Events Name:

Digital Youth Fellowship

Category:

Fellowships

Short Description:

Youth Ki Awaaz and Digital Empowerment Foundation

Event Description:

 

India is a young nation, not only in spirit but also in sheer numbers. With the second largest population in the world, and just over 40% of its population under the age of 25 the potential for India to be a socio-economic powerhouse has never been greater. Change in a such a scenario is inevitable, with great potential comes great responsibility and the rampant poverty and inaccessibility to technology is evident in rural and semi rural parts of India. Considering more than 70% of the Indian economy depends upon an agrarian income, the critical need for their development goes without saying.

To give the coming generation of change-makers the opportunity to avail the platform to change and influence lives, the Digital Empowerment Foundation and YouthKiAwaaz. com have joined hands to present the Digital Youth Fellowship.

It shall offer the motivated and sensitive youth of the country, with an opportunity to be able to give back and contribute substantially to digital media development in rural areas of the country. ICT, i. e. Information and Community Technology has been possibly one of them most effective tools to bring rural backward areas at power with urban city centres; it is the ability to interact with new media technologies that is leading to such rapid development in urban areas and the lack of such knowledge in rural areas the reason for their lagging behind. During the course of the fellowship, they shall get to contribute to upcoming and continuing projects of the DEF Foundation and also get mentored under knowledgeable activists who have been working in the field.

At the same time, it shall provide the infrastructure and framework within which they will be able to gain the impetus they require to start their own initiatives. In this respect, the Foundation shall try its best to suggest funding options for the fellows and give them start up advice if need be.

Fellowship Programs And Opportunities:

Outreach and Networking:

1) Manthan Awards: Manthan Award is a first of its kind initiative in India to recognize the best practices in e-Content and Creativity by Digital Empowerment Foundation in partnership with World Summit Award, Department of Information Technology, Govt. of India, and various other stakeholders like civil society members, media and other similar organisations engaged in promoting digital content inclusiveness in the whole of South Asian nation states for development.

2) mBillionth Awards: mBillionth Award is a dedicated platform to explore the latent potential of mobile & telecom sector across 8 countries in South Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The Award (http://mbillionth. in/) is designed as an annual South Asia’s leading mobile & telecom award platform leading to larger regional Mobile Congress in media and policy advocacy.

3) Digital Youth Award: A platform to seek out, promote, recognize youth entrepreneurs in the field of ICT for development

Education:

4) Gyanpedia: Gyanpedia is an online digital content repository generated by children and teachers of rural government schools across India. Gyanpedia is an initiative of Digital Empowerment Foundation with whole hearted support from Media Lab Asia, to create a comprehensive, multilingual, dynamic virtual platform for country wide content exchange program for the learning community – children as well as teachers. This will facilitate learning and sharing and thereby boost e-learning and e-education processes. The project aims to contribute towards India emerging a knowledge society and preserve the local knowledge as well. It provides free access to online knowledge portal and educational platform. It is an interactive mode of education which provides basic computer education training and certification for students and teachers as well. It also works as an online educational digital content library and a medium for easy access to educational information and resource agencies for the Schools. It promotes the joy of creativity among children, provides a platform for child’s expression, and facilitates interaction of the child with world around.

Governance:

5) Digital Panchayat: DP is a web-based Community Resource Management platform for promoting and channelling local expertise, content and products to the outside world at the level of village panchayats in India (www. epanchayat. in)

6) Portal for Government schemes: A one stop shop portal for accessing Government schemes for citizens according to state, religion, caste, occupation, education, livelihood means, gender, age.

Information Commons Platform Creation:

7) Digital Knowledge Centre: An online knowledge repository of the best e-content and digital best practices across India and south Asia.

8 ) Content Exchange: A knowledge exchange platform between various stakeholders for digital empowerment.

Commerce and Livelihood:

9) eMSME

eMSME is a web enabled facility designed for Micro, Medium and Small Enterprises of India with a cost effective web platform creation and service delivery with unlimited web pages and thereby facilitating hundreds and thousands of MSME entrepreneurs to have a virtual identity and information and communication platform for outreach and scale up their presence. It is for hundred of micro and small enterprises active in India and in need of a visible virtual identity and presence across the globe, for those MSME entrepreneurs who want to reach out to maximum clients beyond its immediate region and for those entrepreneurs who are cost strapped to avail a range of web services at affordable cost with customized packages.

10) Chanderiyaan

Chanderiyaan, an initiative of DEF in order to empower weavers of Chanderi, Madhya Pradesh, is a digital window to showcase the magic and beauty of Chanderi weaving in its multifaceted hues to the world outside. It is a platform to share the brilliance of craftsmanship of the Chanderi weavers in District Ashok Nagar of Madhya Pradesh in Central India. It is a platform to share the richness of weaving and design patterns evolved through many centuries in this weaving town with its own historical dynamics and stories to reveal. Chanderiyaan is an initiative of DEF to benefit the weavers through SHG members who are associated with the Chanderiyaan Weavers Integrated Information resource Center (CWIIRC). The objective is to see that the weavers of Chanderi find a sound economic sustenance and dignified way of living for themselves and their future generations through the age old weaving skills and product support thus serving the demand of the market.

Social Entrepreneurship:

11) COMMUNITY INFORMATION RESOURCE CENTRES (CIRCS):

CIRCs, an initiative of DEF & Intel India, are an ICT enabled platform to provide support for livelihood generation, health, education, training and development programmes at grassroot level.

12) eNGO: The eNGO web service package is designed in a way to provide services at a minimal cost which is sustainable and a low cost solution for grassroots organizations unlike any commercial service at market value. Under eNGO Service one can get a full website with a minimal cost including designing and uploading of the content. Also, the website would be offered in any Indian language, and while the content preparation is responsibility of the NGO, the gradual update mechanism and the system would be provided to NGO after the first time readiness of the website. There would be user manual on how to maintain and manage and update the website.

New Media and Journalism:

13) YouthKiAwaaz. com: YouthKiAwaaz. com is India’s largest online platform for young people to express themselves on issues of critical importance. The platform makes best use of social media tools and online journalism skills to mobilize and engage young people in participatory and collaborative journalism. This first of its kind digital news room power packs a cadre of over 600 regularly contributing volunteer journalists, dedicated towards bringing about a change in the society through the fourth estate of a society – journalism.

The fellows will get to lay hands on, and be a part of the editorial work. They will be exposed to leadership opportunities of heading teams of diverse individuals, engage themselves in research and investigations, work on specialized stories – as copy editors, desk editors, senior journalists and more.

They will also be exposed to a holistic learning environment of business development and strategy, thus developing their executive skills. More about YouthKiAwaaz. com athttp://www. youthkiawaaz. com/

Environmental Sustainability:

14) NeerJaal: Neerjaal is a concept originally conceived by the Global Rainwater Harvesting Collective (GRWHC), Barefoot College in Tilonia Rajasthan. GRWHC, under its flagship activities of Barefoot College, has been collecting and managing information regarding various linkages of Water in the desert of Rajasthan, especially in and around tilonia village near Kishangarh. Recently, GRWHC, together with Digital Empowerment Foundation, discussed the Neerjaal concept together and developed the entire concept to implement at the national level, where the water sources, water bodies, water consumption, water usage, water harvesting, and water shortages and needs could be mapped and put on an interactive platform. The long term vision of Neerjaal is to allow each and every villagers and villages to put their water data on the public domain, and gradually with as the help of people and universal contribution, we gather widespread data related to water in India.

15) Green Prakriya: An online knowledge platform to garner best practices and information for all stakeholders working in the field of ICT for sustainable habitat.

Research and Policy Advocacy:

16) Internet Governance, Internet Rights and Privacy: Conducting key research activities in the ICTD domain for India, South Asia and Global requirements.

17) Green Prakriya: Green Prakriya is a functional and dynamic platform that aims to initiate a continuous process of learning, sharing and collaboration amongst all stake-holders towards empowering a sustainable habitat. The objective is to create a knowledge eco-web of how information and communication technologies can play an instrumental role in empowering a sustainable habitat. It is an integration of all efforts towards the attainment of the goal of Green India and practicing optimal utilization of the given natural resources as envisaged the Prime Minister’s National Action Plan for the Climate Change. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have had their share in being the victim, villain and hero in climate change and environmental sustainability. Advancements in technology over the years have brought about a tide of information influx and technology gadget era. However, this growth has also brought about its share of concerns towards the ecosystem.

 

Website of Opportunity: http://www.youthfellowship.in/

Email: mridang@youthkiawaaz.com

Date:

20 Jun, 2011 - 30 Jun, 2011

Place/Venue:

New Delhi

Address:

New Delhi
New Delhi, New Delhi
India