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961697000Youth Internet Governance Forum Malaysia 2019 ReportName of Event: Youth Internet Governance Forum Malaysia 2019 Date of Event: November 15 & 16, 2019 Location of Event: Engineering Faculty, University of Malaya Number of Persons Attended: 110SummaryOn November 15th and 16th, Malaysia’s first ever Youth Internet Governance Forum (YIGF) was held at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Malaya. The forum was open to the public and approximately 110 people were in attendance. During the conference, participants attended various sessions on different topics, shared their thoughts and opinions during those sessions—all of which were documented and submitted in the rapporteur report. Internet Society’s Youth Ambassador to the Internet Governance Forum 2019, Louis Liaw, UNESCO Advisor for Communication and Information, Dr. Lim Ming-Kuok, and Deputy Minister of the Youth and Sports Ministry, YB Steven Sim Chee Keong opened the forum with an introductory speech. With his extensive background in Information Technology (IT), YB Steven Sim was also Keynote Speaker for the Forum. YB spoke about the evolution of communication, from when ships were used to deliver information, until today, where messages can be sent and received immediately via the internet. This evolution has also led to new issues and conflicts that are affecting our everyday lives and should be addressed through forums like these.Throughout the two days, participants had the opportunity to choose among various topical sessions during the allocated breakout time slots. Topics included: Internet Accessibility for Marginalized Communities, UNESCO Universality Indicators, Religion and the Internet, the Youth Role in Internet Governance, Digital Inclusion, ASEAN Way of Cybersecurity, Being a Womxn on the Internet, Mental Health and Cyberspace, Data Ethics, Internet Safety for Youth, Freedom of Expression & Censorship, Navigating Homophobia and Transphobia Online, Public Policy for the 4th Industrial Revolution, and Digital Diplomacy. The sessions included a series of panels and presentations. The last 15 minutes of each sessions were devoted to taking questions from participants. In line with the IGF principle of ensuring transparency of information, the rapporteur report will be published on our website and shared with all of the attendees. Objectives The YIGF 2019 Malaysia aims to:Establish a platform for youth to discuss public policy issues related to key elements of Internet Governance in order to foster sustainability, robustness, security and development of the Internet;Facilitate the exchange of information and best practices for youth-related sustainability on the Internet, and in this regard, make full use of the expertise of academic, scientific, and technical communities;Strengthen and enhance the engagement of youth stakeholders in existing and/or future Internet governance mechanisms; Identify emerging issues pertaining to youth related Internet governance, and bring them to the attention of relevant bodies and the general public, and when appropriate, make recommendations and lastly;Discuss, inter alia, issues relating to critical Internet resources with Malaysian youth actors and facilitate the process of the youth speaking out on solutions to the issues arising from the use and misuse of the Internet. Programme and Speakers Day-1The event started off at 9:00am with Registration, followed by the Opening Note at 9:30am. After one hour of speeches by Louis Liaw, Dr. Lim Ming-Kuok, and YB Steven Sim, participants were directed to the respective classrooms for the breakout sessions. At 12:30PM, lunch was served and participants were able to use this one and a half hour time slot to visit the different Civil Society Organisation booths that were set up. Following lunch, participants were redirected back to the respective classrooms for breakout. While we planned a time slot for the participants to network over coffee after Breakout Session II, this program was cancelled due to the imminent rain. Hence, participants were allowed to disperse an hour earlier than the set time. Day-2The flow for the second day was similar to the first. However, instead of having an Opening Note, we had a Recap of Day One, where participants were encouraged share their thoughts and takaways after the first day’s breakout sessions. Prior to this sharing, we had a small activity for the participants to mingle and socialise with other participants whom they have not met. At 10:30am, participants were redirected to the respective classrooms for the Breakout Session III. This was followed by lunch and the final breakout session. At 4:00pm, after Breakout Session IV, participants were all gathered at the foyer for a networking session with speakers as well as other participants. At 5:00pm, participants were redirected back to the auditorium for the closing ceremony. During this closing session, participants were required to connect with someone from a different state or university, ask one another what is one thing that they have learned during this forum, and come towards the stage to relay the information in order to receive their certificates of participation. After all the participants received their certificate, YIGF steering committee member Dobby Chew delivered a closing remark, thanking the participants for being so passionate and encouraging them to get involved in future YIGF events. Breakout Sessions There was a total of 4 breakout sessions throughout the two-day event. Participants were given three choices of topics during Breakout Session I and III, and four choices of topics during Breakout Sessions II and IV. Opportunities to propose topics were opened to the public. Participants were encouraged to not only submit topics that they think should be included in the forum, but also organise their own panels or presentations. We received 3 proposal submissions from students, and 4 from civil society organisations. The programme committee deliberated and decided which topics to include in the forum. The details for each of the breakout session topics are as follows:Breakout Session ITopic: Internet Accessibility: Is the Marginalised Community Connected?Format: PanelModerator: Farah, EMPOWERSpeaker(s): Mohd Rosli Ibrahim, Shereen Abigael Ajani, Kesavan ParwathyTopic: UNESCO Universality Indicator Format: PresentationSpeaker(s): Dr. Lim Ming-KuokTopic: Religion and the Internet: What’s the connection?Format: PanelModerator: Wang Junmey, SUARAM Speaker(s): Melanie Yong, Sharan Raj, Wan Ji Wan Hussein Breakout Session IITopic: Youth Role in Internet GovernanceFormat: Interview Moderator: Victoria Cheng, Projek DialogSpeaker(s): YB Maria Chin Abdullah Topic: The Right to Communicate: Empowering All Malaysians Through Digital InclusionFormat: PanelModerator: Amirah Qistina, University of Nottingham Speaker(s): Louis Liaw, Tharma Pillai, Jeannette Goon ASEAN Way of CybersecurityFormat: Presentation & Workshop Speaker(s): Kuhan Pillai Anbalakan Being a Womxn on the InternetFormat: PanelModerator: Amanda, EMPOWERSpeaker(s): Nurainie Haziqah, Gisele Rimong Breakout Session IIITopic: Mental Health & Cyberspace Format: PresentationSpeaker(s): Dr. Chua Sook NingTopic: My Data, or No Data Format: WorkshopSpeaker(s): Isaac Adams Topic: Internet Safety for Youth: A discussion among the youths Format: Presentation & WorkshopSpeaker(s): Nur Erzarith Sofia Binti Wahap, UNIMAS Breakout Session IVTopic: Freedom of Expression & Censorship: Where’s the limit?Format: PanelModerator: Low Xin-Dee, SUARAMSpeaker(s): Fahmi Reza, Lena Hendry, New Sin YewTopic: Navigating Homophobia and Transphobia OnlineFormat: Workshop Moderator: Thilaga, Justice for Sisters Topic: The Next Generation of Public Policy for the 4th Industrial RevolutionFormat: PresentationSpeaker(s): Eshaan MenonTopic: Digital Diplomacy Format: Presentation Speaker(s): Nabila Hussain Civil Society Organisation Booths The list of organisations and their contact information can be found on our website at . Participants’ Feedback We had a few opportunities to collect participants’ feedback. By checking on them throughout the day, having them share their takeaways during the Day-1 Recap and closing ceremony, as well as via text messages from them, we managed to gather a census on their general insights. Some of the common feedbacks were: The topics were interesting and novel. The panellists and speakers were engaging, enabling stimulating discussions. More attention should be given to the venue preparation, for example direction to the venue, distance from one location to the next, and weather factor. Extreme gratitude for giving the participants a chance to be a part of this forum.Some other comments from one or two participants were:Participants’ language barrier prevented them to be actively engaged in the discussion. Majority of the sessions were conducted in English, and some of the participants were not as fluent in English as compared to Bahasa Malaysia.Location and Venue The forum was held at University of Malaya’s Engineering Faculty. Registration and meal tables as well as booths from other Civil Society Organisations (CSO) were set up at the foyer of the Electrical Engineering Faculty (Block Y). The opening and closing note, as well as a few other breakout sessions were held at the Block Y auditorium. For Breakout Session I, the classrooms used were located in the Business Faculty, which was a 13-minute walk from Block Y. After the opening note at the auditorium, members from the organising team were assigned to lead the students to the Business Faculty. Due to the imminent rain in the afternoon, we had to relocate Breakout Session II to classrooms that were nearer to the auditorium. Despite the short time frame, we managed to secure classrooms in Block D of the Engineering Faculty, which is a 7 minutes’ walk from the auditorium. As for Day-2, registration and meal tables as well as booths from CSOs remain in the foyer of Block Y. Besides the opening and closing sessions, which remained in the auditorium, the rest of the breakout sessions were held at Block D. The auditorium and breakout classrooms were fitted with AV equipment and support. The size for each of the breakout classrooms were appropriate for the nature of the sessions, where it allowed speakers’ and participants’ voice to project clearly across the room.In hindsight, we should have taken the weather into consideration when planning for the location. However, the reason we were unable to secure Block D for the first Breakout Session I was because there were classes ongoing in those classrooms. Furthermore, we should also consider the accessibility of the location. The 13-minute walk might be feasible for many, but not for all. For example, this distance might pose as a greater challenge for people with disabilities and people who are physically unfit. Three weeks prior to the event date, we ran into a problem with the venue. We originally collaborated with the UM JusTech student group to secure the auditorium and classrooms in the Faculty of Law, University of Malaya. However, due to unforeseeable circumstances, they were unable to accommodate us any further. Due to the short timeframe leading up to the event date, we decided to proceed with University of Malaya as our event venue. Looking for a venue that can accommodate the nature of the event was challenging as the rooms were either not big enough, unavailable, or there weren’t enough rooms in the same faculty. Furthermore, there were no allocated funds in our budget for venue rental costs. Hence, we had to work around the budget to cover this unanticipated cost. Another reason we decided to stick with the University of Malaya as our venue was the centrality of its location. Not only is it nearby the hotel that we had booked for the participants from outside Kuala Lumpur, but it is also easily accessible via public transport. Unfortunately, locating the venue was not as easy as we had hoped. Even though we included the exact map coordinates in the YIGF handbook, we failed to anticipate that the map coordinates on the Grab app would be different. Participants who took Grab rides to the venue they were dropped off at the main entrance of the Engineering Faculty. This was a problem since the Faculty itself is big and consists of many buildings. We should have set up signage directing participants from the main entrance to the exact building. It would also have been helpful if we had posted a short “How To Get Here” video on our social media platforms. In terms of food, we catered meal boxes from PichaEats, a social-enterprise meal service which partners refugee communities in Malaysia. The options were vegetarian and non-vegetarian for lunch, and vegetarian for tea. In order to accommodate the people with different meal preferences, we decided to order fifty percent vegetarian and fifty percent non-vegetarian. However, we were left with plenty of vegetarian lunch boxes by the end of the day. Hence, in the future, we should keep in mind that majority of the people prefer non-vegetarian over vegetarian. Accommodation There were a few accommodation options close to our venue, but only Best Western Petaling Jaya had the capacity for 38 rooms and was also the only one that was able to give us a reasonable rate of MYR 500/room for three nights. The other hotels that we reached out to were Pullman Bangsar, Strawberry Field Hotel, and Crystal Crown Hotel. Participants from outside the Klang Valley were provided accommodation at the Best Western Hotel Petaling Jaya. The duration of their stay was from November 14th to November 17th. Participants were placed in twin sharing rooms. Most of them shared rooms with other participants from the same university. Breakfast was provided by the hotel and participants were encouraged to have breakfast before coming to the event. Shuttle services from the bus station and the airport to the hotel were arranged by the organising committee. The same shuttle services was also provided to take the participants to the bus station and airport. However, transportation from the hotel to the event venue was not provided. Nevertheless, we included in our YIGF handbook a list of transportation options that participants could take. We also briefed them on the various options during when they checked in at the hotel. For future reference, we should ensure the budget includes participants’ accommodation costs. In our case, we overlooked this allocation during our budget review. As we were searching for accommodation options, we realised that we did not have enough funds available. Hence, we had to make an urgent request to our funders for additional funds. Transportation for Participants Travelling from Out of KLThe organising committee arranged travel logistics for the participants from outside of KL. There were three groups in total travelling into KL on the 14th of November: one from Sabah, one from Sarawak, and one from Penang. Those travelling from Sabah and Sarawak came by flight and those from Penang came by bus. We decided to make the travel arrangements on their behalf as that would save us the trouble of managing reimbursements for 70 people. Marketing, media and promotion Our promotional efforts focused mainly on outreach and social media postings. Outreach We conducted a total of 20 outreach events at universities as well as other civil society venues. The objective for such activities was to share the YIGF initiative as widely as possible. As this was the first ever YIGF in Malaysia, the concept is rather foreign to most. The details for each outreach, as well as the estimated attendance is as followed:HELP University (KL Campus) Workshop (September 4, 2019) – Estimated attendance: 50 pax Monash University (Sunway Campus) Debate Club Workshop (September 26, 2019) – Estimated attendance: 9 pax Pup Up Booth at Freedom Film Fest 2019 (September 28, 2019) – Estimate attendance / person reached: 10 paxTaylor’s University Lakeside Campus Agents of Tech and ALSA Workshop (September 30, 2019) – Estimated attendance: 6 pax University of Nottingham Workshop (October 3, 2019) – Estimated attendance: 30 pax UM Pro Bono Day (October 5, 2019) – Estimated Attendance: 80 paxUniversity of Malaysia Sabah, UMS Workshop (October 7, 2019) – Estimated Attendance: 50 pax UiTM Sabah Workshop (October 8, 2019) – Estimated attendance: 30 paxJesselton College Sabah Workshop (October 8, 2019) – Estimated attendance: 16 paxOpen Workshop for Youth Groups in Sabah (October 8, 2019) – Estimated attendance: 15 paxUiTM Shah Alam Pop-Up Booth (October 10-11, 2019) – Estimated attendance: 25 paxKL Open Workshop (October 12, 2019) – Estimated attendance: 20 pax INTI Nilai Workshop (October 14, 2019) – Estimated attendance: 20 paxMaxwell Academy Ipoh (October 15, 2019) – Estimated attendance: 40 paxKDU Penang (October 22, 2019) – Estimated attendance: 60 paxMSU Penang (October 23, 2019) – Estimated attendance: 40 paxUNIMAS (October 23, 2019) – Estimated attendance: 50 pax Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak (October 29, 2019) – Estimated attendance: 45 pax Tar College Penang (October 30, 2019) – Estimated attendance: 30 paxSUARAM Penang (October 30, 2019) – Estimated attendance: 15 paxWe found that conducting these workshops at universities was most effective, especially if we obtained support from faculty members at these universities. A majority of the participants from outside the Klang Valley were from the universities that we had conducted workshops at. Social Media PostingsWe utilised Facebook and Instagram the most for our social media promotions. 88% of our social media content was created by our internal team. We also hired a graphic design team to create 1 promotional video and 3 social media posts. We boosted almost all our social media posts during the last two weeks prior to the event. We curated the audience to fit the 17—35 age range, and who were residing in the Klang Valley region. This is because at this point in time, the number of Klang Valley registered participants was still low.Our Facebook posts had an average reach of 6,072 people. A majority of the audience fell within the 17—35 age range. Additionally, the posts attracted more men than women. Furthermore, our Instagram posts had an average reach of 25,421 people. Majority of the audience are from the 18—24 age range. Similar to the posts on Facebook, the posts on Instagram attracted a larger male audience as compared to female audience. Despite the sizeable following and response we got on our social media posts, the turn-out of actual participants was relatively low. For future YIGF events, the organising team should begin their social media campaign as early as possible—preferably 2 months before the set event date. The social media team should also prioritise posting prominent speakers at the beginning of the campaign to gain traction from the public at an early stage. In order to gain popularity among the public, the social media team can also approach key figures and influencers who will be attending the event or who are passionate about the topic in order promote our event on their own social media platforms. Presenting faces to put names to, and personalities on our own social media page would allow us to be more real, personable and relatable to our audience. Additionally, the social media team should be mindful of language barriers and preferences among the audience. To be accessible and inclusive to people of all backgrounds, the team should prepare content that utilises different languages, specifically English and Bahasa Malaysia. If the team is able to, they can expand the number of languages to include Mandarin and Tamil as well. Next Steps Forward Moving forward, the YIGF steering committee has decided to take the following action steps:To engage with Malaysia’s National Internet Governance Forum, and potentially organise a Day-0 workshop for the youths during the IGF Malaysia. To develop a network of youths to participate in YIGF 2020, and subsequent YIGF events in Malaysia. Those who are interested in joining the organising committee for YIGF 2020 can submit their application through . ** This report and the rapporteur report will be uploaded to our website: . ................
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