Image from the GISWatch 2019 report cover and republished under a CC BY 4.0 license.

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 opportunities for communities to fully participate online. Read here for previous editions of this newsletter.

At the turn of the year, the Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch) has brought us yet another edition of its annual report.  This 2019 edition shares with us regional experiences from the global south as to how artificial intelligence (AI) has been applied to our everyday lives and its potential impacts on human rights, social justice, and development.

In the months to come, Rising Voices will be republishing some of stories from the 2019 GISWatch report, based on our partnership with the Association for Progressive Communications (APC).  Please stay tuned.  Of course, you can also order a printed copy here or download the ebook from their website for the whole report without having to wait.

We wish our readers a happy new year ahead and an Internet that is more open and inclusive to all.

As the International Year of Indigenous languages 2019 (#IYIL19) comes to a close, so do the ongoing rotating Twitter campaigns that Rising Voices has helped to coordinate together with our partners. These four rotating Twitter campaigns have helped to highlight the work of indigenous language activists from across the world. Together with the hosts from the previous year, we're evaluating the campaigns to determine how we can continue in the new year. Please stay tuned.

In the meantime, please read here to learn more about our the hosts from the final month of the year:

@ActLenguas (Latin America)

• Ignacio Tomichá Chuvé [es] on Besɨro (aka Chiquitano), an indigenous language isolate spoken in central Santa Cruz, Bolivia
• Miguel Angel Oxlaj Cúmez [es] on Kaqchikel, a Mayan language spoken by the indigenous Kaqchikel people in central Guatemala
• Bertha Maribel Pech Polanco [es] on Maaya’ t'aan, a Mayan language spoken in the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico) and northern Belize, as well as her experience as a female indigenous language activist in Mexico

@AsiaLangsOnline (Asia)

• Jerome Herrera on Chabacano, the one and only Spanish-based creole in Asia, spoken in the Philippines and among its diaspora
• Sev Pach and Khouy Nherm of @ConservePeople, a Cambodia-based NGO,  on promoting public knowledge of indigenous communities in the area and their work around the preservation of these local languages

The 2020 Abie Awards, organized by AnitaB.org to celebrate distinguished women in tech, are calling for nominations.  Please see here for the five types of awards open for nominations as well as how you can submit your nomination(s).  Submission due: January, 8, 2020

Public Domain Day 2020 is coming soon!  This time, the event will take place in Washington, D.C. and Creative Commons is inviting you to join them in the celebration.  You can make a free registration here and see here for more event details.  Date: January 30, 2020

• Indigenous Community Launches First Community Broadband Network in Hawai'i – Community Broadband Bits Podcast 385 via MuniNetworks
• Chilean photographers continue legacy of documenting human rights violations via Global Voices
• Sakizaya added to Wikipedia as a language option via Taipei Times
• [From our archives] An Unashamed Inuk, Rising Indigenous Pop Star via Rising Voices
• From #FeesMustFall to #BlueforSudan: OkayAfrica's Guide to a Decade of African Hashtag Activism via okayafrica

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