DiploNews – Issue 313 – 1 December 2016

Diplo and Geneva Internet Platform at 11th Internet Governance Forum next week

DiploFoundation and the Geneva Internet Platform (GIP) will be actively engaged at the 11th Internet Governance Forum, in Mexico and online. Join us for any of the events and activities, and catch up with our session reports and newsletters.

IGF just-in-time reporting

The GIP Digital Watch observatory will provide just-in-time session reports from the IGF, and IGF Daily newsletters, which will be available on the dedicated webpage, dw.giplatform.org/igf2016. A final report, right after the IGF meeting, will summarise the main themes. These will complement the dynamic updates offered through the observatory.

One of the aims of the just-in-time reporting is to address the challenge faced by participants and the wider community in general, both at the IGF and online, to absorb the vast amount of information and data provided in numerous and parallel sessions and other activities.

Diplo / GIP booth

Diplo and the GIP will have a dedicated booth at the IGF Village. Visit us throughout the week for news and updates on major Diplo projects (IGF updates, GIP Digital Watch, monthly briefings, capacity development activities, and more). A limited number of IG-related publications – including the latest issue of the Geneva Digital Watch newsletter, and the IG Acronyms book, will be available. The Diplo/GIP booth will also serve as an informal – and traditional – meeting place for alumni and friends.

Workshops and other sessions

Join us for the following sessions, dedicated to important digital policy areas:

• Geneva Internet Platform: Building IG hubs worldwide (OF21)
  Wednesday, 7th December, 17.00 – 18.00, Workshop Room 10 (PALCCO)
• Internet governance processes in South Eastern Europe: challenges and opportunities
  Wednesday, 7th December, 13.00 – 14.30, Workshop Room 8 (PALCCO)
• Fostering dialogue between Internet observatories & maps (OF37)
  Thursday, 8th December, 09.00 – 10.00, Workshop Room 2 (PALCCO)
• Internet fragmentation: Getting next 4 billion online (WS37)
  Thursday, 8th December, 12.00 – 13.30, Workshop Room 4 (PALCCO)
• NetGov, please meet Cybernorms. Opening the debate (WS132)
  Thursday, 8th December, 16.30 – 18.00, Workshop Room 2 (PALCCO)
• Civil society experiences from the IANA transition process (WS189)
  Thursday, 8th December, 16.30 – 18.00, Workshop Room 7 (PALCCO)
• Finding ways to build confidence in stakeholder legitimacy (WS149)
  Friday, 9th December, 9.00 – 10.30, Workshop Room 7 (PALCCO)
• Networks & solutions to achieve SDGs agenda – Internet at play (WS82)
  Friday, 9th December, 12.00 – 13.30, Workshop Room 9 (PALCCO)
• Open Forum 48: Indonesia (OF48) 
  Friday, 9th December, 12:30 – 13:30, Workshop Room 7 (PALCCO)

Book launch and alumni gathering

Diplo is proud to announce the 7th edition of our flagship book An Introduction to Internet Governance, by Dr Jovan Kurbalija. The English and Spanish versions will be launched officially on Thursday, 8th December, at 19:00, in Bilateral Room 1. Diplo alumni and friends are also invited for an informal get-together and a family photo, right after the book launch.

Stay tuned with Diplo/GIP’s IGF programme and with IGF updates on our observatory.
 

Upcoming study opportunities

Humanitarian Diplomacy

Diplo is now accepting applications for the next session of the popular online course Humanitarian Diplomacy, offered in cooperation with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). This highly interactive 12-week course, led by Ambassador Christopher Lamb and a team of experienced practitioners, extends the knowledge base and develops practical skills of current and future practitioners in humanitarian diplomacy and policy. The course familiarises participants with basic definitions, concepts, actors, and institutions in the field of humanitarian diplomacy, introduces international humanitarian law, hones advocacy and negotiation skills, develops participants’ research skills, and increases their understanding of national and regional humanitarian diplomacy activities.
 The course is offered in English; however, participants have the option of writing and submiting some course assignments and the final research paper in Spanish or French.
 The next session starts 6 February 2017 and the application deadline is 9 January 2017. Please visit the course webpage to read more and apply.

Capacity Development

Capacity development has been emerging as a central approach within development for more than two decades. To help development professionals better understand and master this paradigm, this interactive course, offered in cooperation with the Learning Network for Capacity Development (LenCD), introduces the key concepts, principles, and values of capacity development. The main focus is on building practical skills for better design, planning, implementation, and assessment of capacity development initiatives. The course is taught online by Jenny Pearson and Carol Kiangura. The next session starts 6 February 2017 and the application deadline is 9 January 2017. Please visit the course webpage to read more and apply.

February 2017 online diplomacy courses

Start the new year with one of our most popular online courses:

• Diplomatic Theory and Practice
• Public Diplomacy
• Introduction to Internet Governance

Apply by 19 December 2016 for University of Malta accredited courses and by 16 January 2017 for Diplo certificate courses. For further information or to apply, click on the titles of the courses listed, or visit our courses webpage. Register now to reserve your place.

Sign up for our courses mailing list to stay informed about upcoming courses.

Workshop on Implicit Communication

If you live in Belgrade or will be in the city this month, DiploFoundation invites you to attend a workshop on Implicit Communication on 16 and 17 December 2016.

The workshop’s primary objective is to alert participants to the power and particularities of implicit communication. This is an area of interaction that has largely been overlooked by the literature on effective communication, but which is nevertheless essential to master if we are to achieve our objectives effectively. Since successful communication has much to do with reading intentions and contexts correctly, insights are provided into relevant cultural, social, and psychological variables. The workshop is exercise-driven and requires active participation. The final exercise will be based on a Hard Talk simulation aimed at developing the linguistic skills essential for effective persuasion and constructive dialogue.

The workshop will be facilitated by linguist Dr Biljana Scott (BA in Chinese, M.Phil and D.Phil in Linguistics, University of Oxford). She is a Senior Lecturer on the Language and Diplomacy course at DiploFoundation, and an Associate of the China Centre, University of Oxford, where she has taught for the last 25 years. Although the workshop is run in English, the lessons learned are applicable to all languages. Participants are not expected to have an academic background in linguistics to actively engage in the discussions. Read more and apply here.

Malta scholarships

Thanks to support from the government of Malta, partial scholarships are available for applicants from developing countries to attend upcoming Diplo online courses. These scholarships cover 50-70% of course fees and can be applied to most online courses in 2017. Browse our course catalogue and contact us at admissions@diplomacy.edu for further information.
 

WebDebate: Data diplomacy and knowledge management – key skills for the next generation of diplomats

Our December WebDebate on Tuesday, 6th December at 12:00 UTC (13.00 CET) focuses on data management, data diplomacy, and big data. Data, information, and knowledge are at the core of diplomacy. We now have entered a phase, however, which emphasises data management more than ever. Our speakers will discuss how to provide training for diplomats in data/information/knowledge management and share practical examples in the area of training and capacity building. Dr Petru Dumitriu will provide reflections from his comparative study of knowledge management in UN organisations. Prof. Raymond Saner will share insights on big data and the sustainable development goals. Register for the WebDebate.
 

Internet governance in November

The November issue of the GIP Digital Watch newsletter has just been published. Issue 16 includes the main trends in digital policy for November, special features on jurisdiction and the challenges of a borderless Internet, the role of intermediaries during the US election, a look at what to expect from the observatory during the 11th IGF, plus the main developments in November and updates from Geneva events.

Missed the November briefing on Internet governance? Access any of the resources: the briefing recording including perspectives from local hubs:

the presentation; and the IG Barometer for November. Join us again for the next briefing, on 31 January 2017. Registrations are now open.
 

What’s been happening in Diplo’s blogsphere

The past two weeks featured a number of posts on questions of cyberspace and Internet governance. In I am not a ‘technical person’, but I don’t have to be, Michal J. Oghia argues that the technical side of the Internet is only one of many aspects we need to understand.  The Internet is multifaceted and so is the expertise needed to understand it. Diplo’s Marília Maciel shares her insights from the Internet & Jurisdiction conference held in Paris in November. She argues that the global Internet infrastructure and the plurality of legal approaches are mismatched. More dialogues, based on a common lexicon, are much needed. Ana Andrijević and Aida Mahmutović reflect on the EU-US privacy shield and related concerns about privacy and data protection. In Looking back to see ahead: Chinese philosophy and the Internet Diplo’s director Jovan Kurbalija takes a detour from Internet governance to philosophy, inspired by his participation in the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, China, in November. He extracts insights from Chinese legalism, Confucianism, and Daoism to reflect on how to govern the Internet. Based on her years of experience teaching online, Diplo’s Ginger Paque discusses the use of text-based chat as a means to facilitate discussions which allow for everyone to be heard. And Marissa Wilkinson introduces us to e-residency as a way of boosting e-commerce. Estonia, which allows anyone with an Internet access to apply to become an e-resident of Estonia, is highlighted as a pioneer.
 

Asia-Europe related update

Diplo’s Barbara Rosen Jacobson and Pete Cranston will be delivering a workshop on e-diplomacy within the Asia-Europe Public Diplomacy Training Initiative event held in The Hague, the Netherlands. Stay tuned for more Asia-Europe related updates: if you are a student at a Swiss university and would like an exciting simulation experience of the Asia-Europe Meeting summit, more information will be coming soon through this channel.