Internet Freedom Track: Call for Proposals

The DWeb Camp 2024 theme is “Migration: Moving Together”.

Migration, in the context of decentralization, involves moving people and their data to a more open, secure, equitable, and accessible decentralized web. It is a call for collective action and resource gathering that will not only enable these migrations, but also surface and address the various issues that come with them.

Conversely, communities experience forced migration due to war, environmental degredation, corporate land grabs, and political forces beyond their control. Decentralized and distributed tools can provide identity verification, access to resources and currency, censorship resistance, data-sovereignty, and archiving of cultural arftifacts that are hugely beneficial to those experiencing forced migration. Decentralized hardware and last-mile connection solutions such as community networks can alleviate problems for communities cut off from the Internet — As we've learned from the story of the stateless Rohingya people and how they’ve overcome authoritarian controls to preserve their identity and culture, the story of how Maasai Tribespeople of Tanzania locate and map their oral storytelling traditions about places of significant meaning, the story of how communities in repressive environments bypass censorship or maintain secure community-owned and operated networks in the face of Internet shutdowns and intermittent connectivity.

Ensuring Internet freedom is crucial to DWeb Camp 2024’s mission because it is essential for strengthening communities and individuals, especially those facing displacement or repression. Often, the first step that repressive regimes take is to cut segments of the population off from the Internet, while monitoring and censoring discourse within its firewalls. In the wake of the growing use of surveillance and censorship technology across the globe, Internet Freedom Track is a designated space for on-the-ground activists, tech builders, security and privacy experts, journalists, human rights practitioners and advocates and others to gather and learn from each other.

This year, we are addressing a wide range of Internet Freedom challenges aligned with our theme “Migration: Moving Together,” including but not limited to:
 

• Digital Security and Privacy
• Information Controls
• Resilient and Secure Communications
• Local Community Networks
• Open-source and Secure File Management & Storage
• Surveillance and Censorship Circumvention
• Critical Infrastructure
• Geopolitical Challenges and Opportunities
   

Co-Design the Internet Freedom Track

This year Internet Freedom Track will be led and curated by the DWeb Fellows 2024 cohort. Here are some ways in which you can participate in co-designing the Internet Freedom Track:
 

• Share your skills, knowledge, and best practices
• Invite other to collaborate on what you’re working on
• Consult or collect inputs for a project
• Share your challenges and start a conversation

Planning a Strong Session
 
DWeb Camp is all about sharing and giving. If you're planning on attending, consider leading a session. Whether it's a workshop, a talk, or a discussion, we encourage sessions to be as participatory, hands-on, and collaborative as possible.

Please consider the following criteria when designing your session:
 

1. Relevant
   How might  your proposal be relevant to the needs and interests of the DWeb community? Does it aim to find solutions to an existing problem or address a real-world need?
    
2. Participatory
   How might your proposal prioritize the participant experience? Does it put forth an intentional session design to ensure participants are invested?
    
3. Original
   Does your proposal introduce a new idea or offer a fresh take on an issue? Does it purposefully build on an established conversation?
    
4. Diverse
   How might your proposal welcome people with diverse experiences and opinions to the table? What are ways it can feature perspectives from different contexts and communities?
    
5. Inclusive
   How might your proposal be accessible to the broad audience of Dweb Camp participants and not just people with technical knowledge?
    

SUBMIT YOUR SESSION ↗

If you have any questions or need help turning an idea into a session, please contact ngọc at [email protected] or @kirakirawes on Telegram and Discord.