Hands of a guy on laptop keyboard

DiploNews – Issue 237 – 1 October 2013

Looking ahead to 2014!

Now is the right time to plan ahead for 2014. We've opened applications for our first set of online courses next year, starting the week of 17 February:

Apply by 16 December 2013 for University of Malta accredited courses and by 13 January 2014 for Diplo Certificate Courses. For further information or to apply, click on the titles of the courses above, or visit our courses website. These courses are always popular, so register now to reserve your place.

Is Brazil leading a new revolution in global digital policy?

Recent events in IG have continued to shape Brazil’s position. The country has reacted strongly to the NSA disclosures, while bilateral relations with the United States were affected after it emerged that the personal communications of the Brazilian president and that of national oil company Petrobras were being monitored.

During our just-in-time webinar last week, co-organised with the Center for Technology and Society of the Getulio Vargas Foundation of Brazil (CTS/FGV), Marília Maciel, director of CTS/FGV, and Diego Canabarro, doctoral student in IG at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and visiting researcher at the University of Massachusetts, explored these developments. Watch the webinar recording here:

YouTube player

and read the digest here

In a separate post, Marilia Maciel writes about the Brazil-US relations, and Brazil’s reaction to the NSA leaks, while Jovan Kurbalija reflects on the relevance of these developments in global policy, and what this means for the future of the Internet, in Are we facing a turning point in global digital politics?

What's been happening in Diplo's blogosphere?

On the e-diplomacy channel, Pete Cranston wonders whether the forward march of e-diplomacy has paused… He takes a poll on attitudes to e-diplomacy post-Snowden to help us gauge the impact of the continuing events triggered by Edward Snowden's leaks to the UK Guardian about the kind of social sharing we didn't want. Kishan Rana looks at the booming trade in Honorary Consuls and concludes that they are 'a remarkably effective, almost zero-cost option for representation in cities and regions where countries may not opt to establish fulltime consulates of their own. […] It is a diplomacy trend that has a sound future.'

Remember, you too can have your say by commenting on these or any of our blog posts. And, if you’d like to be a guest blogger, let us know.

Discussing Internet governance

In today’s day and age, our electronic footprints reveal plenty of personal information about us. In Why we need strong internet governance, Aldo Matteucci argues that our data is being used by Internet companies and our governments for profiling purposes. What can be done about this?

In The Story of China’s Biggest Social Network, Hui Zhou writes about Qzone, a social networking site owned by Tencent, and arguably one of the most active networks in the world, especially in China. Poncelet O. Ileleji writes about discussions on the Internet and Human Rights which took place last week during the second African Internet Governance Forum in Kenya.

Meanwhile, the annual Internet Governance Forum is taking place soon in Bali Indonesia. If you cannot travel to Bali, Farzaneh Baidei, from the IGF Secretariat, describes you can participate remotely. Remote participants can also organise remote hubs. Read more here. If you plan to participate, post a reply to Virginia (Ginger) Paque’s blog post, Diplo is going to Bali (online or in person).

Follow more IG-related news and discussions on Diplo’s Internet governance channel, and on Diplo’s IG community blog roll.

 

Subscribe to Diplo's News