By Lia Kiessling
Senior Manager, Campaigns, Internet Society

It’s the first day of the African Peering and Interconnection Forum, or as most of the crew here call it, AfPIF.

AfPIF started six years ago and has since grown into one of the continent’s most beloved events, dedicated to bringing Africa online.

From a business point of view, it challenges the traditional Western competitive model. Instead, it shows that when companies work together, their bottom line benefits and customers get better service for less.

It’s called peering. When companies peer, they are working together for a stronger Internet.

Today AfPIF reminded people of peering’s success with the launch of a new Internet Society report focusing on local content.

The report shows new findings that demonstrate that although more people CAN log on, they’re choosing not to.

Why? We need local content in local languages.

You can download the report and listen to some of the challenges from a local app developer in Ghana on our website.

Indeed, without the first step of making the Internet available – we wouldn’t have these new insights.

If you want to follow along with AfPIF, there are still two days left and a high-quality Livestream channel!

You can also post questions and comments on social media. Tag em #AfPIF2016!

Are you in Africa and working to bring a people online? Tell us about it! 

This article was originally published on Internet Society’s Blog page.