The Citizen Lab and its network of cybersecurity researchers and advocates in the global South, called the Cyber Stewards Network, will be participating in the 2015 Internet Governance Forum (IGF) at the Poeta Ronaldo Cunha Lima Conference Center in João Pessoa, Brazil, on November 9-13.
The IGF is a multistakeholder forum which facilitates discussions on public policy issues related to Internet governance. The theme of this year’s IGF will be the “Evolution of Internet Governance: Empowering Sustainable Development.”
Citizen Lab will host two events at the conference. The first is a pre-conference event on 10:30 am – 12:00 pm on November 9, titled “Mapping Internet Governance and Information Controls: Lessons Learned from Southeast Asia.” The event will be held in Workshop Room 5. Communications Officer and Researcher Irene Poetranto, Pirongrong Ramasoota (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand), Nica Dumlao (the Foundation for Media Alternatives, Philippines) will present findings from their collaborative research on Burma, Thailand, and the Philippines.
Citizen Lab will also host a workshop on November 13 from 9:00 am to 10:30 am in Workshop Room 3, titled “Information Controls in the Global South.” This workshop will explore efforts by civil society organizations in the global South, with a particular focus on Latin America, in challenging information controls and making meaningful impacts in freedom of expression initiatives.
Irene Poetranto will be joined by Citizen Lab Cyber Stewards Network partners Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (Argentina), Colnodo (Colombia), and Derechos Digitales (Chile). Also speaking at the panel are Eleonora Rabinovich, Public Policy Manager for Google Latin America, Luis Fernando Garcia, Attorney at Red en Defensa de les Derechos Digitales, Frerieke van Bree of the Digital Defenders Project, Marilia Maciel, Researcher at the Centre for Technology and Society of the Getulio Vargas, Juan Carlos Mendoza Garcia, Ambassador of the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the US, and Pedro Pablo Perez Garcia, Manager at Telefonica.
Read the full workshop description.
Other Citizen Lab Cyber Stewards Network partners will also participate in the 2015 IGF. Donny Budhi Utoyo of ICT Watch and Renata Avila, for example, will be in attendance.
Ranking Digital Rights, who previously presented their work at the 2015 Citizen Lab Summer Institute, will also host a pre-conference event on November 9 from 1:00 – 5:00 pm in Workshop Room 8, launching their Corporate Accountability Index and brainstorming research and advocacy ideas. The Index benchmarks and evaluates some of the world’s leading Internet and telecommunications providers on their policies affecting users’ free expression and privacy.