Youth IGF 2017 Bangkok
Youth is the largest demographic group of internet users. However, their voices are less heard in decision making processes related to the internet. With a dedication to raise the awareness of youth on internet governance and encourage young generations to participate in public policy discussion, Youth Internet Governance Forum (YIGF) has been initiated and is an integral part of Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF) since its inception in 2010.
YIGF 2017 Bangkok will be held in Chulalongkorn University from 26 to 29 July 2017.
Program Details
Date: 26 – 29 July 2017
Meeting venue & Accommodation: Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
Eligibility: Undergraduate or graduate students from Asia Pacific region
Fee: Free of charge (accommodation and meals are included, travel support will be provided for selected delegates)
Application deadline (international): Deadline had already passed — See result of initial round of selected youth fellows.
Application deadline (from Thailand): Deadline has already passed — See result of initial round of selected youth fellows.
Enquiry contact: info@netmission.asia
What is Youth IGF?
Inspired by United Nations’s model of Internet Governance Forum, the Youth IGF takes the same multi-stakeholders approach. Based on the mandate of IGF to bring people together from various stakeholder groups as equals, YIGF provides an open platform for young generation to express and interchange their ideas and own thoughts on internet governance freely.
YIGF is usually a 4-days-3 nights camp which participants are assigned a role as one of the interest group such as government, private sectors and civil society organizations. During the camp, they are encouraged to think from a new standpoint and different perspectives. It also serves as a preparation camp for them to understand various internet issues as well as further directly participating in the local and global internet policy discussion platform.
Meanwhile, one of the core features of the Youth IGF is that the facilitators are all youth themselves, which signifies the empowerment of youth as well as the peer-to-peer impact.
Objectives
- Build the capacity of young adults to participate in internet governance discussion
- Encourage youth to attend and bring contribution to actual internet governance discussion
- Provide platform for cultivating idea to drive social change and further actualizing the initiative for a healthy and harmonious internet
- Develop youth network on internet governance
Key Feature – Role-Play Discussion
All youth participants were assigned to different stakeholder groups for example Civil Society, Private Sectors, Governments, etc. for the discussion of various internet governance issues. The aim of this simulation session is to let the youth to put themselves into other people’s shoes and encourage them to think from a multi-stakeholder perspective.
After experiencing multi-stakeholder perspective of thinking in role-play discussion, preparatory session will be organized to discuss some of the APrIGF workshop’s discussion topics from youth perspective. While the best way of practice is by actual participation, yIGF participants will attend APrIGF workshops and sit as panelists to share their discussion outcomes after preparatory session, that youth can bring contribution to actual Internet governance discussion in APrIGF.
Organizer
NetMission.Asia is an Ambassadors Program supported by DotAsia Organisation, which aims to bring together a network of dedicated young volunteers to get devoted to promoting digital inclusion, internet governance as well as a respectable and harmonious internet environment.
The program recruits a group of students from top local tertiary institutes and universities in Hong Kong every year. We train and sustain a network of volunteers to contribute to digital inclusion works. We are endeavoring to empower young minds, through training, exchange opportunities, international conferences and community projects, therefore to constructively contribute to the local, regional and global internet governance discourse.
NetMission has always been supporting youth participation on internet governance and the ambassadors themselves are actively participating in various international internet conferences such as ICANN meetings, United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF), Asia Pacific Next Generation Camp (APNG Camp), etc. As NetMission envision to empower and engage youth on internet governance discussion, the ambassadors have been organizing the Youth Internet Governance Forum (YIGF) in different Asia Pacific countries since 2010 in Hong Kong. It has been successfully held in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Delhi, Macao, Taipei and the upcoming one in 2017 will be in Bangkok. The ambassadors have also initiated the NextGen@ICANN program in Singapore for tertiary students in the region in 2014, and it kicks off as a pilot to deploy the NextGen@ICANN initiative in ICANN meeting for youth engagement in actual internet policy discussion.