Previously hosted in Geneva, Berlin, Hong Kong and Los Angeles, this year is the first time that the awards were held in Latin America. Costa Rica was selected to organize the event in part because of the strong example it has set in using a collaborative approach to Internet governance and the systematic steps it’s taken to help close the country’s digital divide.
In a recent interview with the Costa Rica News, Internet Society CEO and President Andrew Sullivan lauded the 11 inductees’ ingenuity in addressing the problems that their own communities have faced in establishing and increasing network access.
“Internet design has always allowed people to see a problem and get to work to solve it,” he said. “This year’s new members have given us great gifts of their creative approaches to the problems they saw on the Internet. We can be inspired by them to face the next round of challenges.”
