Photo of the 2020 Indigenous Community Media Youth Fellows provided by Cultural Survival and used with permission.

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.

For the third year, Cultural Survival has continued to empower indigenous youth in representing the voices of their communities by way of their Indigenous Community Media Youth Fellowship.  Early last month, the 2020 cohort of their fellows were just announced!

They are young indigenous leaders, 16 to 26 of age, from Ecuador, Nepal, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Chile.  You can get a glimpse of who they are and what their respective projects are about here [en] [es].

What do you imagine the “Next Generation Internet” would be like?  Do you agree with the ideal of a trustworthy Open Internet where our privacy is respected?  Please consider applying for the NGI Zero PET Fund and the Discovery Fund, if you think your idea(s) may help bring this ideal into reality.  Application due: February 1, 2020 at noon (CET)

Are you involved in indigenous community broadcasting and are seeking ways to foster the sustainability of your community radio station?  You might want to consider applying for Cultural Survival’s Indigenous Community Media Grants, a participatory and dynamic grants program to help you achieve this aspiration.  For application details and eligibility requirements, please see here.  Submission due: February 15, 2020

Are you a young entrepreneur looking to start your own social business?  “Sometimes changing the world needs a little help,” says Yunus&Youth, a global team of young professionals devoted to giving you a lift with your big idea.  Please check out what the 2020 Yunus&Youth Fellowship has to offer and consider applying here.  Application due: February 16, 2020 at 11:59pm (EST)

IM4 Media Lab is offering an Augmented Reality workshop for those curious about Augmented Reality and how it can lend itself to creative works in the indigenous communities. They are inviting indigenous participants to attend, free of charge.  Please sign up here, if you are interested.  Date: February 1-2, 2020 / Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada

In a collaborative effort to promote media and information literacy learning, @TwitterForGood and @UNESCO have joined efforts to put together a guide titled “Teaching and Learning with Twitter” (PDF).  Hope it’ll come handy to our readers!

Back in October, the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) released their 2019 Affordability Report (PDF available), which finds “lack of competition” as a major barrier to affordable access.  In the same report, A4AI also shared insights as to how governments might step in to help bring affordable and meaningful connectivity to all.  For a webinar presentation, please watch it here.

• Citizen journalism platform uses Bluetooth to bring news to media dark villages in India via IJNet
• MozFest 2019 Highlights via Mozilla