CEU Summer University - Internet Governance, Civil Society & Public Policy Advocacy

Academic Program: CEU Summer University 2013

This intensive summer course is designed to help both researchers and activists gain new insights into the role which civil society can play in advocating for a free and open internet, and will highlight the potential of technology and online tools for mobilizing and organizing constituencies and for enhancing the security and privacy of advocates.

Participants will be exposed to a wide range of practical and theoretical views related to communication policy advocacy and online tools and tactics, and how to integrate research into communication policy advocacy.  The course will be run as a combination of conceptual and research-oriented sessions, in addition to hands-on work in developing advocacy campaigns and the latest developments in online tools for advocacy, security and privacy.  The course will feature a range of lectures, group discussions, hands-on practicums, time built in to the schedule for group work, as well as field trips within Budapest to meet with organizations engaged with work in this field, including multimedia innovation labs and hacktivist spaces.

In addition, the 2013 course will focus heavily on advocacy training, especially on offering interesting and timely skills based opportunities to learn about the latest techniques in video advocacy, data visualization, infographics, social media campaigns, writing of opinion editorials, and other key tools needed to run effective public policy campaigns.

As in years past, the course will also feature timely discussion on how internet law and policy affect media development, democratization, and rule of law development in developing and transitioning countries.  In this respect, the course will feature in-depth, comparative discussion on matters of internet governance and regulation featuring local, regional and international perspectives. The core focus of the course will be on developing local, in-country capacity for civil society organizations and academics who want to focus on internet governance issues. That said, there will be time allocated to discuss global and international trends and actors, i.e. the Internet Governance Forum, the International Telecommuncations Union involvement and interest in internet regulation, entitles like the  Global Network Initiative.

This course is intended for media policy advocates, PhD students, advanced MA students, activists, bloggers, policy makers, media development professionals (drawing from government, civil society/NGOs, foundations), journalists and other media practitioners with a demonstrated interest in new media and technology and communication policy advocacy.