The Internet Society of Zimbabwe will be running a School of Internet Governance next week

The Internet Society of Zimbabwe Chapter (ISOC) will be running an inaugural Zimbabwe School of Internet Governance (ZimSig) this coming week. The three-day virtual worship will run from the 25th of August until the 27th of August. Applications for the event are open now and will close on the 21st of August.

In order to apply, you have to either visit ISOC Zimbabwe’s workshop page or go to this Google Form and fill in the application. Confusingly the form has different dates for both the deadline and when the event will run. Rest assured that the new dates above are the correct ones so you can go ahead and fill the form. You can also contact the event organisers using the details listed on the Google Form. From what I can gather this seems to be a free event. All you need to do is fill the form to signify interest and you will be informed when the event is about to start.

What’s internet governance?

I will admit I had the same question the moment I saw the poster. Turns out this workshop is about learning how to use the internet ethically and in ways that benefit society. You will learn about several threats to the current harmonious use of the internet including topics such as hate speech, fake news, online bullying, how the internet has changed the way we socialise, how governments and other authorities are now using the internet to surveil their citizens and cybercrime.

The aim is to make you aware of these various issues and how they impact various stakeholders. The ultimate goal is to equip you on how you can confront these issues, craft policies that take them into consideration and manage the use of the internet as an individual or organisation in a way that benefits society.

These various schools of internet governance have been running across the globe for years now. This will be the first Zimbabwean focused event.If that sounds like something you want to learn you can apply here.