DiploFoundation will participate in the third Internet Governance Forum, to be held in Hyderabad, India, from 3 to 6 December. With support of partners, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), this year more than 30 professionals from developing countries - successful participants from Diplo’s IG Capacity Building Programmes - will take part in the IGF meeting. In addition to actively participating in sessions and workshops, the fellows will organise and participate in number of interesting side events, including reporting from the sessions, presenting their research work, debating on controversial IG issues, simulating global negotiations, and more.
The programme of Diplo activities at the IGF is available here.

28 November 2008

The 2nd International Conference “Keeping Children and Young People Safe Online”, took place in Warsaw, on September 18-19, 2008.

IGCBP08 community member Agnieszka Wrzesień, project co-ordinator for the Saferinternet.pl - Polish Safer Internet Node, was the chair of the Organising Committee representing Nobody’s Children Foundation.

The conference brought together representatives from the education sector, NGOs, law enforcement, government and industry. It addressed a wide variety of issues relating to children and young people’s safety online, such as cyber bullying, social networking sites, child safety and mobile phones, and online gaming. The conference raised awareness of the new challenges and opportunities in fighting Internet threats and helped sharing best practices across different sectors.

IGCBP08 community member Thiago Tavares, who has been leading the work against pedophily in Brazil also attended the conference after the IGF Open Consultations in Geneva.

Paper abstracts of the conference are available here.

26 September 2008

On September 16, 2008, the final Internet Government Forum (IGF) Open Consultations prior to the Hyderabad IGF concluded with very positive outcomes.

Markus Kummer, executive co-ordinator of the IGF Secretariat, highlighted the support of the IGF Secretariat towards its partnership with DiploFoundation: "So this is basically a very positive programme which gives us capacity, and at the same time it gives the fellows participating through the programmes, gives them capacity when they return back to their country."

Another highlight during the open consultations was the release of a statement on the proposal for IGF hubs read out by Olga Cavalli (IGCBP07 participant) on behalf of the Remote Participation Working Group. In addition, the Wikipedia initiative also had a statement read out – this is an initiative undertaken by DiploFoundation community members to post a comprehensive Wikipedia entry on the IGF.

19 September 2008

DiploFoundation community members have joined forces to improve the entry in Wikipedia on the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), in Arabic, English, French, Kinyarwanda, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili and Taglog.
The initiative was facilitated by Rafik Dammak from Tunisia. The community members involved in this initiative were: Charity Gamboa, Raquel Gatto, Fabio Marinho, Marilia Maciel, Luis Henrique Almeida de Oliveira, Silvia S. Soares, Stephanie Psaila, Olga Cavalli, Ginger Paque, Carolina Rossini, Chipo Kanjo, Emmanuel Edet, Joachim Boko, Joseph Mokaya Gichana, Victoria Aikins, Hanane Boujemi, Bernard Sadaka, Fouad Bajwa, Violeta Bonchanoska, Andres Piazza, Everton T. Rodrigues, Alfonso Avila, John Ngahu, Emmanuel Habumuremyi and Seiiti Arata Jr.

16 September 2008

DiploFoundation has been a key resource partner in an executive training programme delivered in Botswana, Africa.

The programme, "Building SADC Capacity in Internet Governance", was organised by the Centre of Specialisation in Public Administration and Management (CESPAM), which was set up by Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries. The training programme, supported by the Commonwealth Secretariat, was held on August 19-22 in Gaborone, Botswana.

The four-day seminar was attended by 15 participants, including government officials, regulatory authorities, business and civil society representatives from SADC countries. Through highly interactive sessions consisting of lectures, discussion panels, cases and simulations, a thorough understanding of the meaning of Internet Governance was provided. Key global challenges and processes have also been identified, while the African perspective has been discussed and analysed in detail.

At the end, participants came up with their own recommendations on the issues, and with actions of highest priority for the SADC region. The participants also came up with many ideas for a way forward and for follow-up activities for Africa.

16 September 2008

Seoul, Korea - June, 2008

DiploFoundation community members Ndeye Maimouna Diop Diagne, Fouad Riaz Bajwa, Carolina Rossini and Katitza Rodriguez were interviewed by the Imagining the Internet project during the meeting of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on the Future of the Internet Economy, in Seoul, Korea, on June 16-18, 2008.

26 August 2008

DiploFoundation community member Jean Philemon Kissangou has received support from the DiploFoundation community and has recently been elected to hold one of the two seats representing the central African sub-region for a three-year term.

18 August 2008

Pedro Campos, DiploFoundation community member from the Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme (IGCBP08) from Brazil has received a scholarship for the Internet Governance Online Course from RITS, co-ordinated by Graciela Selaimen and DiploFoundation community member Gustavo Gindre. For details in Portuguese visit this website.

18 August 2008

Closing Session of the IGCBP2008 in Second Life