SEEDIG 2018 through the eyes of a SEEDIG intern

In this article, Charalampos Kyritsis, a BIK Youth Ambassador from Greece, reflects on his recent experience in attending SEEDIG, the South Eastern Europe Dialogue on Internet Governance.

Date 2018-07-06 Author Charalampos Kyritsis, Youth Ambassador Section awareness, youth

The 4th South Eastern Europe Dialogue on Internet Governance (SEEDIG) was held this year under the theme "Digital transformation and digital society in SEE" in Ljubljana, Slovenia. SEEDIG is an open, inclusive and informal space for dialogue on internet governance (IG) issues between stakeholders from South Eastern Europe and the neighboring area. The programme started on 22 May 2018 with a one-day Youth School and Fellowship Programme, with the main event taking place 23-24 May 2018.

I had the opportunity to be selected as a SEEDIG intern in February 2018 and worked closely with the executive committee and the SEEDIG community in planning this year's event, as well as getting involved in capacity-building activities. There were two pre-event activities: a Youth School and Fellowship Programme.

The Youth School aims to educate newcomers about internet governance (IG) basics via focal points, a simulation of planning the next SEEDIG event by splitting the youth participants into various stakeholders to debate a possible agenda and, finally, a workshop where participants were split into groups representing the private sector and civil society where they had to prepare and debate a new internet business model (learn more here). All of these activities helped to prepare the newcomers for active and meaningful participation in the main event.

The Fellowship Programme focuses on experienced IG participants and seeks to develop the capacity of regional stakeholders to actively participate in national, regional and global internet governance processes. It also offers the opportunity for more individuals from the region to attend the annual meeting, and to get involved in intersessional activities.

Among the numerous sessions of the main event was a session co organised by European Schoolnet, coordinators of the Insafe network of Safer Internet Centres (SICs) in Europe, using a "World Café" format. One of the "tables" focused on children's rights with the objective of discussing how the EU deals with – and defends – them, as well as to receive feedback from the participants about national approaches to protecting children rights. As many of the participants were from non-EU countries, some interesting perspectives were shared.

SEEDIG was a great experience for me and I encourage more people from SEE countries to engage in this dialogue, the community and the capacity-building activities!

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Better Internet for Kids Portal, European Schoolnet, the European Commission or any related organisations or parties.

About the author

 

 

Charalampos is a 20 year old former YEP youth panellist. Currently a student at the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications of National and Kapodistian University of Athens, he is an active participant in international conferences on internet governance such as SEEDIG, IGF, EuroDIG, YouthDIG and the Better Internet for Kids Youth Panel.

In his spare time he is a passionate hiker, cyclist and sailor.

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