NEDian Named IETF Fellow

[Riaz Haq]

By TeeEmm

Haris Shamsi belongs to the Electrical Engineering batch of 1994-95 (graduated in 1998). Haris is probably the youngest professional in the local technology sphere to wield a lot of positive control when it comes to implementing Internet technologies correctly, consistently, and to world standards in the budding data industry of Pakistan.

Haris currently works as the head of Product Development for Mobilink Infinity, a project that will have a great impact on Pakistan’s data infrastructure. By its very nature the project will be definitive. Estimated to be a ~$200 million project, Mobilink Infinity is about quenching the broadband thirst of a nation that is very young in terms of data infrastructure but which has already showed a very high level of maturity in the voice domain. The technology behind the project is Wimax, and the equipment is being supplied by Alcatel Lucent and Motorola.

Haris is the proverbial ‘Internet spirit’ - open, standard-driven, change-friendly and geek at heart. He has been active in organizing events for SANOG, the South Asian Network Operators Group, in Pakistan and was responsible for APNIC’s F-Root node mirror installation project in Pakistan when he was with Cyber Internet Services (Cybernet ). When he finds time, Haris blogs about technology and life at http://techkiddo.blogspot.com/. He is an active contributor to the telecommunication-specific online list called TGP.

Haris has been selected as an IETF Fellow and is headed for the San Francisco Bay Area to participate in the fellowship. Just five applicants were selected after extensive screening, out of the 145 that had applied for this fellowship.

So why is this important for Pakistan, you might ask. Regular contribution in IETF, ISOC and similar forums is a serious requirement for a country where the technology domain is still in its infancy. Sustainable growth can only come if policies and practices in Pakistan are in alignment with the global community, and this is where people who regularly participate in these open-platforms will be critical. Mobilink’s selection of Haris at his current position helps them build a lot of confidence in die-hard technologists and Internet evangelists who had, for quite long, worried that the voice-centric telecommunication operators might miss the ‘Internet spirit’ big time. While there are areas that still remain to be addressed, the presence of a young technologist like Haris is a very positive development.