In The secret life of creatives at the intersection of human rights and technology, I shared how the 2020 Internet Freedom Festival’s creative concept was developed. Now it’s time for the big reveal!

“A festival is just densified internet.”

But first, here’s a little recap on Internet Alchemy:

The concept of Internet Alchemy was born using the world of alchemy as the source of inspiration and infusing it with the digital rights agenda.

Why do people come together at festivals? To create change.

That creation is oftentimes chaotic, unpredictable. We call Internet Alchemy the process of mixing the unexpected to collectively create the change we want.

Internet Alchemy is the catalyst for community transformation.

In Internet Alchemy terms, transformation is an ongoing cycle, not a goal. Digital rights groups are both products and makers of the internet; descendants and progenitors; cause and effect.

Internet Alchemy for the 2020 Internet Freedom Festival

And now, here’s the final set of Internet Alchemy designs. Feel free to download and share them with the world.

Key Visuals

These three images, “01.Creation”, 02.Gathering” and “03.Transformation”, are our windows into the universe of Internet Alchemy.

Internet Freedom Festival 2020 Announcement Posters

A Visual Voyage Through Internet Alchemy

I had the pleasure to work together with the amazing Sandro Rybak on this project. Together, we spent some months bringing Internet Alchemy to life. It’s not very often that you see how ideas make their way to the real world, but that’s exactly the goal of this two-part series. This was our journey.

Exploring the concept

Early Sketches

Exploring Color

Expanding the Universe

Want more?

Join us April 20–24 at the 2020 Internet Freedom Festival in Valencia to get some fresh Internet Alchemy merch!

Internet Alchemy for Community Transformation ✨ was originally published in IFF Community Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Every year the personality and visual identity of the Internet Freedom Festival changes to capture the dynamic spirit of human rights defenders around the world. Just as eclectic as our community, our image has mutated from Memphis Group style squiggly lines and unicorns, to geeky tropical vibes, to activist spirit animals. The 2020 IFF will bring some of the biggest changes to the festival so far, including how we approach the creation of our visual identity.

In this post series I’ll be taking you behind the scenes of the 2020 IFF creative direction process. Creative direction is more than just design; it sets the tone, the mood, the atmosphere. It identifies opportunities that drive the creation of new activities and programs. Most importantly, it creates the narrative and personality required for the outside world to engage with your organization.

By exposing this otherwise unnoticed process, I’d like to celebrate the role of creatives working in digital rights and, hopefully, inspire more of them to join the space.

Right now there is a great opportunity for creatives to work at the intersection of human rights and technology, by helping organizations better respond to challenges through radical new approaches, breaking free of the lethargic cycle of traditional requests for proposals.

Part 1: The Concept

In creative direction, the only thing more important than the what is the why. The concept is the compass that guides you when you get lost exploring the Realm of Inspiration and its multiple crossroads and alternate paths.

With the 2020 IFF, the organization is entering a new stage. As our team grows and new programs are launched, the communities we serve are evolving too. Many new groups have appeared over the past five years (shout out to our friends at Digital Society of Zimbabwe, an organization that was born at the first IFF). Because the IFF was conceived as a community tool, not as a conference, we are committed to adapting to the needs of the digital rights space.

Next year’s IFF will revolve around the importance of transformation, and how we can collectively achieve the change we want.

This underlying theme serves as the foundation for the creative concept. The challenge is to create a concept that attracts and engages our community to participate in this collective transformation.

Selecting the concept is like setting the laws of nature in a new universe. These laws should allow for life to easily thrive and develop with as much diversity as is possible.

It’s important to test the potential of a concept early on. For instance, one of the first concepts I explored for next year revolved around transformation as movement and exploration. I thought about creating a map of the Land of Digital Rights, making each region a digital rights issue that we would like to explore. We could make mail stamps for each region. IFF participants could collect these stamps by attending sessions on different topics, and then stick them to their IFF Exploration Journal. During the opening ceremony we could use paper planes to send messages of encouragement to other participants. We could make Postcards from the Internet, and send them en masse to denounce organizations with bad policies, or to give love and support to those defending an open and accessible internet for all. For the closing ceremony, we could have a collective exercise to include “uncharted areas” in the Land of Digital Rights map, which could serve as a roadmap for future issues and challenges we should be working on over the next year.

However, in any creative endeavor, quality requires quantity. And so, many concepts later, I had a realization:

The concept shouldn’t focus on transformation as a topic, it should focus on transformation as a process.

From alchemy to Internet Alchemy

Some time before our current era lived a man who produced cryptic works about natural philosophy, such as the relationship between the macro and the micro (“as above, so below”), how all things exist in duality and polarity, and how every cause has an effect. His writings (or hers, or theirs) fascinated many for centuries to come, including Isaac Newton himself, who translated The Emerald Tablet to English. This man was Hermes Trismegistus (Thrice-Greatest), and he’s often referred to as one of the firsts alchemists.

In essence, alchemy is about achieving a transformation. It was the following excerpt from The Seven Great Hermetic Principles that helped me leap to the next level.

Reading:

“Matter is just densified spirit.”

I thought:

“A festival is just densified internet.”

The concept of Internet Alchemy was born using the world of alchemy as the source of inspiration and infusing it with the digital rights agenda.

Why do people come together at festivals?

To create change.

That creation is oftentimes chaotic, unpredictable.

We call Internet Alchemy the process of mixing the unexpected to collectively create the change we want.

Internet Alchemy is the catalyst for community transformation.

In Internet Alchemy terms, transformation is an ongoing cycle, not a goal. Digital rights groups are both products and makers of the internet; descendants and progenitors; cause and effect.

The building blocks of the concept were established by breaking down the key elements of alchemy and coming up with their Internet Alchemy equivalents:

Beyond the visuals

The creative concept needs to transcend the graphics and permeate throughout the entire project. The stronger the concept, the greater the source of inspiration for new ideas. The following are some early ideas that were explored to bring the Internet Alchemy concept to life at the 2020 IFF:

• Session format: Transmutation, new format where speakers are matched with others from different backgrounds to co-lead a session that may produce unexpected outcomes and new approaches.
• Opening ceremony: participants are encouraged to take a moment to reflect about what they came here to transform, both at a personal level (micro), and as part of their community (macro).
• Social activity: displaying messages of support for digital rights and freedom of expression can be dangerous in some regions. Throughout the week, IFF attendees can participate in workshops to “code” the identity of their community, designing their own alchemical symbols only recognizable by other initiates.

Continue reading part two of this series:

Internet Alchemy for Community Transformation ✨

The secret life of creatives at the intersection of human rights and technology was originally published in IFF Community Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Help us improve the IFF! Take our 5 minute survey and let us know what you think about IFF 2019.

The foundational stone of the IFF has always been our community, ensuring that they take center stage to everything that we do. Your feedback is critical to ensuring that the IFF remains a useful tool that allows us to look towards the future together, and to build a healthy movement that promotes collaboration and solidarity.

What did Participants Feel About IFF 2019?

During our first Glitter Meetup post-IFF, we continued this research by asking community members to share their thoughts on the IFF 2019 instance and this is what they had to say:

• Overwhelmingly, folks enjoyed what they described as a “chill and relaxed” environment. Adding to this, one newcomer stated that IFF was better than they had imagined, while others stated that the Code of Conduct felt less intimidating than last year, and that there was a good mix between newcomers and returning participants.
• Folks appreciated the theme of gratitude, as the past year has been very difficult for many.
• Participants that had attended previous editions stated that they enjoyed the increase in countries represented from their region, and felt that it was one of the most diverse gatherings to-date. However, some folks hope that future instances will include more academics.
• The expo tables were also positively received, with those running the tables stating that they had visitors all the time, and participants stating that they enjoyed the one-to-one. However, folks felt they needed to be better organized, along with the mentor and digisec tables.
• There was a lot of appreciation for themed music nights, even though some suggested having some of those offsite next year. Meetups were overwhelmingly positively received, and folks appreciated they were scheduled earlier in the week.
• Some felt that the program moved away from focusing on tools, but that it was a welcomed change. While most session were amazing, participants reported that some sessions leads didn’t pay attention to the session role cards, meaning some sessions got derailed. In addition, some speakers didn’t show up.
• The biggest annoyances was the lack of strong internet and good coffee. In addition, folks requested that future instances have a better schedule page, suggesting the possible creation of an app. One suggestion included having a “subscribe” button on session pages, so folks can get notified before session start.
• The use of the library this year was the biggest surprise. People said that during registration it was more accommodating for people with disabilities. Others stated that having the tool showcase there was preferable because it was warm and quiet.
• Overwhelmingly, people appreciated the introduction of psychologists but asked for more diversity of both languages and backgrounds on the Wellness Team in future instances.

We Want Your Feedback!
If you want to share your feedback, we want to hear from you! Take our 5 minute survey and let us know what you think! Remember, we can’t improve the IFF without your help!

Join Us Virtually Every Week!
We also encourage you to participate in the weekly IFF Glitter Meetup (GM), where the Internet Freedom Festival comes to you every week, taking place every Thursday a 9am est. GM is a great place to connect and share with others throughout the year, and contact the IFF team with any question or concern you may have. In addition, if you would like to be a featured guest, reach out to sandy@internetfreedomfestival.org

You Spoke, We Listened! Feedback Post-IFF 2019 was originally published in IFF Community Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This post was written by 2019 IFF Community Development Fellow, Laura Schwartz-Henderson, as part of her fellowship.

It is time to have a more inclusive and comprehensive conversation about funding for the digital rights community.

Whether we like it or not, funding plays an essential role in enabling and structuring the possibilities for a diverse range of organizations in this space- CSOs working on public engagement and digital literacy, those developing more secure communication technologies, those training human rights defenders, and those working to empower marginalized populations in online spaces. While money is certainly not the only contributing factor to organizational success, we all know that greater levels of financial resources allow actors to hire staff, build audiences, diversify actions, take risks, innovate, and scale successful programs. Funding also structures who can participate in regional and international fora, who can speak for local communities, and whose voice is the most heard. And of course anything money-related also raises (sometimes uncomfortable) questions about privilege, power, and inequality. If you are lucky enough to be attending this year’s Internet Freedom Festival, think about how you are getting there. Who is paying for you, and where did that money originate from? Is your organization covering your travel under a line item within an existing grant budget? Are you using personal funds? Were you sponsored by the IFF or another organization? Where did this organization get their funds? How does the source of this funding impact you and your work?

Rarely Does the community have Open Conversations About Funding in an Inclusive, Participatory Way

Organizations, large and small, spend a great deal of their own resources (human, time, and financial) scanning the horizon for funding opportunities, drafting grant proposals, and seeking to match their own programmatic priorities and organizational needs with the administrative requirements and agendas of donors. However, this matching process is rarely one-to-one, and there is a constantly shifting and rather imprecise process whereby organizations mold programs to fit specific grant requirements while donors ideally seek to better understand how funding can serve needs, confront challenges, and capitalize on opportunities in a variety of contexts. Those CSOs that can expend these resources towards grant writing (largely in English), development-oriented activities and building the administrative capacity required to manage grants are often those that are able to bring in the most funds.

At the same time, donors have their own agendas as well as internal and external bureaucratic and political forces that determine the range of possible programs, organizations, and jurisdictions that can be supported and the processes for the provision of this support. Largely, agenda-setting and donor policy-making decisions are made exclusively by individual donors, and are determined by a combination of foundation boards, donor governments, program officers, and a variety of expert consultants. Broader conversations about how to make philanthropic dollars and aid more effective take place ad-hoc and within silos, with donor organizations occasionally meeting together at international fora or discussing challenges with particular grantees. Rarely do we as an entire community have conversations about the difficulties, opportunities, and operational challenges associated with funding and fundraising in an open, honest, inclusive, and participatory way.

Funding Issues are the Primary obstacle to Better Research, Advocacy efforts, and Collaboration Across Organizations.

Last year at the IFF, we presented findings from our research on the self-perceived needs, challenges, and constraints faced by digital rights organizations working around the world. Unsurprisingly, funding-related issues emerged as the primary obstacle cited by organizations to better research, advocacy efforts, and collaboration across organizations.

Structural issues related to funding were seen by respondents as largely dictating the types of issues organizations can focus on, incentivizing shorter term projects over more strategic goals and the longer term sustainability of organizations, prioritizing trendy “buzzword” oriented approaches to challenges, and creating what one respondent called the “scramble for funding opportunities” in which potential partners position themselves as competitors for limited funding rather than collaborators.

These challenges are echoed in the findings of the Global Forum for Media Development’s recent study on their members’ perceptions of the relationship between funding and the performance of the wider media freedom sector. Their respondents indicated frustration with short funding cycles, donor funding practices that often fail to cover operational costs and administrative needs, and low levels of consultation with local stakeholders in agenda-setting processes. A majority of the respondents to their member survey described “poor alignment between the sector’s needs and donor priorities” and “low donor understanding” (both at 56% of respondents) as the greatest challenges faced in the provision of funding (as compared to only 42% who described low aggregate levels of funding available as a major challenge). This indicates significant areas for improvement in closing the gaps between what is demanded by grassroots organizations for funding and what is supplied by donors.

Donors Recognize Need for New and More Collective Practices to Support Sustainable, Vibrant, and Diverse Media Ecosystems

Recently, I worked with the Center For International Media Assistance to interview a range of donors from bilateral aid agencies, multilateral bodies, and private philanthropic foundations to better understand how funders determine agendas around media support and understand their role in confronting the challenges facing media systems worldwide.

This research indicates that donors increasingly recognize that there is a need for new and more collective donor practices in order to support sustainable, vibrant, and diverse media ecosystems within increasingly difficult and complex contexts.

Across a wide range of donors, there is better understanding of the importance of moving away from project-based support towards funds for core organizational support and administrative capacity building. In addition, there is general consensus across donors regarding the incorporation of better consultative practices with local stakeholders in building donor agendas at the national, regional, and international level and encouraging larger collaborative networks of actors. While donors acknowledge organizational difficulties in reforming donor practices related to the distribution of funds and reporting requirements, there is also recognition that outcomes could be improved and administrative burdens reduced for local organizations through procedural reforms that make the process more flexible.

A New Window of Opportunity for the Digital Rights Community

This research suggests that perhaps there is a window of opportunity for our community to engage in more open and honest dialogue to better understand philanthropic demand (from practitioners and civil society), philanthropic supply (from donor organizations), and how to fill the gaps that exist between them within the digital rights sector. And why shouldn’t the digital rights community, a field that has embraced the ethos of bottom-up organizing, innovation through co-creation, diverse perspectives, and collaborative multi-stakeholder organizational experiments, act as a pioneer in opening up this conversation towards the development of more participatory and collaborative funding structures? Why shouldn’t the IFF, an organization focused entirely on supporting this community and making it more inclusive, serve as the platform for this experimentation?

IFF as Platform for Experimentation

This year at the IFF, we are hoping to open up dialogue on the impact of current grantmaking and fundraising practices and the ways we might collectively and constructively develop more equitable and effective practices for funding in our community.

One possible option would be to develop a participatory grantmaking model to pilot within the IFF community, working with one donor or pooling funds from multiple donors. Participatory grantmaking, also called community funding, activist funding, or peer review grantmaking, supposes that those closest to and most familiar with the challenges affecting specific communities should be the actors who collectively determine those solutions that are supported. Within a wider participatory framework, there are many ways in which donors have been seeking to bring non-grantmakers into the philanthropic decision-making process by including new voices on foundation boards or within advisory committees. However, participatory grantmaking more specifically builds processes that prioritize practitioner communities’ involvement in setting agendas, developing application processes, designing the guidelines for application review, making funding decisions, and reflecting on outcomes to guide future giving.

Supporters of participatory grantmaking tout that this kind of co-creative process not only makes philanthropy more democratic, transparent, inclusive, and empowering to community members but also can lead to more effective grant-giving through continuous feedback and input from those most affected. It is also a process that invites community members to contribute, and thus builds capacity for populations that have been underrepresented within philanthropic power structures to build skills related to philanthropic processes.

The Lafayette Practice, a philanthropic advisory practice, highlighted in its review of several participatory grantmaking funds that these projects evolve significantly over time and can be shaped distinctly and creatively by the communities they serve. If we are to involve the community in funding decision-making, perhaps perceptions of the funding process can be transformed from the “scramble for funding opportunities” into an essential and strategic component of the wider collective movement.

So how possible would it be to build such a participatory fund for our community? It sounds too good to be true, no? Participatory grantmaking has recently been explored by some donor organizations, including the Ford Foundation who commissioned an excellent report on the topic by Cynthia Gibson, but the model has rarely been adopted by traditional funders.

Funders with Participatory Experience can Help

However, several organizations participating in the IFF this year have experience distributing funds via participatory processes. FRIDA, the Young Feminist Fund, was founded in 2010 to put funding decision-making “into the hands of young feminists themselves as agents for change” to “shift traditional power relations between funder and grantee”. FRIDA currently supports over 200 young feminist led organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Caucasus, Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia and the pacific. “The Wikimedia Foundation’s Grantmaking Program is the largest international participatory grantmaking vehicle in terms of the level of participation from community members and the funds distributed. The foundation has adopted the ethos of Wikipedia in that, just as anyone can become a Wikipedia editor, anyone can make a proposal to the foundation. The peer review process includes an intentionally diverse 54 community members and more than 1,000 participants. The process has evolved over time, and offers space for flexibility and experimentation, with a metawiki called Idealab that serves as a proposal incubator for people to get community feedback and support in turning ideas into full proposals.

Share Your Feedback with Us at the IFF

In our session at this year’s IFF, Understanding Global Funding Needs, Challenges, and Practicalities, we hope to engage in discussion about these issues and bring representatives from donor organizations, those with experience in participatory grantmaking, and practitioners together to envision how some of these models could be replicated for the IFF community.

As part of this endeavor, I’ve also built a ‘curated’ schedule below for those interested in attending sessions that relate to community development, philanthropy, diverse voices, and participation. Please, if I’ve missed any sessions that you think are relevant to these topics or if you have any questions or insights to share, feel free to email me at laurash3nd@gmail.com and/or come to our session on Tuesday!

Laura’s picks for ‘From the Bottom Up’ IFF Sessions:

Day 1: Monday, April 1

Let’s talk about local capacity

Time: 02:45–03:45 PM

We (implementers, donors) are investing a lot of energy in developing local capacity, however, sometimes instead of strengthening we are damaging it. Or, at least, don’t invest in effective local capacity, but invest in something less useful then it could be. So how to develop local capacity? How effective local capacity should look like? Let’s have an informal talk on this, share our experience, exchange ideas and, maybe, find a better way to develop local capacity.

Support for Journalists Under Attack: What can you bring to the table?

Time: 04:00–05:00 PM

This session is a follow up to sessions organized by CPJ, IWMF and TrollBusters in 2017 and 2018 to identify and find solutions to the incessant harassment of female journalists that impacts their work and safety. The organizers of this session have secured a grant from the Knight Foundation to identify existing support service providers and to connect those resources to female journalists under threat. This may include, but is not limited to: training; digital hygiene assessment; threat assessment and response; one on one direct support clinic; and other direct interventions to support female journalists online. During the session we will build a coalition to provide their services and organizational support as part of this initiative.

Organizing without the internet: an intergenerational conversation

Time: 05:15–06:15 PM

What can we learn from the from the civil rights movement, the anti-colonial revolution, the struggles of the Dalit women, the #BlackLivesMatter struggle, and #NoSocialMediaTax movements? We will bring together all of those that participated in these struggles together to share tips about organizing offline and online. During this conversation, we will curate tools people used to organize before the internet like other than zines, flyers, posters, and tools they used to gather millions to the streets. We will also h

Towards dissident technologies: mapping the routes of technology production to imagine futures in common

Time: 05:15–07:15 PM

We conceive technology as an assemblage of materialities, norms, flows, actors, practices, territories, bodies, and subjectivities: something inextricably related to what we are, think and feel. In many indigenous and non-urban or alternative communities, the respect of nature, the attachment to the land, the preservation of memory and traditions, shared goals and a strong organization are crucial to surviving.

However, these imaginaries are not compatible with the dominant and corporate technological rationality that takes advantage of people’s lives and environments and produce narratives that separate the land, the people and their affections. For these communities, digital colonialism, the datafication of the self, and the capture of life produce poverty, exclusion, the loss of natural resources, and, in some cases, death. In this workshop, we would like to analyze the implications of digital colonialism in our quotidian lives and in relation to our traditional cultures.

Through participatory methodologies and the support of different visual materials, we will map the routes of technology production and locate our place in that network of relationships, resources, narratives, agents, territories, bodies, and subjectivities. We will frame these flows within a socio-technical system that includes the extraction of minerals and the effects on the land and territories, energy consumption (in transportation, manufacturing and packaging, data centers, cryptocurrency mining, end users, among others), labor exploitation and labor rights in the ‘maquilas’, technological dumps, and affectivity. We want to intervene those routes: How can free technologies contribute to building narratives that are significant for indigenous and non-urban or alternative communities? How can we imagine other futures, where free software development is closer to indigenous, non-urban territories, bodies, and subjectivities? How free technologies contribute to decolonize ourselves and our territories? From these traces, we will create alternative narratives based on the ethics of free technologies.

Day 2: Tuesday, April 2

Understanding Global Funding Needs, Challenges, and Practicalities

Time: 09:45–10:45 AM

This session seeks to build on research collected, presented, and extended through the IFF in previous festivals (2017, 2018) on the needs and challenges of the digital rights community in producing impactful, sustainable, and collaborative research and advocacy for digital rights and internet freedom outcomes.

In 2017–2018, the Internet Policy Observatory conducted a survey of 79 digital rights organizations from around the world to better understand the bottlenecks to collaboration and perceptions of how campaigns could be made more strategic, localized, inclusive, and impactful. The challenge most noted by respondents in this survey related to the way in which donor organizations’ grantmaking and funding procedures and policies structure the possibilities for effective long-term planning and coalition building for the field. Organizations noted that the topics of interest within calls for proposals tend to be those that are most relevant within Western contexts, but might be less appropriate or necessary in country contexts where internet penetration and media literacy remain relatively low.

One of the most mentioned funding-related obstacles to greater strategic collaboration around national and regional media-related issues was the competition over funds, what one respondent called the “scramble for funding opportunities,” in which potential partners position themselves as competitors for limited funding rather than collaborators.

Organizations also cited funding instability and seemingly capricious donor priorities as incentives for organizations to focus on short-term projects rather than broad, long-term commitments and ongoing collaborative ventures. These and other concerns that this research brought to light make clear the importance of considering the architectures of global media funding and the ways in which localized expertise can be better understood and incorporated into funding priorities and procedures.

To expand upon these findings, we are seeking to engage in a new phase of research specifically focused on understanding the challenges digital rights organizations face related to finding, applying for, and sustaining funding, as well as potential remedies for these challenges via collaboration and discussions between donor organizations and NGOs. We seek to structure this IFF session as a conversation where digital rights activists can share their experiences and challenges related to funding, and also to discuss current best practices for engaging with donor organizations.

Securing Mutual Aid: Building and Nurturing Platforms for Collective Action

Time: 11:00–12:00 PM

This session seeks to illuminate community lessons and potential pathways for increased mutuality, inclusion and resiliency within and between distinct projects with similar goals. Crabgrass and Pursuance are two collective action toolkits with significant overlap in their objectives and methods.

Crabgrass has a decade of experience working to facilitate secure collaboration within and among human rights and social justice communities, while the Pursuance Project is preparing the first release of a new platform for secure, scaled coordination. We are working to build a world where logs are no longer possible. Join the technologists, designers and dreamers making the next wave of open source collaboration — one which bridges projects, technologies, and communities through communication, collaboration, and mutual aid. We will discuss how these visions and experiences are constrained by the realities of the ecosystem in which we work but also how radically-minded, community-oriented projects can better equip human rights defenders with the tools they need when they coordinate their efforts.

Creative Comms: Novel Tools for Communicating

Time: 12:15–01:15 PM

Room: Flyover Back

Sneakernets, blackout-resilient offline messaging, or bouncing messages over existing services. There are many creative approaches and unique challenges to passing messages via unconventional means. This workshop will show participants how to use tools to pass encrypted messages from phone to phone without using the internet, and how to utilize hidden chat services to use Signal in new ways. We will discuss the benefits and tradeoffs of using these creative approaches to communication, and how new technologies will change the landscape of surveillance-resistant communication over the next few years.

Beyond Rough Consensus: Lessons from the Community Consultation on the Future of Global Voices

Time: 04:00–05:00 PM

Room: Sky Room

The session will share lessons and provide insights for other community-driven organizations that may want to adopt elements of a Community Council model for consultation on strategic directions for the organization or collective.

For many years, Global Voices relied upon rough consensus to make decisions about profound changes within our community, the world around us, and the technologies we use. Over the course of our 13-year history, our community had grown too large for successful community-wide discussion over email or messaging platforms. To address our persistent challenge in organizational decision-making and ensure opportunities for diverse voices within our community, we built a deliberative body called the Community Council to debate complex strategic questions and discuss issues that affect the entire community.

We convened this group over a period of two months for the purpose of advising on our future. By expressing their preferences and opinions on four substantial questions about our values, how we organize ourselves, how we work, and how we find resources, this Council has helped us build a roadmap for our future. The model has proven to be an important way for a community-driven organization comprised primarily of volunteers to have a say in the organization’s direction. Building projects and initiatives that take community interests and priorities into account requires consultation, outreach and ongoing support for participants. The Council has helped us articulate and gain community support for changes to our organizational structure and mission.

The IFF in context: The transnational social movement for digital rights

Time: 05:15–06:15 PM

Room: Theater

Did you know that the IFF community is part of a broader social movement for communication rights that spans the globe and even predates the internet? This session will explore the digital rights space’s past, present and future through a discussion of technology’s role in activism, the movement’s strategies, successes and failures, and how the IFF itself fits into this picture.

Day 3: Wednesday, April 3

Teaching Community Technology

Time: 09:45–11:45 AM

Room: Sky Room

How can we evolve our use and development of technology to be rooted in mutual aid? In this session participants will dive into the Teaching Community Technology Handbook, a guide to developing accessible and meaningful technology education through popular education practices and workshops. If you get excited by education and love sharing your knowledge and skills with techies and non-techies alike, this session is for you!

Help at the border. Identifying needs and personas of the Venezuelan migrants for improved targeted support

Time: 09:45–10:45 AM

Room: Think Tank

It is estimated that the exodus of Venezuelans to the rest of the countries of America can reach four million people by the end of 2018 (13% of the population) according to the Center for Justice and International Law (Cejil).

These figures are unprecedented anywhere in the world. For example, in Syria six million people left in a period of four or five years. The figures estimated by Cejil along with other organizations such as the Jesuit Refugee Service indicate that by September 2018 there were two million Venezuelans in Colombia, half a million in Peru, another half million in Ecuador, 120.000 in Argentina and some 30.000 in the Dominican Republic.

This reality makes it increasingly necessary, among other actions, to deploy aid networks in border areas that allow coordinated action by people and organizations but, how to help? Who are the people who are emigrating? What are their needs? What is their level of risk? To help with the answers to some of these questions members of the Venezuelan organization Con-nexo carried out a research work in which they interviewed many of the organizations that are currently offering support in the border area of ​​Cucutá and municipalities of Táchira state (border with Colombia) to know first-hand the profile of the migrant and the type of help that is required.

The result of the research is shown through the design of personas where their needs are also linked to specific activities that would be convenient to carry out in the field of Human Rights, physical and digital security, resilience, among others. Our goal is this session is to share with the attendees these results hoping to motivate more organizations to join the attention of these areas and be more effective with the help they offer thanks to knowing first hand what the groups needs are. Finally, although the work done identifies Venezuelan migration, we believe that it can be replicable and comparable, in some aspects, with other areas of high migration.

Digital Bodies: The landscape of Threat, Opportunity and Resistance for Queer & Trans Activism

Time: 11:00–12:00 PM

Room: Think Tank

The current political moment in the U.S. and globally is defined by the heightened criminalization of queer and trans people of color, women and migrants, growing nationalism and fundamentalism, and shrinking space for civil society and organizing.

Surveillance and states’ increasing use of technology to control public narratives puts organizers at risk while creating additional movement obstacles. Astraea has embarked on research in key geographies around the world to: understand the baseline conditions for technology use, governance and access; explore the dynamics of internet freedom, digital security and surveillance; map the communications and digital organizing tools being used by organizers and the role of digital advocacy and online community-building in their movements; and identify opportunities around technologies and communications tools that activists can use to mitigate threats and further their work.

This research feeds into CommsLabs, a global emergent and participatory design initiative that interconnects holistic security, technology, media, strategic communications, grassroots innovation, and healing and resilience. By strengthening activists’ expertise and networks in these strategic areas, CommsLabs builds movement capacity to confront closing civic space and defend the freedom to organize. It is an innovative, future-forward movement-building strategy that tactically embraces the role technology can play in both the repression and advancement of freedom.

In this session, we will share key insights from three digital landscape mappings we have conducted in the past year, drawing connections across political and movement contexts in the United States, India, and Central Asia and Eastern Europe. In all three geographies, social movements are under attack by state and non-state actors alike, with queer and trans activists on the frontlines of both attack and resistance. This session will share critical knowledge about the particular vulnerabilities that queer and trans activists experience on the digital terrain, and identify how technologists and funders can better support their resilience and resistance.

Community of commons: open and free access for strength and development.

Time: 12:15–01:15 PM

Room: Flyover Front

Promoting visibility of community builders by exchanging experiences on community development and the importance of communication (amongst the community, and also as an outreach tool) as a means of advocacy, awareness and strength building for social movements, activists and underrepresented communities.

Psychosocial support for human rights defenders

Time: 12:15–01:15 PM

Human rights defenders working in repressive countries often suffer psychologically from the situation they are in. Besides the pressure and stress inherent in the environment, they also often experience depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

This poses a problem when supporting/training these individuals or networks, as depression and trauma negatively impacts the ability to learn and act rationally, in some cases to the point where working together becomes problematic.

Further compounding the issue, many human rights defenders also suffer from a lack of access to effective medical and psychiatric care. This session focuses on showing practices of self-help and mindfulness techniques suitable for human rights defenders and people working in pressing environments. The participants will learn how to reduce inner stress and to better cope with sudden events of external pressure.

Liberation Practice Session #1: Power, Oppression and Intersectionality

Time: 02:45–03:45 PM

What does that buzz word intersectionality really mean? Can I participate in this new era of woke politics and oppression olympics? In a world where our oppressions are stratified, it’s apparent that we need strategic practices that examine power, privilege, and oppression.

This session sifts through the ways these buzz words truly manifest in our personal and political lives, and participants will leave with actionable items to address interpersonal, institutional and internalized oppression. — —

Hosted by Sharmin Hossain, the host and Community Health lead for the 2019 Internet Freedom Festival! Sharmin hails from the busy streets of Queens, New York. A Bangladeshi queer Muslimah, Sharmin works as a Network Coordinator at the Social Transformation Project, helping facilitate just transformation across social justice organizations. She designs and leads trainings for leaders focused on organizing, advocacy skills, leadership development, and issues connected to health, rights, and justice. A graduate from CUNY Hunter College, Sharmin founded the Bangladeshi Historical Memory Project, a political theatre initiative reconciling histories of trauma and displacement. She is also a digital security trainer with Equality Labs, supporting activists to adopt safe practices in their digital lives and organizational culture.

Response to digital attacks: regional networks and resources

Time: 04:00–06:00 PM

In this interactive session DDP will facilitate a space in which: a ) members of regional rapid response networks share hands-on practical information about response after digital attacks b) those who have worked with communities at risk or were under attack themselves share their stories and needs. It is both a space for sharing knowledge as for connecting with each other about experiences in different regions and different risk groups. At the end of the session,

• participants should have a better understanding of the threat landscape; what are trends of different kinds of attack responders see happening worldwide as well as regionally;
• participants have improved knowledge on what entry points are for response in different regions
• participants have shared experiences and formulated needs Methodology: 1. The session will start with an introduction of the regional rapid response networks for everyone (max 15 min). The new and updated DFAK is presented as a really good place to go if you are in need, a really short walk through. Representative(s) of the regional networks will present themselves and discuss *shortly* 3 observations of the digital threat landscape in their region. 2. Break out session: Where do I go in my region? For response to a specific community at risk? (60 min) Groups organised by region can get more information on responders and entry-points in that specific region, and resources are shared.

These are resources for different kinds of response: digital (trainers/responders, infrastructure/tech etc) as well as suggestions where one might find psychological and legal support. DDP will prepare a rapid response resource guide participants can take with them per region together with the responders. We do a ‘change over’ half way so people have the chance to go to two regional /community response workshops. (Optional: Second Break out session: share and connect (30 min) In our experiences it is very valuable for people who have experienced digital attacks to be able to share with others. If there is enough time we could make this a part of this workshop; to honour that need and give people the possibility to personally connect) In smaller groups people get the space to share threat and response experiences. What stood out for you experiencing an attack or trying to respond to an attack? What were the hurdles you encountered looking for the right response? What was successful? We would like each of the groups to consist of people from different regions to enable connections. Each group is facilitated my a rapid response network member. ) 4. Report back to the whole group; and a short burst of loud disco music and small glitter-response packages for all to let off steam. (15 min) Notes: — DDP is facilitator but the session will be done by the regional rapid responders. We will do the organisational tasks; we will facilitate in the background. — This workshop can als be split in two sessions: one session about which threats are seen in different regions, and one part focussing on response, if the IFF thinks this is useful; — We are open to any ideas to make this workshop fit specific needs of the IFF community. What we want to offer is a space and experts, and a safe, open space, best structured to learn and exchange knowledge and experience. For example: if there is need, we would be very interested in making one of the break-out groups discuss response to LGBTI communities at risk or response to online harassment. The regional response network has a huge diversity of experience that can be harvested; depending on the needs we can shape this workshop to best fit the most urgent needs. Facilitators: Depending,on,the,needs,of,IFF,we,would,like,to,invite,specific,responders,join,this,session.,Organisations,include,working,in,Latin,America,Central,Asia,MENA,East,Africa,(eg.,Frontline,Defenders,Fundacion,Acceso,LGBTI,network,Russia,Access,Now,MLDI,for,legal,response,etc).

Day 4: Thursday, April 4

Marco Polo: Finding One Another

Time: 11:00–12:00 PM

Room: Think Tank

This session focuses on methods for connecting tool teams and users. Within this session we want attendees to be exposed to practical activities and methods for discovering and communicating needs and co-creating solutions. In addition, we will showcase stories and insights gained by our team and other teams working directly with communities on the ground and with development teams.

“Chilled” long-term engagement with organizations for digital security help

Time: 11:00–12:00 PM

Room: La Factoria

Over the years we’ve tried many different formats on supporting civil society with digital security. Trainings, security audits, personal consultations, technical support etc. Lately we’ve been trying new approach of “slow” organizational support (you can call it chilled :)) which includes all of this components, but set smaller goals and expectation from the beginning. And it seems to be working the best! We want to share our experience on how our work developed and how now during long-term work with organization we manage to embed digital security in the work, not trying to embed their work around digital security.

Cryptorave: together we stand, divided we fall

Time: 12:15–01:15 PM

Room: Flyover Back

CryptoRave (https://cryptorave.org/en/), is an anual event run since 2014 in São Paulo, Brazil, is the largest free and open cryptoparty in the world: in the latest edition about 4000 people circulated in more than 24 hours of activities related to security, cryptography, hacking, anonymity, privacy and internet freedom. Inspired by the global and decentralized action of cryptoparties, which aims to spread the fundamental concepts and basic software of cryptography, Cryptorave is organized on a voluntary basis to guarantee a truly independent event, with a donation policy, in which all expenses are covered by voluntary contributions. The collected resources are used only and exclusively for the realization of the event. Cryptorave transcended various stigmata about security, privacy and tools previously restricted to the “nerd”, “hacker”, and activist world, expanding the discussion to a much wider, more inclusive and diverse audience, to raise awareness and educative purpose, whether through lectures and workshops or through documentaries, films and various other artistic and cultural range of activities. Despite this awesome accomplishment, unfortunately, there’s a possibility to do not occur in the next year due to Brazil political situation: an extreme conservative right wing direction. In this session, we have two main goals: to share our methodology, challenges and efforts to accomplish the Cryptorave and, at the same time, think and build with the audience, this worldwide community of activists and experts, alternatives to keep on spreading the knowledge, tools and, tips of privacy, autonomy, anonymity and cryptography for (not only) but mainly to Latin American countries who are experiencing difficult times in terms of digital resistance and autonomy.

Harness the Potentials of Art and Playful Practices

Time: 02:45–03:45 PM

Room: Gallery

Artistic and playful approaches to technology carry enormous potentials for critique, empowerment, participation and community engagement.(1) Art pieces and interactive performances can make otherwise obscure and abstract sociotechnical processes and concepts tangible and relatable to non-specialists through the mediation of artists. The session will start with an interactive performance, and continue into a showcase of how art and playful approaches such as LARPs and rituals can increase understanding of and engagement with critical perspectives on technology, power relations and digital rights. We will showcase our own examples of techno-magick rituals and performances from the group How to Quit (2,3) as well as provide other interesting and illustrative examples from international artists. We wish to spark and inspire a conversations with the participants on how to use the power of visual and performing arts as well as playful interactive approaches to engage new communities in the internet freedom space. Reference: 1. https://medium.com/techfestival-2018/art-is-the-key-that-unlocks-digital-literacy-87a31c0496d0 2. https://artweek.nu/en/program/workshop-how-to-quit-digital-stresstest-mindful-computing/ 3. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bkrp3neA1ik/

Money, the problem: Financial sustainability of open source projects

Time: 02:45–03:45 PM

Room: Flyover Front

Some go out with a bang, some die silently, some follow a thoughtful sunset strategy — open source projects end, and money often plays no small role. This is a solidarity session for those steering open source projects that are (sometimes) struggling with funding. We hope to together explore underlying issues, create space for peer-to-peer advice, consolidate points on what we and others can do to improve the status quo, and discuss how we can take back the meaning of sustainability. As a German compound noun would have it, this is a Opensourcentwicklerselbsthilfegruppe.

Day 5: Friday, April 5

Building Global Worker Solidarity Among the Digital Rights Workforce

Time: 02:30–03:30 PM

Labor rights are an important part of human rights. As technology has changed and surveillance become normalized, the digital rights and privacy communities have strived to show how digital rights and labor rights intersect. However, despite this recognition and advocacy for labor rights for others, the human rights industry has proven to be hostile to labor rights for its own workforce. The slew of issues affect everyone in this industry. Fellowship and project-based funding keeps people in precarious employment status where personalities and ‘cultural fit’ can be excuses to keep people out. How and whose labor is valued prioritizes people from certain geographical areas and perpetuates economic inequality for marginalized communities in our spaces. Despite knowledge of toxic employers and issues of discrimination and sexual assault in the workplace (not all of which have been discussed publicly), employees have no recourse and donors or others with influence are not stepping in to make the situation better. While we might not be able to create a global union, we can follow the guiding principle of worker solidarity and find ways of supporting each other and promoting better labor rights. In this session we will have a conversation on labor rights focused globally. This will hopefully be the first of many conversations to both uncover labor rights violations and work to improve them.

Rooted in Community: Detroit Digital Stewards

Time: 04:00–05:00 PM

Room: Think Tank

Through the Equitable Internet Initiative we work to ensure that more Detroit residents have the tools to leverage digital technologies for social and economic development. We do this by fostering the development of community rooted technologists, those who have the desire to build, design and facilitate a healthy integration of technology into people’s lives and communities, allowing them the fundamental human right to communicate. In this session, our Digital Stewards, community technologists and neighborhood leaders trained in the technical and community organizing skills necessary to redistribute Gigabit Internet connections, will share how they — through the practice of common ownership, environmental and digital justice, openness, and skill building — bring their communities online.

What about Participatory Grantmaking for the Digital Rights Community? was originally published in IFF Community Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The newly created IFF Community Wellness Team will be working closely with participants to take the development of safer, inclusive spaces to the next level.

The Internet Freedom Festival has been working on creating safer and more inclusive spaces for five years. Every year the tools and approaches we use evolve to meet the unique needs of our community.

We firmly believe that safer spaces need to be cultivated, and that’s why we have created the Internet Freedom Festival Community Wellness Team. Composed of three professional psychologists, the team will be helping us take the development of safer, inclusive spaces to the next level, through the creation of the necessary tools, guidelines and protocols.

A compilation of the tools, guidelines and protocols created by the IFF Community Wellness Team will be publicly released shortly after the 2019 Internet Freedom Festival.

Specifically, the IFF Community Wellness Team will be responsible for:

• Helping the IFF team cultivate a positive culture that is focused on mutual dignity and respect.
• Providing protocols and processes to handle code of conduct incident reports in a way that minimizes harm to the IFF participants, staff, and volunteers.
• Providing one-on-one support to participants during the IFF.

Most importantly, the Community Wellness Team will be providing us with psychological expertise that will help us create healthier interactions and better understand ourselves as well as the psycho-social challenges we face as a community.

Why psychologists?
The IFF is a unique event because of our unique community, many of whom are on the frontlines of issues that push cultural and societal change. Oftentimes, this comes with a personal cost, which can manifest itself as burnout, interpersonal conflicts, or more serious outcomes.

In a 2012 report by the Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights, 100 activists from over 45 countries expressed the hardships of staying mentally and physically healthy in the face of so many daily risks and challenges. What they shared is reflective of many of the sentiments and needs expressed by members of the Internet Freedom community. This impacts community health, as well as the sustainability of activism itself.

For the IFF team, this means that any attempt at cultivating community must be done in manner that minimizes harm, and makes available those tools of support most needed by the community. In addition, it also reflects the developments in the field. The increase of psychosocial sessions in the 2019 program is a direct reflection of the growing recognition that is a vital component of security training and frontline work.

Notably, in the last year, the IFF has received community feedback through various initiatives, such as the Glitter Meetup, that clearly show that more IFF community members desire the assistance of trained psychologists to help with a variety of issues including:

• Lack of individual therapy options because of privacy and security threats and cultural discrimination of using it in their home country, even though the need and desire is there. In addition, services are often unavailable or too expensive.
• A significant percentage of community members are showing signs of PTSD because of their work.
• High risk of burnout in various communities and desire for more information and support to practice self-care.
• Having to serve as ad-hoc care givers in their community, and having no guidance or training on how to properly handle difficult situations presented to them.

While the IFF cannot address all these issues, we would like to help raise the awareness in the Internet Freedom community of why addressing and investing in the psychosocial is so crucial to our work.

The right match: Leaders in Sexual Rights

Given the uniqueness of our community, one of the biggest challenges was finding the right psychologists to work with us. We approached the Instituto Espill, which has more than 30 years of experience promoting psychological and sexual well-being, to lead this year’s IFF Community Wellness Team. The Instituto Espill staff members that will be joining us at the IFF are:

• María Pérez Conchillo, PhD, is the co-founder and director of the Instituto Espill is a clinical psychologist, and internationally awarded sexual rights activist with, over thirty years of work dedicated to advancing sexual health globally. She is a founding member of the Sexual Rights Committee that proclaimed Sexual Rights, while she was serving as the president of the 13th World Congress of Sexology in Valencia (Spain) in 1997. She has served twice as vice president of the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS) (1997–2001 and 2013–2017).
• Gerard Cebriá León is a psychologist with a Master’s in Sexual Health. He is also a web developer, and has a good understanding of some of the challenges found in the technological world.
• Tamara Martínez Farinós is a psychologist with a Master’s in sexual health.

“We want to be a resource for groups around the world who want to create a better experience that promotes the well-being of participants in a community gathering.”

— Instituto Espill.

We believe that this team will not only provide the IFF team with the guidance needed to create a safer and more inclusive space, but will also help shift the culture of the Internet Freedom community — we want to move the community towards a future where investing in psychosocial care is a priority.

How psychologists create safer and more inclusive spaces was originally published in IFF Community Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We are happy to introduce the 2019 Internet Freedom Festival hosts and facilitators, Sharmin Hossain and Ali Gharavi!

Both Hossain and Gharavi have amazing track records in community building and a passion for creating positive and collaborative culture that is based on respect and dignity. We can’t think of more perfect people to join the IFF crew!

Pre-IFF, they will be providing session presenters with coaching to ultimately strengthen the impact of conversations that will take place. During IFF, they will be facilitating various gatherings designed to help welcome IFF participants and enhance their experience throughout the week. In addition, Hossain will be leading a Liberation Training series focused on topics such as power and oppression, healing, and theories of change.

Some of the community events they will be facilitating include:

• Opening Ceremony
• Liberation Practice Session #1: Power, Oppression and Intersectionality
• Liberation Practice Session #2: Healing the Self and Practices for Community Care
• Liberation Session Practice #3: Theories of Change and Transformation
• Tool Showcase
• Closing Ceremony
• ** IFF session presenters: You should have received info about pre-IFF webinars and coaching time slots. Please email us if you have not at team@internetfreedomfestival.org

Sharmin Hossain hails from the busy streets of Queens, New York. A Bangladeshi queer Muslimah, Sharmin works as a Network Coordinator at the Social Transformation Project, helping facilitate just transformation across social justice organizations. She designs and leads trainings for leaders focused on organizing, advocacy skills, leadership development, and issues connected to health, rights, and justice.

A graduate from CUNY Hunter College, Sharmin founded the Bangladeshi Historical Memory Project, a political theatre initiative reconciling histories of trauma and displacement. She is also a digital security trainer with Equality Labs, supporting activists to adopt safe practices in their digital lives and organizational culture.

Ali Gharavi has consulted with over 200 Human Rights Defenders, their projects, organizations, and foundations in the past 18 years, and has worked in this capacity in over 50 countries.

He is known for facilitating, mentoring, training, creating resources, strategic planning and designing programs. He is co-author of Holistic Security – A manual for Human Rights Defenders, and also helped design the digital integrity fellowship and consultancy programs now widely
adopted, which entails a long-term, multidisciplinary accompaniment of
HRD organizations to ensure their sustainability and strategic success.

Meet your IFF 2019 Hosts!! was originally published in IFF Community Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Community development requires putting the interests of the group above those of the individual, as difficult as it may sometimes be.

This is the third year in a row that the Internet Freedom Festival has hit full capacity months ahead of time. Once again, about 1,000 internet freedom defenders from all around the world will be joining forces in Valencia to fight against censorship and surveillance. We are filled with joy to have become the must-attend glittertastic conference in the digital rights circuit, but there’s a flip side to it.

The IFF inbox is currently overflowing with emails from disgruntled and disappointed people – folks who had been eagerly waiting for the festival.

It is overwhelming and heartbreaking for us to have to turn so many people down.

Our organization is built to serve activist and hacker communities around the world, not to organize events to sell them tickets. Unlike many other conferences, the IFF is not a fundraiser, nor a part of our public relations strategy. We don’t measure success in the amount of tickets sold.

The Internet Freedom Festival looks like a conference, but it’s really a tool. A tool designed for the collaborative improvement of services, products and strategies to counter censorship, enable secure communications, and provide secure access to the global internet. A tool to increase the participation of underrepresented, at-risk and vulnerable groups in the Internet Freedom field. A tool to support our belief that the inclusion of new and missing voices is the foundation of a strong and open internet.

A well-designed community development event looks like an iceberg. At plain sight there’s only the conference week. The remaining 360 days (and many nights) of work remain hidden beneath the surface. Communities are built on trust; trust needs to be earned; action and connection earn trust. Having the largest country representation and the most diverse pool of attendees and speakers doesn’t happen organically. It requires a well thought out set of programs and initiatives running year-round, and building long-lasting relations.

It also requires establishing trade-offs by design. Opening the curatorial process to a fellows cohort means losing full control of the conference program, but empowers new and missing voices to lead conversations. Implementing an individual ticket review system increases the workload by a factor, but provides a safer space for participants, and creates additional attendance opportunities for underrepresented groups. Offering an uncapped amount of tickets to those who can afford to commit to attend early on will always result in the most vulnerable groups being a minority. Commonly used promotions, like early bird tickets, may only be fomenting this problem.

Trade-offs create the conditions required for our tools to operate efficiently. We would like to be able to offer individual solutions to personal circumstances, but we take our processes very seriously to guarantee the best experience to our community, with what limited resources we have.

Communications, design and community initiatives are still underrated in the Internet Freedom space. Many of our fundraising efforts are met with “we don’t fund events” — a very narrow view of the Internet Freedom Festival, and of events at large. Using technology terms, you can’t run an app without investing in a server. That’s where the necessary exchange of information takes place. Community development is the equivalent of infrastructure development, and events are at the heart of it.

Thanks to the contributions from our fantastic partners, supporters and individual donors, we are the only organization in the field focusing entirely on community development efforts. But, our current resources can’t meet the growing demands. So we’ll keep doing what we’re good at: hacking. Not hacking the way that many of you do, but hacking the physical world in order to generate the resources that we are currently missing.

As we approach the 5th anniversary of the Internet Freedom Festival, we have entered a period of reflection. Traditional growth is based on centralization, but as a community-driven organization, we’ll always favor collaborative approaches.

Now, the question is: Do we need a bigger tent, or should we open a campsite?

In the next few weeks I’ll be hosting a Glitter Meetup, our weekly virtual community gatherings, to share more about a “campsite growth model” for the Internet Freedom Festival. I would like to hear your thoughts and transform the energy that’s currently overflowing our inbox into action. If you would like to join the conversation, subscribe to the IFF Newsletter and follow InternetFF on Twitter to receive an update when the date is set.

In the meantime, you can always reach me and the IFF team here.

Pepe Borrás,
Co-founder and Executive Director of the Internet Freedom Festival

The Trade-Offs of A Successful Conference was originally published in IFF Community Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

At the Internet Freedom Festival, we see the Internet Freedom field as a community of communities. Each one has its own mythology and values, but they all play a part in defending a free and open internet. Listening to their stories and learning about what makes each community unique is key to the success of our work: creating better ways to connect the different Internet Freedom defenders around the world. The Internet Freedom Festival is the only organization focusing entirely on community development for the Internet Freedom field. We design programs and tools to bring together an eclectic plethora of activist groups, NGOs, governmental agencies, media organizations, large internet platforms, and others who rely on each other to achieve the common goal of a free and open internet for all.

Our flagship initiative is the Internet Freedom Festival unconference, a reference global gathering that brought together close to 1,000 attendees from 132 countries in 2018. The IFF is the strongest expression of our belief that the inclusion of new and missing voices is the foundation of a strong and open internet. We launched initiatives such as the Diversity and Inclusion Program to support underrepresented groups, which offered participation stipends to 51% of our speakers, and elevated the Global South representation to 53% in 2018. Additionally, to ensure that diverse viewpoints and voices are well represented, IFF sessions are picked by our geographically and professionally diverse Community Development Fellows Program, the first in the field to focus on inspiring and empowering the voices of Internet Freedom throughout the world.

Every year the graphic image of the Internet Freedom Festival evolves. 2019 marks the 5th anniversary of the project, and we wanted to celebrate all of you. We’ve created five symbolic representations with unique characteristics to capture the importance of your work, your values, and your strength as a group.

• There’s a total of five icons, one for each year of the IFF.
• There are land, sea, and air animals.
• Each animal represents an Internet Freedom topic.
• We chose Chris Lago, a talented illustrator from Valencia, to pay homage to the host city of the IFF.

The Tiger

The tiger represents the fierce spirit of the activist despite the dangerous nature of their work. The tiger has a special pattern on its face to render facial-recognition software useless.

The Narwhal

The narwhal has long been perceived as a magical creature. Flecks of stardust around its tusk symbolize its magical ability to unite the trinity of secure, reliable and usable.

The Elephant

The elephant embodies the strength of the community. It is portrayed as a classic Sol Invictus (“Unconquered Sun”) image, with a solar crown of rays representing the fight against internet shutdowns and the defense of the internet’s infrastructure.

The Snake

The snake is a classic guardian symbol. With a network icon atop its head, the snake emerges as a guardian of the Internet Freedom community and a defender of the FLOSS culture.

The Bat

The bat is one of the symbols of Valencia and appears on the city’s coat of arms. It represents the ingenuity required to circumvent communication barriers, and is a defender of privacy.

These are the values that we’ve assigned to them, and we are excited to hear yours.

All symbols have shared values, but the emergence of a unique, personal meaning is fascinating and enriches our community.

If you like them, make sure to visit our swag store regularly, as we will be adding new items as we approach the dates of the 2019 Internet Freedom Festival.

You’ll look “wild” in your new gear, and your contribution will be used to give voice to underrepresented groups in the Internet Freedom field.

Looking forward to seeing you in Valencia!

Pepe Borrás,
Co-founder and Executive Director of the Internet Freedom Festival

The 2019 Internet Freedom Festival will take place on April 1–5 in Valencia, Spain. Tickets are now sold out, but you can:

• Follow us on Twitter to never miss future opportunities again.
• Subscribe to our newsletter to receive and share global Internet Freedom updates, curated events, job offers and more.

The Power of Symbols for Community Building: Designing the 2019 Internet Freedom Festival Image was originally published in IFF Community Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The 2019 Internet Freedom Festival marks an important point in the project, since we will be celebrating our 5th anniversary.

We believe that anniversaries are great occasions for celebration, but also for reflection.

Below you’ll find some of our latest updates. Here are the TL;DR bullet-points for you:

• This year the IFF team is focusing on strengthening wellness in the community, with various sessions being offered on this topic. In addition, the Code of Conduct will be run by trained therapists.
• To better manage increased demands, two facilitators will join us in Valencia to better provide support to participants. Facilitators will help participants connect and feel welcomed.
• The registration process has been redesigned to allow for verification of those wanting to attend, ensuring that we continue to serve our core audience, providing a safer environment, and better manage the increasing demand in participation.
• The Festival will continue being a free event. However, we will be issuing tickets that would allow attendees with the option to donate towards the cost of attending the IFF. These funds would be used to support current and emerging community initiatives.
• We are launching a redesigned fellowship, the IFF Community Development Fellowship, to create additional opportunities for groups around the world to participate in the global conversations, and support fellows to strengthen and grow their local networks. The fellowship’s redesign is aimed to provide long-term sustainability, and this year’s pilot experience is part of a two-year process that will lead to the expansion of the fellow’s scope of work and, subsequently providing them with additional stipends.
• We have been working hard to grow the Diversity & Inclusion Fund. Moving forward, there will be no regional restrictions to apply for a travel stipend, creating additional opportunities for underrepresented communities to attend the IFF. In 2018, we supported 50% of the presenters, folks who otherwise would not have been able to participate.

A Little History

Back in 2013, many of us were concerned about the need for more trust and collaboration between communities, and the lack of diverse voices leading important conversations in the Internet Freedom community.

It seemed that critical conversations were being handled by the same small group of people, and that the most affected communities were simply not well represented. In addition, some of the community events were inaccessible to new people for various reasons ranging from spaces not feeling welcoming, to lack of network building and on-boarding processes, to undesirable cultural leanings as well as existing events being private and/or registration fees being too expensive. We knew that the Internet Freedom community could do better and deserved better.

With hardly any resources, but with idealistic eyes and a lot of heart, we embarked on the creation of a new collaborative model where communities in the Internet Freedom space could pool resources and work together to accomplish shared goals. At the heart of this, was finding ways not to just increase representation, but increase impactful participation from underrepresented communities. Central to this was to create space where individuals could support each other through these shared in-person experiences. In this vision, we saw the IFF as a community tool that would be lead by the people they served. Knowing what we know now and, in hindsight, understanding the obstacles that lay before us, it’s a miracle this project was born and we are humbled by the lessons it teaches us every day.

The first two years consisted of a lot of leg work, tears and sweat. Most of our time was spent on listening, developing appropriate infrastructure and processes, outreaching to people we so desperately wanted to be part of the Internet Freedom community, and then connecting them together.

It was a lot of hard work for an incredibly small team. We faced the same issues any new project in an emerging field confront: lack of resources, expertise, and structures. And frankly, while we still deal with these same challenges we are blessed to see the community grow and the beautiful impact of what happens when we all work together.

For us, the IFF has always been and is a labor of love. We were convinced that if everyone did a small part, something beautiful and collaborative could be born — a sort of glitter filled potluck of the Internet Freedom community that could model the world we want.

The Impact

Little by little, we began to see changes both in ourselves and in the community. By IFF 2018, 63% of participants came from the Global South, more than 50% of participants and speakers identified as women or GNC, and 50% of the presenters were provided travel assistance through our Diversity and Inclusion Fund, folks who otherwise would not have been able to participate. This was a far cry from the events that had taken place in the early 2010’s for which we wanted to provide an alternative.

The biggest impact, however, has been seeing communities getting stronger by building bridges and collaborations with other communities throughout the world. The number of local and cross-regional projects born at the IFF have been humbling. It has taught us the real value and magick of what happens when a community comes together to focus on solidarity. In addition, by coming together, we have collectively and positively influenced the culture and direction of our community. Through strength in numbers, we have made our space more welcoming, safer, and more positive, while providing better collective blueprints that help better coordinate the global community.

Looking Ahead

Vision

Just as the community has changed in the past 5 years, so has the IFF. We find ourselves faced with new challenges, opportunities and goals, but with the same commitment to serve and help

The vision of the IFF has always been to provide a space where communities throughout the world could join forces to fight online censorship and surveillance. In addition to this, we see the IFF as a tool of the community that they use to accomplish their personal or organizational goals. This will continue to be the same, with the only difference in that we are amplifying how the IFF can be used.

Team

In previous instances, the IFF team consisted of 1 full-time employee, a number of consultants providing support at different times of the year, and a local team supporting the on-the-ground logistics during the week of the IFF. Ahead of the 2019 IFF, we now have two full-time employees, and two part-time employees. In addition, we will also be increasing the number of consultants that work with us during the week of the event. This year, we will have two seasoned psychologists and two amazing facilitators, who will be focused on improving the community health tools we have in place.

Fellowship

The IFF was launched with the mission to create spaces for bringing together the diverse voices in the Internet Freedom communities around the world, particularly those from underrepresented groups. Central to this vision was the creation of a community-driven structure to ensure that the festival’s program was representative of this diversity

The IFF Fellowship was designed to help the community self-organize, and curate a shared vision and priorities, while empowering those most affected to decide what conversations will take place during the IFF. Each year we have experimented and pivoted the fellowship with crucial feedback from past fellows and the larger community.

For the 2019 IFF, we are piloting, with limited funding, a Community Development component to the Fellowship. In order to fulfill this vision, we decided to reduce the number of fellows to 12 to provide more personal attention. Fellows would still be responsible for curating the talks for the IFF, as well as working on initiatives to strengthen their local community, for an established around 60 hours of total workload, distributed over 6 months.

Another great upgrade is the creation of the Fellowship Lead position. This part-time consultant will be responsible for supporting the fellows, providing them with guidance on specific community organizing challenges they may face, and creating necessary resources for them.

Fellows will receive full travel coverage to attend the IFF, including flight, hotel and per diem for 6 days. Additionally, before the end of the year, we will be hosting a fellows retreat where they will share their experiences, brainstorm around challenges in their work, and hopefully build lasting community connections. Full travel coverage will also be provided for the retreat.

As this is a pilot program, we welcome as always your feedback.

Programming

In addition to our general program we hope to share some new sessions that focus on mental health and community health. This year, more than ever, mental health has become a concern for core IFF communities throughout the world and we want to be responsive to the communities request to offer more holistically minded programming. In addition, because of the number of new people that use IFF as a type of week-intensive crash course, we will be providing introductory sessions to the IFF community to help emerging leaders scale their knowledge and build their mentorship networks.

Registration

The IFF has always been a free event, and will work hard to ensure it remains so. Making it accessible to everyone has always been an important goal. However, as we grow and try to work with more communities, the need for resources increases and we want to create sustainability. In addition, the demand for the IFF has grown past our expectations. While this is a positive development because it signals that more people are interested in Internet Freedom issues, we want to ensure that the IFF continues to serve its core audience, and keeps its unique characteristics.

Another change this year is the inclusion of an optional ticket fee. In 2018, several individuals stated that they would pay for the value they received through the IFF via a ticket fee, if that option was made available as part of a solidarity system. Therefore, the new ticket process will allow us to offer a sliding scale admission, and additional funds raised from solidarity ticket sales will be used to develop community and diversity initiatives at IFF.

Diversity & Inclusion Fund

Our Diversity and Inclusion Fund remains a strong building block for the IFF to both include new voices, and help improve community health. Funds raised for the Diversity & Inclusion Fund support the travel of participants and facilitators.

Additionally this year we have removed the regional restrictions of who can apply to the fund, and have opened it up to everyone who requires support to attend the event and self identifies as a member of an underrepresented community in the Internet Freedom space.

Code of Conduct

The safety and comfort of our participants is always at the forefront of everything we do. As always, the IFF will be keeping its Code of Conduct but changing the process associated with it. In 2018, we saw an increase in the number of people that used the IFF COC. We want to evolve the process as we all collectively learn more about how to deal with harm in our communities through a transformative justice approach. As a result, this year the COC will be lead by trained therapists, who have years of experience working with sexual violence, abuse, and conflict resolution. More information regarding the process will be released at a later date, as we get closer to the IFF.

Throughout the years, we are proud to have been part of so many people’s lives as they dream the world they want to live in collectively.

We have seen the community transform itself and grow, and it is an honor to be part of that journey. Hallmark programs of the festival like our Tools Showcase, Regional Meetups, Dialogues are great examples of formats that are now a staple of the festival and that were all created by you.

Your ideas transform the IFF, and especially now, as we approach our with anniversary, we are excited about hearing from you, and listening to ideas your ideas to make it a better space for us all.

We are thrilled to see all these powerful changes and look forward to continuing to build our space collectively with all of you. You can reach out to us at team@internetfreedomfestival.org, and on our Mattermost’s IFF 2019 Suggestion Channel. In addition, every week we host a weekly virtual gathering, where you can ask questions or share any ideas you may have.

Looking forward to seeing you all in Valencia!

– Lots of love from the IFF Team

IFF Changelog: 2019 was originally published in IFF Community Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

January 2019 Update

You are amazing! Once again, it just took a few weeks before all IFF tickets were sold out. If you are still waiting to hear back from us regarding your ticket request, we must share that it is very unlikely that you will be receiving a ticket at this point (we wish we could you fit all of you in!).

Because this is the first year that we are implementing the IFF Ticket system, we are asking all of you to check the status of your ticket prior to booking your flight and accommodation.

To access the IFF you will need to provide your Ticket ID, found in the IFF Ticket confirmation email, and on the IFF Ticket view on the IFF Community Platform:

Every year since the launch of the IFF, the registration numbers have increased considerably. Last year marked a milestone, when we reached capacity in just four weeks and had over 1,000 people on our waitlist. It was time to redesign our registration process in order to accommodate the increase in demands, while maintaining the diversity and inclusivity of participants, which is a staple of the festival.

We have implemented a new request-based IFF Ticket system to better provide a safer and more diverse space, and meet the growing demand.

While we continue working hard to ensure that IFF’s participation fees are waived for everyone, the new IFF Ticket system will make it easier for individuals and organizations who wish to support the IFF by paying for their ticket. Therefore, in the IFF Ticket form you will find three ticket types:

• Individual Ticket: 100% sponsored and free of charge.
• Solidarity Ticket: Pay what you want.
• Organizational Ticket: USD 850, for individuals whose participation is covered by their organization.

We have sent early invites to our fellows and partners to test out the new system, and everyone will be ready to request their IFF Ticket from December 10.

Each IFF Ticket request will be reviewed individually. Approval will be based on our goals for diversity and security. While we are working hard to minimize reviewing and approval times, it may take some time before you hear from us. If you need to obtain a visa in order to travel to Spain, we encourage you to ping us at team@internetfreedomfestival.org after your request is submitted.

Mark your calendars: Early IFF Ticket requests have a higher chance of being accepted!

Get your IFF Ticket in 3 easy steps!

Step 1

Register in the IFF Community Platform:

https://platform.internetfreedomfestival.org/en/IFF2019/

If you are already a registered user, you can skip ahead to the next step.

Step 2

Once you are logged in, find the “Request IFF Ticket” button on your user portal, as seen below:

You may be asked to update your profile first. In that case, you will an “Edit Profile” button instead, as seen below. Once your profile has been updated, you will be able to see the “Request IFF Ticket” button.

Once you have requested your 2019 IFF Ticket, you will receive an email confirming that your request was submitted correctly.

Pro tip: Early requests have a better chance of being approved!

Step 3

All requests will be reviewed and everyone will be notified about the status of their application. Once your request is approved, you’ll receive an email confirmation. Go back to your User Portal and click on the “Claim IFF Ticket” button, as seen below:

After completing the short IFF Ticket form, you will receive an email confirmation. You will also be able to see your IFF Ticket information in your User Portal.

That’s it!

Frequently Asked Questions

I’m already registered in the platform, can I attend the 2019 IFF?

Creating a user in the IFF Community Platform does not equate to owning an IFF Ticket. To attend the 2019 IFF, you’ll need to request an IFF Ticket, as instructed above!

How can I request an IFF Ticket?

Starting December 10, IFF Tickets will be openly available for requests. All IFF Tickets should be requested from your User Portal in the IFF Community Platform: https://platform.internetfreedomfestival.org/en/IFF2019/

Will all IFF Ticket requests be answered?

Due to the volume of requests, only approved requests for tickets will be notified. Remember that early requests will have a better chance of being approved!

Who reviews the IFF Ticket requests?

All IFF Ticket requests are reviewed by the IFF Team to ensure that the event is inclusive and diverse, and that voices from various regions, fields and communities are properly represented. Each request will be reviewed individually, with special attention paid to applicants involved in projects fighting online surveillance and censorship, and those who belong to groups experiencing online surveillance and censorship. When approving requests for tickets, we will also be making sure new voices are brought into important Internet Freedom community conversations.

Introducing the New IFF Registration Process was originally published in IFF Community Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.