Photo of Subhashish Panigrahi by Sebastiaan ter Burg (CC-BY 2.0).

Rising Voices note: Our biweekly newsletter provides a summary of our recent blog posts about all aspects of digital inclusion including access and adoption of digital tools, as well as different ways and opporunities for communities to fully participate online. Read here for previous editions of this newsletter.

Remember the Yoti Fellowship Programme that we shared with you a few months back?  The 2019 Yoti Digital Identity Fellows have been announced and Subhashish Panigrahi, a fellow member of the Rising Voices community, has been selected to be one of them to “carry out focused multimedia research designed to amplify the challenges and opportunities within marginalised groups that are being (or will soon be) affected most by Aadhaar.”

Subhashish has been part of the Rising Voices and Global Voices communities for many years.  He is a documentary filmmaker, active member with Mozilla and Wikimedia, and cofounder of the O Foundation.  Recently, he has also participated in the @AsiaLangsOnline campaign and served as our first guest host for the Odia language.  We are excited for Subhashish’s fellowship with Yoti and would like to invite you to get to know more about him and the other two Yoti fellows.  Please read along and follow their updates on the Yoti blog.

In celebration of the International Year of Indigenous languages 2019 (#IYIL19), Rising Voices has joined forces with our partners in organizing four rotating Twitter campaigns to highlight the work of indigenous language activists from across the world.  If you are curious about the current status of indigenous languages worldwide as well as what’s involved in their revitalization and/or promotion, please do follow our campaigns on Twitter!  And if you wish to learn more about our recent hosts, you would definitely want to check their profile posts as follows:

@DigiAfricanLang (Africa)

• Adaobi Anukwu on the Igbo language of Nigeria
• Uzoma Ozurumba Ihechiluru on the Igbo language of Nigeria

@ActLenguas (Latin America)

• Joaquín Yescas Martínez [es] on the xhidza (Zapotec) language, spoken in Sierra Juárez, Oaxaca, Mexico
• Victoriano De la Cruz Cruz [es] on the Nahuatl language, spoken in Chicontepec, Veracruz, Mexico

@AsiaLangsOnline (Asia)

• Janak Raj Bhatta on the Doteli language, spoken in Nepal
• Ramjit Tudu on the Santali language, spoken in India and some of the neighboring countries

For many of us, typing on a keyboard is something that we do with no sweat from day to day.  But maybe we shouldn’t take it for granted so easily… → “Unified under one font system as Myanmar prepares to migrate from Zawgyi to Unicode”

Got some big ideas for social change?  Voqal wants to invest in you, with a $30,000 stipend and its specialized program, to get your social enterprise started and growing.  The 2020 Voqal Fellowship is now open for applications. Please see here for details and eligibility.  There is also a webinar that you can register for more information.  Application due: September 27, 2019

The Gabo Fellowship in Cultural Journalism 2019, organized by the Gabo Foundation and Colombia's Ministry of Culture, is open for applications.  English-savvy journalists worldwide are welcome to take this opportunity to participate in the 11th Caribbean Cultural Market and to engage in cultural journalism.  Please see here for details.  Application due: October 7, 2019

The 2019 Labor Justice Journalism Award, organized by the Superior Labor Court of Brazil, is open for applications.  The theme of the year is on child labor. If you have published journalistic works in this regard, between March 1, 2018 to August 30, 2019, it might be worth your while to check this out [pt-BR].  Please note that the works submitted must have been edited and published in Portuguese.  Application due: September 16, 2019

The Global Social Thinkers Contest: Consider yourself a global social thinker?  Aspire to promote social changes in the world? The Impact!Africa Social Entrepreneurship organizers are inviting you to share the work you have done, or are currently doing, in Africa.  Please see here for details.  Application due: October 10, 2019

The International Conference on Language Technologies for All (LT4All), an #IYIL2019 event, will be held this December at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.  This conference will be exploring how the existing digital divide between languages may push under-resourced languages further into extinction as well as applicable solutions to address the challenges at hand.  Please note that this is an invitation-only event and interested parties are advised to see here for instructions on how to express interest in being invited and other details.  Date: December 5-6, 2019

You might have heard of MozFest, the annual event by Mozilla, where thinkers and innovators aspiring for a healthier internet gather to mingle, connect, and learn from each other.  Since its inception in 2010, this event has grown significantly to become one that hosts more than 2,500 participants last year. To assess the impact of its flagship event, Mozilla conducted an evaluation and has shared their findings here.  Please read along if you are curious, too!

• Mingma Lama Sherpa on Himali Manthan with Doma Sherpa as presented by YOHO TV via YouTube
• El presente y futuro de las Lenguas Indígenas en Internet [es] as presented by Festival de Lenguas Indígenas en Internet FLLii2019 via YouTube
• African languages as indigenous languages: Definitions via Beyond Niamey
• African languages as indigenous languages: Examples via Beyond Niamey
• TakNet – Community networking in Thailand via the APNIC blog
• Why write in Yorùbá on the internet? via the SOAS blog
• Mother Tongue as presented by Kerning Cultures
• 50 words: From hello to kangaroo, new map of Indigenous languages of Australia via The Sydney Morning Herald

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