Internet Society Early Career Fellowship, 13 Mar 2021

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From YouTube: Early Career Fellowship: Fellows

Description

Who can become an Early Career Fellow?

We held the virtual Early Career Fellowship Event for Potential Candidates on 11 March, 2021, where we walked through the program’s elements, curriculum and eligibility requirements, explained the application process, and answered some questions.

Presentation slides: https://isoc.box.com/s/0hoq9ffa02o5bd6yowzsajwe67pwewp3
More information on Fellowship: https://www.internetsociety.org/fellowships/early-career/

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Thanks, alejandra and and hello everyone, um it's really nice to be here um and also to again hear about how exciting this um this fellowship is. But let's turn to um turn to who we think this fellowship is for, and maybe I should just say a little bit about myself, I'm. I study the impact of the internet on society and policy, and I've been really excited to work on this um on this project in developing this fellowship.

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But I think, if I'm honest, I'm probably more excited for the people who can join this this fellowship, because I really think, as alexandra said earlier, I think it's groundbreaking. I think it's really exciting um and also because I work in this field. I've done a number of fellowships and other kind of training, opportunities um related to understanding the internet, etc. So I'm also quite aware of what is out there already, and I really think that this fills um fills a gap and but maybe I should tell you a little bit more about that.

A

So as part of this project and developing this fellowship, what we did is we looked at um what are all the? uh What are all the fellowships that are out there already or the training initiatives or the schools on you, know?

A

Internet governance, etc, etc, and we mapped all of those, and we found that there are really a lot of very interesting and exciting and very meaningful fellowships and opportunities for early careers sort of people and practitioners, but there wasn't really anything that kind of manages to bring together fields of policy and technology or even leadership.

A

So you get programs that are aimed at leaders, you get programs that are aimed at technologists or engineers, and then you get programs that are aimed at policy makers. You get programs that are aimed at you know, developing your theoretical knowledge and your academic knowledge, and then you get more practical programs, there's very little. That kind of ends up marrying all of these different components, and why do we think that's a problem? If you think about the way in which the internet works? It's not.

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We no longer have sort of an offline world and an online world or a digital world. In a social world we have one world um and that's always going to be connected and interconnected. We have this hybrid world that isn't um singly uh disciplined.

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We have a multi-disciplinary world, and so, in order to be effective in this world and to operate in this world, we really need more people that have this similar sort of hybrid and multi-disciplinary understanding of the internet and the world really and that's, I think, the key gap in a way, if you may that this fellowship can full and also in a really exciting way um and in a way that's what you also see in this in this sort of video um as an early career.

A

Fellow, what you will do is you'll learn to work better in this very complicated and complex internet ecosystem, um and it's an ecosystem. I should say that spans borders and, as I said, goes offline online um you'll, learn to work better in that field. You'll also- and I think that's probably more important- you'll learn a new way of thinking and that's some of the hardest things that I've had to learn in life is how to adjust your thinking to a different environment and that's what you'll learn in this fellowship.

A

You'll learn how to deal with a problem and if you're, a technologist you'll have a more policy perspective. You'll learn a policy perspective and if you're a policy person, you might learn a more technology um aspect, etc. So I think that's really how this fits together and the early career fellowship therefore provides a very unique environment where people who have more expertise, expertise in policy makers, so policy makers and technologists will come together and they will have the opportunity to together collaborate and develop innovative frameworks for ensuring that the internet is, as we say on.

A

The slide, is open, transparent and trustworthy, and that's some of that's what we think is key to ensuring that the internet continues to benefit societies around the world.

A

um The fellowship, therefore, I think, is very much for people um like myself and a lot of my colleagues who don't believe in sticking to silos or don't want to stay in their boxes or don't want to be in ivory towers, who believe that we need to collaborate and think across borders and think together and across disciplines, um and that's what um that's the kind of people that we really want uh to apply for this fellowship.

A

If you do apply and you do get into the program, I think you'll have the opportunity to collaborate with people from very different backgrounds um and different cultures, and I think this will not only be beneficial to the internet and the internet's future, but also to fellows, because the most lessons that I've learned in life is collaborating with people from different cultures and different societies.

A

um So I think, by all means apply for this fellowship. If you want to join this, what we call a talent pool for internet champions um and in joining that pool, you can help us ensure that the internet is safeguarded in the future, that we have an incident that will continue to flourish and you'll also learn. How we think of the internet, with heart and with head?

A

um So if we think, if you turn to whether we think you are part of this future, um I should say that we think um that the insulin society does a lot in this field to ensure and safeguard the future of the internet. But we can only go so far. We need people that can sort of step up and we'll help through this fellowship and other fellowships train them to implement this kind of thinking.

A

That's the hybrid thinking that I mentioned um and and if you think that's the kind of thing that you're interested in, I think apply and suzanne will talk more about the application process. But, broadly speaking, what I'll say is that it contains um questions that will help us assess how well what your understanding is of the internet and internet governance.

A

um It will help us understand why you think it's important to apply for this fellowship and also more about the project that alejandro mentioned earlier, and just to summarize, I think, as I said at the start, I was really excited to work on this on this fellowship, because I really believe in what it's trying to do, um and I think I'm also a little bit jealous of the people that have joined us on this call and who are excited and the candidates who can apply for this fellowship, as I think it's one of the most exciting things and and initiatives out there to help, encourage and grow more people who can think of the internet in a more innovative hybrid way.

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