Earlier this year, over 75% of participants in our Internet Governance Survey told us that it was very important to help simplify Internet governance issues so that more people could understand critical issues such as security, human rights, infrastructure and Internet access issues. Since the time of the survey we have undertaken several different initiatives to help address this need for better information.
One effort we announced today is a partnership with the Geneva Internet Platform (GIP) for an online web site called the “GIP Digital Watch”, available now at http://digitalwatch.giplatform.org/
The GIP Digital Watch provides a neutral resource for policy leaders and other Internet policy participants to make better informed decisions and to navigate through the complex field of digital politics. It aims to complement other platforms by accumulating, organizing and presenting existing policy materials that stakeholders can refer to and rely on.
A key element to us is that the platform is a grassroots, bottom-up approach where a network of curators, including the potential involvement of ISOC chapters and members, will ensure a diversity of sources, especially at the local and regional level.
The GIP Digital Watch is operated by the DiploFoundation with whom we have been long-standing partners. Diplo is well-known and respected in the community for its outstanding capacity-building programs. They have decades of experience and content that they bring to this project.
We will be talking about this GIP Digital Watch as well as our other initiatives during our next Internet Society Community Forum on October 8th – I invite you all to join us then to learn more.
Congratulations to the teams at the GIP and the Diplo Foundation for the launch of GIP Digital Watch and we look forward to continuing to work with them to help make Internet Governance even easier to understand. We can only achieve the Internet of opportunity that we seek if all the stakeholders are informed and engaged.
Please do visit GIP Digital Watch and share the link and information as widely as possible.
NOTE: A video recording of today’s launch presentation is also available.