BULGARIAN
  what's new
  members (bg)
  history
  about ISOC.bg
  contacts
  disclaimer (bg)
  sponsors (bg)
ABOUT ISOC - Bulgaria
General Information

Internet Society (ISOC) Bulgaria is a non-governmental organization for public profit, incorporated in Bulgaria in 1995. ISCO-Bulgaria is a recognized chapter of the international Internet Society, headquartered in Reston, Virginia, USA and Geneva, Switzerland.

Internet Society Bulgaria is a primary source of reliable information on the development of the information technologies in Bulgaria. Experts from Internet Society actively participate in the work of different administrations and organizations, including the National Assembly, Ministries and agencies within the Bulgarian Council of Ministers.

Main areas of activity

  • Promotion of more rapid development of Internet in Bulgaria;
  • Promotion of the Information Society;
  • Free and open source software – development, education, application, services;
  • Promotion of e-Government initiatives;
  • Protection of human rights on the Internet.

    Brief description of activities in the field of Open Standards & Free Software

    Internet Society – Bulgaria has strong partnerships established with the leading Bulgarian organizations, involved in Free Software, such as, the Free Software Association, Linux Business Solutions and others, as well as with the Linux community. Currently, ISOC.BG actively participates in two FP6 projects, that treat FOSS at international level – these are FlossWorld (http://flossworld.org) and Tossad (http://tossad.org). Among the FOSS related activities of Internet Society Bulgaria is a project that aims to provide support to the e-government initiatives based on Free/Open Source Software at municipal level in South-eastern Europe. According to this project, a number of municipalities in the SEE region implemented FOSS based e-government solutions. Another project is the Global Internet Policy Initiative (GIPI) which supports adoption in developing countries of the legal and policy framework for an open and democratic Internet. The project works with local stakeholders in consultative, coalition-based efforts to promote the principles of a decentralized, accessible, user-controlled, and market-driven Internet.

    ISOC – Bulgaria is involved in UNDP funded project “Enhancing service delivery, social protection and livelihood support for the poor through ICT” which is focused on development of poverty reduction tools with the means of the open source software, as well as to rise computer literacy among the unemployed and/or not yet qualified people from the most disadvantaged groups: e.g. minorities; women; graduating students from social schools (orphans); people with disabilities; elder people.

    ISOC – Bulgaria initiated and helped with the preparation of the International conference on cyber security in Central and Eastern Europe; significant contribution for the adoption of the new Law for telecommunications in Bulgaria. Internet Society - Bulgaria has a number of publications in the Bulgarian and international press covering topics related to the information society, as well as, it was stated in materials in the International Herald Tribune and New York Times on the deals of the Bulgarian government with Microsoft.

    International Networks and Collaborations

    Some of the international organizations and venues that ISOC-Bulgaria has a formal or working partnership with:

  • Global Global Internet Policy Initiative (GIPI)
  • European Digital Rights Initiative (EDRi)
  • Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
  • United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
  • Creative Commons (CC)

    Since year 2002, ISOCBG is active participant in the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva and Tunisia.

    Indicators of Quality and Reputation

    The ISOC-Bulgaria founding chairman of the Board and President – Veni Markovski, has been a member of the Board of Directors of ICANN – the Internet Corporation for Domain names and Addresses, and has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the international Internet Society.
    He also chaired for 10 years (2002-2012) the Bulgarian President's IT Advisory Committee (PITAC) , the Board of the IT Development Association, and continued to help the Bulgarian Ministry of Transport, IT and Communications, when needed. Mr. Markovski has been an active advocate for reform of laws and regulations governing the Internet, working to change licensing requirements on ISPs in Bulgaria, amend his country's laws on computer crimes, and reach agreement with Bulgarian stakeholders on liberalization of VoIP regulations in 2001.

    Mr. Dimitar Ganchev, member of the Board of ISOC-Bulgaria is a well-recognized Internet pioneer, who is also member of the PITAC. He is former CEO of bol.bg – the second in history ISP in Bulgaria, and currently serves as executive director of Society for Electronic Communications.

    For years, ISOC Bulgaria staff members, namely Dessi Greve, Julia Velkova and Maria Vassileva, have performed excellent in their work on a number of projects.

    Many international observers have acknowledged ISOC-Bulgaria contribution to the development of the Internet in the country, and to their institutional support of other ISOC chapters all over the world, with a special emphasis on South Eastern Europe. More information about current activities of ISOC can be found at this ISOC Blog page.



    For more information on how to contact us, see this page