Aidana Alken (Astana, Kazakhstan) – BBA(Hons) in Accounting and Finance (Year 2)
As an ordinary user of the Internet on a daily basis, I am always amazed by its potential and the rapid development of the online world. What my parents could only dream about at my age is my everyday routine nowadays. However, you don’t really learn a lot about the heart of the internet just by using it. When I joined NetMission Academy, that’s when I started to see the bottom part of the iceberg. Turns out what happens and doesn’t happen on our screens is not a result of magic, it is a result of international collaboration and global initiatives that support and govern the internet. And I want to be a part of that global community to better our online experiences and unpack the potential of both – the internet and people. I am assured that becoming a NetMission Ambassador is just the first step on this continuous journey to the heart of Internet Governance.
Aiganym Baimukhan (Almaty, Kazakhstan) – BBA (Hons) in Management (Year 2)
I genuinely think that all the NetMission sessions were highly informative and interesting. I truly enjoyed all of the discussions and how everyone got a chance to share their thoughts. Thanks to that, I was able to see the problems and issues from different perspectives. I liked the sharing from our guests, who had really diverse backgrounds and therefore diverse views. By attending these training sessions, I was able to learn about the effects that Internet has on various parties, how complicated the Internet world is, and how powerful it could be and become in the near future. I believe that by sharing our knowledge with other people, we will be able to make a difference and help the people around us. I am looking forward to moving to the next stage of our journey, and achieve all together with our common goal.
Amy Li (Hong Kong) – Journalism and Communication (Year 2)
Hi everyone, my name is Amy Li and I am from Hong Kong. I am a year two student studying Journalism and Communication at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. It is my great pleasure to meet different young adults and students who share a passion for internet governance. I am able to discuss internet issues with people from Hong Kong and various Asian countries. NetMission Academy is an excellent platform for me to explore different internet governance issues. What is more, we can interact with speakers from sectors like IGOs and corporates. In particular, I am very interested in “human rights online” and “Access and Empowerment”. They are closely related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Regardless of race and sex, people shall have a say. Bridging these topics to SDGs can further provoke our thoughts and inspiration. Being part of the ThinkTank working group, I wish to enhance public awareness of internet governance through social media and finding relevant research papers or reports. It will be a rewarding and exciting journey ahead! Let’s work together and create a better community!
Jiang Wenpei (Jiangsu, China) – Business Analytics (Graduate)
My name is Jiang Wenpei. I come from Jiangsu province in mainland China. I am a graduate student majoring in Business Analytics in CUHK. You can reach me with Instagram ID: berylisgreat.
The most part of the internet governance I am interested in is about the digital economy. The Internet is changing our lives in many ways and anybody can see this turmoil. We are witnessing the new technologies disrupting the economy with or without willingness. I am sure that we can live better if we can be aware of what is happening out there and take advantage of the newest trends.
The NetMission Academy means a lot to me. It not only brought me the young, talented friends with whom we share ideas about everything specifically about internet governance, but also this is a great opportunity for the youth like us to participate with those ongoing issues which should be paid attention to. I knew a lot of things about Internet Governance thanks to this program, and this taught me to have a different perspective to see the internet.
I am so grateful to join the NetMission Academy this year and appreciated it to be an ambassador. Hopefully, we all can live better and create a better world with the internet and internet governance
Donggi Lee (South Korea) – Industrial Management Engineering (Graduate)
I am currently a graduate student majoring in Industrial Management Engineering at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in South Korea. Having grown up with the Internet, I have a strong interest in Internet and Internet governance matters. I am familiar with ICANN and Internet governance work, having started my ICANN journey at ICANN49 as a NextGen@ICANN participant. I was also a fellow at the Asia Pacific Internet Governance Academy (APIGA) in 2016, a five-day capacity building program aimed at familiarizing youths with Internet governance. The academy was “a great stepping stone” for youths to get involved in Internet governance work. Following APIGA, I attended ICANN58 in Copenhagen, bolstering the voices of the youths in the ICANN discussions at the meeting. I would like to focus on effective methods to deliver technologies without distinction of age all over the world and proper usage of databases and new technologies.
Elizabeth Kezia Widjaja (Jakarta, Indonesia) – Bachelor of Arts and Science in New Media (Year 2)
My name is Elizabeth Kezia, and I come from Indonesia. I’ve always had a dream to experience global life, which leads me to Hong Kong. I’m studying New Media in the School of Creative Media (City University of Hong Kong). To support my artistic works, I’m exploring a broad range of topics, including the Internet. My journey with the NetMission Academy starts with curiosity – a realization that I’m not fully aware of Internet Governance. NetMission Academy has been informative, but it is also challenging and demands our initiatives to do personal research. Not to mention that it is a ‘door’ to connect in a topic-specific forum with fellow students and professionals. The academy has included both the technical aspect, which I’m not familiar with initially; and the functional aspect of the Internet, which I think is more straightforward to the general public. The topics are all interesting, but the human rights online catch my attention the most, especially about the right to have freedom of speech online. It’s more than relevant to my generation because the communication mode has extended its range to the virtual world – the Internet. That is why I think the Internet Governance is the essential ‘language’ that all users need to understand.
Emily Li (Hong Kong) – Business Analysis (Year 3)
I am a third-year Business Analysis student in Hong Kong. My major is about statistics and some programming. I learned to build some AI and statistic models from my program. But not until joining the academy, I learned about the ethics behind it. I came across concepts like algorithmic accountability, the right to be forgotten in the NetMission program. These are totally new perspectives for me. I found the program inspiring and meaningful. It makes me realize that someone is doing something to make the Internet a better place. Before the training workshop, I just took everything for granted, everything comes to me so naturally. I mean, the internet was a friendly place for me. Then I read about something like the Dropbox link incident on Instagram. And all of a sudden, I realized that someone is improving the Internet environment for us. I am amazed by the dedication of that youngster. I am not yet sure what I can do for bettering the Internet environment, but I will try my best to raise people’s awareness of it.
Isuru Nimantha (Colombo, Sri Lanka) – BSc. Information Systems (Year 3)
I am Isuru Nimantha from Colombo Sri Lanka. I am 22 years old and I am a 3rd-year student currently studying BSc. Information Systems at the University of Colombo School of Computing. I am a very friendly and cool person. I am a rugby player in my university rugby team. I love dancing, traveling and volunteering. I am passionating about Access and Empowering to youth generation and bringing the internet alive for everyone who deserves it. I had a great opportunity to join with NetMission.Asia and I got to know people from different countries. I have learned different aspects of the internet and other relevant things by joining the NetMission academy. I would like to work to make a positive influence on social media by the youth.
Jasmine Ko (Hong Kong) – Bachelor of Arts in Chinese (Year 4)
This is Jasmine Ko, nature and art enthusiast, who loves to live with a passion for life every day. Upholding the academic expertise in language and linguistics, I love to speak and write in daily practice. I have the greatest passion for Human Rights online, jointly with my previous one on multi-stakeholder participation. I would like to explore more on the potential of the human aspect of Internet Governance, as I am a humanistic value-driven person and I place my values in the first place. I believe there must be a positive role for the Internet on the path we pursue justice.
This academy provides me a holistic knowledge of diverse aspects of Internet Governance. Great appreciation is presented to the organizing committee who put much effort to coordinate between us ambassador and external experts. That is precious to spend time interacting with them and solving our inquiry promptly, provided with all-rounded and useful information pack tailoring for each specific learning topic. I am ready to explore more by joining the working group and initiating our idea. We are starting on social creative media, looking forward to launching innovative games or campaigns, possibly learning channel or podcasting.
Jia Lyn Low (Singapore) – International Relations undergraduate (Year 3)
My name is Jia Lyn, and I am a 3rd year International Relations undergraduate from Singapore. I am interested in issues related to emerging technologies, digital policies, internet consolidation, and Internet laws. Aside from Internet governance, I am involved in tech and sustainability. I am also an avid lover of books, coffee, and backpacking. Say hi to me @jforjia where I mainly tweet about tech, politics, sustainability, and bad puns.
Jinghan Dong (Hong Kong) – Geography Education
My name is Jinghan, a year one student studying Geography Education in The Education University of Hong Kong. In this information society, the Internet has extremely narrowed the distance between people on a global scale. However, there is still someone in the world who is less accessible to this technological convenience. The Internet-governance issue I focused on is the digital inclusion for the youth generation and visually impaired people. What our training workshops of NetMission.asia inspired me the most was that international governance is not only about developing ‘hardware’ technology, but more importantly the ‘software’ space, which means highlighting the inward awareness of using the internet to benefit our society. As I mentioned before, the development of cyberspace greatly benefits mankind. Therefore, helping the visually impaired through ‘Accessibility Technology’ can bring more opportunities for their keeping up pace with the era and further promote Disability Inclusion of the society. Whilst, spreading digital knowledge to schooling kids through education can not only improve the ability of kids but also can keep them focused on Internet-governance issues around the world and nurture the global concept and problem-solving abilities that might do good for the sustainability of our shared human community. If you’re also interested in developing ‘accessibility technology’ product that may help with the visually impaired or have passion for innovating teaching methods for educating our next informative generation, please feel free to contact me through my IG Channel: four_sabrinnnna. I looking forward to co-operating with you in my future projects for developing accessibility technology and digital educational software! Thanks for reading.
Mandy Chan (Hong Kong) – Bachelor of Social Sciences (Year 1)
I am a local student studying at the University of Hong Kong. It is really an interesting experience to join the NetMission Academy since I get to be exposed to things, such as internet governance, internet infrastructure, that I have never really looked into but are closely related to our daily lives. Listening to the sharing of the speaker with different backgrounds and representing different stakeholders and presenting our case studies, the training sessions of the NetMission were challenging yet inspiring, offering us fresh insight on internet governance. Among the various important internet issues, I am most interested in topics like human rights, freedom on the internet and digital inclusion since these are all important issues related to our universal values and the sustainable development of both the online and offline world. I still lacked a lot in terms of professional knowledge but I am determined to be a contributing ambassador who can help foster changes in our city, region and the world!
Nguyen Van Thanh (Hanoi, Vietnam)
I am Nguyen Van Thanh. I have 13 years of ICT managing experience in the private sector, academia, and government organizations. Currently, I am an IT Manager and IT Expert in Ministry Of Science and Technology (MOST), Vietnam and study Ph.D. in ITPP, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. I am a leader of the National Database about S&T in MOST. I was also Vice President of Vietnam Student Associations at Seoul National University, where I work as a Ph.D. candidate in ITPP. I have a strong passion for Internet Governance issues, especially cybersecurity and privacy. I am doing several pieces of research about Internet governance topics, evaluate and analyze the impact of privacy, security, anonymity, and surveillance on the Internet ecosystem. In 2019, I joined NetMission Ambassador program. During this program, I learned a lot about different topic areas in the Internet Governance domain. I also joined to discuss with all participants and share the knowledge as well as experience about Internet governance. How to make the Internet more stable, better and broader? Which solutions will be the best to solve the negative impact of Emerging technologies such as Blockchain, IoT, AI to the development of the Internet ecosystem? I hope to bring youth desirable impact to Internet Governance development, especially find good solutions for the Asia Pacific emerging issues.
Oumou Sangare (Changchun, China) – Machine Learning
I just started blogging at www.wics.ml, you can also follow me on social media as @MalianWics (Malian Woman In Computer Science).
I am a complete tech and science enthusiast: coding, machine learning, robotics, etc… and I love discovering and learning new things. Alongside my computer science studies, I am very interested in Internet Governance issues: Global Internet access, cybersecurity, data protection, etc… Especially issues affecting youth; that’s why I also wear the hat of Youth IGF Ambassador Mali. Trying to set up a youth IGF community in Mali.
Being part of this year’s training was a very exciting experience for me. As far as I know the program I always wanted to be part of it. It completely opened my eyes more on Internet governance issues and how to approach them. Every session was an opportunity to challenge me, being more outspoken, and read more about the topics to keep up. I learned to think more critically, worked with other amazing young people from various countries. Thanks to the team for this amazing learning opportunity, for being patient and helpful all along.
Rilla Gusela Sumisra (Jakarta, Indonesia) – Bachelor of Computer Science (Year 4)
I am a computer science student at BINUS University, Indonesia. Personally, I’m passionate about women in ICT, youth participation, cybersecurity and technologies such as the importance of women’s participation in the tech will provide a boost to the economy and allow for full participation in society and the importance ensuring respect for human rights online, online security and security for all. At first, I only focus on technical or computer-related fields. When I joined the conference in APNIC46 as a youth fellow in New Caledonia, I began to be interested in learning internet governance and I would like to be a useful person and add value to everything I take part in. I am very thankful for the opportunity to learn and discuss with great friends from Asia Pacific countries and experts from organizations, technology, and policy in NetMission. NetMission academy gives me more understanding about internet governance such as human rights online, multi-stakeholder participation, etc. I am really grateful as NetMission Ambassador this year and ready to contribute to the local, regional and global Internet governance. I highly recommend you to join the family of NetMission and let’s make a change for the betterment of the Internet and our community.
Samik Kharel (Kathmandu, Nepal )
I am currently a researcher in new media with an interest in Internet culture and visual culture. I received my Masters in Media Arts Cultures as part of Erasmus Mundus of the European Union. Over the years, I have been involved in a myriad of things with an eclectic mix of interests- working as a journalist, freelance writer and communication consultant for national and international organizations to name a few. Together I have also been actively participating in workshops and conferences related to Internet governance, social media, development communications, and ICT policies. I am very keen on digital platforms, technologies and social media. Relating it with the humanities and arts, I like to explore the new media and its generative content. I am also interested in data, AI and emergent technologies for development.
Stephanie Li (Hong Kong) – English Language and Literature (Year 4)
I am a serendipitous freak, a self-proclaimed feminist and also a travel addict. Interested in whatever happening in the real world as well as the world of virtuality.
When the abundance of information unveils us the new and open world, what confronts us isn’t just a “boundaryless” space that allows people to explore the world, but a world that data is unequally manipulated by the techno-gurus and the monopolies. To regain the dominance of our data and also privacy, I believe that improving the ability of people to access and use open data would be a feasible future plan.
In the age of artificial intelligence, futurist Raymond Kurzweil advocates the idea of “singularity is near”. In which he believes that the technologies will be developed in an exponential way while a human will eventually merge with machine intelligence. Perhaps now, it is also a good time to reflect on our relationship with machines. And being a futurist myself, the symbiosis of human and machine is foreseeable.
Steven Chen (Taiwan) – Social Science (Year 1)
I am Steven from Taiwan. I am currently a year 1 student studying social science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Growing up in the era of the Internet booming up, I have always been skeptical of the benefit of the Internet but I never succeed in getting rid of it. I remembered after I watched the daunting TV series “Black Mirror”, I began to reflect on how we should bring the world to the right track as a youth and I met NetMission. After joining the NetMission Academy, I discovered the infinity of the internet and understood the fundamental structure in the Internet society. It seemed that I never really knew the Internet. NetMission turns the new page for me building up a new perspective looking at Internet issues. I am currently interested in the comparison of human behaviors between the Internet and real-world, emerging technology like blockchain or machine learning and human rights on the Internet.
Tandin Wangchuk (Thimphu, Bhutan) – Bachelor in Computer Application (Year 2)
One thing that I found fascinating about NetMission program is an introduction to the multi-stakeholder policy development process. With such an approach, people from all dimensions could collaborate and contribute to decision making. I strongly feel that the transparency and involvement of a technical and social community is a must, especially youths must be encouraged in internet policymaking. This could ultimately lead to open and accessible internet.
I would like to start a Youth IGF in Bhutan where I could share about IG issues and discuss internet policies. Furthermore, I am enthusiastic to research on inclusive internet governance and cybersecurity.
Cynthia Wang (Hong Kong) – Creative Arts and Culture (Year 1)
I am Cynthia, a year 1 student major in creative arts and culture from Hong Kong. In virtue of online human rights gradually tightened, I begin to interested in this topic and want to learn more about political participation in the new media especially the scenario in China and the beneficial and proper way to tackle the problems. Moreover, on the whole, way discovering Internet governance, I found that there are more interesting things that waiting for me to learn such as online activism and civil society, electronic democracy in China and so on.
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