LOCAL INTERNET CONTENT FORUM (LICF) 2013: an Experience that was

The 2013 edition of Local Content Internet Forum (LCIF) a 2-day event was organized by Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) and Nigeria Internet Registration Agency (NiRA). The forum seeks to be a rallying point for Nigerian internet stakeholders in raising and addressing salient issues concerning the ICT sector and also a platform to articulate a stand on promoting and sustaining local content from the Nigeria Cyber space.

Against this backdrop, this year’s edition once more gathered stakeholders in ICT who x-rayed the challenges confronting the industry with particular emphasis on local content through paper presentations and interactive sessions. With the welcome address by Engr. Sam Adeleke who stood in for Mr. Chima OnyekwereOON Chairman of IXPN and presentations from seasoned speakers, moderators and panelists and of course the well informed audience exchanging ideas on how to effectively harness content produced in Nigeria by Nigerians. With a total of six sessions and twenty panelists, the forum was very vibrant, interactive and exciting as the enthusiastic participants were eager to know more, share experiences and ask relevant questions.

From the presentations and interactive sessions, it was gathered that the sole objective of Local Internet Content Forum is to create a mind shift for the local content producers from hosting outside the shores of Nigeria to localizing our home grown content. It is hoped that this will be achieved through correcting some misguided opinions about the reliability, security, and stability of .ng domains by NIRA and readiness of IXPN to assist in keeping the local internet traffic local within the country.

Furthermore, the Local Content Forum, a synergy of the collaborating organisations (NiRA and IXPN) sought to reach out through this forum to the content producers who can create content, and can upload it digitally using basic tools. Such include Institutions, the Public and Private sectors, Publishers, Authors/Writers, the Print and Electronic Media, Movie producers, Musicians, Bloggers, Bankers, Webmasters, the Academia, Research Institutions; Internet Providers etc. it is also designed to reach people who create content to have them work together with service providers who are committed to providing reliable service at hosting digital contents locally.

Having identified a whole lot of local content on the net and the big question of how much of it is generated locally, the LIC forum also sought to effectively build capacity to sustain the content that is generated locally and reach anyone who creates graphics, text, audio and video and offer direction to our youths on how their abounding energies could be channeled to legitimate and profitable ventures on the internet. Invariably the forum will foster more uploading and less downloading, with the overriding objective to domicile content so generated in Nigeria.

It is expected after this forum that Nigeria will be set on the right course that is free from the present Internet consumerist culture and rescued from the capital flight emanating from the registration of non .ng domain names with hosting content in servers located outside the country with the associated risks. The forum is not a talk shop but a call for action.

In a bid to encourage the youth in promoting local content in Nigeria, two students who distinguished themselves by their active participation in the forum were appointed 1^st and 2^nd student .ng ambassadors respectively; Falodun Oluwaseyia 400 level computer science student from Obafemi Awolowo University Ile Ife and Olatunji Francis a Computer Science ND 2 student from Yaba College of Technology. Finally, from the raffle draw organized in the forum, Olusola Babawale with ticket number 000114 emerged the winner, taking home a complete set of a desktop Omatek computer.