Youth SIG + YCIG sessions at the IGF2020

The Youth SIG in collaboration with the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance (YCIG) is going to host 3 workshops at the IGF2020. Read below the description of the sessions and save the date in your calendar!

WS #105 Designing inclusion policies in Internet Governance

Time and date: Monday 9 November at 12:10-13:40 UTC

Organizer 1: Mamadou Lo , DIPLO
Organizer 2: Eileen Cejas , Youth Observatory
Organizer 3: Juan Pajaro Velasquez, Ruta Trans
Organizer 4: Sevinj Aliyeva, Video Bilik; Beetech LLC
Organizer 5: Vallarie Wendy Yiega, Youth IGF

Speaker 1: Mamadou Lo , Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 2: Eileen Cejas , Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 3: Mohammand N. Azizi, Government, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 4: Meri Baghdasaryan, Civil Society, Eastern European Group
Speaker 5: Debora Barletta, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Online Moderator: Juan Pajaro Velasquez, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC); Abdias Zambrano, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC).

Rapporteur: Vallarie Wendy Yiega, Civil Society, African Group.

Description:

The session will start with the short introduction of the speakers (20 minutes) where they will speak on key points of their countries’ region in terms of inclusion; followed by a group discussion in blocks regarding the 5 topics.

The discussion will include

1-. Gender perspectives impact on Internet matters related to policy drafting 

2- Techniques to include people from rural, indigenous and remote areas into digital literacy. 

3- Policy making processes centred around people with disabilities

4- Markets and Economic inequalities: when prices & taxes prevent people from being connected 

5- Governments & human rights: guaranteeing our digital rights to include more voices connected. 

After the presentation of each speaker, we will share a document where we will introduce 3 blocks with 2 topics (40 minutes). 

  1. Firstly, we will address the topic of “Gender perspectives in Internet Governance matters” and “Economic inequalities” where we will make 4 policy questions for each sub-theme; 
  2. then the second block we will discuss “the role of governments and human rights” and “digital literacy for marginalised communities”; 
  3. and the final block will be “analysing policies in disabilities matters” and a generally summary on “policy making processes in general” 

Once we finish the second segment of the session, we will continue with the collective design of the online campaign, using a mind map the last 20 minutes of the session.This mind map will help us to design the campaign and therefore produce the outcome some weeks after the IGF2020 . The online campaign will be extremely important to raise awareness on young people towards inclusion in Internet Governance.

WS #139 CopyLeft or Right? Mediating Interests in Academic Databases

Time and Date: 11 November 16:50-18:20 UTC

Organizer 1: Elnur Karimov, Internet Society Youth Special Interest Group (Youth Observatory)
Organizer 2: María Merchán-Rocamora, PhD candidate Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques de Paris
Organizer 3: Daniel Jr Dasig, De La Salle University Dasmarinas
Organizer 4: Pedro de Perdigão Lana, GEDAI/UFPR
Organizer 5: Kamalanetra A Hung Low, Pineapple Laboratories
Organizer 6: Shadrach Ankrah, Ghana IGF

Speaker 1: Vivian Moya, Government, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 2: Mariana Valente, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 3: Thierry Nathanael Kopia , Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 4: Elnur Karimov, Civil Society, Eastern European Group

Moderator: Kamalanetra A Hung Low, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Online Moderator: Shadrach Ankrah, Technical Community, African Group
Rapporteur: Pedro de Perdigão Lana, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)

Description: Mediation (90 minutes) The mediation will begin with the moderator/mediator’s opening speech that will touch the challenges and possible solution models to the open and affordable access to academic databases posed by intellectual property rights of both database owners and authors. Then, the moderator will introduce the mediating parties (speakers in the list below). The presentation delivered by each speaker will focus on the interest in academic databases as a particular stakeholder group and their recommended solutions and will help the audience to better understand the expectations of mediating parties (speakers). The speakers will represent government, private sector, civil society and the youth’s approach to open academic databases. In particular, the session audience will have an opportunity to listen to the perspective of the private sector and state authority on copyright protection, Creative Commons organization, and the youth on open access to databases. The first two speeches will be followed by a Q&A session both with online and onsite audiences who will address their questions to the speakers and contribute to the mediation. During the Q&A session, the moderator, with the help of the rapporteur, will collect the common/similar solutions raised by the speakers. After the Q&A session, the moderator will speak about the common points identified. The mediation will follow the same structure with the remaining two speakers. Finally, the moderator will collect all common points and add them in a final document which will symbolically be called “A Resolution Agreement”. The session will continue with the symbolic signature ceremony of the agreement by parties which will reflect the agreed policy, and conclude with the moderator’s closing remarks. Distinctively, this session will introduce a solution-oriented approach by not only listening to the speakers from different interests but trying to mediate them to reach a deal. The session is nurtured from the practical advantages of mediation methodology, which means that by mediation the session will reach its purpose of finding tangible outputs on open databases that will serve the interests of all stakeholder groups. The methodology will make the speakers think more practical and solution-oriented. The moderator will play a key role in facilitating discussions and bringing the parties closer. The intended agenda of the session is as follows: Opening speech by Moderator/Mediator – 10 minutes The 1st Speaker (Private Sector) – 10 minutes The 2nd Speaker (Civil Society) – 10 minutes Q&A Session – 10 minutes Mediator’s Comments – 5 minutes The 3rd Speaker (Youth) – 10 minutes The 4th Speaker (Government) – 10 minutes Q&A Session – 10 minutes Mediator’s Comments – 5 minutes A Symbolic Ceremony of Signature of Resolution Agreement – 5 minutes Closing speech by Moderator/Mediator – 5 minutes

WS #273 Enhancing sustainable computing, production & consumption

Time and Date: 12 November 12:20-13:20 UTC

Organizer 1: Mohammad Atif Aleem, Youth Special Interest Group, Internet Society
Organizer 2: Emilia Zalewska, LegalTech Polska
Organizer 3: Jaewon Son, Korea Internet Governance Alliance
Organizer 4: Ashwin Reddy, 8FX
Organizer 5: Lily Edinam Botsyoe, Ghyrate Ghana

Speaker 1: Mohammad Atif Aleem, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 2: Chineyenwa Okoro Onu, Private Sector, African Group
Speaker 3: Daniel Jr Dasig, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 4: Jaewon Son, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group

Moderator: Ece Vural, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Online Moderator: Lily Edinam Botsyoe, Technical Community, African Group
Rapporteur: Ashwin Reddy, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group

Description: Reports and analysis are to an increasing degree pointing at that Status quo in production will have serious consequences such as; environmental (deforestation, GHG emissions, biodiversity loss), economical (yield and productivity gaps, unpredictable and insufficient livelihoods for (smallholder) farmers) and societal (malnutrition, obesity). Furthermore, the burden and risk is un-evenly distributed in the value chain of food cycle. At the same time, growing conscious digital consumers with increasing demand for more advanced computing ways is trending at the moment. Following, to satisfy such growing requirement of sustainable computing, production and consumption and how it can undo the effects of Climate change and degradation of environment is a vital subject of discussion How can newer ways of computing and digital advances in production and consumption improving the life cycle of people and changing the course in the milieu of the 4th Industrial Revolution is what our panelists going to talk about and share their experiences in various fields where these changes were inevitable and vital. These are some issues on which the round table discussion will be centered upon and try to engage audience on the means of attaining sustainable growth enhancing production, consumption and computation capabilities from erudite speakers of different viewpoints and stakeholder groups.

We also strongly recommend participation in other sessions proposed and organized by young people and other youth organizations.

See you at IGF 2020!

November 6, 2020 Events No comments yet

Youth4DigitalSustainability: 12 recommendations from youth

As part of the #Youth4DigitalSustainability project, 50 experts under 30 from all parts of the world have developed twelve recommendations for the environmental, economic and social sustainability of the Internet. We are happy to say 5 of our Youth SIG board members have been involved in the process of creating the messages within the 4 Working Groups, including Lily Edinam Bostyoe, Juliana Novaes, Eileen Cejas, Elnur Karimov, and Mohammad Atif Aleem.

These are now presented to the United Nation’s Internet Governance Forum.

The Internet and digital technologies contribute significantly to global CO2 emissions, e-waste is a cross-border challenge and global inequalities are increasing. Digital policy and the climate crisis are two issues that particularly affect young people. Therefore, the Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI) has called on young experts from Europe, Africa, Asia, North and South America to analyze the social, economic and ecological sustainability effects of digitization in the project #Youth4DigitalSustainability. The aim was to develop solutions that go beyond a purely German or European perspective.

Twelve concrete demands emerged from the working process, which lasted several months, in four working groups focusing on environment, economy, society and governance. Key aspects of these demands include environmentally friendly Internet access, circular economy, the inclusion of marginalized groups, and the democratization of the sustainability discourse. The complete paper is available to download.

These are the 12 recommendations:

  1. We should actively strive to mitigate the environmental impact of the Internet and ICTs. Both public and private stakeholders should strengthen collaboration by following a framework that allows for responsible growth, consumption of digital resources, and promotion of innovation;
  2. Promoting access to the Internet and other ICTs is inherently a matter of sustainability. If we want to connect the next billion, we must do so in an eco-friendly way, taking into consideration the significant environmental impacts that digitalization comprehends;
  3. The environmental impact of the Internet and ICTs must be communicated in an accessible and effective language. It’s important to compel stakeholders to action by framing the environmental crisis as an opportunity for change, while being based on scientifically accurate information;
  4. Businesses should champion diversity and sustainability by (1) hiring C-Suite representatives and/or consulting subject matter experts and (2) strengthening their commitment towards principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion and ecological digital infrastructure;
  5. Governments should offer economic incentives to businesses that commit to a circular economy model and Fair Trade standards, in order to re-imagine supply chains that discourage e-waste, and improve the quality of life of those residing in emerging economies;
  6. Businesses should create an open data environment to promote transparency. By acquiring user consent and anonymizing personal data, businesses can demonstrate their commitment to carbon neutral and humane practices that encourage behavioral changes in consumption practices;
  7. Youth accounts for one out of three active users of media content platforms. Such platforms need to assure youth representation in internal advisory bodies and self-regulation processes to improve on the decisions that affect this age group;
  8. Big Tech and other companies that produce Internet products and services should have more indigenous languages built into automated translation tools and technologies to help bridge the language barriers and Western cultural bias of the Internet;
  9. Women and gender diverse people are facing restrictions in accessing information on the Internet and participating meaningfully. To establish healthy and equal societies, youths should urge governments and civil societies to guarantee the rights to freedom of online expression for these communities;
  10. We urge states to pursue cross-border alliances in the governance of the Internet as a shared resource based on democratic ideals. Entities collecting and managing data should adopt alternative forms of data governance that grant individuals greater control over their data;
  11. Rules for AI and standards for ethical AI should be formulated through a multistakeholder approach rather than by technology companies. AI systems should be audited based on these rules by external parties for fairness and their working should be made transparent to the public;
  12. The companies that develop and sell AI systems should be held accountable for them and any entity that uses these systems should implement a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation system throughout the lifetime of the system

Make sure to register to the “WS #231 Youth&Sustainability: Creating change through collaboration” and get to know more what activists and experts of environmental advocacy and Internet governance will deliberate on how digital sustainability can be mainstreamed in Internet governance discoursed, and where the movements for climate justice, and for the inclusive, open, and accessible Internet intersect. Link here

Source: https://yigf.de/news/12-youth-recommendations-for-a-sustainable-internet/

November 2, 2020 Events No comments yet
Youth Observatory report on the YouthLACIGF 2020

Youth Observatory report on the YouthLACIGF 2020

YouthLACIGF is an annual initiative that began in 2016 from the growing community of young people in Latin America and the Caribbean interested in being part of the dialogues that take place for the development of the Internet.

September 26, 2020 Events No comments yet

Youth4DigitalSustainability: 1-1 session + invitation to webinars

The Internet offers many opportunities for communication, development, and collaboration, but we can also acknowledge concerning environmental, social, and economic effects of digitality. Young people are at the forefront of advocacy for a more sustainable world, and have impact on policy development. For the UN Internet Governance Forum 2020, the Youth4DigitalSustainability Program wants to highlight the opportunities of digital sustainability and point the way forward.

The key policy topics that this program is concerned with are: Greening the Internet, Fair Digital Businesses, Internet for Social Good, and Sustainable Internet Governance. For each, a global working group is established in order to draft policy recommendations to be presented to decision-makers in the public and private sectors, civil society, academia, and the technical community.

Youth who are between 16 and 30 years of age from across the globe are part of these working groups and we are happy to inform that Lily Edinam Botsyoe (Secretary), Juliana Novaes (Global Engagement Director), Eileen Cejas (Regional Engagement Director-Latin America and the Caribbean region), Elnur Karimov (Regional Engagement Director- Eastern Europe region) and Mohammad Atif Aleem (Regional Engagement Director- Asia Pacific region) were selected for this program along with other active members of Youth Observatory also have been chosen to work in the above mentioned 4 working groups.

Young people in all world regions, with diverse backgrounds and levels of professional and academic experience are contributing through this interesting initiative.

On August 16, Elnur Karimov had a 1-1 online session with Elisabeth , organiser of the Youth4DigitalSustainability Program. You can watch the recording and read the slides here

Register in the links below to participate of the webinars:

Webinar 1: Greening the Internet

August 20, 2020; 4 PM-5PM/16:00-17:00 CEST (Berlin Time)

Link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3035337496791218702

Webinar 2: Fair Digital Businesses

August 27, 2020, 4PM-5PM/16:00-17:00 CEST (Berlin Time)

Link: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/3106850832574131470

Webinar 3: Internet for Social Good

September 3, 2020, 4PM-5PM/16:00-17:00 CEST (Berlin Time)

Link: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/607881904476491022

Webinar 4: Sustainable Internet Governance

September 14, 2020, 4PM-5PM/16:00-17:00 CEST (Berlin Time)

Link: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/9118174471230220814

August 7, 2020 Events No comments yet

Youth SIG is part of the Global Citizens’ Dialogue in Argentina

The Youth SIG (also known as Youth Observatory) is participating at the Global Stakeholders’ Dialogue as a National Strategic Partner for Argentina for the We The Internet. This initiative is launched by Missions Publiques, a high impact social entrepeneur founded in 1998 and localy boosted by our Regional Engagement Director for Latin America and the Caribbean region Eileen Cejas in Argentina.

We, The Internet is a two phases global event: first, there was the Global Stakeholders’ Dialogue in June 2020, and the second phase is composed by the Global Citizens’ Dialogue, happening in October 2020.

Global Stakeholders Dialogue

At the Global Stakeholders’ Dialogue, stakeholders from around the world participated in the deliberation regarding the three model of arquitecture of digital cooperation, which were picked by the High Level Panel in Digital Cooperation of the UN to be discussed by the global stakeholders. The second phase is composed by the Global Citizens’ Dialogue, happening in October 2020.

Photo updated by Paola Gálvez from Twitter: “#WetheInternet stakeholders’ dialogue last session has started to discuss about #digitalcooperation Glad to be here!!”

After the Global Stakeholders’ Dialogue, the gathered recommendations made by the attendees of the event were compiled into a report, which was shared as one of the recommendations collected by the German government as part of the High Level Panel follow-up process. Moreover, the results of the event are part of the process for the Roadmap of Digital Cooperation issued by the UN Secretary General’s office.

Some of the recommendations collected at the Global Stakeholders’ Dialogue were:

1. A shift is required towards a hybrid architecture for the future of Digital Cooperation.
2. Providing the right resources in a fair way is key to impactful Digital Cooperation.
3. Improving effective inclusion must be at the heart of governance reform.
4. Greater coordination and cooperation is required between stakeholders and the different bodies.
5. Transparency and guidance are essential in navigating the complex system.
6. Trust must be established with transparent, fair coordination and effective, stable leadership.
7. The IGF+ needs to move from a discussion forum to a decision-making body.

Upcoming Global Citizens’ Dialogue

On October 10th and 11st of 2020, the Youth SIG in Argentina will host the local version of the Global Citizens’ Dialogue, where inhabits from all around Argentina will discuss these thematic areas:

-Internet and me

-Digital Identity

-Digital Public Sphere

-Artificial Intelligence

-Data Privacy

In order to introduce attendees into these themaric areas, the We The Internet Argentina team will facilitate an online introductory webinar (‘Conversatorio virtual’) on August 17. More details on registration are available here (only available for Argentina).

If you are from Argentina, you can check the We The Internet Argentina website for further details : www.wetheinternet.com.ar.

Other countries and organizations participating of this initiative:

August 1, 2020 Events 1 comment
Youth IGF Past Fellows

Youth IGF Past Fellows

IGF has always been the center of attraction amongst all the Internet Governance enthusiasts. We published a call on the blog asking the past fellows to share a photo of themselves as a Youth Fellow/Ambassador

July 2, 2020 Events, Fellowships, IGF Youth Ambassadors No comments yet

YCIG at EuroDIG2020: Youth perspectives on the way forward in IG

Written by Mili Semlani and Meri Baghdasaryan (YCIG Steering Committee). This article was originally posted at YCIG’s website. You can find the original post here.

The youth DC session–Youth Coalition on Internet Governance enabled its Dynamic Coalition members and partners to express and exchange views on the current state of affairs in the field of youth participation in the Internet Governance ecosystem at the pre event session hosted at EuroDIG 2020. 

The session explored some of the European initiatives that have been launched to enhance youth participation in internet governance after Youth IGF Summit held in Berlin in 2019. And it was aimed at creating synergies and finding common topics among regional youth movements and initiatives to conduct capacity enhancement projects and much more.

Developments after Youth IGF Summit 2019 

Carrying forward from the YCIG session at IGF in 2019, Elisabeth Schauermann, YouthDIG/ Youth IGF Summit 2019 reflected on the first ever Youth IGF Summit at Berlin in 2019 that was supported by last year’s IGF country host Germany. As a pre event to IGF 2019, it was an effective platform where youth from all over the world came together to share their messages.

While it was successful, the efforts did not just stop there. Youth participation should anchor all public policy and for this it is important to enable youth with necessary support and resources to participate in internet governance and policy making.

Further, Nika Bakhsoliani, Member of Advisory council on youth, Council of Europe and member of COVID-19 task force of the joint council, highlighted the importance of understanding the concept of meaningful youth participation, which entails that the youth has the necessary means, opportunities and space to participate in and influence decision making processes. Speaking of the effects of COVID-19 pandemic, Nika mentioned that the ongoing issues have been exacerbated, particularly affecting the marginalized youth and youth organisations. 

National Youth IGF movements

Veronica Birindelli, Youth IGF Italy and Joao Pedro Martins, Lusophone Youth IGF, Portugal; spoke about how to start Youth IGFs in their respective countries. While Portugal worked with other Portuguese speaking countries to reach out to a larger crowd, Italy worked with grassroots organisations and went from a 3-people team to a larger community. 

In addition to bringing in computer science students and tech enthusiasts, yIGF organisers also felt the need to speak to young people about the other issues like online safety, etc. that affect everyone in their own way. 

They also suggested that greater synergies amongst youth IGF initiatives across the world will be helpful so they can share content, topics, support etc. Being listed as an official youth initiative on IGF’s website is also helpful in gaining credibility. 

Being a part of youth IGFs enables youth to better engage at IGF main events. It also facilitates collaboration and building independent youth communities also facilitates adding real messages to the global debate.

The way forward

Noha Ashraf, YCIG steering committee member, presented the YCIG questionnaire which saw a greater need for not only tech related topics but also cross cutting ones like interaction of human rights with technology. 

Elnur Karimov,  EEG Regional Engagement Director for Youth Observatory shared his views on Youth Observatory’s (Youth SIG) growing global presence. In 2019, Youth Observatory (YouthSIG) had projects like Creative Networks which was a project competition where the winners attended IGF 2019 and Youth Atlas which highlighted engaged youth in IG from all over the world. Elnur also pointed out current engagement activities for Youth Observatory members like the Regional Activities.

In short,  it goes without saying that youth has a lot to offer to the Internet Governance ecosystem, from organising the first ever global Youth IGF Summit and  initiating national youth IGF movements to bringing the youth perspective and coming up with solutions to such unprecedented issues such as COVID-19 pandemic, together with different stakeholders. 

With COVID-19 pandemic still underway, the community strives to continue working towards enhancement of youth participation in the Internet Governance ecosystem, advance the capacity building programs and initiatives and bring the youth voice to the global discussions and processes. 

Therefore, in order to create synergies between various youth movements all over the globe, we need to define the common goals for these youth initiatives/movements and deliberate upon which formats, tools and frameworks can be applied for reaching these goals. Share with us your opinion in the comments. 

You may access the recording of the full YCIG session here

Written by Mili Semlani and Meri Baghdasaryan (YCIG Steering Committee). This article was originally posted at YCIG’s website. You can find the original post here.

June 29, 2020 Events No comments yet

For a Diverse Internet – Segur@s en Internet & WeAre

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EAPdwgBXoAA9-Fh.jpg

As part of the Creating Networks project competition, which aimed to promote the participation and implementation of projects about Internet Governance, Human Rights and Inclusion led by the Youth, the three of us got selected to go and participate at the Youth Internet Governance Forum (YouthIGF2019) and Internet Governance Forum (IGF 2019) taking place in Berlín, Germany, from November 25th to the 29th of 2019 as Youth Observatory Fellows.

The Youth Observatory gave us the unique opportunity for weeks of learning through webinars and being able to live cybernetically with colleagues from different countries to finally choose our partners and build the project that led us to one of the best experiences of our lives.

The projects we presented at the competition were “Segur@s en Internet” and “WeAre”, which aimed to promote the participation of women and LGBTQI+ youth in the conversations regarding Internet Governance. In both projects, we worked with women and LGBTQI+ organizations and community members in Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia and we gave online and offline workshops about Internet Governance, Human Rights, Advocacy, and Digital Inclusion. Through the activities that took place, we aimed to tackle the issue related to the lack of diversity and representation in the discussion regarding Internet Governance spaces and to create a space for sharing about the issues that our communities face in Latin America, such as online violence and hate speech, freedom speech and situations in which are some spaces where they cannot express themselves freely on the internet. Unfortunately, this situation happens not only in Latin America and the Caribbean but also in places like Africa and the Middle East. We believe that a way to mitigate the impact of these instances if they continue to happen is to give them tools to know their digital rights and how to join the wave of action that is asking to have an Internet ecosystem that includes everyone.

We started our journey in Berlin having our projects and activities in mind. We noticed the considerable effort and value in making such an event and the incredible opportunities to meet others who are also passionate about keeping the health of the Internet ecosystem. However, we also noticed that in the many topics for discussion that were presented, not many reflections nor opinions tackled the issue of access, use, and inclusion of women and the LGBT+ community, especially opinions for these specifics population outside of the Global North, because most of the topics and policies that were discussed tend to focus their information from places like Europe and North America. There were few spaces for Latin American, Asian Pacific, and African perspectives, selected only after most of the main topics were determined. The sessions that did talk about these central perspectives were put as side sessions instead of main ones, which doesn’t help the multistakeholder view that Internet Governance is aiming to achieve.  

We decided to prepare and attend the Open Mic session at the forum, in order to draw the attention to the Internet policymakers and the lawmakers in our region, so they would make a joint collaboration with the Civil society and the private sector to provide the skills and legal framework to allow women and LGBTQI+ community to freely express themselves regardless their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.

We also mentioned the lack of representation in the high-level panels regarding trans people. We could verify this by meeting a trans woman, who had been invited to the event. She said she felt that her invitation was due more to filling a gender parity quota rather than an intention to change the event’s participation policies. 

We expressed loud and clear that gender implies not only women and girls, but also LGBTQI+ communities. Therefore, we helped to foster that in the upcoming IGFs this is taken into account, so the promise of an Internet for everyone will truly be real, where no one is left behind outside of the picture, and where we could truly comply with the message of One Internet, One Net, and One Vision.

Belén Giménez (Paraguay) Segur@s en Internet Project

Abdías Zambrano (Panamá) Segur@s en Internet Project

Juan Pájaro (Colombia) Project WeAre

June 18, 2020 Events No comments yet

Youth Observatory participated in EuroDIG2020

Youth Observatory (Youth SIG) was invited by the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance to participate in the session “Youth Coalition on Internet Governance: Creating synergies and the Way Forward”. This session was part of the Day 0 program at EuroDIG2020.

EuroDIG is the pan- European dialogue of Internet Governance, where participants from countries of all Europe gather to discuss issues of the region. This year, the online event chose the overarching theme “Towards a sustainable governance of the Internet” to discuss the focus areas: a) Cooperation, legislation, standardisation; b)Leverage connecting the unconnected; c)Data governance and data security; d)Media issues (ongoing); e) all matter DNS.

On this session, our Regional Engagement Director for Eastern European Group Elnur Karimov introduced the audience to Youth Observatorys initiatives we have done in the last years, including Youth Atlas, Creating Networks and the session proposals we worked within the IGF Working Groups for the IGF2020.

Elnur said “more youth participation means better Internet Governance” while highlighting the achieved projects by the Youth Observatory and our enthusiasm for the future involved in IG.

Our Regional Engagement Director for EEG also mentioned what we have done in the last months, including submitting sessions proposals to the IGF2020 and the launch at Regional Activities, which have the goal to feature young individuals from our community to share their thoughts on relevant topics for youth.

We will soon share news on our social media, stay tuned!

–We want to thank Youth Coalition on Internet Governance for the invitation-

June 13, 2020 Events No comments yet

Participate in Regional Activities!

Youth Observatory, as Special Interest Group of Internet Society focused on Youth, has prepared a series of community outreach activities to engage young people in capacity building.

We believe in these times of pandemic, we should foster a closer relationship with our members, giving a space to share with the community about their leadership experiences and share their insights on an area of their interest.

The Community Outreach will include:

LEADERSHIP EXCHANGE: Informal gatherings on Zoom platform to share experiences on leadership. In this space, we can meet to know more about our members and learn on their leadership experiences.

YOUTH AT FOCUS: Live session at Instagram to talk about an area of their expertise. Instagram is a great platform to have a 1-1 discussion, when everyone can leave a comment to our featured young speaker.

If you are a Youth Observatory member and you want to apply, kindly fill this form. Regional Engagement Directors will reach you for the next steps.

List of Regional Engagement Directors:

African Group- Joshua Joshua

Asia Pacific Group- Mohammad Atif Aleem

Europe- Elnur Karimov

Latin America and the Caribbean- Eileen Cejas

Western Europe Group and Others- Ana Jovanovic

May 17, 2020 Events 2 comments