Some of the latest issues on citizen media, freedom of information, digital security, indigenous languages and multilingualism online, and internet activism will be tackled in a two-day international summit initiated by Global Voices in Cebu City.

The Global Voices Citizen Media Summit, to be held from January 24-25, 2015 at the Cebu Provincial Capitol, will coincide with the organization’s 10th anniversary.

Global Voices is an international citizen media network founded in 2004 at the Harvard University.

Over a hundred international bloggers, citizen media advocates, and tech experts from over 60 countries across the globe will gather for the event, which will highlight talks, panels, and workshops on the relations between open Internet and social movements around the world.

Global Voices organizers at the Cebu Provincial Capitol. (From the Global Voices Storify Feed)
Global Voices organizers at the Cebu Provincial Capitol. (From the Global Voices Storify Feed)

Leading the summit discussions are Global Voices co-founders Ethan Zuckerman and Rebecca MacKinnon. Zuckerman is also director of MIT’s Center for Civic Media while MacKinnon is the author of the book Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom.

On the first day of the summit, London-based Media Legal Defense Initiative legal director Nani Jansen will talk about protecting the open internet against government policies and corporate practice that endanger Internet users’ rights of free expression and privacy.

There will be a session on Freedom of Information Laws featuring experts led by Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) Executive Director Malou Mangahas. They will share their first-hand experience in the use of these laws to bring about greater transparency and accountability.

Also scheduled is a panel on how Filipino Citizen Media have been used in mobilizing street protests and coordinating disaster relief and response efforts along with the barriers they face relating to cost and quality of internet connection to online regulations.

The second day of the summit will train the spotlight on indigenous language digital activism, including a session on Filipino Indigenous Languages in Citizen Media. It will explore the ways indigenous languages are being promoted online.

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Other panel discussions would touch on digital security and privacy, online censorship and freedom of speech worldwide, and a roundup of the Magna Carta of Internet users from all over the world.

Like the past Global Voices summits in the UK, India, Hungary, Chile and Kenya, the Global Voices Media Summit 2015 promises to be a productive site for inspiring fresh ideas, sharing experiences, and forging cross-border collaborations.

Members of the public can register to attend the event at http://summit2015.globalvoicesonline.org. The cost of admission for the two days is PHP 2,000 for Filipino residents, with a special student rate of PHP 1,000.

The Global Voices Summit 2015 is sponsored by the Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Google, the Province of Cebu, Knight Foundation, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Sun.Star Publishing, Open Society Foundations, Yahoo, and PRWorks.

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