Paloma Rocillo

Institute for Research on Internet and Society, Brazil

The universalization of the internet guides my research efforts, although engaging with different dimensions of internet governance, such as transparency, content moderation and jurisdiction. By writing a book on Latin American digital inclusion policies and a glossary about it, I have the outlook to be vice-head of a Research Center and member of the Government Telecommunications Agency advisory board. With this background, I manage research and act on political incidence to construct public policies based on scientific evidence. In a country where the Government recognizes that it doesn’t have data about the country’s connectivity situation, this dialogue is urgent.

 

Fellow Report:

EuroSSIG Participation Report 2022

Expand horizons. These two words, which are few but say a lot, sum up my experience as a participant in EuroSSIG 2022. When I signed up for the training, my expectation was to access knowledge that was still very limited about internet governance and often difficult to be developed in a self-taught. My expectation was to learn about the structures, actors and dynamics of internet governance. The summer school completely met that expectation. The high level of classes and activities allowed me to have a unique learning experience that, mainly, considers the student as an active and central part of teaching. The contents taught were presented in an extremely didactic and understandable way, allowing the tangle that internet governance is to be organized and synthesized in a way that is palatable to those who are still finding themselves in such a large world of internet studies.

EuroSSIG 2022 was a unique learning experience. But it was also a unique exchange experience. As a researcher and activist in the global south, I have little contact with actors located in other geographic regions, which often makes it difficult to conceive of the internet as a global and common good. Summer school was my first cross-cultural immersion experience as well. Understanding how other jurisdictions are building their policies, their challenges and their development efforts has made my horizons expand a lot. More than that, my schoolmates are now also companions on a journey to make internet use in line with human rights. I now know that I have a foothold in India, Pakistan, France, Nigeria, the Netherlands and in so many places around the globe to converge efforts for a common good.

The expansion of horizons provided by EuroSSIG was also an opportunity for personal growth through contact with faculties. In my previous teaching and learning experiences, the relationship between teacher and student has always been very hierarchical. At EuroSSIG, the opportunity to have a direct and spontaneous conversation with the faculties created a sense of belonging and strength, as I was occupying the same space and building knowledge with professors with admirable and inspiring careers.

Gratitude for the opportunity to be in an environment of such quality and power will be permanent and I hope that the network and knowledge built from the summer school will also be.