Mirjam Kühne

First Itojun Service Award Presented to Lorenzo Colitti and Erik Kline of Google

Mirjam Kühne

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The first Itojun Service Award has been presented to Lorenzo Colitti and Erik Kline of Google for their outstanding contributions to the development and deployment of IPv6, in particular for their sustained efforts to make significant commercial content available over IPv6.


The award was presented on 10 November 2009 at IETF 76 in Hiroshima by Itojun’s mother. Lorenzo and Erik were recognised for their step-by-step approach to get IPv6 running which resulted in the launch of ipv6.google.com at IETF71 in March 2008.

Many in the RIPE community will remember Lorenzo from his work at the Roma Tre University and later as a researcher at the RIPE NCC.

This service award was created in memory of Dr. Jun-ichiro Hagino, known as “Itojun” or the “IPv6 Samurai”, who passed away in 2007 aged just 37. Itojun was known to many in the IETF as a true hacker (he was involved in the KAME IPv6 Project and worked on IPsec and on many other IPv6 related projects) who loved computers, programming, music and food.

The award was established by Itojun’s family and friends, and it recognises and commemorates Itojun’s extraordinary dedication to IPv6 development. It encourages pragmatic contributions to IPv6 development and deployment in the spirit of serving the Internet. The award is handed out yearly and includes a presentation crystal, a 3,000 USD honorarium and a travel grant.

It was a special honour to have Itojun’s mother and brother at the IETF plenary in Hiroshima to present the award to the winners. Itojun’s mother gave a very warm speech and said she believed that Itojun had a fulfilling life within this community and she is happy to see that his spirit lives on.

Erik Kline said after the award was presented that it was very unfortunate that he never met Itojun. In fact, he attended his first IETF in 2007, mostly to meet Itojun, but Itojun had passed a way just before that meeting.

The IETF 76 took place this week in Hiroshima, Japan and was hosted by the WIDE Project. The Itojun award committee, comprised of friends and community members, has worked over the past two years to collect funds and identify individuals who have done groundbreaking work in the IPv6 space.

You can find more information about the Itojun Service Award at:
http://www.isoc.org/awards/itojun/

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About the author

Mirjam Kühne Based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

I wrote the articles collected here during my time as community builder of the RIPE NCC and the maintainer and editor of RIPE Labs. I have since taken on a new role serving as the Chair of the RIPE Community. You can reach my new profile via the website link below.

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