[bestbits] 2nd call for inquiries re capacity building assistance offer to digital rights advocates

[Becky Lentz]

Dear colleagues,

Greetings again from Montreal. As part of an ongoing experiment in
university-civil society collaboration, I¹m sending a second invitation for
expressions of interest from potential civil society partners (for Fall
2015, in the Americas only, preferably not in Canada or the US) seeking
research that supports their Internet-related policy advocacy work. Of
particular interest are proposals from groups involved in IGF (or
considering becoming involved in them). Other proposals for research
assistance are also invited.

As background, previous civil society partners have included Derechos
Digitales (DD) in Santiago and the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) in
Kampala. Outcomes for two semester-long projects with DD include the
following research brief, which was developed by students and then
edited/translated/formatted by DD:
https://www.derechosdigitales.org/wp-content/uploads/PP05.pdf; we are now
completing a second project featuring a review of the literature (scholarly,
news, government, and civil society sources) about the benefits of the IGF
for civil society organizations, a report that anticipates the 2015 IGF in
Latin America. Testimonials and references from DD are available about how
DD has benefited from both of these collaborations.

The third semester-long project resulted in establishing 3
university-supported internships to help WOUGNET with a variety of capacity
building needs: an Information/ Communications Intern
(http://wougnet.org/2014/02/internship-opportunity-informationcommunications
-deadline-28th-february/), a Technical Support Intern
(https://www.mcgill.ca/arts-internships/files/arts-internships/wougnet_tech_
support_intern.pdf), and Gender and ICT Policy Advocacy
(https://www.mcgill.ca/arts-internships/files/arts-internships/wougnet_gende
r_and_ict_policy_advocacy_0.pdf).  Testimonials and references from WOUGNET
are also available.

The process for identifying a civil society partner for the Fall semester
2015 is now underway; it consists of the following steps: 1) an expression
of interest by a potential civil society partner; 2) based on a possible
match, an invitation for a short proposal (template will be provided); and
3) if selected, a jointly-crafted memorandum of understanding (MOU) between
the selected civil society partner and my class. There are no costs to the
partner organization other than a modest commitment of time during the
semester-long project.

If you have advocacy-related research needs and you think a
September-December timeframe for working together with a report available to
you in late December 2015 meets your timeframe, please feel free to contact
me off-list.

Best,
Becky Lentz
McGill University


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