Mike Jensen

lore

networking

The engineer who spent decades connecting the organisations nobody was going to connect commercially.

His networks served the nonprofit sector first, which is an unusual starting point: most connectivity arrives because somebody expects to bill for it, and his did not. The Association for Progressive Communications, which he helped found in 1992, exists on that premise still. And the method in the citation is worth noting because it is so unglamorous - he travelled the continent, organisation by organisation, helping each one get online or get a better link. There is no protocol here and no product. It is the observation that a network reaches wherever somebody was willing to go and do the work, which is why coverage maps have always tracked effort as much as economics.

Also known as: jensen, apc, association for progressive communications

Sources

Internet Hall of Fame: Jensen built some of the earliest networks connecting the nonprofit sector and played a key role in establishing network connectivity for developing countries in Africa and around the world; he was among the founders of the Association for Progressive Communications, established in 1992, and on returning to Johannesburg in the early 1990s began travelling the continent helping organisations get online or obtain better connectivity

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