The 5th Camp on APNG, CAIRNS AUSTRALIA

First Impressions
Dreams usually take along time span to realize. When a dream comes true within a short span of time it makes lasting impressions. My impressions about APNG was really of a fanciful nature and colorful one when I saw the advertisement about it. But when I received the letter from APNG secretariat about my being selected for the programme I was determined to make the best use of it.
According to my views APNG is Asia Pacific Network Group as well as Asia Pacific Next Generation. APNG is the place where next generation internet leaders will be trained and share their potential knowledge with the Internet leaders in the Asia Pacific Region.
The Programme
The Venue
The APNG programme was so finely designed from A to Z.
The venue of the programme, with Cairns at its highest form of breath taking beauty suited finely to a performance of this nature, because it provided a fine meeting place for participants from different countries with different climates, habits and countries to merge and blend together for a common useful purpose
Participants
In the camp what I learned was among the 12 countries such as Sri Lanka, Nepal India, Bhuthan, Pakistan, Thailand, Philippine, China , Japan, Korea Taiwan and, Australia. But though the camp was held in Australia there was no Australian participation.
Performance and Objectives
On the first day we were able to share Internet history of our countries and it was exciting experience how internet was introduced and spread through countries in last two decades. But there were few questions were aroused because of large number of ISP in some countries compared to Sri Lanka and some large developed countries like Japan. I had few targets when I am participating this camp;
  1. Learn form the experienced people
  2. Share the knowledge
  3. Get to know the people who will be next generation internet leaders
  4. Address the common problems in the region
  5. Get to know how to use my knowledge in proper through region.
Shared Experience and reached Benefits
This was the my first air trip as well as the first visit to the Australia. I was feeling very lucky and very excited about the trip though it was two days long journey from my home. But when I step in to beautiful Cairns I was very happy. It was a great experience meeting the people from the other countries and share there knowledge. We felt free to exchange our ideas. We were happily bonded as family Tommy Matsumato, the chair person was the father of the family. He was really a father. I always remembered he was asking " Do you enjoy your food" in a touching manner..
As discussed in our working groups there were several interesting topics such as Internet Business Startup. We were able to discuss the major effects of our countries when starting business using internet. Apart from the other conventional universities Open university plays a major role in Srilanka in tertiary education.. But we have lack opportunities to communicate with other sources such as APNG. Weather News was given the impressive ideas about how whether forecast will doing in Japan. In our minds we were searching for the possibilities how we can implement the systems like weather news introduced in Japan.

Following issues were discussed during working groups sessions and there will some negotiation
Problems

  1. Although we have man power no proper training on the Job
  2. Have knowledge to work but lack of qualifications
  3. No confidence in private sector but in government sector lack of opportunities
  4. Lack of sharing knowledge resources
  5. Lack of promoting e-learning facility, slow improvements of the capacity

A Look in to the future
  1. E-learning training with AIT.(free e-learning software - paid training)
  2. Exchange programs for on the job training
  3. Research Opportunities
  4. Organizing the local camp
Even though we conducted so many workshops seminars conference on internet and more technological matters, the idea of camp never strike in our minds. Thanks to APNG now we Srilankan participants are planning to organize local camp in Sri Lanka. Which will be mainly addressed to the non technical internet users in Sri Lanka. Hope we can implement what we learned from APNG.
As member of the history committee I will be gathering the information form the various resources and hoping to participate actively

Suggestions for Future APNG Programmes
  1. More fellowships for the next camp
  2. Next camp will be held in developing country such as Sri Lanka. It will increase the moral and technological aspects of the locals
  3. Community of site of the APNG will help a lot to the members keep on introducing new topics and acquire active participation form old members.
Lasting impressions of the programme
In conclusion, I have to say that the technical sessions were most useful in broadening our horizons. Theoretically practically as well as socially . I was mainly interested in IPV6 and Voice over IP, which is one of the major technical issues.Further, the specific issues limited to our country - Sri Lanka for which I have been searching answers for were aired here. Sri Lanka has the potential for development with a large number of clientele wishing to join the public sector. The public sector in Sri Lanka, unlike the private sectors provides job security for the employee. Nevertheless, the private sector, offers positions with high salaries and good prospect. Hence , providing training, catering to aspirants of these sectors has to be guided and conducted with a properly disciplined resource institutions.
My special thanks will be given to Tommy sun and Swada sun who gave us courage guidance from the beginning to end. Otherwise our participation wouldnft have happen. I would like to give my special thanks to APNG secretariat, Mr.Xinliu ,Mr.Chin Chao . and Mr.Endo Athusi who has given us great support and organized the camp excellently. I would like to thank all my colleagues form all the countries in the camp who helps to camp to be a memorable event.





Author: Syahma Sagarika Wickramasekera (Ms.)
Photographer: Syahma Sagarika Wickramasekera (Ms.)
Country: Sri Lanka