#GVsummit #GV2015 to tackle FOI, online activism
CEBU CITY — Some 140 international bloggers, citizen media advocates and tech experts from over 60 countries across the globe will join their Philippine counterparts as they gather at the Cebu Provincial Capitol after the Sinulog 2015 festival to tackle the latest Internet issues.
The Global Voices Citizen Media Summit in Cebu City on January 24-25, 2015 will discuss such issues as citizen media, freedom of information, digital security, indigenous languages and multilingualism online, and internet activism. The international event will highlight talks, panels, and workshops on the relations between open Internet and social movements around the world.
Global Voices, an international citizen media network founded in 2004 at Harvard University, will likewise mark the organization’s 10th anniversary at the Cebu Provincial Capitol. As the event organizer, PRworks expects 300 participants in the public event that culminates the five-day Global Voices conference in Cebu City.
Leading the summit discussions are Global Voices co-founders Ethan Zuckerman and Rebecca MacKinnon. Zuckerman is also director of MIT’s Center for Civic Media while MacKinnon is the author of the book Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom. She is notable also as a former CNN journalist who headed the CNN bureaus in Beijing and later in Tokyo.
Open Internet
The first day of the summit will open with a talk, led by London-based Media Legal Defense Initiative Legal Director Nani Jansen, on protecting the open internet against government policies and corporate practice imperil Internet users’ rights of free expression and privacy.
There will be a session on Freedom of Information Laws, featuring experts led by Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism Executive Director Malou Mangahas who will share their first-hand experience using these policies for greater transparency and accountability.
Filipino Citizen Media
Among others, there will be a panel on how Filipino Citizen Media has been used in mobilizing street protests and coordinating disaster relief and response efforts along with barriers it face from the cost and quality of internet connection to online regulations.
The second day of the summit will open by bringing the spotlight on indigenous language digital activism, including a session on Filipino Indigenous Languages in Citizen Media which will explore the ways indigenous languages are being promoted online.
Some of the panel discussions would include one on digital security and privacy, online censorship and freedom of speech worldwide, and a roundup of Magna Carta of Internet users from all over the world.
Like in the past Global Voices Summits in the UK, India, Hungary, Chile and Kenya, the Global Voices Media Summit 2015 promises to be a productive site for inspiring fresh ideas, sharing experiences, and forging cross-border collaborations.
Are you interested in attending the summit? You can register at http://summit2015.globalvoicesonline.org. Admission for the two days cost PHP 2,000 for Filipino residents, with a special student rate of PHP 1,000.
The Global Voices Summit 2015 is sponsored by the Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Google, the Province of Cebu, Knight Foundation, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Sun Star Publishing, Open Society Foundations,Yahoo, and PRWorks.
A glimpse of Cebu
Sinulog
Under Cebu’s waters
Do you have any concern or feedback? Or you may want to express your message to our friends who will be flocking to Cebu City. Feel free to use the comments section below. Or use the hashtags #GVsummit and #GV2015 as well as @globalvoices and @PRworksPH in our social media channels. Cheers!
