Following on from the announcement we made relating to the research proposal, the next bit of news is that we have submitted our final proposal.🙌🥳

Proposals of this type are actually more challenging to write than you think. They often come with constraints, and this one was no exception. We had only two pages of plain text in a traditional font like Times New Roman, at size 12. That turns out to be around 800 or so words. Not a lot to express your research in detail. So, it requires a decent amount of restraint and a lot of editing!

I said I’d document the process in brief, so this is the aim of this post.

To start the project, we agreed to work together, and the first thing I did was start a new team on Microsoft Teams. This was used as the central document repository, collaboration space for writing and project management. Despite being rudimentary, one of the functionalities in Teams that helps manage a small project like this is the Tasks by Planner tool.s It is a simple Kanban-style tool that allows you to set up and manage the progress of tasks in a project and assign them to individuals or multiple team members. You get a simplified dashboard and —too many for my tastes— reminder emails for tasks nearing completion, late, due, etc.

The completed list of tasks

The next task was to outline a plan with associated tasks (see image above), assign them to people and add dates to ensure we could finish before the deadline. Once this was complete, we wrote a brief outline for the submission and created a requirements document to ensure we complied with all the requirements. This took a little time as we needed to ensure we understood all the aspects required for the submission.

The process after this is quite simple, in that we just had to write the document. Using the co-editing tools of Word through the Teams document library ensured we could optimise our work and work on documents as and when we saw fit. The other indispensable feature was the Track Changes tool that helped us monitor changes, suggestions and comments.

Once we got past each stage, I ticked off the tasks as being done, which is why it looks like I did everything, which is definitely not the case. 🤣

We signed off the final draft last night and pushed the submission button the same evening.

We worked on the proposal together really well, putting a lot of effort into getting it done. Done well and on time. I’m proud of our submission and hope we get selected, as I think the research will be valuable in the region.

I’ll write a little more about the research, our motivation and what we hope to achieve in a few days.

I’m pleased to announce that I have been working with Michele Marius on a call for proposals from the Stanford Internet Observatory. Late last year, the SIO requested proposals titled Expanding Online Trust & Safety Research. Fairly quickly, I proposed to Michele to see if she would be interested in participating as a fellow researcher, which she graciously accepted.

We have written our proposal so far, and it is in its final stages before submission. I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to start a blog dedicated to the research to provide insight into a project like this and serve as an open discussion on the research we’re hoping to do. This will either be a one-post blog —in the case that our proposal is rejected— or it will be an ongoing journal of the work we’re conducting over the coming year.

What is the research question?

What key factors constrain the development of online safety skills in the Caribbean? Does uneven technology adoption in the Caribbean affect the vulnerability to online harms, what role does early education have in mitigating them, and do current multistakeholder collaboration initiatives have a significant effect?

We hope to expand the limited research carried out to date in the Caribbean concerning online safety and cybersecurity education in civil society and business.

We’ve all seen or even been affected by some of the high-profile cybersecurity incidents over the past couple of years, but have we all had formal or informal training or education on how to comport oneself on the internet? That is what we’re hoping to answer and analyse to provide qualitative research and recommendations on enhancing this area in the region.

You can follow along using this URL: https://matthewcowen.org/categories/research/

— Matthew Cowen

Deadline approaching

I had another week of lots of things running simultaneously. I spent several hours teaching during the week, but I think the highlight for me was presenting a quick overview of tech’s role in the Caribbean creative industry. I’ve become an advisor and member of a collective called the Caribbean Creative Alliance to help foster collaboration of specialisations in the orange economy through technology. I’m looking forward to providing more information over the coming months. Keep an eye out.

As I’d mentioned previously, I’ve been finalising a proposal with the Stanford Internet Observatory, where I have partnered with Michele Marius of ICT-Pulse. The proposal is pretty much done but needs a little more work to get it to the stage where we can send it. That will happen this week. Otherwise, we’ll miss the deadline! I’m going to start a blog category dedicated to the research question, blog on an ongoing basis about the work we are doing, and report on where we are in the process. I think this might be a valuable resource, in and of itself, for anyone wanting to get involved or having more than a passing interest in the results. I hope to write something up this week and blog about it when it’s done.

I’ve started to implement a (very) basic time-tracking process to get a rough overview of where I spend my time. I’ve been historically poor at remembering to start and stop the timers, so I will need to make a concerted effort to do that. I’ll see how it goes, and given that I haven’t invested much money or time into it, I think it might be helpful to me to analyse if I am wasting time on frivolous things. I feel I get distracted a lot and don’t concentrate on the necessary or required things, which is the impetus to track for a while to see if I can see anything and perhaps do something about it. If you’re interested, the categories I’m tracking are:

• Admin
• Blogging/Newsletter
• Consulting
• Consulting Research
• Goofing off
• Personal
• Research
• Self-care

Admin is self-explanatory. As is Blogging/Newsletter and Consulting. I’m guessing you’re seeing why I included a category Goofing off.😃 I separated Research and Consulting Research to distinguish between paid project work and other work that is not necessarily paid. The rest, I think, speak for themselves. I’ll report back on this over the coming months. It’ll either be great or an abject failure! 😱

Reading

I read an excellent article (paywalled) from the FT on Saturday. There is a side to the AI and tech revolution that doesn’t get discussed enough (It’s a shame that this article is paywalled). Many hundreds of people are out there, mainly in the global south, doing the dirty work for companies like OpenAI, Meta (Facebook), Google and others without proper job security, salaries, and, most importantly, mental health care. It is something we should all be mindful of and something we should pressure companies like this to be more equitable. It’s like the late 90s’ and early 2000s again, when sweatshop working practices were exposed at Nike and many other manufacturers. This time, it is much bigger and potentially more dangerous for those involved.

I’m still reading and enjoying Doppelganger, and I expect to finish it sometime soon. I don’t do book reviews as a rule, and I don’t think I’ll do one for this book. I don’t see the point of them. I either like the book or don’t. Any takeaways I keep notes on and then use them (or not) in the future.

An average week sees me reading something around two or three hundred articles, papers and briefs. I might start listing the most intriguing, entertaining, or otherwise in the future. I haven’t decided yet. If you’d like to know, let me know.

Of note

It probably doesn’t mean much to you, but I have been spending a bit of time with some of the old hi-fi kit I’ve had in storage for ages. I got my (old) turntable, a Linn Sondek LP12, out and started cleaning it up to put it into service after a long pause. I’m missing a few bits and pieces, but signs are good that I’ll have it running and sounding wonderful over the next few weeks.

I never got rid of my vinyl collection, and I’m glad I didn’t. I’m looking forward to the tea ceremony and the slowed-down way of listening to music. It came about after I realised that I was becoming less and less satisfied with listening to playlists of different songs, be they auto-generated or curated by others and even the playlists I had created. There was something odd and “off” in my brain. As a result, recently, I’ve been listening to albums end to end, and this spurred me to think about setting up what is arguably one of the best turntables in the world to listen to music how we used to. I’ve always loved vinyl but have appreciated the convenience of streaming lately. Vinyl won’t replace what I have. It is just an addition and an indulgence from time to time.

I think it looks wonderful.

Have a great week.

After umming and ahhing for a couple of years this summer, I decided to apply for the ARIN Fellowship Program. I’m so glad I did! And now, I’m pleased to be able to share my experience with the process and how the ARIN 52 meeting proceeded. A note about my personality to remember as you read on: I’m generally introverted and discreet, tending not to open discussions with people I meet until I feel comfortable with them.

Selection

To get to the point, I was privileged to be selected as an ARIN Fellow for the ARIN 52 Public Policy and Members Meeting. I remember the email I received once the selection committee chose me, and I was thrilled and surprised to be selected. I had mostly forgotten about the application as I was caught up in a lot of work and juggling many things simultaneously.

I was initially selected as a virtual Fellow (meaning I would attend the meeting remotely by participating via the Zoom platform), but by a stroke of luck, I ended up being granted the opportunity to participate in the conference in person. After the necessary documentation changes and some administrative gymnastics — namely flights, hotels, the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) U.S. Visa application, and invoking my dual nationality — I was all booked and ready to head to San Diego in October.

The Application

It is important to mention the application process to highlight why you should apply even if you feel you don’t know anything about it or have anything to bring to ARIN and its community. That’s not correct! The community is very open and welcoming and wants as diverse a range of stakeholders as possible, including those who are not necessarily “tech” people.

The process is simple and takes place through the SurveyMonkey Apply platform, which is very well-designed to make it easy to apply. You don’t need to complete everything in one sitting; you can start, walk away, and return to complete it anytime. I found this a valuable aspect of the process, as it gives you time to think about and structure your responses before submitting them.

You won’t be asked anything too personal, but you do have to provide some background on your experience and explain why you would like to be a Fellow. You should also consider how you will participate in the ARIN meeting and future community activities should you be selected. For example, I leaned on the fact that I am based in the French West Indies, a group of Caribbean countries in the ARIN region, while simultaneously in the European Union. This unique perspective was, I felt, valuable to explore — especially since I hadn’t noticed any interest or participation from the French-speaking islands in past meetings.

Onboarding and Pre-meeting Sessions

Once the Selection Committee selected this meeting’s participants, ARIN conducted a thorough and helpful onboarding process that clarified the Fellowship requirements and activities timeline and started building a sense of community among the Fellows. We received regular emails about what was happening, when, and what to expect. I have participated in tech conferences across the United States for the last 15 years. I have never had such a good experience before the conference started — hats off to the ARIN Fellowship team for their efforts.

We participated in a couple of virtual sessions on Zoom, during which we got to meet each other, learn more about the meeting, and, crucially, learn about ARIN, its number resource policies, and the entire process of bringing a policy proposal to fruition and ultimately (for some) to inclusion in the Number Resource Policy Manual (NRPM), aka the “nurrpum.”

If I had one suggestion, it would be to include in these pre-meeting sessions a demo of the ARIN customer’s process to gain, use, and relinquish Internet number resources. I would have found it helpful to understand some of the proposed policy changes that could affect how customers use and manage their resources.

We were encouraged to join the ARIN Announce mailing list and the Public Policy Mailing List (PPML) to stay updated with news and policy discussions. The PPML helped me better appreciate the work members of the ARIN community do. There are more people involved than you might think!

Other aspects of the pre-meeting program that I appreciated were the emphasis on getting to know other Fellows and the mentorship. I was paired with ARIN Advisory Council Member Alicia Trotman, who was very welcoming, informative, and always available to discuss any questions or thoughts. However, my interactions with Mentors didn’t stop with her. All the Mentors had a wealth of knowledge and experience with ARIN and were happy to share that with anyone. During the meetings, I could discuss topics with other mentors, always finding them open and willing to take the time to discuss anything on my mind.

The ARIN Meeting

The ARIN meeting itself ran pretty much as I expected. There were several presentations, including some ARIN operations and progress reporting (financials, projects, etc.), and the afternoon was dedicated to policy discussion. The ARIN team prepared a printed policy discussion guide ahead of the event to help us — and anyone interested in having more information — get up to speed on each policy proposal on the agenda.

None of the proposals discussed at this meeting were at a stage (Recommended Draft) where votes would occur, so the format was more about feedback. Community members could stand up and speak at the mic, share a question, or comment through the Zoom webinar platform if they participated virtually. The moderators were excellent at soliciting feedback from remote participants, ensuring there was plenty of time for them to be included, either verbally or by typing into the Q&A section in Zoom. Back to the discussions, some are undoubtedly open, and, unlike myself, there was plenty of dialogue both for and against the proposals.

What is interesting is that sometimes, even the most innocuous proposal can affect the use of resources, perhaps even negatively. The open format during the policy blocks allows for the necessary discussion to avoid proposals with potential adverse effects being recommended for and adopted into the NRPM.

As a bonus for attending in person, I also had the chance to participate in the North American Network Operators’ Group’s conference, NANOG 89, held at the same venue just before ARIN 52. This was a fantastic opportunity to network with subject-matter experts on all things network-related. I gained several great contacts and will continue discussing topics I am working on with them over the coming months and years. One security expert even agreed to do a short presentation for my university students studying IT and cybersecurity.

The Takeaway

Don’t hesitate to apply. Even if you think you’re not directly related to the main focus of ARIN, it would be a valuable experience that will expand your knowledge of how the Internet runs. You’ll meet some great people, and if you put in a little effort like me, you’ll come away with a couple of new friends and great resources for your career.

I look forward to the next meeting and am looking into how I can contribute further to the ARIN community. If I want the internet to exist as open as possible, I need to work and contribute to influencing it that way.