Who We Are
ISOC Lebanon is the Lebanese Chapter for the Internet Society.
ISOC Lebanon was registered as a Lebanese non-governmental organization in December 2012 with the purpose of maintaining and extending the development and availability of the Internet and its associated technologies and applications to all the people of Lebanon.
Chapter members are the local Internet stakeholders representing the interests of and serving the Lebanese Internet community.
Specifically, ISOC Lebanon aims to support and promote the following:
Meet The Board
Gabriel Deek
Founding Member & Chair
President of ISOC LB Chapter since 2016
Entrepreneur
University Professor
Mentor & Activist with over 30 years of experience
Nicolas Rouhana Ph.D.
Chapter Vice Chair
Head of Entrepreneurship & Innovation Committee at ISOC. General Manager at IM Capital.
Board Member Berytech.
H2020 NCP for SMEs
Therese Saliba
Founding Member & Treasurer
Telecom expert with 28 years of experience Co-founder of IDM SAL
WIT Broad Member
IDM General Manager
CCom Group Director & Operations control
Jack Bakaev
Chapter Secretary
IT and Management Consultant for IT Governance
Information Security & Cyber Security
IT Service Management & Project Management
Nabil BouKhalid
Founding Member & Ex-Officio
** Internet Hall of Fame Global Connector **
Internet evangelist
.LB Administrator since 1993
Co-founder of the Lebanese Broadband Manifesto, BeirutIX, ISOC-LB and LINC
Nelly Baz
Head of Programs Committee
Strategic Design Consultant
Co-founder of Commune NGO
hbr Creative Platform, & Paralto
Walid Karam
Head of the University Clubs Program
University Professor
ICT consultant
Founding member of LERN (Lebanese Education & Research Network)
Chairman of IEEE Computer Society, Lebanon Chapter
Sabrine Saad
Head of Members Committee
Researcher at CEMAM, Saint Joseph University; History and Geography Teacher at Carmel Saint Joseph School
Charbel Kareh Ph.D.
Head of Internet Governance Committee
Attorney At Law
Managing Partner of E-Lawyer assistance Law Firm
President Of the BBA ICT Center
Naim Zard
Head of Communication Committee
Tech Entrepreneur
CEO of Firenode SAL & Zima Global Inc.
President of Forward Lebanon NGO
Stéphane Bazan
Head of Open Data Committee
Head of Knowledge & Learning @ Keeward Group
Coordinator of the Digital Economy & Web Science Master Program at USJ's Faculty of Economics
Head of the Web Science Education Group @ Web Science Trust
Layal Jebran
Head of Fundraising Committee
Impact Entrepreneur. CEO and Co-founder at Moubarmij, Inc. Techstars Community Leader in Lebanon
Non-Board Founding Members
Salam Yamout
Founding Member ISOC Lebanon & Ex-Vice Chair
Salam Yamout is the Regional Director in the Middle East for the Internet Society since November 2016.
Prior to joining the Internet Society, Ms. Yamout was the National Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Strategy Coordinator at the Office of the Prime Minister of Lebanon.
Mrs. Yamout sits on the board of several Lebanese NGOs related to Women, Internet, and entrepreneurship.
Internationally, she is a board member of the RIPE NCC since May 2014.
Ms. Yamout holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Ecole Supérieure des Affaires (ESA) in Beirut and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Arizona.
What We Do
At the foundation of ISOC Lebanon work are a vision, mission, values, principles and strategic focus and objectives derived from ISOC's vision, mission, values, and principles and localized to fit and maximize value within the Lebanese Internet ecosystem context.
Our Vision
The Internet is for everyone.
Our Mission
ISOC Lebanon was created with the purpose of maintaining and extending the development and availability of the Internet and its associated technologies and applications to all the people of Lebanon. Chapter members are the local Internet stakeholders representing the interests of and serving the Lebanese Internet community.
ISOC Lebanon embraces the Internet collective model and seeks diverse and broad membership from organizations, communities, and individuals to work together on the advancement of the Internet in Lebanon, guided by the Internet key principles: collaboration; openness; transparency; and inclusiveness.
Our Core Values and Principles (reproduced from ISOC Values & Principles)
Core Values:
Providing quality of life for people in all parts of the world is enhanced by their ability to enjoy the benefits of an open and global Internet.
Well-informed individuals and public and private policymakers are the essential foundations of an open and global Internet society.
The genius of the Internet is that its decentralized architecture maximizes individual users power to choose (or create) and use the hardware, software, and services that best meet their needs, and if the Internet is to continue to be a platform for innovation and creativity, its open, decentralized nature must be preserved.
Enduring and sustainable progress toward our vision is best achieved by a combination of global initiatives and activities at a local level that engages people in their home regions.
Technical standards and Internet operating procedures should be developed and asserted through open and transparent processes, with minimal barriers to participation or access to information.
The social, political, and economic benefits of the Internet are substantially diminished by excessively restrictive governmental or private controls on computer hardware or software, telecommunications infrastructure, or Internet content.
Rewarding and productive use of the Internet depends on the ability to trust critical services.
Principles That Guide Our Work:
The Ability to Connect.
The edge-dominant end-to-end architecture of the Internet is essential to its utility as a platform for innovation, creativity, and economic opportunity. To preserve this quality, we will oppose efforts to establish standards or practices that would make it difficult or impossible for some users of the Internet to use the full range of Internet applications of all kinds.
The Ability to Speak.
The Internet is a powerful mass medium for self-expression which depends on the ability of its users to speak freely. We believe that the Internet must support private and, where appropriate, anonymous means of communication and collaboration among individuals and groups, and will oppose efforts to restrict the type or content of information exchanged on the Internet.
The Ability to Innovate.
The remarkable growth of the Internet and the limitless variety of Internet applications follow directly from the open model of Internet connectivity and standards development. Any individual, organization, or company can develop and distribute a new Internet application that can be used by anyone.
We recognize the enormous value of this innovation and oppose governmental or nongovernmental restrictions on the evolution and use of Internet technology.
The Ability to Share.
The many-to-many architecture of the Internet makes it a powerful tool for sharing, education, and collaboration. It has enabled the global open source community to develop and enhance many of the key components of the Internet, such as the Domain Name System and the World-Wide Web, and has made the vision of digital libraries a reality. To preserve these benefits we will oppose technologies and legislation that would inhibit the freedom to develop and use open source software or limit the well-established concept of fair use, which is essential to scholarship, education, and collaboration.
The Ability to Choose.
Government regulation and the economic power of incumbent telecommunication monopolies can delay or prevent the growth of the Internet by limiting the ability of competitors to provide new, better, cheaper, or more innovative Internet-related services. We advocate policies that promote competition in telecommunications, Internet services, Internet-related software, and e-commerce applications.
The Ability to Trust.
Everyone's ability to connect, speak, innovate, share, and choose depends on the Internets ability to support trustworthy internetworking ensuring the security, reliability, and stability of increasingly critical and pervasive applications and services.
Our Strategic Focus and Objectives:
For the 2013-2015 planning cycle, the ISOC Lebanon organized its business plan around four strategic focus areas (please refer to ISOC-LB Strategic Plan 2013-2015). The strategic focus areas are:
Internet stability and security - We are committed to:
A healthy Internet governance ecosystem - We are committed to:
Community Development - We are committed to:
Business Development - We are committed to: