This year, APNIC enters its third decade. Starting from a tiny office in Tokyo in 1992 — with three people and a spreadsheet serving less than 600 delegated entities — APNIC has grown to a community of nearly 24,000 organizations across 56 economies.
What started as the regional academic networking community with a mailing list of 26 contacts (the CCIRN Asia Pacific members), the APNIC of today serves 2.6 billion Internet users, more than half the global Internet. APNIC economies also comprise more than half the global IPv6 capability.
Despite many changes in technology and policy worldwide, APNIC has remained committed to: “A global, open, stable, and secure Internet”.
The Asia Pacific is home to nine of the world’s 46 Least Developed Countries (as defined by the United Nations). Fifteen states and seven affiliated economies of APNIC Members are Small Island Developing States (SIDS), characterized by low population, distance and remoteness. However, our region also includes global economic superpowers and some of the most populated economies on Earth.
The combination of language, culture, distance, isolation and the different scale of the region’s communities magnifies the importance of consensus policy making on an equal basis. The APNIC community has developed policy that reflects and enables Internet growth across our region, and has ensured an Asia Pacific voice has been heard at a global level.
To mark this 30-year milestone, the APNIC Blog will run a series looking back at the past and into the future. This isn’t intended to be an exhaustive history of the APNIC community; I’m not sure if that would even be possible.
The intention is to share stories, anecdotes, milestones and insights that capture some of the essence of the last 30 years. The series will complement the histories published previously on the 20th anniversary.
We’ve reached out to the community at large for memories, quotes and photos of earlier times that will be coming in the blog stream and on social media. If you have memories and images to share, we’d love for you to do so. Please be a part of this story and let’s hear from as many voices of the region (and beyond) as possible!
To share your memories and photographs of 30 years of the APNIC community, email us at blog@apnic.net.
I hope you enjoy the blog series!
The views expressed by the authors of this blog are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of APNIC. Please note a Code of Conduct applies to this blog.
Awesome and lovely!
All the best wishes to the APNIC staff and community to enter its third decade.
Dear Paul., APNIC has understood well the diversity of the region it caters to under your leadership. Thanks a lot. On another note, the historical initiative is great idea. I would love to see some stories from you based on your experience which forced APNIC to transform. It can be an important management lesson for all of us.
Awesome… Selamat pak Sanjaya…
Big congrats to APNIC, the community, and all the staff, past and present, who have done so much to keep it all running so well.