Construction of Sagrada Familia, a church in Barcelona, Spain, began in 1882. Although Gaudi, who designed it, died 44 years after construction began, construction continues more than 140 years later, and many tourists continue to visit the site. Although some of the blueprints and models were lost due to the Spanish Civil War that began after Gaudi’s death and other factors, many craftsmen are still continuing to build, carrying on Gaudi’s intentions. Perhaps describing Sagrada Familia as ‘continuing to evolve’ rather than ‘in an unfinished state’ is more appropriate.
‘The Internet is not over. It is not done. The design is still evolving and you can be part write up that this is a malleable system. It’s a system that has been evolving and can be evolved, you can invent new things for it to do, and new ways for it to function.’ Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the Internet, said this in a 2012 speech. His words indicate that the Internet, like the Sagrada Familia, is still in the long, long process of construction and that we can participate in it.
Since its birth, the Internet has continued to evolve and become embedded in societies worldwide. The United Nations declared in 2012 that access to the Internet is a fundamental human right. Everything around us is connected to the Internet, and we are now inhabitants of a cyber civilization. However, to make this cyber civilization sustainable in the future, it is essential to develop professional human resources to support the Internet as its infrastructure. This is especially urgent in the Asia-Pacific region, which has a large population and potential for future economic development. The Internet penetration rate in the area is still under 70 percent in 2023, and a shortage of engineers is expected.
Therefore, in 2021, we started the Asia Pacific Internet Engineering (APIE) program to train engineers in the area. The program aims to provide opportunities for young people in the area to understand the Internet and develop young engineers who participate in operation and research in Internet-related projects. The APIE program is a global program for undergraduate students in the Asia-Pacific region with several components. As shown in Fig.1 (Structure of the APIE program), learners start their journey from the ‘core course.’ The core course has three components.
The first and second are on- demand online learning courses called APIE Online. In these courses, participants learn the basics of the Internet at their own pace. The third is the APIE eWorkshop, a two-hour real-time online session held once every two weeks. This session allows participants to learn about career paths through presentations by real Internet professionals and communicate with other participants.
Figure 1: Structure of the APIE program
After completing the core course, learners can apply for the APIE Camp. It is a five-day on-site training camp for designing and deploying real networks in small groups. In the camp, participants learn to network with their peers. The camp provides not only hands-on exercises but also opportunities to meet industry engineers by visiting local Internet company data centers and other sites.
Learners who completed the APIE camp can design and learn their next step in learning by themselves. Since there are so many new technology areas and learning materials coming out every day, engineers need to keep their studies. To keep them in our community, we provide APIE Internship. Participants intern with companies and organizations to experience actual Internet-related tasks and activities. APIE program itself is one of the internship opportunities. We hire learners who completed the APIE camp to support new learners in core courses.
These components are held semi-annually, and participants earn certificates and digital badges for completing each component.
In designing this program, our primary focus was not simply to provide knowledge and skills but to create a ‘community.’ This is based on Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger’s theory that humans can learn through practicing and creating something in a community. This theory is similar to the old apprenticeship system in a workshop.
Let’s imagine it a little more concretely. If you want to master something, the first step is to step into that professional community. There are masters there, mentors with a little more experience than you, and peers who are in the same position as you (newcomer). At first, you probably won’t be taught by masters or given the main job. Mentors, people with a little more experience than you, can show and give you simple tasks. Once you have gained experience, there will come a time when you will be given direct guidance from masters or assigned essential tasks. What is important here is that the community member ’s actions are not aimed at learning itself. After all, you are learning through practical activities. Learning in a community means through social interaction with them (building something together, communicating, etc.), You learn not only the knowledge but also the know-how and customs of the community.
The remarkable feature of this system is that it is sustainable. In other words, an ecosystem is created in which newcomers learn from mentors and masters, and after gaining experience, they themselves become mentors and masters, mentoring newcomers.
The reason we are so committed to community building is because of our nearly 30 years of experience.
Our story goes back to 1995. The WIDE project, a global research consortium based in Japan, launched the Asian Internet Interconnection Initiatives (AI3) project with universities in Asia to provide an Internet testbed for the Asia-Pacific region using satellite Internet by JCSAT-3. In 1995, the Internet penetration rate was still only 0.4% of the world’s population. Therefore, many areas did not yet have Internet infrastructure in place. Nevertheless, we used satellite links to allow researchers and engineers in the Asia-Pacific region to share their experience and knowledge of Internet technologies and to support the development of the Internet in the area. In 1996, ground stations using the KU band were established in Japan and Indonesia, and the operation began. The communication speed at that time was 2 Mbps, which was very fast for the time. How many dreams and hopes we put into this 2 Mbps communication! From 1996 to 2000, the AI3 project community expanded to Indonesia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
Building on the infrastructure developed in these AI3 projects, in 2001, we launched the School on Internet Asia (SOI-Asia) project, which attempted to distribute Internet-related lectures by researchers in Japan to our partners in the Asia-Pacific region. Nowadays, anyone can deliver classes remotely, but in 2001, the global Internet penetration rate was still 8.6%, and communication speeds were very slow, so this was a very advanced initiative. The satellite Internet was used for the downlink from Keio University, where the gateway station was located, to each site, and the terrestrial Internet infrastructure was used for the uplink from each site to Keio University.
To distribute classes to each site in the SOI-Asia project, we needed to develop the infrastructure and human resources to operate remote classes at each site. In August 2002, we held an Operators Workshop at Keio University, where young engineers and researchers from partner universities throughout Asia gathered to learn the skills necessary for equipment operation. This event left a great impression on us. They learned skills and ate, slept, and discussed together, giving the participating operators a sense of unity as an AI3/SOI-Asia team and invigorating the community and the project. We continued to offer these training opportunities regularly, and our community grew more substantial. In 2016, the AI3 project celebrated its 20th anniversary, and the SOI-Asia project celebrated its 15th anniversary and continues to develop further. This experience led to the ‘community building’ in the above APIE program.
Now, let’s turn the clock back to the present day. We started the APIE program’s first batch in April 2022 with 76 participants and the fourth batch in April 2024 with 546 participants. As batches are repeated, there are many cases where graduates of previous batches serve as teaching assistants for new batches. More and more APIE graduates are encouraging their roommates and new learners to participate in APIE and they are actively communicating and supporting for learning with their new learners. APIE’s network is steadily expanding.
And to date, four on-site APIE camps have been held in Japan, Indonesia, and Malaysia. As I, the author (who is in charge of filming the archive of APIE camp videos), capture the smiling faces of the participants as they reunite with their APIE friends on the first day of APIE camp, I am deeply moved by the ‘human connections’ that this project has created.
Figure 2: APIE camps held in various locations
The Internet is, simply put, a connection between places. But by no means does it end once the connection is made. Because machines sometimes break down and become old with the passage of time. Human beings, however, are different. Human beings can learn, improve, and evolve as often as they wish. It is the human presence on the Internet that makes it sustainable and resilient. A sustainable Internet can be achieved when passionate people connect and engage with each other.
As Vint said at the beginning, we will continue building one Internet together. Our nearly 30 years of continuous activity with our community partners, from AI3/SOI-Asia to APIE, will continue to connect passionate Internet operators and engineers at each location of the Asia- Pacific region and help develop the next generation of talent at each location. We can only hope our project will continue for a long time, just like the Internet.
According to a CNN report this year, Sagrada Familia will finally be completed in 2026. However, the evolution of the Internet and our story is not yet complete and will continue for some time to come. Would you like to be part of this continuation?
Acknowledgment: The APIE program is operated by the SOI-Asia project in partnership with APNIC, the WIDE project, and AITAC. APNIC Foundation funds and supports the activities. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to all those involved for their tremendous cooperation.
