How to create relevant internet governance content

Event report

[Read more session reports and live updates from the 11th Internet Governance Forum]

The session was moderated by co-organisers, Ms Olga Cavalli, President, ISOC Argentina Chapter, and Mr Dustin Phillips, Co-Executive Director, ICANN Wiki. Phillips talked about creating relevant content for people around the world that can be inclusive for people who do not speak English. He talked about the ICANNWiki’s Edit-a-Thon, an event which people attending an IGF or ICANN conference can collectively engage in content creation. The goal is to edit and expand upon topics relevant to the attendees. They also translate relevant content into other languages, as was successfully done in Japanese, Chinese and Swahili. Fellows learn about content relevant to them. Interpretation is more important than translation. Interpretation needs to create relevant content. This will create a more effective message.

Ms Renata Aquino Ribeiro, E. I. Consulting, talked about the cultural context of Latin America which is very diverse. She mentioned that there is an obstacle in this particular context, there is a need for people to communicate online in their own language. This is sometimes a problem because of English hegemony online when it comes to science, technology, culture and Internet governance. IG is a multidisciplinary field with many lawyers. Speaking different languages is a way for sharing knowledge, expressing oneself, making a bridge between different professional backgrounds. There is a fundamental need to diversify interdisciplinary groups besides the multicultural context.

Ms Kerry-Ann Barrett, Cyber Security Policy Specialist at Organization of American States, mentioned that her mother was an English teacher. This was very good for her as it helped her become bilingual. In Brazil, there are a lot of resources and challenges. Though Portuguese in the official language, most of the content and reports are published in English and Spanish. The Organization of American States developed a comprehensive understanding of cybersecurity culture, with access to information and by understanding the different cultures in the region and produced a document for the entire region on cybersecurity, to which lawyers contributed – to make the legal framework easier people to understand. 

Mr Edmond Chung, CEO of DotAsia.org, talked about the demand to translate domain names into other languages and for people to have access to different material in their own native languages.  The IG community needs to use more diagrams, graphics, and pictures. What do we mean by mass surveillance for children, for example, a policeman standing in their bedrooms? It is important to develop terminology and create content to support IG. 

Ms Nadira Alaraj, Internet Society Palestine Chapter, and an elected member of the first Steering Committee to the Chapter Advisory, talked about the challenges when it comes to enhancing Arabic digital content. For IG policy understanding, the terminology is not commonly used in the media, content is produced in English and is communicated in English. Among the challenges are the fact that there is not enough IG content in Arabic, IG translated content is badly written, and the content does not reflect IG-related events in the Mena region. In addition, processes are seldom documented, and videos not stored. She urged for intellectual property law – which is very old – to be updated.

by Hamza Ben Mehrez, Internet Society Tunisia