Contents
Goals
- Raise awareness of individuals who are actively working to advance the democratic development of the internet.
- Reflect on role models and influential figures.
Steps
Preparation
Print the temmplates:
- Biographies - text only (the standard version)
- Biographies with images (if you would ignore the first question for the group phase, and for presentation at the end)
Introduction and collection
Introduce the topic and take notes. Consider people and personalities associated with digitalisation, digital transformation, AI, big data and digital platforms. Also consider individuals who actively campaign for a fairer, more democratic and inclusive internet.
Make a list of as many as you can think of (individually or together in the group).
Complete the individual task on a post-it note (it could be interesting to see how many people mention Musk or other capitalist platform owners). Then collect the Post-its on a poster.
Explain that the task is about personalities that are less visible in the dominant discourse but which are more important from the perspective of an alternative internet, as well as for human rights and digital rights.
Group work with biographies
Divide the group into small working groups of two to three people. Each group should select and read one biography to use as a starting point for discussion. Provide the following two discussion questions:
- Why the person is relevant?
- Did you know her/him before?
After 10-15 minutes give the next task to the ‘research teams’:
- Imagine what the person looks like and share your ideas. Then do an online search and compare the result what you found with your imagination.
- When searching online – try to find out more. What you would like to know about the person? Think about successes but also about aspects that can be seen critically.
- Prepare a presentation: If you are doing this task in your native language – present the results in a short and simple poem (all is accepted except “internet – cat”)
- Do you know someone else who you perceive as a digital role model?
Present the findings
Maybe in short summaries or poems. Collect the names of the other people mentioned by the teams.
Present the images of the persons described in the biography or share the hand out version with images.
Reflection
- Did you already know the people who were introduced? If not, why do you think that is? Take a look at the poster. When you think about 'digital personalities', who usually comes to mind?
- What distinguishes these people from more well-known digital personalities? What do they have in common, and how do they differ in terms of their personal backgrounds, values, priorities and visions of the internet?
- Do you know of any other people who strive for free knowledge, an open and accessible internet, or digital rights?
- Real people are controversial – what aspects of their activities or statements are worthy of discussion?
Advocates for a free and democratic internet
- Richard Stallman & GNU Project
- LibreOffice, The Open Document Foundation & Florian Effenberger
- Open Source Initiative
- Jimmy Wales & Wikipedia
- Linus Torvalds & Linux
- Max Schrems & NOYB
- Mozilla Foundation
- Gerhart Baum
- Carole Cadwalladr & Harry Davies
- Francesca Bria
- Lawrence Lessig, Eric Eldred & Creative Commons
- Frank Karlischek & Nextcloud
- The Xwiki-Team & CryptPad
- Fairphone and Bas van Abel, Tessa Wernink and Miquel Ballester Salvà
- Viviane Reding and Jan-Philipp Albrecht and the General Data Protection Regulation
- Edward Snowden
Download:
References
Pictures: Wikipedia, European Parliament (see details in the template file)
Handbook: More than Go with the Flow
- A handbook on Digital Citizenship Education, created in the frame of the project DIYW-ROAD/Competendo. Digital Youth Work - rights-sensitive, open, accessible, democratic.
- Unless otherwise stated, authors and editors of the methods published in the project are Elisa Rapetti, Markus José Plasencia Kanzler, and Nils-Eyk Zimmermann
