IS doles out $300,000
The new Internet Society
Foundation has issued its first set of medium and large grants (ranging from
$12,000 to $30,000 each) to 13 ground-breaking projects that seek to spread the
benefits of the internet around the world.
IS
(https://www.InternetSociety.org/) established ISF (http://bit.ly/2rOclzv) to
fund projects that will improve the quality of people’s lives everywhere. It awards
grants to IS chapters as well as non-profit organizations and individuals
dedicated to providing meaningful access to an open, globally connected and
trusted internet for everyone.
Of more than 40 applications
received this year, 13 projects were selected by a committee that evaluated them
based on criteria that included originality and innovation, community impact,
sustainability, technical feasibility.
The three Africa projects selected
were chosen from South Africa, Mali and Madagascar.
For SA, $30,000 was granted to
create Wi-Fi access points and an off-the-grid media center within the Mamaila
Tribal Authority. The project will also build community capacity through
training on cybersecurity, content development, entrepreneurship, and the
construction, operation and maintenance of community networks. This aims to
empower unemployed youth to organize themselves into cooperatives to advance
their socio-economic aspirations and expand the planned network infrastructure.
$12,322 will go towards creating
community networks for 5,000 people in three remote farming communities and
awareness-raising in Madagascar. The project will also provide technical
training and basic internet skills to a group of people who will train others
to use the Internet to capture practical information for their economic
development (such as on weather forecasts that can impact harvests and the
prices of the agricultural products they sell).
And a Mali project got $30,000 to
generate reliable statistical data on internet use, and particularly on the
use/misuse of social media which has become popular in both rural and urban
areas. Most existing data were produced by telecoms operators for commercial
ends and their results haven’t been made widely accessible. The results of this
project, however, will be widely available through publication and
dissemination.
ISF provides grants to the internet
community, IS chapters, non-profits and individuals working on one or more of
the following program areas: initiatives that build community capacity to
access and benefit from the Internet (including digital literacy skills,
reaching unconnected populations, awareness-raising and local content-production);
initiatives that respond to natural disasters; opportunities for research
across technical, economic and public policy topics; initiatives that
demonstrate innovative techniques to advance an internet for all; and local and
regional projects supported by ISOC’s nearly 140 chapters (Beyond the Net)
(http://bit.ly/38OC5MH).
ISF will launch its next call for
grant applications in early 2020. More information on future calls for grants
can be found at http://bit.ly/2PvLrW2
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