Europe's Digital Future

Archive - EUROPE'S DIGITAL FUTURE 2022

Internet Governance and the Voice of the Youth (1/2)

Time and Date

Updated: July 26, 5pm – 6:30pm CET

Location

Zoom. A link will be sent to all registered participants after 23 July.

Involving civil society in technology discourses: internet governance and the voice of the youth – Part I.

What is Internet Governance? And why should more young people being the most affected by technological change engage in it? In this two-part online event, we discuss youth participation and its effectiveness when it comes to the rules, policies and practices shaping global cyberspace. We will learn from both high-level experts and experienced youth ambassadors about fruitful ways for digital natives to engage and their expectations on future developments.

Young people are the ones whose private and professional lifes will be most influenced by digitization and innovation. We are already the most tech-savvy user group in many digital areas. Nevertheless, most decisions about technologies and investments in technology policy are made by significantly older decision-makers.
Fortunately, youth perspectives are being increasingly included in the discourse on internet governance. The UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has taken a first step by inviting young people to get involved in their multi-stakeholder process bringing together policymakers with the technical community, civil society, industry groups, and more. 

If you are interested in shaping our digital future, this event will give you insights on how and why to engage in public discourse on technology topics. In the first session, high level experts Elisabeth Schauermann and Adam Peake will introduce their work and motivate why civil society and youth engagement matters. Both have been involved in the multi-stakeholder process and are happy to share their experience both on Internet Governance and Youth Engagement. Elisabeth Schauermann leads the “Society and International Affairs” team at the German Informatics Society and works with the European Dialogue on Internet Governance. Adam Peake is responsible for ICANN’s global civil society engagement after spending more than two decades as a senior researcher at the Center for Global Communications (GLOCOM) in Tokyo.

Disclaimer! We will not dive deep into the issues tackled at the Internet Governance Forum but rather focus on the representation and presence of youth voices in the discourse. We will be happy to facilitate further events on specific topics should the audience indicate interest.

This is the first part of the event. Click here to view the second event.

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Speakers

Elisabeth Schauermann

Team Lead @ German Informatics Society, Communications @ EuroDIG

Elisabeth Schauermann heads the "Society and International Affairs" team at the Berlin office of the Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V (German Informatics Society) and also works with the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG). Her work focuses on digital autonomy, Internet governance and science communication. Since 2017, she has led several youth programs in Internet governance at national, European and global level.

Adam Peake

Global Civil Society Engagement @ ICANN

Adam is responsible for ICANN's relations with civil society organizations, including academia, and supporting non-commercial participation in ICANN's multistakeholder model. Before joining ICANN in December 2014, Adam spent more than two decades in Tokyo as a senior researcher at the Center for Global Communications (GLOCOM), International University of Japan, where he worked on projects related to telecommunications and Internet policy. Adam has been active in policy-making activities for the deployment and development of the Internet since the early-1990s. He was one of the lead civil society representatives during the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), formation of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), and NETmundial. Adam was a member of the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) 2006-2008, consultant to the IGF Secretariat 2009-2013, and began a second term as a MAG member in 2021. External to ICANN, Adam is an Associate Executive Research Fellow, Center for Global Communications (GLOCOM), member of the IGF MAG.

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