In 2011, I stumbled upon the world of Technology and Internet Policy after taking a few courses from the Diplo Foundation. I highly recommend their courses for anyone interested in policy and research. Since then, I have contributed to tech policy issues mainly through 2 organisations:

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

I joined the ICANN community in 2013 through the Fellowship programme. From then on, I have contributed to various initiatives. Notably, I have been a pen holder twice and contributed to 35+ policies on the Internet’s unique identifiers (i.e., domain names and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses). Policy advice has ranged from issues such as consumer trust/choice, registrant rights, Domain Name System Abuse (DNS) mitigation, operating plans, etc. I have also had the opportunity to give back to the Fellowship Programme by mentoring other fellows and newcomers. I have done this as a member (and leader) of the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), which represents interests of Internet end users to ICANN. Policies are developed through a multistakeholder approach (i.e., community-based and consensus-driven).

Internet Society (ISOC)

Locally through the ISOC Uganda Chapter, I have helped to coordinate activities that have brought together stakeholders from the technical community, government, policy makers, academia, civil society and end users to promote the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for different communities. This has also involved responding to calls for comments/feedback on telecommunications issues.

I was also on the inaugural Women Special Interest Group (SIG) Executive Committee, where we completed some projects, including adding biographies of women in STEM to Wikipedia.

Research and Education Network for Uganda (RENU)

Project Coordinator and Core Engineering Team (active 2014-2019; currently when required)

At the start of 2014, I was invited to help to design and implement a capacity building programme for systems and network engineers from RENU member institutions (universities and research organisation). This opportunity gave me project management experience, as we developed a programme that has now trained 500+ engineers on topics ranging from campus network design/security, network monitoring and management and federated identity management. Our work also involved providing direct engineering assistance (DEA), where we supported campuses in setting up and/or improving their networks.

In 2017, I was humbled to represent RENU at the Internet2 Global Summit in Washington, DC, where I received the Gender Diversity and NSRC-Internet2 Award for my contribution to this training programme.

I am grateful to RENU, the Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC) and other partners who took a chance on me and allowed me coordinate this interesting process.

Nexus International University (formerly Virtual University of Uganda)

Visiting Lecturer (active 2015-2019; currently on a break to focus on work and school)

Module: Hardware and Networking for Development

Level: Graduate

This is a course designed to equip students with skills to roll out networks, as part of the Master of Science in ICT for Development.

Internet Society

Tutor (freelance, 2017 to date)

Taught 3 short online courses:

• Introduction to Network Operations (NetOps)
• Network Monitoring
• Designing and Deploying Computer Networks (DDCN)

Boards/Steering Committees/Mentorship

1. Board of Advisors, IlluminAid (2017 to date)
2. Expert, Open Hardware Makers (OHM) (2022)
3. Alumni Steering Committee, Public Interest Technology (PIT) Network. Membership consists of alumni from Ford Foundation, Mozilla & Media Democracy Fund (MDF) fellowships. We have fundraised and are currently administering a grant to support alumni projects (2021-2022)
4. Co-Chair, USAID WomenConnect Project (Gender-Sensitive Approaches to Connect the Unconnected using Community Network Models) by AfChix. Community networks were established in Kenya, Morocco, Namibia and Senegal (2018 – 2020)

Selection Committees

1. African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) FIRE Grants and Awards (2017)
2. ISOC Beyond the Net Grants (2018)
3. ICANN Global Indigenous Ambassador Program (2017-2018)
4. Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) Scholarship Application Committee Member (2014)

Curator

GIP Digital Watch Observatory, Diplo Foundation. Report from sessions at World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and ICANN (2017 – 2019)

Coordinating Events

• Wrangler (Community Co-organiser) for the Sustainability Space at Mozilla Festival (MozFest), which attracted 8,000+ virtual attendees (2020-2021)
• Universal Acceptance (UA) training (2021)
• Uganda Internet Governance Forum (UIGF) and other Internet governance events (active: 2012 to 2020)
• Women in computing: AfNOG Chix (2014), TechWomen Summit (2019)
• TEDx events (2012, 2014, 2015)
• Grace Hopper Open Source Day as a Participant Coordinator (2014)