Students in Professor Lee McKnight’s Information Security Policy class took a leading role in the 2016 United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF)—“Enabling Inclusive and Sustainable Growth”—held in Jalisco, Mexico last week.
The course, held in tandem with the Cybersecurity Law & Policy course taught at the College of Law, allowed students to participate remotely from a live connection to the forum set up in a Hinds Hall classroom.
Part of their experience was the presentation and discussion of a draft of an educational resource guide for the “Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet,” a project developed by a cross-disciplinary team of students from the School of Information Studies, the Maxwell School, and the College of Law, in cooperation with the Internet Rights and Principles Coalition (IRPC).
Maxwell School alumnus Kevin Risser G’16 helped to host the IGF main session, “Enabling Inclusive and Sustainable Growth Through the Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet,” during which the IRPC’s draft was discussed.
Students in last fall’s Information Security Policy course kicked off the year-long project when they coordinated a remote discussion hub with IGF 2015 in Brazil. This engagement—coordinated with the IRPC—marked the beginning of a cross-campus collaboration to draft a guide that develops and articulates the IRPC Charter for students and other audiences and which is based on the active engagement of university students.
During their remote connection to the forum, students received feedback on their draft guide, and will further develop it for use in a range of educational and awareness-raising contexts.