DiploNews – Issue 275 – 30 April 2015

Upcoming study opportunities

Children and mobile technology

Diplo is pleased to offer a new online capacity development course on Children and Mobile Technology in cooperation with the GSMA. This interactive 7-week online course looks at children's use of ICTs, and the inherent risks and opportunities. The course is for staff and management of national telecommunications regulatory authorities, with priority given to applicants from developing countries. Participation in this course is fully funded by the GSMA (there is no tuition fee for selected applicants). The first course starts on 29 June 2015. To read more and apply online by 8 June please visit the course webpage.

Summer online courses

Diplo's summer online courses start on 20 July 2015:

• 21st Century Diplomacy
• Diplomatic Law: Privileges and Immunities
• Infrastructure and Critical Internet Resources
• Multilateral Diplomacy

Apply by 18 May 2015 for University of Malta accredited courses and by 15 June 2015 for Diplo certificate courses. For further information or to apply, click on the titles of the courses above, or visit our courses webpage. Register now to reserve your place.

NEW – Malta scholarships

Thanks to support from the government of Malta, partial scholarhships 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 any online course in 2015. Please browse our course catalogue and contact us at admissions@diplomacy.edu for further information.

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

May briefing on Internet governance

Looking back at the briefing covering the month of April, join us for the next regular briefing on Internet governance on 26 May. You receive hundreds of pieces of information on digital politics. We receive them, too. We decode, contextualise, and analyse them. Then we summarise them for you.
 

Diplo's presence at the Geneva Press and Book Fair

Diplo participated in a project entitled Cooking up Perception Change: Putting Impact of International Geneva on the Table. What do frog legs, domestic workers, bed nets, and aircraft have in common? They are all ingredients of the Recipes for Peace, Rights and Wellbeing, a Cookbook written by the partners of the International Geneva Perception Change project. Meet one of Diplo's chefs at the Geneva Press and Book Fair on Friday, 1st May, from 17.00 till 18.00 in Alée G, stand G741.
 

MIKTA diplomacy – current developments and vision for the future

Do you know what MIKTA stands for? On 24 April, Diplo, in co-operation with the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea, and other countries of the MIKTA framework (Mexico, Indonesia, Turkey, and Australia) organised an event in Geneva. To learn more, read the event report and policy paper.
 

Malta conference: The Internet as a global public resource

What aspects of the Internet can be considered global public resources? What can Internet policy learn from other policy areas where the concept of a global public resource has been used (e.g. climate change, health)? The Internet as a global public resource is the subject of an international conference being organised by DiploFoundation on 29-30 April in Valletta, Malta. The Malta conference initiates a research and policy project aimed at discussing the future developments of the Internet as a global public resource. A conference report will be available shortly on the conference webpage.
 

The Geneva Internet Platform at the WSIS Forum in Geneva

Diplo will organise a workshop at the WSIS Forum in Geneva on 25 May 2015 at 9:00 a.m. presenting the activities of the Geneva Internet Platform, an initiative of the Swiss authorities operated by DiploFoundation.  The GIP serves permanent missions based in Geneva with tailored briefings on developments in Geneva IG politics. Special focus is on missions from small and developing countries, and even for countries, which – because of limited resources – have no permanent representations in the city. The support is tailored for the needs of these players, including individual consultations, including online meetings to maximise resource use.
 

Discussing Internet governance

This month, the Global Cyberspace Conference took place in The Hague. In March, UNESCO hosted a conference on CONNECTing the Dots in Digital Space. The NETmundial Initiative had a meeting in Stanford recently. In early May, the Freedom Online Conference will take place in Ulan Bator. In the Internet field, prefix-switching (e-/net/cyber/digital) does not usually change the meaning of the word or phrase. The Hague conference could have been called the Digital Space Conference; NETmundial could easily be CYBERmundial. In his blog post, Different prefixes, same meaning, Jovan Kurbalija explores this issue further.

What are the terms of the social contract that governs the behaviour of citizens, corporations, and governments in cyberspace, and how do we find the right balance between freedom, security, and economic growth in relation to cyberspace? Read more in our post GCCS2015: Internet freedom, security and growth.

On Diplo’s IG community space, Romina Florencia Cabrera writes about the new rapporteur of privacy in international relations. Nominating the Internet a 'quasi-feudal environment', Luca Belli looks at net neutrality from a net feudality perspective in his post From Net Neutrality to Net Feudality.  And weekly web reviews from Mamadou LO give many links to current events in IG give you the opportunity to catch up online.

Follow more IG-related news and discussions on Diplo’s Internet governance channel, and on Diplo’s IG community blog roll.