| APrIGF 2022 Session Proposal Submission Form | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Part 1 - Lead Organizer | |||||||||||||||||||
| Contact Person | |||||||||||||||||||
| Mr. Binod Basnet | |||||||||||||||||||
| Organization / Affiliation (Please state "Individual" if appropriate) * | |||||||||||||||||||
| Educating Nepal | |||||||||||||||||||
| Designation | |||||||||||||||||||
| Director | |||||||||||||||||||
| Gender | |||||||||||||||||||
| Male | |||||||||||||||||||
| Economy of Residence | |||||||||||||||||||
| Nepal | |||||||||||||||||||
| Primary Stakeholder Group | |||||||||||||||||||
| Civil Society | |||||||||||||||||||
| List Your Organizing Partners (if any) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Dr. Tosikazu Sakano Director Wave Engineering lab Advanced Telecommunication Research Institute International (ATR) Kyoto, Japan Email: t.sakano@atr.jp |
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| Part 2 - Session Proposal | |||||||||||||||||||
| Session Title | |||||||||||||||||||
| Locally Accessible Cloud Service (LACS) for e-resilience | |||||||||||||||||||
| Session Format | |||||||||||||||||||
| Showcase | |||||||||||||||||||
| Where do you plan to organize your session? | |||||||||||||||||||
| Onsite at the venue (with online moderator for questions and comments from remote participants) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Specific Issues for Discussion | |||||||||||||||||||
| Discussion issues ICT for disaster preparedness and e-resilience The LACS system provides basic ICT functionality including communication and file sharing facilities and connect people within the community to gather information for rescue and other forms of support. And as we are facing more disasters than before, it is important to discuss on e-resilience and discover new ways of ICT solution to cope with unforeseeable calamities. Inclusion and bridging digital divide The status of digital divide in Asia Pacific region is still widening. There are many marginalized communities which are still to be connected to broadband internet. LACS system helps relay basic internet facilities to such marginalized communities. The device can also be moved from one location to another easily and with its auto synchronization functionality, the local server and web cloud server sync seamlessly when connected to internet. So, bridging digital divide is another important theme of this session. Community ICT for e-Education We saw worldwide lockdown and school closures during the COVID pandemic. There was a new shift in educational paradigm. E-education was the new normal during the restriction period but evidently, we were not prepared enough for this new modality. As we reimagine future education, blended learning seems to be the best way forward. Most marginalized communities around the Asia Pacific region could not conduct online learning effectively due to the lack of devices and connectivity. Digital poverty is one of the significant issues of our region. So, it is imperative to discuss on solutions like LACS that can support e-education and e-health facility to rural communities that do not have proper connectivity. Partnerships and collaborations Any great idea needs partnership and collaboration for proper implementation. One of the main discussion themes of this session is also to find ways to foster partnership amongst various stakeholders of Asia Pacific Region. |
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| Describe the Relevance of Your Session to APrIGF | |||||||||||||||||||
| This session will showcase an emerging trusted technology and research findings to connect marginalized and vulnerable communities. In 2019, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR) in Kyoto, Japan, proposed to use the Movable and Deployable ICT Resource Unit (MDRU) platform as a local cloud system which enables us to quickly launch internet-based services like social networking services. Movable and Deployable ICT Resource Unit (MDRU) is a joint project of the United Nations – International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications – Japan (MIC), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) and CVISNET Foundation to provide and establish an immediate communications infrastructure using ICT as the method to response during disaster period. MDRU is an ITU Standard No. L.392 – “Disaster management for improving network resilience and recovery with movable and deployable information and communication technology (ICT) resource units” This system developed from MDRU that ATR named “The Locally Accessible Cloud System” or “LACS,” offers locally accessible cloud service functions as Delivery function of disaster information from local government to evacuee, Communication function among people in the disaster affected area and Collection and sharing function of disaster information There onwards, the functionality of this system has been tested to have potential beyond disaster resilience to e-health and e-education mostly for marginalized communities. As LACS becomes a community owned and community-built network, it serves the ICT aspects of vulnerable population tailored to their local needs. And as Asia Pacific region is very prone to disaster, LACS also serves as a stand-alone resilient system to cope with communication issues during disaster. This way we can expand this technology to many unconnected and marginalized communities of the region. |
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| Methodology / Agenda (Please add rows by clicking "+" on the right) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Moderators & Speakers Info (Please complete where possible) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Please explain the rationale for choosing each of the above contributors to the session. | |||||||||||||||||||
| The speakers have been selected specifically to showcase the utility of LACS to bridge digital divide in terms of community led solutions for disaster preparedness and e-education. In doing so, the contributors will also disseminate research findings from the pilot study as their internet governance activity and seek for collaboration amongst Asia Pacific Community. 1. Toshikazu Sakano from ATR, Japan is the inventor of LACS. His team has been working on similar technology since the great east Japan earthquake to provide emergency community-based network that can be readily and easily set up during times of disaster. Dr. Sakano will be providing technological specifications and use cases of LACS during the session. He will also facilitate live demonstration of LACS for the audience to use the system and thus initiate audience engagement. 2. Jeffery Llanto from CViS Net foundation has been working on Internet governance issues for long time. Along with that, the foundation has been studying and implementing ICT solution to cyclone hit islands of Philippines. The foundation also conducted pilot study of LACS in Cebu for its usage in disaster, education and health. So Jeff will be disseminating findings, recommendations and challenges from this study. 3. Ashirwad Tripathy from Educating Nepal is helping foster inclusive e-education. He currently chairs IEEE SA IC Digital subcommittee on e-resilience in education system which gives him unique insights on what is happening in education sector around the world, what works and what doesn’t. and he also chairs ISOC SIG on Internet for Education. His perspectives on the usage of LACS for remote education will be significant now during this post covid environment. 4. Sylvia Cadena from APINIC has supported and funded implementation of study of LACS in the Philippines. Her insights on the findings will pave path for future collaboration of other members in Asia Pacific community with this innovation. |
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| Please declare if you have any potential conflict of interest with the Program Committee 2022. | |||||||||||||||||||
| No | |||||||||||||||||||
| Are you or other session contributors planning to apply for the APrIGF Fellowship Program 2022? | |||||||||||||||||||
| Yes | |||||||||||||||||||
| APrIGF offers live transcript in English for all sessions. Do you need any other translation support or any disability related requests for your session? APrIGF makes every effort to be a fully inclusive and accessible event, and will do the best to fulfill your needs. | |||||||||||||||||||
| If possible, Japanese to English transcription could be handy. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Brief Summary of Your Session | |||||||||||||||||||
| Locally accessible cloud system for e-resilience was a showcase session at APrIGF 2022 and was conducted successfully on 14th September 2022. The session was moderated by Binod Basnet. Dr Toshikazu Sakano from ATR gave the introduction of the product with its specification. The introduction of the product indicated its use case as a community backup network system usable during the times of disaster to communicate with each other. It included facility of file sharing, messaging and a notice board. Jeffery Llanto from Philippines shared the findings of implementation of LACS in island of Cebu to be very useful in areas without internet. Ashirwad Tripathy shared the potential of LACS to be beyond disaster and that it could be a device of daily use for remote education in marginalized communities of Asia Pacific region that did not have internet connectivity. The session was summed up as LACS system to be an effective device for disaster preparedness and as a resource for tele medicine and e-education functions. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Substantive Summary of the Key Issues Raised and the Discussion | |||||||||||||||||||
| The key issue raised during discussion was about the ability of LACS to synchronize with internet. Dr. Sakano explained the C-LACS facility of the product to automatically synchronize the data when internet was connected with the device. The participants from various nations which regularly had disasters in their countries showed keen interest in the use cases of the product. The other issue raised about the system was about its price and it was stated to be $10,000. Participants wanted to see a hands-on presentation of LACS but that was not possible due to restricted amount of time. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Conclusions and Suggestions of Way Forward | |||||||||||||||||||
| The session was very successful with fruitful discussion of the participants. The LACS system seems to be a resilient device, however needs more pilot testing to discover its full potential. Its utility for tele medicine and remote education needs more research-based testing. This requires partnership and collaboration from AP community to develop research based pilot programs to test LACS in mountainous or island region so that the findings can direct a way forward to use LACS beyond disaster. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Number of Attendees (Please fill in numbers) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Gender Balance in Moderators/Speakers (Please fill in numbers) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| How were gender perspectives, equality, inclusion or empowerment discussed? Please provide details and context. | |||||||||||||||||||
| The session had male and female speakers at the outset but due to time restriction, the showcase was highly condensed and hence male and female speaker ratio could not be maintained. However, the showcase focused on the needs of underprivileged and marginalized community for their equitable involvement in digital space, thereby empowering them to be more resilient. The effort of the session was to address the needs of the unconnected hence making the voices of marginalized inclusive. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Admin Use | |||||||||||||||||||
| S19 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Consent | |||||||||||||||||||
 I agree that my data can be submitted to forms.for.asia and processed by APrIGF organizers for the program selection of APrIGF 2022. |
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