The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF intervention. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> I'll wait till everyone puts their headsets on.
Case anyone came in late. We just asked, if you would like. We have three different sections. Because we are going to do a bit of a breakout for networking. So the first section would be infrastructure and connecting the unconnected. The second section is training. If you feel like you would like to meet people involved in this area. It is Number 3.
And the third section is for ISOC chapters who would like the meet other people in ISOC chapters.
Can everyone hear me? Okay. They can hear me.
So I was just saying, if you would like to sit in a section, we have three different sections. A section for infrastructure and connecting the unconnected.
A section related to digital literacy and training.
And a section for ISOC chapters. Or if you are interested in ISOC chapters, you can sit on this side. You do not have to sit in those areas. But if you want to be ‑‑ if that is what you want to look at during the networking section. I think we're ready to start now. Sorry we're starting a bit behind.
Can everyone hear?
Great.
So my name is Rigdzin Collins. I'm an associate programme officer at the Internet Society Foundation. I'm so happy you joined us today. We want to thank the IGF for letting us have the session. It is our first session as a foundation, the ISOC foundation at the IGF. So we're really happy to be here.
Today I'm joined by Sarah Armstrong. Our executive director.
>> SARAH ARMSTRONG: Hello.
>> RIGDZIN COLLINS: And my colleague Brian Horlick‑Cruz another associate programme officer who I think many of you work with. And today we're just going to do a bit of an overview of our work at the foundation. And then we really hope that this session will give people a chance to meet each other.
We're going hear from a few grantees, hopefully. We're going put a few grantees on the spot. I see some people who have just walked in. And then we're going to break up, exchange information and then meet back for some questions.
You have a note card on the table. If you have a question that you would like to ask us, please feel free to write this. We might not be able to get through all of the questions, but we will try to get through some and we can try to answer questions you have after.
Also thank you to the people online. And our moderator will also be taking your questions.
So now I'd like to turn it over to Sarah.
>> SARAH ARMSTRONG: Thank you Rigdzin. Okay. Good afternoon to everyone in this room and good morning or evening to those who are online. We are very pleased, as Rigdzin said to have the opportunity to have this session and to meet all of you and to share with you information about funding global connection.
We want to really focus on connection. And when we say "connection," it is not just a matter of getting people access and connection to the internet. But also a connection to the benefits of the internet and the way in which it can change lives.
So we'll be talking about the foundation itself. And then we'll also share some stories about what our grantees are doing. As that is the real important part us to.
So I will start just by sharing with you. Well hear is the name. And as I said focusing on the word connection. I'm going stand I think.
Our vision for the internet, as an internet is for everyone. And this is a statement we share with the internet society. And the identity is to make sure we get the internet to as many people as possible. And as we know, we still have a challenge. There is over 2.5 billion people who are still not connected.
So we want to continue to find ways to make an internet for everyone. We are a supporting organisation. The Internet Society Foundation is a supporting organisation. For the internet society. And specifically we're doing is making sure that we work together to secure an open, globally connected and trust weather internet for all. So that is a real focus for under the circumstances.
And you will be hearing about the philanthropy efforts of the foundation. Grant giving. We're responsible for administering grants, managing grants. Managing relationships with grans the. And that is what we do all day long every day. With lot of passion.
Okay. So in 2019 we began looking at how to form a foundation. And then really got kicked into gear in 2020. And that year, yes, the year of the pandemic, we started this foundation. It was our first full operational year. And we are now in our 5th full operational year. Almost concluding because we're so close to the end of the year.
And as you can see, since we started, we have committed over $60 million in grants. We have committed 1,030 grants over this time that we've been involved. And then we are working or have worked in 121 countries.
So we've really grown quite a bit, quite rapidly. And feeling very good about the progress that we've made. And we've done this because of the types of grantees that we have been able to have in our programmes and, yeah, work together in making ab internet for everyone.
Here is a slide that shows for you what our different programmes areas are. And our programme areas, there are 11 of them right now as you can see. I'm not going talk you through every single one of these because I think we want some sometime for everybody else to talk.
>> RIGDZIN COLLINS: I just want to say the table in the back. The very back table. You will see our impact reports. I know there are not enough seats. So people might be sitting there. Which is fine. But if people want more information about the programmes, they can take a glance on their way out at the back table.
>> SARAH ARMSTRONG: And also we'll talk about where you can find things on the website. Because there is a awful lot of information on all these different programmes.
But the different ones that you can see include beyond the net, which is a chapter programme. We have one called "connecting the unconnected." We do a global encryption day. We've got research. We have a programme we called" skills "and the purposes of" skills "is to make sure once people are online that they are benefiting from the access and working in the economic opportunities arena to see what they can do with the skills we can help provide through our grantees to change their lives.
Sustainable peering infrastructure. Forecasted on IXPs and sustainable technical communities. We know what those are. So those ‑‑ that is just a quick snapshot of the 11 programme areas that we fund.
Here are some examples. Rigdzin just mentioned our impact reports. We're now going to be doing an impact report more our programme areas at the end of each year and produce them in the beginning of the next year. So right now on the table you will see programme impact statements and impact briefs. And that will be covering 2023.
And now right now we're developing ideas for how to share impact for 2024. And that we will be able to share with you some time in the first quarter. Kind of ‑‑ sorry about that I'm not sure what I'm doing.
Beyond the net is a programme as I mentioned for internet society chapters. And you can see what we did in 2023. How many people we connected. And how many skills trainings were delivered to how many individuals. Additionally we have a programme called BOLT. That stands for building opportunities, leveraging technologies. And that is targeted to registered non profits.
We do have a requirement that our organisations that we fund through some of these programmes are 501c3 or equivalent. So that is just something to know if you are considering applying to some of our grant programmes. You will see that that is a requirement.
You can see with this building opportunities, leveraging technology, BOLT, which is an effort to find innovative ways to connect people. We've connected ‑‑ again, this is the 2023 impact. 93,000 individuals and 538 internet access points. And then we have internet governance forums. We fund internet governance forums on the national, regional and global level. So we're helping to support this meeting that we're all sitting in now.
And then also we support SIGs. So schools of internet governance. So people can apply for funding. And you can see what we did in 2023. 25 NRIs. And 629 participants in the SIGs we funded.
Going onto a couple more programmes to share with you. "Resiliency "is a programme that we run. Because we know that all communities now are more vulnerable to disasters. Because of what's happening with the climate. We felt it was important to have a programme where we could help communities be more prepared for what it is that might happen and how they can get connectivity up quickly.
So this programme called "resiliency "is all about mitigation. And having trainings ahead of time. Making sure people know what do in a earthquake, landslide, anything hits them. So we're working now in this case you can see across 41 countries and making a big difference in getting people ready. So when these things happen, they are more prepared.
Research is a programme that we have. Has a number of different themes to it. Again, we'll refer you to our website with more information. You can see what we've done here.
And final, "SCILLS" is a programme I mentioned where we're taking people who have a access and helping them in education and economic opportunities. In this case you can see we trained a lot of people on internet use for economic opportunities. Those are just quick highlights from 2023 from six of our programmes out of the 11.
And couple brief examples of organisations we've worked with and work they have produced and successfully done. You can see here SCILLS, a grantee spotlight right here. This is the one of our programmes in Indonesia.
SCILLS works in six different country, Indonesia and Bangladesh. Senegal and Ghana. And in Latin America, Caribbean region, works in Brazil and Colombia.
So we have an example here of training and really empowering women with disabilities. And you can see here what we've done. And I'm just going read you a little quote from someone who was part of the programme. The SCILLS grant programme has been instrumental in advancing our mission to support the aspirations and needs of women with disabilities to become economically independent and confident in their abilities. And to foster an inclusive and safe environment where everyone can thrive.
So you can see that it is really a life‑changing type programme. And then the other one I just want to highlight is a Kyrgyzstan. And when they apply for grants they can get one with beyond the net. But they can also get a research grand. And the Kyrgyzstan chapter did get a gran. They developed a programme where they were able to put together an internet of things, infrastructure, in order to make sure that we could detect, they could detect when mud ‑‑ or landslides might be coming and prepare that way.
So this is just another innovative way that one of our grantees has decided to use the funding that was provided.
And then we support IGFs, NRIs and SIGs. As I mentioned earlier. Just to give you by the numbers for this year. So this isn't 2023. This is this year.
And we have supported 67 initiatives. And provided well over $500,000 U.S. to make sure those are all running well. And we've mad a lot of good success stories.
And this is a location map for where our different 67 sponsorships in 2024 were located. And you can see the global is highlighted because we are supporting this meeting. And then you can see we really hit a good amount of areas around the world.
So what are we going to do in 2025? Based on all the stuff I just shared. Our plan is to commit 12 million in USD. And then operationalise everything. And what we do when we operationalise everything is we make sure that we are really in sync with the internet society's 2030 strategy. All about as we were talking about, the internet is for everyone. Making sure more people are connected in a secure, safe way. And affordable of course very important as well.
So that is the direction that we plan to go for 2025. Those are some examples of the programmes that we fund. And then I just want to say that we believe together we can amplify our impact and create solutions to connect more people to the internet.
When we say "together" we mean people in this room because we know you all have the same passion we do for this. And of course we mean really working hard and having great relationships with the grantees. Because they are the ones who really pull everything together and do impressive work.
So I will end with the slide of how you can connect with us. There are many different ways. You can scan our QR code and get your newsletter. And then of course we're all over social media.
What we'd like do now since you have just seen an overview. And I can take questions later. But we want ‑‑ I think ‑‑ wait.
>> RIGDZIN COLLINS: We're very lucky. Sorry my headset is a little wonky. We're very lucky to have three ‑‑ thank you Sarah for giving us this wonderful presentation.
We have actually the Kyrgyzstan chapter present. So I wanted to put, we have a of our grantees here. And I would like to ask them if they don't mind, very briefly tell us a little bit. Like very short explanation of their current project.
I have three grantees here I'm going pick on. And just going to ask if you could maybe tell people a little about your current work. And I guess maybe your experience working with the foundation. Or you don't have to say that. But your current work. Just so people know the kind of projects that are being done.
But I would ask if we can keep the responses a little bit short. Because we have another few sections.
First person is Talant, if you don't mind. Sorry.
>> Working yeah? So I want to say thank you to ISOC foundation for this opportunities that grants provide. And as mentioned we have actually couple grants we're implementing. One is research grant on using IOT technology for disaster risk resilience. And another project is beyond the net grant on digital skills and digital hygiene trainings for rural communities.
All of our work is focussed on rural communities in the local language. And with emphasis on opportunities for girls and women in rural communities.
And would like to thank you for all the opportunities. Thank you.
>> RIGDZIN COLLINS: Thank you so much Talant.
We also have ‑‑ sorry. He is from the Kyrgyzstan chapter of ISOC. And he's also works with WIDEF? I think? Yes. We also have present two more grantees I'm just going to briefly pick on. Sorry I can't hear so I hope this is working. We have Christina from the ISOC Armenia chapter. And they have been doing some wonderful beyond the net projects. And I think I IGF also you are involved in?
>> Hello everyone. We are working with ISOC foundation in the scope of rural libraries project. And it is very great project we are doing with ISOC foundation. We are supporting rural libraries digitisation process. And making their books and their magazines et cetera all, all stuff they have, we are supporting them create a programme. Actually we create a programme for them and they are digitalizing all their stuff and making people read them by network. And they created a hub for all people in rural areas. And they are coming to these hubs and doing their work. Gaining money. Just for the information they are gaining from these libraries. And it is very great. Thank you very much for your support and for your continuous work with us.
Thank you very much.
>> RIGDZIN COLLINS: Thank you Christina and thank you for sharing your thoughts with us last minute.
And then we finally have, if it is okay, Osama frameworks the Digital Empowerment Foundation. And he is not ‑‑ I don't know if you are an ISOC member. But you are ‑‑ this is an example of someone who is not an ISOC chapter affiliate. But is an outside organisation that we've been able to work with on several projects.
I know you have very interesting work if you want to tell us a little bit about your current project? Or anything you want to share with people?
>> Yeah. Thank you very much. I'm Osama from Digital Empowerment Foundation based in India. And there are three relationship. One is that I remember from since we have been associated with ISOC for a very very long time. I remember when before even ISOC foundation there was whole feedback session that used to happen. Is that should we create a foundation? Should we create a grant‑making organisation and I was very actively involved in that. That yes we should was a way want community to hear from. But last three years we have been working with the foundation and granted three times actually. And one was BOLT. And very interesting project that we did is I don't know how many of you know that there are tea gardens. Hundreds and thousands. 5,000 in Assam and Bengal. And they work like slaves. Without internet connectivity. Complete violation of daily wages and so on and so forth.
And this grant was basically to provide internet connectivity in the middle of the garden, bypassing all administrative and bureaucratic hassles. And we could do 50 in the first one.
And it was so successful that, you know, ISOC foundation asked for next proposal. And now we have 100 location, 100 tea gardens having connectivity and access and education. Everything available in a community level. Managed by the community member. On a sustainable basis.
So it is like 100 tea gardens and replicating every year.
So that is one.
The second is that, you know, Himalayas. Even want to go for tourism and adventure for everything. But they also live in very very strong disaster zones. So there is this one project we are doing where we are working this an area totally completely internet dark.
So we're establishing a communication system, along with a community centre which is connected through data. And to have of 24/7 connectivity in a disaster zone so you are always next to the data connectivity for informing anything.
These are couple things. I can go on and on but yeah.
>> RIGDZIN COLLINS: Thank you Osama.
Also I'm Himalayan. I know about that project. I have to ask you about it later.
In the interest of time now I think we're going take question scenarios to do breakout?
Okay. Brian I know you have been moderating online. And we don't want to forget the people online. And since we are in person, maybe we can in interest of time take questions from online people?
>> BRIAN HORLICK-CRUZ: Sure thing. We do not have any online questions at the moment.
>> RIGDZIN COLLINS: Anyone here have a question before we break out?
I think I saw your hand first I sir.
>> What are the criteria for research grant?
>> SARAH ARMSTRONG: So in this case we definitely encourage you to go to our ‑‑ am I on?
Okay. I'm on.
We encourage you to go to our internet society foundation website. Because it can give you all the information. It will also provide you with the different themes that we're funding. The internet economy. We have the trustworthy internet. We have a decolonizing internet. And we also have the green internet.
So those are four different categories under which you can apply for research grants.
If you are an individual, you could certainly apply. If you are with an organisation, academic institution, you can certainly apply. And you will see there are various levels of funding, depending on the type of person or application that we're getting.
So ISOCfoundation.org. You will seal there is a tab with the different funding areas. So you can certainly get all the criteria for what you need. And in some cases it absolutely has to be a 501c3 or equivalent if it is an organisation.
So yeah.
Okay. Who was next?
Right here.
501c3.
>> Hear me? All right. My name is Mary Uduma. I'm from Nigeria. I belong to the Nigerian chapter of the internet.
But specifically, I'm asking about (?) online and protection. We have a foundation that is an advocacy group specializing on that. And engaging parents and engaging teachers. And working with children. Young people.
Whether the grants were eligible to be able to apply for a grant do this work.
Nigeria is a large country. And so many schools. This year we had a summit and we had the children and other stakeholders around. So that is what the foundation I chair is focusing on. So I wanted to know whether that would be eligible to apply for a grant. Thank you.
>> SARAH ARMSTRONG: Yeah absolutely. Please, we would encourage you to do again, is to go and look at what the different programmes are. And see what the work of your programme does, how it matches up.
Because we're just about to turn a new year, many programmes are starting to open up and launch again. We have a number of them launching in January.
And you are with a chapter as well? Or you would be applying as the foundation? Your foundation?
>> As (?) ‑‑ foundation.
>> SARAH ARMSTRONG: Okay yeah. Certainly you can see. Because were doing some of this work already with our grantees. So I would encourage you to get more information from the website. Yes.
>> RIGDZIN COLLINS: And I think we need to maybe have one more quick question. And then we are going to do a breakout. But what we can do is, so if you want to meet people within your section, please feel free do that after this question. And we will stay here if other people have questions. They can come us to too. We can do go to them.
>> Hello. Good evening. My name is Ati... question. Base on.
(audio fading in and out)
‑‑ access to ‑‑.
>> It is breaking up a little bit.
>> This way? Okay. I hope my question, based on area percentage, only (?) percent covered by internet. And based on ‑‑
(audio fading in and out)
Population people have access to internet. As the current day by day banning education on Afghanistan women.
Is there any special programme empowering Afghan women?
And based on infrastructure, is there any special infrastructure building.
>> SARAH ARMSTRONG: Yes we have a number of programmes that focus specifically building infrastructure. Connecting the unconnecting. And that is all about that. It is focus ad lot on building community networks. So that is an option. As I mentioned the BOLT programme is all about innovative ways to connect people. So there is funding available there as well.
So we have at least a couple of programmes where we can do that. And you can certainly, again, I just ‑‑ I ‑‑ rather than going into all kinds of long criteria and what the objectives of the programme are and how you have to match the support the mission of ISOC. These are all requirements you would see if you go to our page.
I would start with those two programmes. Looking at BOLT and looking at connecting the unconnected.
>> And what about empowering women, is there a special programme.
>> SARAH ARMSTRONG: Yes. SCILLS programme is very focussed on that. It depends on which country you are working. Right now we're working in just six countries. But we do plan to expand that in 2025 and 2026.
Yes.
>> Thank you.
>> RIGDZIN COLLINS: Thank you so much for your questions. So now, I think what we can do is do a little bit of networking with each other. So if we want to take a few minutes? The rest of the session maybe. We can meet back at the end.
But we just wanted to maybe pose a question. You are sitting in an area that you chose when you came in. Some of you. I know some of you just sat down.
Thank you so much.
So our questions is if you want to go and talk to people. You can either ask them why they chose to sit in this area? Tell them a little bit about yourself, your project. Or if you feel shy doing that. We have another ice breaker that we really like to do at the foundation.
Find someone and ask them their first time they remember using the internet. Or showing someone how to use the internet. I know some people are very young and they never knew a life without internet.
>> SARAH ARMSTRONG: Exactly.
>> RIGDZIN COLLINS: So we encourage everyone now to meet the people in their section. We also will walk around. If you have questions for us, please come up and talk to us.
And also just a reminder, our booth, our ISOC booth, the ISOC foundation and ISOC booth is down. I don't remember the exact number.
>> SARAH ARMSTRONG: It is near workshop room 1.
>> RIGDZIN COLLINS: We'll be there all week. If you have other questions and want to come by and say hi, please do.
And thank you to everyone for joining us today. Now we encourage everyone to make the of this networking session. And meet some new people.
>> SARAH ARMSTRONG: Yeah. We wanted to be sure you networked in the networking session.
>> RIGDZIN COLLINS: If you feel like it.
>> SARAH ARMSTRONG: So if you want to do that, just get to know some of the team with whom you are sitting, that would be great.
And if that doesn't feel like something everybody wants to at least try, we can certainly...
>> RIGDZIN COLLINS: Sure. We can take more questions.
>> SARAH ARMSTRONG: ... take more questions. Yeah.
>> RIGDZIN COLLINS: We encourage you the talk to other people.
>> SARAH ARMSTRONG: What do you think?
Ask that question?
>> RIGDZIN COLLINS: When was the first time you remember using the internet.
>> SARAH ARMSTRONG: A long time ago. We were doing ethernet cords and long pauses and tones before it actually connected. So yeah, I've been around for a while.
>> RIGDZIN COLLINS: Yeah. I think I also remember those days. So yeah.
>> SARAH ARMSTRONG: So. I'm sure ‑‑ I'm hoping some other people in this room know those days too.
>> RIGDZIN COLLINS: And if you have question, we'll be here. Feel free to raise your hand or come up and talk us to.
>> SARAH ARMSTRONG: So at least say hi to your neighbour. At least you can say hi. Introduce yourselves.