Apply for session proposal at the Youth LACIGF 2020!
Deadline: EXTENDED June 30, 11pm UTC
Find more information below:
What is the Youth LACIGF?
The YouthLACIGF is an annual event organized by the Youth Observatory (Youth Special Interest Group from Internet Society), a non-profit, international civil society organization, made up of young people from all over the world. We are engaged voluntarily in working on projects and initiatives related to Internet Governance and Technology Policies. The first edition of the YouthLACIGF was held in 2016, in Costa Rica. It was aimed at creating room for discussion for the growing community of Latin American and the Caribbean youth interested in issues related to Internet Governance, such as digital inclusion, privacy and cybersecurity, infrastructure, and more. More editions have taken place in Panamá (2017), Argentina (2018), and Bolívia (2019), all of them having a bottom-up approach, offering workshops and activities to welcome newcomers to the Latin American and the Caribbean Internet Governance Community.
The YouthLACIGF is recognized as an NRI (National, Sub-Regional, Regional, and Youth IGF initiatives) by the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) — which was established by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to organize, since 2006, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). Also, the YouthLACIGF is a side-event, usually held in the Day-Zero, before the Latin America and Caribbean Internet Governance Forum (IGF). Since 2016 we have had 200+ onsite attendees, most of them students and young professionals. Also, thanks to resources sponsored by partner organizations, we provided 38 fellowships to young leaders from 15 countries in the region (Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and Venezuela).
What is the Youth Observatory (Youth SIG)?
The Youth Observatory is a Special Interest Group of Internet Society, focused on youth in Internet. We are an international organization with members from around the world: young people among 18 and 30 years old interested in Internet Governance matters. Learn more about our organización here
Why is special the 2020 edition?
We are helding the YouthLACIGF for the first time entirely remote. Also, we are preparing special activities before the regional IGF and YouthLACIGF. Come and join us!
Topics selected by Youth Observatory members:
After a decision process, our members chose these topics to be addressed at the YouthLACIGF.
Find a short explanation of each topic:
–Online education and access to the internet. Digital Literacy matters!: digital literacy, the benefits it brings to societies and how to include more people in Internet.
–Misinformation, problems with social media: misinformation and the impact of inaccurate information online. How fake news are quickly spreading on social media.
–COVID 19 related to privacy and cybersecurity in LAC region: the coronavirus pandemic has brought new (and not so new) issues on the privacy and cybersecurity topics.
–Online democracies: a new model of democracies after the pandemic?: several governments have to start making decisions virtually due to the COVID-19. How does it affect the concept of democracies as we knew it?
Format of the sessions:
Following the guidelines of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), we have chosen 3 formats, which are the best fit for this virtual edition. We are encouraging informal formats for the sessions, as we are keeping the unconference methodology. If you feel you can prepare a session with a different informal format, please describe in detail at your proposal.Make sure to make your session as more interactive as possible.
These are the 3 preferred formats:
–Birds of Feather: is suggested for when a group of attendees come together based on a shared interest on an Internet policy issue, and carry out discussions without any pre planned agenda.
-(Virtual) Roundtable: puts speakers in conversation with one another on a particular theme or issue. A moderator will introduce subject matter experts (if any) at the table and explain the discussion topic before engaging all discussants in the room in a roundtable conversation. Everyone ‘at the table’ is given equal weight and equal opportunity to intervene. Workshop proposals for the roundtable format should identify the subject matter experts and describe how walk-in participants will be encouraged to participate in the discussion.
–Break Out Discussions: involve several separate, smaller conversations that take place during the same time. The discussion topic is introduced at the beginning of the session to all participants in the room, usually by a moderator or subject matter expert. The participants then break out into small groups and discuss this topic or aspects of this topic. Moderators can be “assigned” to each group to clarify specific issues or to keep the conversation flowing. At the end of the session, the groups come back together and summarize their discussions for everyone, or moderators share results and conclude with suggestions for possible next steps.
Speakers and Facilitators:
You can choose no more than 4 speakers at your session proposal. Speakers can be youth and non-youth from different stakeholders. We strongly encourage sessions in different languages. The accepted languages are English, Spanish, Portuguese and French.
Important information:
– Submitting a proposal is free of charge, and all applicants are aware that no payment will be involved to run a session in our event;
– Applicants must be between 18 and 30 years old at the moment of application and reside in a Latin American and the Caribbean country;
– Applicants must be sure that they will have an available broadband connection to the Internet on the days of the event;
– All proposals should be created considering remote dynamics and participation of attendees (further details are provided in specific questions of the form);
– Additional information regarding the platform that will be used in the event will be provided in advance;
– The 5th YouthLACIGF Committee will be in charge of selecting the best proposals to take part in our official agenda. We will ensure that diversity of gender, countries, areas of expertise from applicants and diversity of thematics from proposals will be taken into consideration when evaluating proposals.
Apply at this form here [link]. Deadline extended: June 30 , 11pm UTC.