Internet society Of Bangladesh (ISOCBD)

(Chartered on February 2001)

Annual Activities Report - May 2001

The Internet Society of Bangladesh (ISOCBD) a non-profit, membership-driven Internet organisation is one of the newest ISOC chapters was founded in November 2000 and chartered only on February 2001. Being a new member in the society it starts only its firm journey to play role in the Internet world of Bangladesh and will be respected as an independent voice on a range of Internet related issues. As a member of ISOCBD I believe that in near future it will emerge as the sole controlling agent and will play a vital role to make internet popular among the people of this country.

I would like to extend my appreciation to all the people inside and outside ISOC Bangladesh for their great support during this time. Support of our sponsors and the volunteers have also made a substantial contribution to our success.

Our heartiest appreciation to Dr. Vint Cerf, Terry Weigler and Tomaz Kalin of ISOC who has contributed their valuable time and resources to support the formation of ISOCBD. 

I commend the following brief report of our last few months activities.

Executive Committee: In January 2001, a five member executive Committee has been formed and starts it activities immediately after formation. In between year 2000-2001 the board has met at 5 different occasions to take several important decision.

Chapter By laws: By laws of the chapter has already been approved by the executive committee and ISOC.

Membership Drive: Membership of ISOCBD has increased substantially over the last few months as more and more new Bangladeshi Internet users are interested to become members of ISOCBD. ISOCBD has at present 29 Founding members and 30 new members have already applied for membership. Their membership application is under process and will be completed after clearing their membership fees. As Internet users are coming to understand the importance and benefits of being involved in the international Internet Society we are increasingly looking to attracting new users as members.

Hosting of Web page: A Webpage ( http://www.isocbd.org ) has already been designed and hosted to focus the activities of ISOCBD in Bangladesh. It will be a major source of Internet related news and information of this country very soon.

External funds: Substantial efforts are being taken to increase the fund through membership and sponsorship drive.

Formation of advisory Board: To run the chapter more efficiently we are now in a process to form an advisory committee. The committee will be comprises of IT specialists as well as representatives from the Government, media, academic/research institutions, private sectors, NGOs, and Internet user.

Information Center: To increase the use of Internet and to create awareness among the people about the use of Internet is the main objective of this chapter. Since the access to internet and email facilities are still not satisfactory and not all members have internet connection of their own yet, we are in a process to set up booths (Information Centers) with computers and internet connection in some major public places in Dhaka city and to provide free email account to some users so that they can at least check their email from that places. As a trial process a booth has already been opened at ICMS college premises at Mirpur for the user of that territory. More Information centers will be opened to facilitate the same facility to ISOCBD members all over the Dhaka city immediately.

School program: ISOCBD is working with The Foundation for Education and Development (FED), Institute of Computer Management and Science.(ICMS) and Sustainable Development Networking Program Bangladesh (SDNP) along with six other NGOs to distribute a total of 200 computers and monitors to schools all over Bangladesh. It is a collaboration program with The World Computer Exchange a USA based organisation working to collect and distribute used computers among the schools of poor country. The World Computer Exchange is also working to connect students with students in US schools and help them to get internet connection as well as to develop Websites to share their information, history, culture and heritage.

Collaboration with UNESCO: ISOC has received official operational status as a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) of UNESCO. Being a local chapter ISOCBD has decided to start some collaboration with UNESCO Dhaka office where UNESCO and ISOC Bangladesh can work jointly. The Chapter is also looking for cooperation with other organizations with similar interests as ISOCBD. Such cooperation can be initiated by the special interest groups using special agreements about cooperation.

News Letter: To publish Information activities of Bangladesh and to inform the members and other interested readers about development in the world of Internet, ISOCBD decided to publish a monthly electronic news letter which will cover all news related to internet of Bangladesh and world as usual.

Touhid Uz Zaman

Secretary 
Internet Society of Bangladesh (ISOCBD) 
E-mail: t_zaman@sdnbd.org
Tel +880-2-8126204
http://www.isocbd.org