The Internet has changed our world for the better

But it can only enrich our lives when it’s secure and available to everyone, everywhere. Half the world lacks access while, in nearly every corner of the world, ideas are forming that could threaten the Internet as we know it.

We work tirelessly to grow the Internet and make it stronger in Kyrgyzstan. We apply know-how and decades of experience to achieve our vision, which puts people first: The Internet is for everyone.

ISOC  Goals

1. Growing the Internet

• Deploying and Growing Community Networks
• Fostering Sustainable Peering Infrastructure
• Enabling Sustainable Technical Community 
• Measuring the Internet
• Understanding Low Earth Orbit Satellites and Opportunities for the Internet      

2. Strengthening the internet

• Promoting Internet Way of Networking (IWN)
• Extending Encryption
• Securing Global Routing
• Sharing Cutting Edge Knowledge at NDSS
• Exploring Digital Sovereignty and Opportunities for the Internet 

3. Empowering people to take action

• Sharing Knowledge Globally to Inspire Action Locally
• Building Structure and Strength in Special Interest Groups
• Mobilizing Individual Members
• Securing Resources for Growth and Greater Impact 
• Driving Action through Knowledge
• Empowering Internet Advocates  

What do we do to reach these goals?

1. Growing the internet

• School Connectivity. In an effort to provide Internet access for
  everyone, we have established cooperation with the GIGA Global Initiative to Connect all Schools to the Internet by issuing a guide and sharing our experience. Many students and teachers suffer from insufficient internet in their schools. As a result, they cannot watch educational materials, connect with friends. Furthermore, during the pandemic, these students and teachers could not study and teach. The team of ISOC chapter Kyrgyzstan focuses on providing internet for schools and educational institutes in remote areas. 

• FV-IXP. We provide better accessibility of the Internet in Ferghana Valley, the most densely populated region of Central Asia, located in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Internet Exchange Point Project with the location in Osh city (Kyrgyzstan) is aimed to increase regional cross-border collaboration between stakeholders and communication of people through the increase of Internet affordability by lower internet service tariff plans up to 3 times, multiple growths of Internet traffic exchange in the region, increase Internet penetration rate due to price reduction, better latency for international and regional content sources.Results of the action:1) Increased internet speed by internet service providers 3-5 times;2) Decreased internet prices for entrant level Internet access to 2.5-3 times;3) Growth of internet consumption in the region;

1. Growth of the number of fixed-broadband subscriptions;
2. Growth of electronic commerce via messengers, email, and online mark
   etplaces
3. Growth of ICT specialists in the region
4. Improve in QoS (latency)

• Community Network. We provide accessible internet in remote villages in Kyrgyzstan. The project aims to install radio receivers for wireless internet, so residents of remote areas can utilize high-speed internet without effort. We started from Suusamyr, continued to Zardaly and plan to connect the villages of Kyzyl-Oi, Ak-Shyrak and Enilchek by building community Internet networks.

2. Strengthening the internet

• Sanarip Insan. “Sanarip Insan” is a project to educate people on digital skills. The main goal of the project is to teach citizens digital literacy skills such as usage of Google platforms, creation of email, or digital security on the internet. The target audience is women and youth. It teaches citizens digital skills, which are now firmly entrenched in daily living. Our potential audiences start basic technological education at first, continually improving learning techniques to support their personal and career growth. 

• Data Protection and Privacy. It provides special skills in cybersecurity and educates journalists, government officers, and other citizens. It is essential for all citizens to learn the methods of cybersecurity since it protects all categories of data from theft and damage. We are developing a framework reflecting the best practices of citizens that have managed and built excellent cybersecurity culture through educating and training users in a security-aware way of working.

3.Empowering people to take action

• Ilimbox — Internet in a Box for schools in Kyrgyzstan. When schools switched to online education due to the pandemic, teachers and young people in many rural schools were left without access to education due to the lack of the Internet. Our team rushed to help in the most remote areas and delivered Ilim Box, digital libraries that operate without Internet access and contain educational materials such as e-books, video courses, Wikipedia, and Khan Academy in Kyrgyz. The Ilimbox project was included in the list of seven global initiatives in the field of digital education by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. ISOC-Kyrgyz Chapter had installed fifty devices of Ilimbox in understaffed and under-equipped rural schools in the northern provinces of Kyrgyz Republic.  Ilimboxes had been demonstrated in the halls of schools for teachers and students from the 6-10th classes. Public had positively welcomed this initiative and fully supported it in places. Teachers found materials very useful for preparing class materials and assignments, while school children asked to upload additional textbooks and materials that initially were not installed in Orange Pie devices. Based on their user feedback, the team took a pause in Ilimbox distribution for the time of spring recess in schools and had been working with different stakeholders to receive permits for sharing their textbooks and educational materials. The software part had been completely redesigned, user interfaces changed and overall product recognition improved. Starting from the new academic year in September, the team had traveled across the region, made presentations, training sessions, and distributed three-fourths of the devices for users. There are about 25 thousand students and teachers who benefited from the installation of fifty devices and the accomplishment of the project
• Ilimbox — Educational Platform for Secondary Schools. Based on the success of Ilimbox, we have reached the next level and created an online school IlimBox.kg, where teachers and students can get online access to all school subjects with video tutorials, tests, textbooks, and other interactive materials.  Ilimbox’s online education platform helps the Ministry of Education in digital transformation of the education system, adaptation of their standards and curriculum, and open new ways for learning and reaching out to school-age children even in remote areas of the country as well as from underserved and vulnerable communities. Migrant parents could watch the progress of their kids and join remotely to classroom events, for example. Ilimbox plans to continue developing by opening platforms to third-party publishers and development partners (US Embassy, WB, ADB, UNDP, UNICEF, independent) who would like to provide additional learning materials for children. Ilimbox will keep its sustainability by keeping fees from new publishers and authors for covering maintenance and R&D costs.

1.  To deploy Moodle open-source solution on ilimbox.kg website and customize it in user-friendly way (mobile);
2.  Upload and structure all available learning materials on one platform organized by classes, school curriculum, competencies; 
3.  Convert all textbooks from pdf to machine-friendly format so that it would be easy to search required text, read it, increase th font of the text, etc.
4.  Provide video conferencing tools on the platform.    

• Online STEM experiments. Realizing that schools in rural regions often lack materials for scientific experiments, we publish thousands of online experiments in physics and chemistry in Kyrgyz available on our YouTube channel.