internet governance

In the Gender and Internet Governance Exchange (gigX) workshop last month participants from different countries in Asia were asked to arrange a series of words by the “ladder of hierarchy”. Despite our cultural differences, it seemed that we all agreed on one thing – whether married or unmarried - man is always on top.

The Gender and Internet Governance Exchange-Asia (gigX) hosted by the Association for Progressive Communications in partnership with the Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA) gave me an opportunity to learn about the intersection between gender and internet governance in a simple way.

Noemi Lardizabal-Dado was one of the participants in the Gender and Internet Governance Exchange in Asia. In this feminist talk, she shares how she participated with other feminists in the questioning around “what kind of internet do we want and what will it take for us to achieve it?”

To start off our series of gigX, APC in collaboration with the Foundation for Media Alternatives, held a 2-day event on the 29 and 30 June 2015 where advocates from the region came together to exchange knowledge on the intersections of women’s rights and internet governance.

News of Heike Jensen’s death from cancer, on 3 February 2014, reached internet governance academic and civil society networks a year later. As Marianne Franklin, friend and colleague from GigaNet, puts it: “The networks and the hands-on work in which Heike engaged are cross-border, cross-sector and interdisciplinary by nature and predilection. This is why news of her death has been a ripple of…

In this article, GenderIT.org talks with Anita Gurumurthy from IT For Change about gender and privacy. Anita worked with Heike in the Gender and Citizenship in the Information Society research programme.

Despite Heike's pessimism about the internet as it is today and the ways in which it is developing, there is a deep-seated optimism about Heike's work. She recognised that patriarchy is oppressive not just to women, but to the majority of men as well, whether due to their poverty, the colour of their skin or their sexuality. By taking apart the structures of patriarchy, uncovering the power…

These reflections follow on from a personal recollection of Heike Jensen on the Global Internet Governance Academic Network blog. Here, Marianne Franklin focuses on one of Heike's later publications, a chapter for the 2013 edition of the Global Information Society Watch entitled “Whose internet is it anyway? Shaping the internet – feminist voices in governance decision making”.

I embarked on my journey to the second African School on Internet Governance with a few readings done and the Wikimedia definition of internet governance memorized. Eager to learn and to contribute the bit I’ve learned over the past few months, little did I know what awaited me.

As I sit at the Internet Governance School in perhaps the lushest hotel I have ever stayed in, I am struck with the somewhat unwelcome (but certainly not unfamiliar) feeling of being way out of my depth. I have always paid lip service to this whole “exposing myself to new experiences, new ideas” thing. After all, that’s how we grow, isn’t it? It’s exciting! Fun! Awesome! It’s how we learn. It’s…