To enhance the skills of government officials, private employees and students in network maintenance and building, the Bhutan Network Operators Group or btNOG is organising a five-day workshop, attended by over 90 participants in Thimphu. btNOG, an informal community of internet network operators and professionals, serves as a platform for knowledge sharing, education, and operational support.
For the workshop, classes are categorised into three courses based on the competencies of the participants.
One of the classes has lectures and practical sessions to teach the skills needed to design, build, operate and manage any organisational network infrastructure according to current best practices.
Another group of participants are learning how to make internet traffic find the right path, both inside an organisation’s network and between different networks.
The last group is learning how to choose the best computer system setup for their organisation. They also look at how apps are built and used, how data is kept safe, and what kind of storage system works best.
Participants include government and private employees, college students and freelance network engineers from across the country.
“I work in the IT department, and we also have many networking modules there. So, I can teach what I learned here to my students,” said Tashi Yangchen, Lecturer, Jigme Namgyel Engineering College.
“This workshop is very useful for participants like us from the other districts, which gives us access to the experts and also be a part of the global internet community,” said Younten Tshering, Lecturer, Jigme Namgyel Engineering College.
“These days, everything is done on the internet. So, this training is about exploring solutions to work safely online. Through this training, as we didn’t get such an opportunity earlier, we got to learn many new ideas,” said Kinley Gyeltshen, ICT Officer, Punakha.
The workshop is in its twelfth year, coordinated by 16 local volunteers. The group looks for local and international sponsors to create a platform to discuss matters of mutual interest, exchange technical information, and learn about the internet’s technologies and operational practices.
“In this training, instructors are mostly foreign internet experts. It was started with the support of a US-based organisation called NSRC, and this time too, they sent experienced instructors,” said Jichen Thinley, Chairman, btNOG.
Currently, the workshop is facilitated by foreign and local experts. However, starting this year, organisers are selecting potential participants from the workshop as assistant instructors for the next workshop and gradually to fully operate it with Bhutanese professionals.
The workshop will be followed by the 43rd edition of South Asian Network Operators Group conference, which will be conducted on Friday and Saturday in Thimphu.
Kelzang Chhophyel
Edited by Kipchu
