• Diplo Foundation Internet Governance Capacity Building Prorgam (deadline: Feb. 12)
• Berkman Center Summer Internship (deadline: March 5)

I was lucky enough to experience both of those opportunities and I am warmly recommend them.

More details and links for each of those opportunities can be found below.

Opportunity 1: Diplo Foundation Internet Capacity Building Program

DiploFoundation is currently accepting applications for the 2010 Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme (IGCBP10). This online programme is designed to improve Internet governance (IG) related knowledge and skills for participants mainly from developing countries and assist them to participate in the global decision-shaping debates on Internet Governance (IG). The Programme also facilitates community building among individuals with different national, cultural, and professional backgrounds.

The deadline for applications is February 12.  More information can be found here.

I went through this program a year ago and I think it is a very good entry point into the internet governance debate and the internet governance community.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Opportunity 2: Berkman Center Summer Internship

For 10 weeks each summer The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University swings opens the doors of its big yellow house to welcome a group of talented, curious, and energetic full-time interns who are passionate about the promise of the Internet and issues related to media and journalism, civic engagement, policy, identity and privacy, education, technology, the developing world, law, and more. The interns team up with Berkman projects like Herdict, Cooperation, Digital Natives, Law Lab, Internet & Democracy, or the OpenNet Initiative, where they have an opportunity for deep and substantive involvement in project operation. Performing topic-based research; drafting and editing blog posts, papers and other written outputs; conducting outreach, developing partnerships, and maintaining relationships; exploring project and research design; and undertaking academic responsibilities of all kinds both independently and collaboratively are part of the Berkman summer intern experience. Specific tasks and experiences vary depending on interns’ skills and project needs.

In addition to contributing to project based work, summer interns participate in special events and lectures with Berkman faculty and fellows, engage each other through community experiences like the weekly interns discussion hours, and each year innovate for themselves new opportunities for fun and learning, like organizing debates, producing podcasts and other media outputs, and hosting book clubs and cookoffs (!).

The deadline for applying for this one is March 5.  More information can be found in this link.

As before, if you think i can help you clearing any ambiguities about this opportunity, please feel free to contact me.

Good luck!  And as always, it would be great to hear if anyone manages to take advantage of these opportunities.

Following my recent, not so pleasant, encounter in the blogosphere, i came across this website titled Middle East Youth (which i actually have seen before). It appears interesting at least in a sense that it has contributors from all over the region and it has some interesting and positive stories, that seem to escape mainstream media radar. For example here is a story of Israeli and Palestinian formula one enthusiasts who are going to compete together. And here is another story that people recommended in the comments about quite an old initiative where Israeli and Palestinian kids are brought together to play soccer. Actually i heard about the last one before and even met some people who have been involved. It was an interesting initiative and wonder if it’s still going on.

Although it appears small and insignificant, i think it is important that we remain aware of such grassroots (but not only) initiatives. The more of those we have, the more there would be hope for change (i even put a positive picture :).

And on a slightly different, but still positive, note I wanted to draw your attention to the approaching deadline for Stockholm Challenge submissions. It is a competition for an award in the field of ICT and development hosted by the municipality of (surprise, surprise) Stockholm. The deadline is Dec. 31. Good luck if you are applying!