The following are the outputs of the real-time captioning taken during the Twelfth Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Geneva, Switzerland, from 17 to 21 December 2017. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the event, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> OLGA CAVALLI: We will wait, like, five minutes
more. Everyone is in the lounging area. This is not the best time for having a session, you know that, but it's what we have, so we will try to make the best of it. It's a huge room, by the way. It's a very nice environment.
So, we will wait, like, five minutes more and then we start. It's good that we are not many, because then we have a chance to have a more close conversation or questions from you, if you have any comments or ideas.
One thing that we would like to do with you is if you have ideas on how to enhance the program of activities, or if you have ideas about new issues to include in the program, and that also it's a welcome input from you. We will let you know how we organize the school, which has been the evolution of the program through these ten years, but it is always good to have new ideas, especially from friends from other regions, and that is very helpful for us. So, exchanging your views and ideas will make our experience much, much better.
So, let's wait, like, five minutes more, and then we start.
Thank you for being with us, by the way, the three of you.
(Pause in proceedings)
>> OLGA CAVALLI: Okay. Being in consideration of the time, and that you have been so kind to be with us very early this morning, and you're punctual with us, we have a diverse audience, people from Brazil, Russia, and China and Argentina, so we have several areas represented in the room, although we are few, maybe we can have a conversation after my presentation.
Please, if you want to interrupt me, just raise your hand. It's easy for me to see you from here.
Hello. Good morning. How are you? Good to see you.
And, the idea of the session is to tell you the experience that we have gone through this ten years of the South School of Internet Governance, how it has evolved, what we have been doing these years, and if we can have some comments from you how we can enhance the program of activities or ideas that you would like to suggest for the program, just or whatever you would like to share with us, all experiences that you have in your own home Country or environment or organization that you represent, that is also very much welcome.
The pictures that you see there is one of our dearest pictures, because we were honored with the presence of Vincent Cerf in the school in 2016. He is in the middle. I am with a pink jacket and he is by my side in the middle. And, that was the School of Internet Governance organized in the venue of organization of the United States in Washington, D.C. This was the organization of the American states to host a school there because they gather all the countries of Latin America, of the whole Americas, so they wanted to host a school, and it was a very well attended school with 200 fellows from all over the Americas, and we had some fellows from Europe in that meeting.
So, we started our work in 2007, and organizing the first school was very challenging, so we could organize the first one in 2009. So, I will go to the first slide.
Why we created the school. I personally have participated in ICANN and in other Internet Governance meetings since 2004, 2005, and the world summit of Information Society. And, what I realized and other colleagues from Latin America at that time is that the participation of Latin America represented it was very low. That was related with several issues, language barriers, involvement of different organizations and governments in the process, but we realized that most of what was happening was related with the lack of knowledge of this process, a lack of knowledge what is happening or what happened to me when I went to the -- I usually tell this story and everyone laughs. When I went to my first ICANN meeting that was in 2006 and I was studying that for my Ph.D., it was very difficult for me to understand what was going on, because I didn't know anybody, although I knew that what they were talking about and the meetings, I didn't know the dynamic of the meeting, I didn't know other people, I didn't know other colleagues. So, we created the school precisely for having this space for interaction in between colleagues, and colleagues and students with the experts of Internet Governance. This is the object of the school, and increasing the number of representatives from our region --
Hello, welcome.
-- into the Internet Governance ecosystem.
And, of course, we wanted these training ease and these participants of the school become the leaders in the future and this has been happening since then.
And, also, one thing that we had from start is we would never ever charge for any participation. It will always be open for the community and it would be also if it was possible to grant fellowships. And we could do that from day zero. We have always granted fellowships with a hotel and meals and the teaching course to all the students. Very challenging for the budget, but very rewarding at the time of having the students from all Latin America. So, nobody pays for the school. The school is open for everyone.
Other thing that we have from start is we have simultaneous translation. English language in all the schools and two times it has been organized in Brazil, and then we had three languages, English, Spanish and Portuguese. Also, very challenging for the budget, but very rewarding for both the experts that maybe they only speak English and they were able to follow the conversation in Spanish and Portuguese and English. Also for the fellows. Latin America students are able to read in English but sometimes they have difficulties to follow a native English speaker speaking in English, so it's much, much easier for them to listen in their own language, which is Spanish or Portuguese.
When we had this idea of having all the time simultaneous translation in the school, many people thought that we were totally crazy. Yes, we are totally crazy (Laughter), but we thought that it was very important and very enabling for Latin Americans to participate. So, especially also with Portuguese in Brazil, because I love the Portuguese language, I speak Portuguese, and I know sometimes in between Argentina and Brazil I know we have sometimes difficulties to understand each other, although they are very close language. Apart from football, we don't have any problems, you know, but it's much easier to follow in your own language. So, from day zero we have this translation, simultaneous translation.
In 2012, we started with another thing, which was remote
participation. That was an initiative from -- in 2012 it was organized in Columbia, in Bogota, and the other time, not many meetings where organized with remote participation. Most of them were on-site, and then you could access, perhaps, the presentations and all that. But, the other time the government of Columbia was very interested, but the school should have a strong impact in the national environment. So, they promoted us to have remote participation with video streaming and simultaneous language, two channels in English and Spanish. So, that was very rewarding. We were also present in social networks. At that time Twitter was starting at arising social network, and also -- we were trending topic for that week in Columbia, SSIG2012. Also, the Columbian government at that time brought one representative for each municipality in Columbia. So, that, for us, was a leap for our school that put our standards much higher. And, since then, we have been having a larger group with remote participation and, of course, as usual, the translation. But, since then we have remote participation.
You can see in the picture the smaller group in 2009 in Buenos Aires it was an experiment, because nobody knew about this idea, and it was difficult to explain. When you don't have a story to tell it's very difficult to explain it to companies that could be sponsoring your students or sponsoring the meeting. So, we could have a budget for bringing 30 faculties from Europe, United States, Latin America, and some from Argentina into a university that I was teaching at that time in an engineering school in Buenos Aires, and we could bring 27 fellows from the
Argentina, six of them, and the rest of them, 20, 26 in total
from all Latin America. And, they received hotel, meals and the
training course. Nobody paid for that. So, that was our first
experiment was very successful, and we liked the idea. A lot of
effort, but it was rewarding and nice. But, you see the group is
small in 2009.
Then, in 2010 it grew up 70 students in San Paulo, thanks to the CGI, the Internet that helped us in that also other companies and organizations. And, the group in Mexico was a little bit larger.
Then you see the difference in Bogotan was really double participation. Almost 200 students.
Since then, we have been trying to gather as many students as like 180 or 200, depending on the size of the venue.
Then, we had Panama in 2013, and then we have Antibago. You don't see the name, it doesn't show there, and this is in my -- in your left, or your right, it's Costa Rica in 2015.
One of the most successful ones was this one, it was the eighth
school of Internet Governance, SSIG 2016 organizing America
United States venue in Washington, D.C. Why Washington, D.C.?
Because the organization of American states gathering all the
countries of Latin America. And, the venue is very interesting,
and many experts are close to Washington D.C., so the program of
activities were very well attended by many experts from all over
the world, and especially from the United States.
The whole group was 350 participants. We had 180 fellows. 80 faculty members. There were 35 countries in the room, and the most important thing in that meeting was the remote participation. The organization of American states do have remote participation team, which is very experienced, and they offer video streaming and they offer the audio from the floor and they offer audio in English and Spanish in different channels. And, they were extremely surprised that in that week we had 25,000 remote participants from 89 countries. They were really impressed. We were really impressed, but it was their recollection from their experience, they are really impressed of that impact. Also, we could handle some questions and comments from remote participants, as well.
In that meeting, we had -- this is the list of experts that we were so happy to have Vint Cerf of as our main keynote speaker. He spent the whole morning of the first day with us making a fantastic presentation. Also, he was so kind to take many pictures with all the students, and with group as you already saw, and many other colleagues from all over the world, I would say. And, at that time -- and this was totally spontaneous from the ISOC chapter in Barbados, they contacted us before and they organized the remote help. So, they gathered together in the university with good bandwidth and they follow all the programs with a group of about 60 people, or 40 people, depending on the day, and also, we had some fellows from the Caribbean and they were the touch with them and they were making questions and comment through all the programs. So, this remote was successful. We usually have a lot of remote participation, but this was organized as a -- it's a small school in the Caribbean. Very, very interesting, and totally spontaneous from the sub chapter in Barbados.
These are some student testimonials. If you want, I can send you the presentation later on.
In general, the students find it very rewarding for two
reasons. First, for the information that they receive. If you
really think the information is somewhere Internet, so the
issue today is not where to find the information, it's how to
interpret it and how to make it profitable for you for your
work or for what you're studying or what you're doing. And,
then, they are happy because they make a network among them,
among the students, and also as the training course is five
days, they have the opportunity to get in touch with the
experts. So, they already talked to them, they share coffee,
lunch or dinner with the experts, so they get to know them.
So, when they go to the meetings or when they have to find
information, if they are doing a research for their post graded
study or for the University, they know who to contact and how
to contact. So, we have very nice comments from most of the
people that participate. I won't go into details.
And, this year, the 9th Internet Governance in Brazil, it was organized jointly with the Julia Vargas, which is an important think tank in all over the world, of course most important in Latin America. They were so kind to give us their space. They have a very, very beautiful auditorium that was built by the famous architect Oscar Neymeyer, and we gather 400 participants with almost 200 fellows. The most impressive thing in this school was the faculty. We had 107 experts from all over Americas and from Europe and they were in the room 38 countries participating in the school, 76 countries connected through video streaming. The video streaming this year was made using YouTube channel of the school and of the Julia Vargas foundation. If you go to YouTube you will find all the sessions in all the channels in different languages Spanish, English, and Portuguese. They're all in YouTube. Before we didn't have that, and now we have YouTube. Also, we used also Twitter for transmitting the directly from the floor.
The faculty was, as I told you, very, very impressive. Many experts from Brazil and Latin America and experts from the United States and Europe. It's the largest group of experts we ever had, 107.
The comments from the fellows also very rewarding. What we do with the fellows is during every day they have to fill survey telling what they liked, what they didn't like, and if they have any suggestions, we can enhance the program every year. Also, at the end, they have to prepare report, and they have to give us a general survey of satisfaction and see what can we enhance.
As I told you, there are some things that we decided at the beginning that has been the rule for all the schools. One is the full gender balance among fellows. It's very difficult to have full gender balance with experts, because if you contact a company or organization, maybe they send a speaker who is a man and it's very difficult to, for example, to build a full balanced panel because it doesn't depend on us, it depends on the company or the organization sending the expert or the University sending the expert. But, we can do that with the fellows. So, when the selection is made, that it's made by a group of experts that participate in the school every year, and with the host Country. The full gender balance is rule No. 1, that we can select the same amount of girls and boys. So, that's from day zero.
Also, the geographic diversity. Say, for example, that we
have -- I was talking with our colleague from Brazil a minute
ago. We have many participants from some countries, for
example, it's very popular in Argentina, Columbia, Mexico and
Brazil. But, we have very few applications from other
countries, like from Peru or Chile. We will try to build a
group as much diverse as possible. So, if we have only one
application from Chile, we will try to bring him or her from
Chile. So, we have the same from Peru or Uruguay we will try to
build the group with as much geographic diversity as possible,
and the group is made from a corporate participation. For
example, the next school is open now. The website is (?)
Internet.org. I will show the url in a minute. We usually
receive several hundreds of applications, like 400, 500, and the
selection is made based on this diversity issues and also you
don't need to be involved in the IG, in Internet Governance
ecosystem. Precisely what we want is people that are interested
but not already included to make this as their first experience
with Internet Governance and then they're already involved so
they can apply for a fellowship in ICANN or ITF or ISOC
ambassador program or other programs that are already in place.
So, our idea is this is for them to be the first exposure to the
Internet Governance ecosystem.
This is a picture from in Costa Rica. This a picture from the American states. This is, more or less, the target audience, as I told you.
I see that the transcribing is in the top of the screen.
I told you about the surveys. One thing that I think it was obvious from my second or third slide is that we -- morning, ladies, Hola -- is that rotate among countries. That is extremely challenging because you have to start from scratch every year. You have to talk with the local host, you have to find the venue, you have to talk with the local providers of food, hotel. So, you have to start every year from scratch. But, we think it is extremely rewarding, because every time you go to a Country, you find a new -- morning, how are you, my friends? -- you find a new group of people that are from that community interested in the program. So, it's a lot of work, but extremely rewarding at the end.
And, we have our friends from ICANN here, our dear friends. Hela, Dustin and Chuckie. Hola.
The program of activities is changed every year. This is some of the list of issues that we include. They are well known in Internet Governance, but every year we change them, because every year there is a new challenge. Now we have new things like IOT and security, artificial intelligence, fake news, zero rating and neutrality in the news, so we are, every year we change somehow the list of topics around Internet Governance.
This is a picture of the meeting in Columbia when we were singing the National Anthem and with the authorities of the government of Columbia. They were very open to our ideas and they participated very actively in the program. And, this is the list of countries that have been participating. Fellows from all these countries have been participating in the school. Many from the Caribbean, especially when we organized it in Antibago, and many countries from all Latin America, Central America, also when we organized it in Costa Rica and in Panama, many fellows from Central America, and of course fellows from United States and Canada, and some fellows from Spain, Austria, Ukraine and some countries in Europe. The school is not for Latin Americas, it's focused in Latin America as it's related with the program of activities and issues we talked about it, but the participation is not only for Latin Americans.
What we can't afford is paying air tickets, so if a fellow is selected, say, from Ukraine or Spain, they would have to pay for their ticket, which is expensive. But, if they have their resources for doing that, that's also possible that they can participate. Especially if they come from other countries speaking other languages, we have translation into English and Spanish and eventually Portuguese, so it is not a limitation.
We were candidates for the WSIS project in 2018 also. We have trained so far on-site more than 2000 fellows. Remotely, I don't know. Many thousands. I cannot tell you how many, because it's difficult to. In Washington there were 25,000. We don't know how many. And, a lot of coverage by the press, especially in the last three or four years. This is a picture in the organization of American states venue, and that is Christopher Painter in the mic. Make a very interesting keynote.
This is a picture on top from the school in Bogata in 2012, and some coverage of the press.
Some outcomes. Many of the former fellows now are highly involved in several Internet Governance participation spaces. Some of them are working in ISOC, some of them are working in ICANN, and some of them started ISOC chapters in their countries. Some countries, after we organized the school, started a special area in the government focused in Internet Governance. What happened in Costa Rica is that during the school, there was one day devoted to the Central America Internet Governance dialogue
that then became the Central America Internet Governance Forum. So, the school has become somehow, how can I say in English, a catalyst for other things. For local IGF, for local chapters, for local areas. Is that a right word, catalyst? Yeah, Si? Thank you. I'm jet lagged, but still work.
So, we realize that it has many things happen after the school, some Governments created a special area devoted to Internet Governance after the school. Some countries started their own IGFs. Some countries started their own ISOC chapters, and many fellows then apply for a fellowship in ICANN and then they get involved in ICANN. Some of them have been hired by ICANN. Some of them have been hired by Internet Society or other organizations. So, we think it has been an interesting space for opening other opportunities for participants and also for the host countries that organized the school. So, that is very good. And, somehow, unexpected, we always focus the work in the fellows, but we see that the countries that receive the school also, they have an impact.
This is a picture from the Getulio Vargas auditorium, very impressive and beautiful place. As I told you, designed by the famous architect Niemeyer. Some, some lessons that we have learned after this almost ten years of school, the network for the fellows is very important. I see now I'm some of the groups in what's up, in several platforms, and I see that they interact all the time, exchanging ideas, asking for favors, asking for information, asking for papers or exchanging documents that you prepare. That is very nice, and I know that there are other groups that -- other what subgroups. I mean, some of them, there are others.
It was funny, in Washington there were many Brazilians, many people that were English speakers and Spanish. So, immediately once we realized, once we released the list of participants there were immediately three different works of groups, one in English, one in Portuguese and one in Spanish. That shows the importance of the language. What does the language impact have in the group, and in the dynamic of the relationship in between people, which is something very interesting? And, it was totally spontaneous. And, I think these groups, they are still active.
And the rotation as I told you before, rotating among countries is a very challenging thing. Every year we have to start all over again, finding a place, finding the people that we make the translation, finding the food, finding the hotel, but it has been very rewarding, because then in each community the impact is very strong. So, it's very rewarding. It's a lot of work, but once we have to face it, we say, well, this will be good for the community and it has been nice.
Many people told us that we were crazy, as I told you, but we are, yes, we are totally crazy. We know that.
And, fellows are our best ambassadors, because then they spread the news and tell other colleagues that it's good to apply and we don't have a special budget for promoting the school. We just use our networks, social networks, people from ICANN wiki is very helpful. We do many things together. And, thank you for that. But, we don't have a special budget for that. We prefer to use the budget for translation, for hotels, for the fellowships, because as I told you, nobody pays for attending the school. We only grant fellowships to participants.
We also have experienced other projects that I want to tell you briefly now. We organized in Argentina the first school of Internet Governance of Argentina, RNC. Dustin was there with us, and it was very, very successful. We had a very interesting response. We could bring several students from -- you know Argentina is a large Country. It's expensive to travel from the North to Buenos Aires or from the North to the South so we could bring from the school from Buenos Aires from this time 185 fellows. All of them received fellowship and half of them came from the interior of Argentina, North, South, and west and center.
The idea is to make it rotating within Argentina. Starting in Buenos Aires, which is our capital city, and then rotate among cities in the interior of Argentina. Trying to make this impact on the local communities as we have done with the school in Latin America, do that in Argentina in the different provinces. Argentina is a feather Country and we have states, we call them provinces, so that is the idea we have.
The first one was organized in the ministry of foreign affairs. They were very kind to offer their very nice auditorium, and this is the picture of it. This is a brochure that we have. This is very nice place in South of Argentina. We didn't organize it there. Maybe one day we organize it (Not translated) this year it was in Buenos Aires.
The next school will be organized again in Washington, D.C., 30 April until the 2nd of May. It will be focused on cybersecurity, freedom of expression and privacy. We may have a second one the next year, but this is still under work, but this one is -- will be organized in Washington, D.C. The call for application is open now, so if you go to our website, Internet.org you can find the form in Spanish and English, so you can fill the form.
This picture is for the Vargas auditorium, very nice place, and this year's school in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
And, we have a new project also, which is a book. It's a book that will have contributions from many experts from all the Americas. It is called Internet Governance in the Americas: Perspectives after ten years of the South School on Internet Governance. We have confirmations for the forward from Vint Cerf of and (?) it is the freedom of expression and human rights representative of the organization of American states. The editors will be my dear friend Luka Belli and published by Vargas and the lab foundation, which is our -- the organization that is our host organization for the school.
This is some information from (?) is a non-profit organization based inure au guy, but they have branches in several countries, in Argentina, Uruguay and Mexico and the United States and is our administrative home for the school. It's the one that manages all the administrative issues and organizes several other activities like the conference Latin America, other conference that are organized in Argentina called the feel of the Internet and also (?) that I told you a minute about.
And, here you have some urls. You cannot see the website because it doesn't show, it is governance.org. If you find me or ask in social networks, you will find all the information.
This is a very nice picture from the meeting in Washington, D.C. It was a stair and we had Glenn, you know Glenn, he made all the pictures in that school.
And that is all I wanted to share with you. We are not many, and the room is very large, but we have mics, so if you want to make comments, make questions, or you want to suggest some ideas for the next school or you have other comments, you are welcome to join me and tell me what you think.
And, I think that was it.
Thank you for being with us.
(Applause)
>> OLGA CAVALLI: Any comments? Any questions? No?
>> Olga?
>> OLGA CAVALLI: Yes. Tell us your name so everyone can
know you.
>> AUDIENCE: Thank you very much for this amazing presentation and thank you very much for sharing with us your experiences. My name is Tirjung from ITU. Actually, I am advisor for ITU (?) we also have three regional groups. So, one is also for the Americas.
So, I was very impressed by the experiences you shared with us about how this school has grown up in the past ten years. In particular, the use of remote participation. So, I have a question. (?) fellowship granting fellowship to encourage and promote participation in the meeting physically, however, for remote participation, how could we, you know, guide the participants, the activities and get them be interested in participating the activities?
Thank you very much.
>> OLGA CAVALLI: Thanks to you. That's a very interesting
question.
The remote participation is promoted through social
networks. As I told you, we don't have budget for promoting the
school. We rely on our networks, and for that we think that
social networks are fantastic, because we already have an
influence of some people that follow us, but quickly people
exchange the information among their own network. So, the
expansion of the information and quick and quite good.
We usually open registration for remote participation, which is not limiting. It is just to have an idea of how many and how -- from where they get in touch.
What we usually do is we publish some documents, which we think are important to have in mind in the website before. We usually contributed by ITU or by some local organizations or from by ICANN or by some experts or books, for example, produced by (?) or other organizations. We publish them in the website, and we try to people to encourage them to at least take a look at them.
We usually have a registration for remote participation, but as I told you, it is not limiting, because when the time comes, the link to the remote participation is published in the website. So, it's open to everyone. What happened in Barbados was interesting because the chapter and some experts organized a hub, a former hub that was totally spontaneous. That may happen. Usually people, what we realize is that people check the program, which is published before, and they see, for example, which of the presentations or key notes are more interesting for them. And, then they participate in that. I don't think that someone is staying in front of the computer five days. People don't do that. But, they do go to some specific issues and they follow those key notes or panelists that they are most interested.
The thing is, now all is published in YouTube. Maybe you think that the program had a very interesting keynote about, I don't know, Internet of Things and security, and you see the program six months after, then you go to YouTube and you find it and you find it in Spanish, English, and Portuguese. So, it is not only during the meeting, now we have incorporated this YouTube channel thing that it's extremely interesting, because for example, if you are making a research about, I don't know, Internet Governance in Latin America focus in cybersecurity you can go to all the presentations made in the school, you go to the channel that it's better for your language, English, Spanish or Portuguese, and then you participate as if you were there in the YouTube channel. So, that is quite now. It is not for the schools before. It is for the one in Washington and this one. We hope that we can do that in the future schools.
I would like also to stress the fact that ITU contacted us for a study that they have been doing, your colleague Susan and she with the help from Diplo Foundation, they did research, or it's not a book, it's like a report, about all the training activities related with Internet Governance and they already had an interview with us, so the school of Internet Governance is in that report, and they are organizing an open forum on Thursday morning, and we will be also participating in that open forum.
This is Thursday morning, I think, 11:00 AM, in the IGF.
Other questions? Other comments? Yes?
>> AUDIENCE: Hello. Good morning, Ms. Cavalli. I would like to thank you for the presentation. My question would be along the lines of -- actually, I was hoping to get some more information on the book. I know it's very hard to summarize all the work you've been going through, but if you could talk a bit more about it. What it concerned mostly, I'd appreciate that. Thanks.
>> OLGA CAVALLI: Thanks to you. Good question.
It's a new project. We had that in mind for a while. We never had the time, but as we are facing the ten years of the school, we thought it was a good moment.
The idea is to have comments from experts, articles from experts. The list is published in the IGF website. I don't have it in hand right now. From experts that have participated in the school in different editions of the school, and with four focus areas. One is access, the other is privacy and security, the other is oh my God, I don't have that in mind. There are four different areas. New areas like IOT and security, artificial intelligence, all these brand new things will be a separate issue. And, then I said access, security, and diversity. I'm missing one now.
So, the idea is to divide it in four parts, and each expert will give -- hello, Glenn. I've been talking about you a minute ago, the beautiful picture that we had from Washington were from you.
>> Yeah.
>> OLGA CAVALLI: Yeah. That picture. You made that
picture.
>> I thought I would sneak in (?).
>> OLGA CAVALLI: Because you're my friend and you always make very nice pictures of us.
So, the idea is book will be divided in four different focuses areas, and -- thank you. I feel like Madonna. I can sing now.
Languages. It will be in Spanish and English. But, as I told you before, we were talking about, I personally realize that, like, 30% of the contributions will come from Portuguese speaking experts, so maybe, that depends on the budget, we can make it also in Portuguese. We will have one-third of the content already in Portuguese, so producing Portuguese version will not be -- maybe we produce a different language in some months after we do it in Spanish and English. The idea is to produce an online version that will be published under creative comments license, and then to print some books to maybe give them in ICANN meetings or IGF and during the school and the next school.
You know, printing and curing books is a difficult thing. It is expensive, but people like it. People like to have a book. At home I have several -- a problem that I don't know where to put all the books I have (Laughter), but then people like to have the book, people enjoy having the book and touching it, so some part of the budget will go for that. But, we would -- perhaps we would favor having it in different languages. That is something we are working on right now. Most of the contributions will be in Spanish, and as I said, one-third in Portuguese. So, that will help us having the first version in Spanish, English and Portuguese, perhaps, we hope we can do that. But, we will be sending more information about the book soon. It's quite a new project. We started, like, two months ago, and we are now receiving the contributions.
And thank you for the question, by the way, because I gave you more details.
Any other comments, questions, ideas for improving the school
change it? Some people tell us how can we manage so many students. It's a very good question.
As you saw the pictures, maybe I can show you for those that came later, let's see. This is not my computer so I'm suffering. I don't know how to go back. The first group was 27 students. And, now we manage, like, 200 or 180.
What happens in Latin America is that the awareness of Internet Governance is low. It has been changing with the years, through these ten years, but what happens in Developing Countries is that the priorities are always others. There is always a problem of strives or economy or some urgency that puts the Internet Governance thing aside, so it's important to open the space for bringing more participation. So, this is why we have favored a larger group than a smaller group, and we're focused on some, perhaps, some more detail work with person to person. So, we thought that having a larger group, having strong network among them as a network among them and with the expert would be more rewarding for the region. And, I think it's difficult to find a perfect balance in between the two things, but I think it is more rewarding for the region to have a larger group with more impact in the communities that they belong to ones they go back to the Universities, to their work, to their organizations or companies, than to have a smaller group more, perhaps, with more interaction in between the students, perhaps groups of 25 or 30 people. But, this is a question that always arises, how do you manage such a large group? But it's very funny, it's a lot of work, but I think it is a different model than other schools, which are smaller.
Any other comments, questions? We can do the (?) now
(Laughter).
My colleague is telling me that (Not translated) it is not possible to see the link below, which is the one where you can apply. It's governanceinternet.org where you can go and find the link. Or if you follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, you will find the url there. Then, the form is in Spanish and English, so you can fill the form and apply for a fellowship. And, then, hopefully we will announce (Not translated). Wait, wait, wait. (Not translated). Help me. We are trying to open the website. But, I cannot go to the upper part because of the transcribing. Which is very useful, by the way.
I was going to tell you something. (Not translated) call for application.
(Not translated)
>> OLGA CAVALLI: Okay. In the meantime -- hi, Keith. How
are you? Welcome.
(Not translated)
>> OLGA CAVALLI: Okay. We're trying to open the website of the school, but we cannot access the upper part of the --
Do we have more questions or comments from the audience?
Click. Load.
So, that is the url. We are trying to show you the url where you can go and find the call for applications, which is already open. Hopefully we will be able to let the selected fellows know by mid-February so they're able to make their travel plans and get their permissions from their work and universities and all that. As I said, the school will be by the end of April, starting first days of May, and you can find all the information if you follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
(Not translated)
>> OLGA CAVALLI: Yes?
>> I think maybe you can copy and paste the link and then go to the browser and then you can --
>> OLGA CAVALLI: Okay. Let me check that.
I will try to open it. Click.
>> Copy and paste this link.
>> OLGA CAVALLI: Where?
>> This link. Go to the web browser.
>> OLGA CAVALLI: The thing is, how can I avoid this?
>> There we go.
>> OLGA CAVALLI: Thank you. So, the website is this one.
If you go to the website, you can have -- all the other schools are in the website, so if you want to check the contents of the programs or the pictures of all the other schools, also you have English and Spanish. We had some versions are also in Portuguese, the ones that were organized in Brazil. And, there you can find some videos that are related, or with schools or issues about the schools. Some books that we are including here, this is -- and here are the links for the social networks at the lower part, Facebook, Twitter, and others. Some pictures for -- this is the one in Rio de Janeiro. So, you have all the information of all the schools in one website. So, fellows. That's Patricia.
How can I go back? If focus of the next one will be very
much in cybersecurity. This is where we have quoted cyber South School of Internet Governance 2017. So, it will have a various focus on cybersecurity, freedom of expression and privacy, and it will be organized April 30 to May4 if Washington, D.C.
Any other questions, comments? Yes? In every school you can see all the faculty members and all the presentations and the program of activities. And, as I told you, in some schools the documents, I know the content is in three languages, the ones that were organized in Brazil are also in Portuguese. Not easy to navigate it here, but you can go to the website and check.
Any other comments? Questions? Hello, Demi. How are you?
Know that thanks to CGI we organized the school in 2010 with San Palo with the help of CGI and Demi. And, they were present this year, thank you for that. Keith, also. Keith (?) from Verisign also helps with the fellowship program.
You know, the school is, thanks to the contribution of many companies and organizations, the school doesn't have a one main sponsor, have many sponsors that every year contributes with the school, with the fellowship program and with all the budget that we have to build for organizing the school in different locations all over the Americas so that it's very kind from them, and thanks to that, we can organize it every year. And, Keith has been our speaker for several times, and we hope to have you next year in Washington D.C., as well.
Any other comments from friends, from colleagues, details you want to know about the school?
Okay. If you are really interested, go to the website. All the information is there from all the schools, and as I told you, this year all the sessions in three languages are in YouTube channel of the school and from the (?) Vargas which is remarkable that we have all the information there online with all the languages and content.
Okay. We are 15 minutes before the half an hour. Thank you for being with us, I will be around more minutes, and I will be in the IGF in the whole week. I am participating in several other open forums and workshops.
The school is organizing a workshop with, about, content in different languages in Internet Governance. It is Tuesday in the afternoon. Jointly with ICANN wiki and with the government of France. And, I am also participating in other open forums. As I told you, the ITU will be organizing an open forum about capacity building related with Internet Governance on Thursday morning at 11:00. That I will be participating in that session explaining our experience in the school of Internet Governance.
So, thank you very much for being with us this morning, and I will leave it here, so you can see the website.
Want to show you the Portuguese version, if I can. You see this one, the one organizing for Vargas in Rio de Janeiro has also content in Portuguese. Not only English and Spanish. And, the one in 2010, as well. And, this is the beautiful venue where it was organized this year, the auditorium of the Fundacao Getulio Vargas.
So, I will leave it there for the next
session.
Thank you very much for being with us this morning.
(Applause)
>> OLGA CAVALLI: Thank you very much.
And, looking forward to seeing you these days around here.
(Session concluded)