(online)
Organised by DiploFoundation
Supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM)
and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)
Are you a government or civil society expert who needs to know more about international Internet and Internet Governance policies to be more effective? Are you a tech expert who would like to know more about the social aspects of the impact of the Internet on today's society? Or are you a legal expert who needs to understand a bit more about the technical facets, a teacher who would like to put the small pieces of the puzzle together to help your students understand the current big picture?...
Join us if you would like to learn about and discuss who governs the Internet, IP and DNS issues, the role of Internet Service Providers and regulators, jurisdiction and legal mechanisms, intellectual property rights, cyber-security, privacy and freedom of speech, e-commerce, cultural diversity online, multilingualism and more!
We are currently accepting applications for the European Capacity Development Programme in Internet Governance. This Programme is designed to improve Internet Governance (IG) related knowledge and skills for European policy-makers. The Programme is organised through online training, policy research and policy immersion.
THE PROGRAMME - TRAINING & RESEARCH
The programme offers places for professionals from diverse stakeholder backgrounds in IG-related fields and is open to 20 individuals from European countries. The programme will start on 20 April 2009, and will last for 12 weeks.
The training is conducted entirely online. Participation takes place through an online learning platform enabling a variety of interactive learning and communication tools and encouraging sharing of knowledge and experiences. Participants will work under the guidance of certified Diplo online tutors and with support from trained professionals and experts from the region.
Learning activities take place in an online classroom and include the analysis of course materials, interactive group discussions, assignments and exams.
The Programme includes policy research on IG issues of relevance of particular countries in Europe. The policy research will result in short case study-based research papers.
The online training consists of a 12-week long course covering the following topics:
1) Introduction to Internet Governance
(Evolution of Internet Governance, International Context, Basic Terminology, Approaches and Patterns, Guiding Principles, Analogies and other Cognitive Tools for IG)
2) Infrastructure and Standardisation Basket
(Telecommunications Infrastructure, Domain Name System, Root Servers, Internet Service Providers, Internet Bandwidth Providers, Economic Models of Internet Connectivity, Internet Security and Safety)
3) Legal Basket
(Legal Mechanisms, Jurisdiction, Arbitration, Intellectual Property Rights, Cybercrime)
4) Economic Basket
(E-Commerce, Consumer Protection, Taxation, Digital Signatures, E-Banking and E-Money)
5) Socio-Cultural Basket
(Content Policy, Privacy and Data Protection, Multilingualism and Cultural Diversity, Global Public Goods, Education)
6) Development Basket
(Digital Divide, Universal Access, Developing Telecommunications and Internet Infrastructures, Socio-Cultural Aspects, Telecommunication Policy and Regulation)
7) Internet Governance Process
(Process, Actors, Negotiations)
Successful participants will receive a certificate of completion of the programme. The most successful participants will be awarded a policy fellowship to participate at the EuroDIG meeting in September 2009 in Geneva. The selected participants will have the opportunity to present findings of their research.
LANGUAGE
The programme materials and platform are fully in English. Applicants are asked to consider whether their reading and writing skills in English are sufficient to follow university level materials and discussion.
PARTICIPANTS
The training programme seeks applications from:
§ Officials in government ministries and departments dealing with IG-related issues;
§ Postgraduate students and researchers interested in IG issues;
§ Civil Society activists in the IG field;
§ Journalists covering IG issues;
§ Educators
§ Individuals in Internet-business fields (e.g., ISPs, software developers, Registrars etc).
Applicants from European countries - member states of Council of Europe - are eligible to apply. Priority in the selection process will be given to participants from countries in transition.
TIMELINE
§ 10 April - application deadline
§ 13 April - selection results
§ 20 April - start of the course
§ 17 July - end of the course & submission of research projects
FEE
There is no participation fee. Selected participants will be provided by scholarships offered by the Swiss Federal Office for Telecommunication (OFCOM) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
DEADLINE
The deadline for applications is 10 April 2009, by midnight UTC/GMT.
HOW TO APPLY
For further information and to apply, please visit: http://www.diplomacy.edu/ig/
Do not hesitate to contact us at
