seniors;
- Sharing information among community;
- Empowering Next Generation (APNG) activity through APNG Camps;
- Providing a venue and opportunity of discussion for developing countries; and
- Challenging to create new Internet growth opportunity.
Over the years, APNG is the leading voice of Internet networking in the Asia Pacific Region. It has spawned off several Asia Pacific organizations including Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) and Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN). APNG keeps its faith in youth as tomorrow’s leaders, being the reason for the organization and its camp activities are not only empowering the Next Generation who has the power of developmental assets and an innovative and fresh point of view on Internet Technology. It bonds and strengthens the relationship among senior leaders and the youth to share and discuss over prospective of today’s Internet in Asia Pacific.
The FIRST APNG camp was held at AIT in 2002. Since its inception, we had successfully organized ten camps. The most recent of which, 10th APNG Camp was again held in Asia Institute of Technology, Thailand in August 2008.
With the help of APNG fellows, we are now working on AP Internet History Museum Project “ARPANET to internet in Asia Pacific : Past , Present and Future”, which will become the authoritive resource for the AP regions Internet history. This project will offer each country and culture within the AP region web space to add their history in a standardized format or to submit their information to the project for inclusion. Documenting the Internet now while its creators and pioneers are still alive and able to recollect the history of the Internet is of vital importance to each country and region as well as to the individual Internet users. It will show how culture, economies and languages have evolved and the social impacts on each country.
Future developments:
- Where possible obtain firsthand accounts of Internet developments from all AP countries (first e-mail, first Internet protocols, Website search engine, Web Browser, user statistics, popular social networking sites, localization projects, DS, etc.);
- To include all the relevant information in a standardized template format that can be edited by the individual country or pioneer;
- To introduce multimedia files with audio and video capabilities with additional links;
- To create a social networking group of like-minded individuals, researchers and participants; and
- To form and nurture partnerships with other similar projects.
Internet History Museum has been created as a result of the discussions and outcomes of the APNG Next Generation Camp held in 2004 in Australia. A few papers/projects presented at the APNG camps were gathered, archived and placed in an interactive database as an initial step of the IH Museum.
intERLab is hosting the following functions:
APNIC event coordinator (Past)
APNG and APNG Camp Secretariat (Past)
AP* Retreat Secretariat (On-going)
APSIG Secretariat (On-going)