Category: Events

On August 22, 2025, Keio University Global Research Institute (KGRI) kicked off its new event series “Legend Talk” at the Mita Campus Innovation Lounge. Themed “The Future We Build with Technology — Fukuzawa Yukichi’s Vision,” the event featured the Cyber Civilization Research Center (CCRC), with a showcase of research activities and a dialogue between Professor Jun Murai, Co-Director at KGRI, and Tatsuya Kurosaka, Project Associate Professor at Keio University.

The evening opened with the CCRC Overview poster session, where guests could meet project members and learn more about each initiative. Among them, the Asia Pacific Resilient Society (APRS) Task Force — essentially SOI Asia — presented its activities through posters and videos, highlighting SOI Asia’s role in building collaborative education and research opportunities across the Asia-Pacific region.

During the public talk, Murai and Kurosaka explored the future of the Internet, AI, and society through the lens of cyber civilization. A particularly memorable moment came when Murai referenced Keio University founder Yukichi Fukuzawa’s 19th-century vision of a connected world. He shared a drawing from Seiyō Jijō (Conditions in the West), where the globe is connected by electric wires — an early vision of what would become today’s Internet.

The session concluded with an open networking exchange among faculty, students, and corporate participants. The event not only celebrated Fukuzawa’s foresight but also connected it to ongoing CCRC initiatives, demonstrating how research, innovation, and collaboration continue to shape the future. SOI Asia is honored to be part of this dialogue, contributing to the vision of an interconnected Asia-Pacific community.

On July 29, 2025, SOI Asia hosted the panel session “Participating in the Internet: Internet Governance for Everyone” at the Asia Pacific Advanced Network Conference 60 (APAN60) in Hong Kong. The 90-minute discussion brought together prominent voices in Internet governance to explore how capacity-building initiatives can foster meaningful participation in shaping the Internet’s future.

The panel was co-chaired by Ms. Mariko Kobayashi (WIDE Project) and Mr. Korry Luke (Keio University) and featured:

• Jun Murai – Senior Advanced Research Professor, Keio University / Founder, WIDE Project (online participation)
• Yien Chyn Tan – Director of Stakeholder Engagement, ICANN APAC
• Md. Abdul Awal – Network Analyst and Trainer, APNIC
• Edmon Chung – CEO, DotAsia

Identifying the Needs and Issues

The session opened with Prof. Jun Murai’s overview of how the Internet works—its open, distributed, and multi-stakeholder nature—and the evolving ways it connects people, from global satellite coverage to experimental initiatives. Korry Luke followed introducing the new SOI Asia online course Participating in the Internet.

Panelists then explored the skills and literacy needed for active Internet participation. Edmon Chung started highlighting the importance of understanding cultural characteristics in Asia as a starting point for meaningful engagement. Md. Abdul Awal shared insights from APNIC’s experience in fostering a collaborative culture across its community. Yien Chyn Tan offered perspectives from Southeast Asia, noting encouraging progress in engagement over the past year while emphasizing the need to broaden outreach beyond youth audiences.

Sharing Capacity-Building Resources

In the second part of the discussion, panelists introduced the capacity-building programs their organizations offer. Awal described APNIC’s hands-on training initiatives and commended SOI Asia’s APIE Program as a unique opportunity for younger students to gain practical Internet engineering skills. Chung reflected on the fact that the challenge is not a shortage of fellowships or programs, but rather a need to generate sustained interest and ensure long-term engagement. He emphasized the value of alumni networks, opportunities for policy involvement, and creating pathways for organizations to welcome fresh voices into decision-making spaces.

Tan outlined the range of ICANN-supported programs and acknowledged that the abundance of opportunities can sometimes leave learners uncertain about where to begin. She called for closer collaboration among stakeholders to help participants navigate these options more effectively, highlighting the importance of language accessibility and the need to involve the private sector in addressing funding and resource challenges.

Designing a Collaborative Pathway

The final segment of the session focused on how these diverse efforts could be better integrated into a cohesive, collaborative pathway for Internet governance participation. Drawing on their experience, Prof. Murai and Mr. Luke emphasized the importance of aligning regional strengths to support participants over the long term. Ms. Kobayashi proposed that the community should consider a “career ladder” approach—enabling individuals to progress from initial engagement to more advanced, sustained roles in the Internet governance ecosystem.

The discussion concluded with a shared understanding that collaboration, accessibility, and retention are key to building a stronger Internet governance community in the Asia-Pacific.

Looking Ahead

The discussions revealed both shared priorities and practical steps toward stronger collaboration in the Asia-Pacific Internet governance community. Participants agreed on the importance of aligning resources, addressing barriers such as language and access, and creating clear pathways for ongoing participation.

As Prof. Murai noted, the Asia-Pacific has a unique role to play not only within the region but also in shaping global Internet governance. This conversation is just the beginning of a longer, collaborative journey.

Monthly Seminars are online gatherings consisting of the following:
・Share updates from each member site.
・Share each site’s knowledge and explore the possibility of collaboration within the community.

Schedule of the AI³ SOI Asia Monthly Online Seminar:

Last Wednesday of every month

Target: Faculty members, staff, and students of AI³ /SOI Asia community
Time: (60 – 90 min)
・　3:15 P.M.- (GMT + 6)
・　4:15 P.M.- (GMT + 7)
・　5:15 P.M.- (GMT + 8)
・　6:15 P.M.- (GMT + 9)

AI³ SOI Asia Monthly Online Seminar Schedule is as follows.:

AI³ SOI Asia Monthly Online Seminar Schedule

SOI Asia started online gatherings during the COVID pandemic, to keep the community united and ensure that information was shared smoothly. In the 52nd AI³ & SOI Asia Joint Meeting (2021), members decided that this kind of gathering should be held monthly and named it AI³ & SOI Asia Monthly Seminar since October 2021. (For more details, please refer to the meeting summary report.)

On October 29, SOI Asia delivered presentations at the MicroCASA Project Consortium meeting, held from October 28 to 30, 2024, at SOI Asia partner institution Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) in Manila, Philippines. This meeting was part of a series of discussions organized by MicroCASA Erasmus+ under the theme “White Paper: Action Plan for Micro-credentials Adoption in Higher Education for Southeast Asian Countries.”

Achmad Husni Thamrin from Keio University introduced SOI Asia, ARENA PAC, and Inxignia’s current status and future direction. Husni highlighted that while the Inxignia team is advancing technologies related to microcredentials, they anticipate that MicroCASA partners will lead in establishing best practices for issuing microcredentials and promoting inter-institutional recognition.

In a second session, Andrey Ferriyan, a member of the Inxignia team at Keio University, addressed inquiries and provided hands-on guidance on how to issue badges and certificates using Inxignia. Both sessions resulted in valuable insights, with MicroCASA partners asking detailed questions about Inxignia and suggesting several new features.

From SOI Asia, Achmad ‘Abazh’ Basuki (UB) and Alwin (UNRAST) also attended the meeting. The team left Manila looking forward to strengthening collaboration with MicroCASA partners to promote microcredentials and digital badges across the Asia-Pacific region.

We are excited to share that the 58th AI³/SOI Asia Joint Meeting will be held online from October 22 to 24, 2024. This event will be co-hosted by Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).

Meeting WEBSITE: https://58th-ai3soi.buet.ac.bd/

The 57th AI³/SOI Asia Directors Meeting was held at the USC Talamban Campus from June 20 to 21, 2024. This meeting saw the participation of 59 core members from higher education institutions across 10 countries, joining both onsite and online. The meeting focused on sharing SOI Asia’s activities over the past eight months and discussing future initiatives.

Meeting WEBSITE is HERE.

Despite a period of reduced involvement with the SOI Asia community, we are delighted to have USC rejoin us. We also appreciate USC’s local hospitality!

The next joint meeting is scheduled to take place in October in Bangladesh, hosted by the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).

On September 12, the APNIC Foundation featured SOI Asia and AI³ in its session during APNIC 56, a conference that was held in Kyoto, Japan, from September 13-15.

The session started with the highlights of the Foundation programs and projects in 2023, presented by the APNIC Foundation acting CEO (at that moment, Head of Programs and Partnerships), Sylvia Cadena.

Following that, Keiko Okawa, professor at Keio University and director of SOI Asia, started a retrospective of SOI Asia and AI³ activities on capacity building (human resources development) and Internet-related research. Keiko followed a timeline starting in 1995 when this community started and then led the talk to the present and how she envisions the future of this community. During her talk, Keiko was accompanied by other speakers who were also related to the projects.

Achmad Husni Thamrim, lead of AI3, looked back to the satellite-based connectivity initiatives in Southeast Asia led by AI3 and its contribution to Internet-related research collaboration and the development of the Internet in the region.

The Lead of APIE, Noriatsu Kudo, shared how the program contributes to fostering a new generation of talented Internet engineers who can head up the future of the Internet. Sai Veerya Mahadevan shared her experience as a teaching assistant and her thoughts on the program. She emphasized the safe environment created for learners to learn, unlearn, make mistakes, and learn from them.

Achmad Basuki explained his involvement to the community throughout the years, particularly the recent efforts to ARENA-PAC, which aim to link several global research and education networks (REN) in the region.

Yung-wey Chong introduced Community-based research activities (CBRs) and stressed the importance of conducting research that involves stakeholders and brings back to the local communities.

Keiko and Sylvia concluded the session by emphasizing the value of collaboration to foster a new generation of Internet engineers and create a brighter future.

Check the video archive of the session here.