By Olubunmi Adeniyi
Lagos. April 8, 2013: To tackle the challenge of a dearth of Internet content produced and hosted locally in Nigeria, the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), in partnership Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) is hosting a two-day Local Internet Content (LIC).
The forum expected to galvanize a renewed push for local players in the Nigerian local content ecosystem is coming up at the Muson Centre in Onikan, Lagos on April 25-26, this year.
The event tagged “Sustaining Local Internet Content, The Way Forward for Nigeria” aims to facilitate increased Nigerian content on the Internet by driving a new momentum towards local content.
According to the organisers, it will beam radar on the hosting of such content locally and promote an increased adoption of dotNG as the domain name of choice particularly among Nigerians.
Muhammed Rudman, CEO, IXPN explains that though the dotNG is Nigeria’s unique identity on the domain name space, yet there is predominant adoption of .com and .co.uk due to some misconceptions about the country’s unique identity on the Internet.
Rudman says that the forum will address these misconceptions while adding that the purpose of the event is to sensitise all stakeholders, key players in the sector and the general public on the significance of local Internet content.
It will also cover the nation’s identity in cyberspace as well as the emerging relevance of local hosting of content which has a multiplier effect on the economy through capacity building and job creation, among others.
According to its CEO, IXPN embodies the physical Network infrastructure that allows ISPs, telcos, educational institutions and other IP-centric organisations to exchange data traffic between their respective networks.
The main purpose of IXPN is to allow networks to interconnect through the exchange, providing the necessary environment to keep local Internet traffic local, stable and reliable, while stating that in effect, the benefits to all the networks, operators and end-users are a reduction in costs, latency and increased speed among others, he adds.
He adds that the agenda for the two-day event will include infrastructure for content hosting, cost of local fibre infrastructure, broadband penetration, content provision and its challenges, registrars challenges in hosting content locally and monetization of content.
The event will afford a good opportunity for exhibitors especially ISPS and telcos who may wish to leverage the event to showcase their services relevant to the creation of local content and the hosting of local content locally, he adds.
It will also serve as a platform for networking as there would be discussion sessions to enable stakeholders share their individual and collective thoughts and experiences in producing and hosting the local Internet content.
Participants at the Forum includes Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), ISPs, telcos, registrars of NIRA, financial institutions, institutions of learning, bloggers, various professional and trade organisations, NGOs, faith-based organisations, the print and electronic media, diverse categories of content producers, authors/writers and publishers and the interested members of the public.
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