Early Career Fellowship > Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Program Overview
How long does the Early Career Fellowship last?
Each cohort participates in the six-month program. The inaugural cohort started in July 2021. In 2024, the Fellowship will take place from April to September.
Fellows are responsible for obtaining all necessary relevant permissions from their employers or educational institutions to participate in the Fellowship.
More information about program timelines and modules.
Is there a fee to participate?
No. All costs including academic coursework, online sessions, and other program elements are covered by the Internet Society. Fellows will be asked to supply their own materials and the technology devices they need to complete the Fellowship.
Is a stipend provided?
If certain conditions are met, accessibility stipends might be available to improve the quality, strength and/or speed of a Fellow’s Internet to allow you to fully participate in the Fellowship.
Will the fellowship be held in person or virtually?
Due to the impacts and uncertainties of COVID-19, the inaugural 2021 cohort will be completed virtually. It is anticipated that the program will remain 100% virtual until further notice. Decisions about future fellowship cohorts being held in person will be announced as circumstances evolve.
Is there a certificate or similar upon program completion?
Yes. All Fellows will receive a certificate from the Internet Society upon completion of the program.
How can I receive updates on this and other Fellowship programs at the Internet Society?
We keep all Fellowship program information up-to-date. Information will be updated on an ongoing basis. We also encourage you to follow us.
I cannot commit to the inaugural cohort timeline. Will there be other Fellowship programs?
Yes. We have an Early Career Fellowship cohort every year beginning in February.
More questions?
If you have additional questions, contact us at [email protected].
Eligibility and Requirements
Who should apply for this program?
Candidates must be early career professionals working in the Internet ecosystem in a technical, policy, economic or social capacity who have initiated or would like to initiate a specific project designed to grow and/or strengthen the Internet.
It is designed for those working, or aiming to work, in fields such as (but not limited to):
– Internet infrastructure/telecommunications companies;
– government agency/department on policy issues related to technology;
– Internet services companies;
– technology-related associations;
– non-profit/civil society organizations;
– academic institutions as a researcher or teacher/professor;
– journalism agencies writing about the Internet;
– Internet-related start-ups;
– international organizations on information society, the platform economy, data privacy;
– VC firms that invest in new technologies; and
– technical Internet-related engineering projects, such as a community network or IXP.
Who is eligible for this program?
Candidates with the following are welcome to apply:
– An undergraduate/vocational degree or at least three years of work experience in an Internet-related field;
– Less than ten years of working experience in an Internet-related field;
– An innovative and impactful project proposal for growing and/or strengthening the Internet;
– Reliable access to broadband Internet connection and relevant device;
– Availability to fully participate in the 5-month experience;
– Proficiency in verbal and written English.
To apply, applicants must:
– Commit a minimum of six hours per week for coursework, seminars, individual project work, and other program activities;
– Complete the required 5 months;
– Attend all required seminars or sessions and manage time zone differences;
– Become Internet Society members.
What are the program requirements?
To apply, applicants must:
– Commit a minimum of six hours per week for coursework, seminars, individual project work, and other program activities;
– Complete the required 24 weeks;
– Attend all required seminars or sessions and manage time zone differences
– Become Internet Society members
Additionally, successful Fellows must commit to:
– Actively participating in seminars, leadership speaker events, open forums, and other events;
– Completing all required texts, writing assignments, coursework and independent research, including additional tasks when required;
– Collaborating and engaging with fellow colleagues in a respectful manner;
– Publicly communicating about projects as and when required;
– Meeting regularly with project development mentors;
– Completing key milestones for projects;
– Joining and contributing to the Early Career Fellowship Alumni Network; and
– Presenting the final project at the Symposium.
Am I eligible if I am unsure about my project?
Yes, you might just have an idea.
The primary objective of the unique project should be to respond to a currently defined issue or challenge relevant to the Internet’s development – and particularly strengthening and growing the Internet. The project may be inspired by current Internet Society projects and initiatives, but you are also encouraged to surprise us with an “outside the box” idea which supports the Internet Society’s mission and principles. In other words, the project may be new or could support one of the Internet Society’s activities in existing work streams.
The application form includes the submission of a video (up to 3 minutes) describing the Internet-related project you would pursue if accepted into the program.
Project topics can be subject to change until when you are paired with the project development mentors and the Project Management course begins.
How are Fellows evaluated?
Each candidacy will be reviewed through a multi-step evaluation process. All applications are reviewed based on eligibility and requirements.
Fellows are chosen by the Internet Society Fellowship Selection Committee, composed of leaders from the Internet Society Community, the program team, and subject matter experts.
Candidates will be notified if they have (or not) been chosen to move forward with their candidacy.
Application
What is the application process of the Early Career Fellowship Program?
You must complete the application form, which includes sharing a video of up to three minutes describing your project idea, the progress you have made on developing the idea (or any relevant experience you might have had already working on it), and the milestones you intend to complete during the Fellowship. This video can be recorded on a mobile device and should simply feature a headshot of your talking head. We neither want nor expect a production-quality or promotional video: we simply want to get to know and understand you and what you plan to do.
Both your application and the video must explain:
– the technical, policy, economic, or social Internet-related issue and your proposed project;
– why you believe it is a pertinent project nowadays;
– your knowledge or existing efforts to address issues;
– your plan for resources required to develop and implement the project; and
– what you hope to learn from this Fellowship.
When will the application launch?
Applications will open every year in October. Learn more about our applications and their launch date.
Projects
What kind of projects should I do?
In designing your project proposal, it is important to ensure that your idea is in response to a tangible challenge facing the future of the Internet. Your proposed project must be realistic too. We will be on the lookout for projects that build on/leverage the Internet Society’s mission, principles and goals of growing and strengthening the Internet.
Projects may be seen as expanding the reach or increasing the impact of those areas and/or adding to the existing portfolios.
You are encouraged to think creatively and come up with your own idea. This is a non-exhausted list of some example that might inspire you:
– Build sustainable community-led community networks or innovative funding model for WiFi hotspots to grow the Internet, while facilitating engagement with the local government or regulators to enable favorable policies and laws, overcoming the difficulty of sustainability while building and sustaining local communities for the benefit of all.
– Create a “how-to” platform/”go-to” resource that compiles relevant policy, technical, deployment and management information for setting up and running community networks and maps regulatory local conditions for the deployment of Community Networks as well as maps potential community networks,
– Support and contribute to the establishment of a NOG/IXP by collaborating with national research and education networks (NREN).
– Exercise and test the Internet Way of Networking framework with its five critical properties of the Internet, either through developing new analytical methodologies, going deeper into the conditions that must exist for critical properties to thrive, undertaking innovative case studies in specific contexts, promoting the Internet Impact Assessment Toolkit to governments, develop a IIAT use case, training key actors how to use the IIAT in their own communities and more.
– Make it easier for users to understand and advocate for end-to-end encryption (an important building block of the Internet) by contributing to a map on encryption policies, meeting with policymaker to explain importance of E2EE, running a social media campaigns on encryption, translating project material into local languages and more.
– Help increase awareness and use of routing security measures (through tutorials, meetings, campaigns…) and extend the MANRS observatory with new data or analytical directions.
– Address the challenge of digital security divides by building local capacity, increasing awareness of cybersecurity threats, developing the technologies and apps that can be used to combat issues and threats, etc.
– Specifically support the work of the Internet Society Foundation, for example a combination of a map of global ICT disaster-response actors; a framework for equitable grantee reporting; a dashboard for visualizing impact; a publication for research on growing and strengthening the Internet; a conference to showcase ISOC Foundation grantees and current projects; or a podcast for sharing and learning from grant programmes. (Note that the Foundation does not fund individuals or individual projects. For details about Foundation funding and eligibility, refer to the Foundation website.)
What support is provided for working on projects?
Each Fellow will be paired with project development mentors, who are selected based on regional and practical experience in the fields relevant to the Fellow’s project. Mentors will be introduced and paired by Internet Society’s program staff. Fellows and Mentors will together decide upon mutually convenient times to meet throughout the program, based on their availability.
Fellows will also complete a Project Management course which is specifically designed to help them develop their projects. The course will help each Fellow learn the tools needed to successfully plan, develop and manage a project. In addition, Fellows will receive an advocacy training to enable them to effectively communicate about their work and project, including on social media and in media. As a part of this training, Fellows will be required to draft certain media materials.
Can I change my project during the program?
Fellows may change the topic of their project from what they had originally proposed in their application. All project topics must be finalized before starting the Project Management course.
By the end of the 24 weeks, the project should be fully planned and, as far as is reasonably possible, partly executed. Fellows will present their final project work and other milestones reached at the program’s Symposium to their peers, mentors, Internet Society leaders, sponsors and partners. The final project presentation, a realistic plan and any other core project documentation will be shared with the Internet Society.
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