ngNOG 2015 workshop, the 10th anniversary in the annual series of the Nigerian Network Operators' Group (ngNOG) Workshops and Meetings, was successfully held at the University of Nigeria (UNN, Nsukka) from 02-09 November, 2015.

Fifteen Institutions and Organizations participated in the five parallel tracks of the 2015 ngNOG workshop in Nsukka. The workshop was declared open by the Vice Chancellor Prof Benjamin Benjamin Ozumba who was represented by the University DVC. The Vice Chancellor and his lovely wife were however present at the celebratory dinner to express their support and congratulate the ngNOG community as it concluded the 10th successful workshop.

As always, participants got hands-on training and solved relevant practical problems in their tracks, in addition to discussing topics of interest at the general evening discussions. Topics included SSL/TLS certification, Data Security, Self-development and career progression in ICT. The ngNOG meeting was a success with presentations from supporting organizations like Bandwidth Consortium , MEEDS Networks , Google and Main One . Participants, instructors and the University Library received copies of books donated by ngNOG's indefatigable partner NSRC .

After a week of technical events, participants were treated with a stress relief sight-seeing visit to the Ogba Ihuezi Ogbunofia Ndiuno Cave and waterfall. Earlier in the day, instructors defeated participants in a keenly contested football match. Pictures from the event can be viewed here

The first domesticated (AfNOG -fashioned) country NOG in Africa, ngNOG has successfully trained at subsidized cost, over 800 Network Engineers & Librarians from eighty-eight (88) Higher Education Institutions and organizations across Nigeria.

Starting with a pre-NOG workshop in Ibadan; several locations in Nigeria have since played host to the annual workshops and meetings: from the Hill city of Jos, to Canaanland, from Opobo kingdom to Ogba Ihuezi Ogbunofia Ndiuno Cave & waterfall, from the ancient Benin City to Ile-Ife, from Mainland hotel to Hotel 17, from the city of Kanawa to Ilorin hospitality, the community keeps growing.

Through the years, as is the case with all human endeavor, the ngNOG workshop & meetings have had their moments of success, failure, celebration, disappointments and reflections. A meeting point and source of inspiration to so many, a strong human network continues to grow out of our face-to-face meetings and online community interaction.

While increasing an interest in ICT-related policies that affect people, the event has also grown a community of experts with diverse ICT skillsets. After ten years, the ngNOG among others aims towards strengthening collaboration with stakeholders, introducing industry certification, and holding additional workshops to further reduce travel distance for participants.

This journey would never have been possible without the contributions of the Grantors, Sponsors, Individuals, Government organizations, Higher Education Institutions, Private organizations, Instructors, Participants, Organizers, Host Institutions who have through the years supported this event either financially, with words of advice, ideas and or with a positive critique. Some had supplied the ngNOG event with equipment, books, T-shirts, pens, venue, others by Instructing, organizing, or as participants.

For this and to you all, we say a big Thank you and look forward to seeing you in the Federal Capital Territory for the next edition in October 2016.

The Nigerian Network Operators' Group (ngNOG) Workshops & Conference is the foremost capacity-building activity of ICT personnel and other stakeholders in Nigerian Higher Education. More than 800 network engineers, managers and librarians have been trained at ngNOG.

Unlike previous editions which have been hosted by Universities, a Polytechnic, and an Education regulator, the eleventh annual edition of ngNOG was hosted by the Nigeria ICT Forum secretariat at Hotel Reno, Katampe, Abuja from 01st – 05th November 2016. A one-day Conference held at the Rockview Royale Hotel, Wuse Abuja on Monday 31st October, 2016 to start the week officially.

ngNOG Conference

The ngNOG Conference had a total attendance of 200 people from Tertiary Education Institutions, Government agencies, ICT companies, and other sectors. The full-day event had panel sessions, lightning talks, presentations and engaging question and answer sessions.

The first panel session was on Lessons from managing large ICT organizations with panelists including Professor Ayodeji Oluleye, University of Ibadan , Professor M. N. Maiturare, Vice Chancellor, IBB University, Lapai , Mr Gabriel Fuster Director of Information Systems,
American University of Nigeria, Yola and Dr Amina Idris, Acting Director, National Board for Technical Education Center of Excellence for TVET, representing the NBTE Executive Secretary.

The second panel session was on Internet Infrastructure- What the traffic rides on. How is Nigeria really doing? with Dr Yusuf Kazaure CEO, Galaxy Backbone Plc , Rev. Sunday Folayan President, Nigeria Internet Registration Association , Muhammed Rudman CEO, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria , Mr Ahmed Atere CEO, MEED Networks , Mr Joshua Attah Managing Director, Nigeria Research & Education Network as panelists.

The third panel session was on Internet Governance, Naming and Number Resources. Who is responsible for what? How it affects everything else with Rev Sunday Folayan (NIRA), Mr Adewole Ajao Bandwidth Consortium , Mr Seun Ojedeji Federal University Oye Ekiti and Mrs Mary Uduma Nigeria Internet Governance Forum as panelists.

Presentations at the conference included

• Goodwill message delivered by Dr Aminu Ibrahim (Convenor, Nigeria ICT Forum)
• ngNOG Update by Dr Adedokun Adewale (ngNOG National Event Coordinator)
• Internet Infrastructure - What the traffic rides on. How is Nigeria really doing by Muhammed Rudman (Managing Director, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria)
• Internet Governance: Naming, Number Resources. Who is responsible for what? How it affects everything else by Seun Ojedeji
• Nigeria Internet Registration Association: Infographics by Rev Sunday Folayan
• Leveraging the Digital Bridge Institute, Capability for Human Resource Capacity Building by Dr Ikechukwu Adinde

The discussion sessions following each of the presentations and panel sessions were very engaging and received plenty of positive feedback from delegates present. The conference presented top level executives and other stakeholders with an opportunity to express and appreciate the opportunities and challenges in play as well as share insights on how to improve the state of Information and Communication Technology in Nigeria.

ngNOG Workshop

The workshop had 64 participants from 32 institutions/organizations in four tracks that ran concurrently. As part of efforts to prepare the next generation, 10 undergraduates and fresh graduates were engaged as interns to support the workshop and also take part in the training.

The System Administration(SA) track participants performed hands-on virtualization, system installation, file system management, handling system boot procedures, user administration, process management, services and server installation & management, back-ups and remote logins with Ubuntu Linux as the operating system of choice.

The Internet Services track (IS) focused on the design and operation of services running and deployed on networks, with emphasis on scalability and improving service delivery. Sample services covered include DNS, Email, Voice over IP, Authentication, Network monitoring and Virtualization on Linux platforms.

The Internet Infrastructure track (II) was aimed at Internet Protocol Networking; Basic routing; OSPF routing; BGP routing; Management of router configuration; NOC (Network Operations Centre); Internet Exchange Points between networks; Network Security. Network Monitoring and Management tools which include cacti, Nagios and LibreNMS, Basic Wireless infrastructure and Security.

Web server management, applications development, content management systems, learning management systems, content developments (animations, audio editing, video editing etc) were areas of focus in the Application and Content Development track (ACD) .

Evening Discussions

To make the most of the time together, evening sessions held daily after dinner with most participants in attendance.

The business of registering .ng domains was the topic for the first day. Feedback on the Internet Society, ISOC Introduction to Network Operations online course had positive reviews from participants who expressed enthusiasm and appreciation to ISOC.

A presentation on Ganeti server clusters was made on day two by Abubakar Mohammed of NIRA. The last evening session featured two presentations on Moodle for Computer-based testing by Makinde Matthew and Google Apps for Business by Obaniyi Oluwatoba.

Participants were also taken on a site seeing visit to Usuma Dam located in Bwari area of the FCT. They also visited Area 1 Kilishi spot to pick up an “on the road treat”

Appreciation

The ngNOG 2016 was a success through partnership and support from Acti-Tech , AfriNIC , Bandwidth Consortium , (BWC) , Google , Internet Society (ISOC) , Layer3 , MEED Networks , Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC ) , Nigerian Internet Registration Association (NIRA) , Nigerian Research and Education Network (NgREN) , NISTECH , Technology Times .

We are grateful to the various Institutions and Firms, who contributed instructors and presenters. They include: Yaba College of Technology, Lagos; University of Jos; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; University of Benin; Bayero University Kano; the Bandwidth Consortium; NISTech Ltd; Ice Cool Contrats Ltd; University of Abuja; Eko Konnect; and Federal University of Technology, Akure

On behalf of the ngNOG Admin, we wish to express our appreciation to all the Instructors, conference presenters, interns, local and international partners for their support in cash and in kind towards the success of the ngNOG 2016 event.

The Nigeria ICT Forum of Partnership Institutions expresses special appreciation to all the organizations that made it possible for their personnel to attend the full week of training either as instructors or as workshop participants.

While we look forward to regional events in the coming year, we remain fully committed to applying the lessons and insights from the national event to the growth of Internetworking and ICT in Nigeria.

The twelfth edition of the ngNOG workshop took place in the FCT, Abuja. The second time, the event is being hosted by the Nigeria ICT Forum. Forty two delegates from 20 institutions participated at this year’s event which took place from 30th October – 04th November, 2017. Unfortunately the event also had a low turn up of delegates which was mostly due to the economic challenges faced by the Country.

A one day Conference was held at Hotel Reno, same venue where participants were accommodated and the technical classes were conducted.

The conference was packed with engaging presentations with an opening remarks from Convenor of the Nigeria ICT Forum Dr Aminu Ibrahim. A presentation on Cyberspace/Cyber Norms by Abdulhakeem Ajijola of Consultancy Support Services, Internet of Things by Rev. Sunday Folayan President Nigerian Internet Registration Association (NIRA). Another interesting presentation was by Oyaje Idoko of Layer3 on Building a Smart Campus for 21st Learning & Research. The Conference wrapped up with the discussion on Peering & Interconnection by Dewole Ajao of the Bandwidth Consortium.

The technical workshop had five parallel tracks, namely the System Administration (SA), Internet Services (I.S), Internet Infrastructure (II), Application & Content Development (ACD) and the Domain Name Business which was a track sponsored by the Nigerian Internet Registration Association (NIRA)

The System Administration(SA) track participants performed hands-on virtualization, system installation, file system management, handling system boot procedures, user administration, process management, services and server installation & management, back-ups and remote logins with Ubuntu Linux as the operating system of choice.

The Internet Services track (IS) focused on the design and operation of services running and deployed on networks, with emphasis on scalability and improving service delivery. Sample services covered include DNS, Email, Voice over IP, Authentication, Network monitoring and Virtualization on Linux platforms.

The Internet Infrastructure track (II) was aimed at Internet Protocol Networking; Basic routing; OSPF routing; BGP routing; Management of router configuration; NOC (Network Operations Centre); Internet Exchange Points between networks; Network Security. Network Monitoring and Management tools which include cacti, Nagios and LibreNMS, Basic Wireless infrastructure and Security.

Web server management, applications development, content management systems, learning management systems, content developments (animations, audio editing, video editing etc) were areas of focus in the Application and Content Development track (ACD)

Hosting & Domain Name Business Track Focus is on helping participants understand the business side of Internet services, common tools for managing and supporting web hosting and domain name businesses as well as the roles of global Internet coordinating bodies. It pays particular attention to the domain name system, how to acquire and resell as well as an introduction to Google Tools for business.

The Evening discussions was on the Internet of Things by Rev Sunday Folayan and “Playing a role in the Internet of the Future: Participate in the IETF by Bolanle Akanle Matthew from Covenant University.

Appreciation
Our sincere appreciation to our partners and sponsors who have helped kept this event going for twelve years and more. This year’s event was supported by Afrinic, Internet Society (ISOC), Tinitop Technologies, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), Meed Networks, NISTECH and Bandwidth Consortium.

We are grateful to the various Institutions and Firms, who contributed instructors and presenters. They include: Consultancy Support Services, Layer3 Yaba College of Technology, Lagos; University of Jos; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; University of Benin; Bayero University Kano; the Bandwidth Consortium; NISTech Ltd; University of Abuja; Eko Konnect; and Federal University of Technology, Akure

On behalf of the ngNOG Admin, we wish to express our appreciation to all the Instructors, conference presenters, interns, local and international partners for their support in cash and in kind towards the success of the ngNOG 2017 event.

The Nigeria ICT Forum of Partnership Institutions expresses special appreciation to all the organizations that made it possible for their personnel to attend the full week of training either as instructors or as workshop participants.