The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF intervention. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> ALINA USTINOVA: Thank you very much for joining us online and on‑site. So, my name is Alina Ustinova. We're the coordinators for youth ‑‑ thank you. And so, we also have a project which is called youth digital on person. We present in 2021 in IFG where I first started. The working session is to tell about projects that involve, like, enlightenment of youth and of many people around the world about IT, about tech, about what initiatives we have from around the globe. And maybe someone can find people who they can work with in the future. So basically, this is it.
I hope that someone may be ‑‑ will ask us online audience some questions or maybe propose some kind of a project because it's all about networking.
So we're going to start with my colleague here Pavel Pozdnyakov will tell us about the project of the Coordination Centre for (?). Thank you.
>> PAVEL POZDNYAKOV: Thank you so much. As it was previously mentioned, I'm from the Coordination Centre for Russian (?). Nice to see you again. Well, let's talk maybe with my ‑‑ start with my presentation. Well, and I'll tell you about projects of the Coordination Centre. We'll start with the first one. And so, the centre pays great attention to the projects in the increasingly level of knowledge and digital literacy in young people. The first one project is summer school on Internet governance. As you can see on this slide, the school already has its own history for the last four years. This time, the school had almost 300 submissions to participate in, and about 40 of them finished the course.
We had a wide range of ages of countries, backgrounds. As usual, we have strong women lobby there, and the project school traditionally last for two months.
Next one we the youth Council of the centre. As you can see, the main goals is to give participants the space to implement their ideas, projects, and also to give them a special experience on conducting events concerning Internet governance idea.
So, next one, the ditchtality reality club ‑‑ digital reality club. We with my colleagues, I mean members of the youth Council Internet going to school, so we organise sessions and discuss via the experts during the club. The topics of Internet governance, the last one session, for example, we discussed least current event, the IGF.
Traditionally, we have a special course on the eve of the Russian Internet governance forum. You can shoot it with your phone or if you can see the QR code on the screen.
So, the special course ended engaging with young people on the topic of Internet governance. And the last one but not the least, after the forum, special youth section to formulate a call, a message from the younger generation concerning the current IGA issues. So, I'm done. If you have any question, you can ask me. Yeah, thank you, Alina.
>> ALINA USTINOVA: Thank you, Pavel. So I think that we will have a Q&A in the end of our session, so if you want to write something in the chat, please do. We will answer on probably ‑‑ just we give ‑‑ so, we will stay in the same region, Eastern Europe. And now I want to give a word to Marko, who will speak about his involvement. So, next slides, please.
>> MARKO PALOSKI: Thank you for the introduction. Hello, everyone. I'm Marko Paloski. Wait, the slide. Okay. I'm Marko Paloski, coming from Macedonia. I am currently from this year coordinator of the Internet governance for Macedonia, and how I am here, I'm here as a representative of the youth college on Internet governance. What started is idea and initiative many years ago. It's still now running, and it's one, how can I say, Coalition or group of youth, people who are involved in the Internet governance world. So, the whole body or the Coalition is everyone who is under 35 years old can join the Coalition. We have a mailing list. We have Working Group where we represent different ‑‑ the Steering Committee, chair is selected one year of term, representing the five regions of UN regions. How it's appropriated. Here on the slide are for this year Steering Committee. From Eastern Europe, we have from western Europe, from Latin America, and Africa.
So what actually we do, the whole idea is to group the youth interested in governance top ‑‑ Internet governance topics to merge together, to network and maybe collaborate on some projects, but we have also some, how can I say, regular activities that we are doing each year. I put here a few on the slide. The first one is together with Internet society, we are doing youth ambassador mentorship. We select the mentors and some of us are part of the guidebook and whole coordination with every mentor there. We are also registered in the IGF Coalition that represents each year, we have some sessions on the Dynamic Coalition forum.
During the year, we organise webinars and workshops on different topics that are involved in the youth, and we spend to ‑‑ the speakers to be the youth people to share about their work what they are doing, so we learn more about them. We have biweekly newsletter of opportunities that we are sharing about fellowships, open jobs, stuff that youth can be signing or joining.
In the last three years, we are organising when IGF is opening the cause for submission for the ‑‑ like had forum. We are preparing and collecting the youth together to put the submission, because if you are new to IGF or maybe you've seen on the website and new in this world, how can I say, Internet governance, there is a procedure that you need to follow if you want to propose a proposal or submission. So we are organising the youth on the topics on the different segments and collecting together to help and write the proposals and apply them so they can be selected for the IGF.
In this year, we had, I think, around 100‑something proposals around with the Internet society group, and about 10 per cent of them were selected. That's around 15 sessions, I think, here in Internet governance forum in Japan. Writing posts, usually about experiences. I had blog post about my experience in Costa Rica, about Dynamic Coalition meetings and something like that, and as I mentioned, we have active mailing lists. I want just to mention here that there is a lot of more opportunities that are not just youth Coalition Internet governance and Internet societies, youth extending groups which I think will be the next presentation. On the side of youth Internet governance, which I can share later he there is how to get involved, how the youth can get involved, and there are plenty of opportunities listed by region, by organisations, like Internet society, icam, and many more. So, yes, I will keep it short. If there are any questions, we can discuss more in the Q&A session, and, yeah, that's all. Thank you.
>> ALINA USTINOVA: Thank you very much. So, the next one to present a project will be going to Asia, India, so please, she will join us online. So please start. I will ‑‑ these next slides, and just tell me what to click because ‑‑ can you hear us? Vlad hi. Can you ‑‑
>> SHRADHA PANDEY: , high, can you hear me?
>> ALINA USTINOVA: Yes, I can hear you, but it's a little bit ‑‑ maybe you can ‑‑ louder.
>> SHRADHA PANDEY: Yes, I can be a little bit louder. Is this better now?
>> ALINA USTINOVA: Thank you. So ‑‑
>> SHRADHA PANDEY: Okay.
>> ALINA USTINOVA: Next slide where you want to take me.
>> SHRADHA PANDEY: Thank you so much for sharing the slides. Hello, everybody. Very good morning. in Japan where you are joining and everybody online, a very good morning to you too. So, my session is ‑‑ my presentation is going to centre around two main topics, and the two main topics are the two os that I'm currently ‑‑ organisations that I'm currently a part of, that is the (?) and the youth standing group for which I'm a board member. So can you go to the next slide, please?
(Background noise)
>> ALINA USTINOVA: The next one?
>> SHRADHA PANDEY: Yes, please. Okay.
(Feedback)
>> ALINA USTINOVA: Okay.
(Laughter).
This one?
>> SHRADHA PANDEY: Yes, this one. Thank you. So, the international connect group is a group of young members selected from all the regions across the globe (?) (inaudible) and we have (inaudible) a few representatives who are on site in Japan who are representing the international (inaudible) in Japan for ‑‑ to ensure that group members and group voices are heard at the highest levels of policy‑making and decision‑making on the Internet and in (?). But the (inaudible) that I want to talk about today is the idea of youth standing group and the idea of Guth standing group of Internet society, which (inaudible) special interest groups and standing group about what we do, how we do and how we can enlighten youth to get involved in more Internet governance activities. Can you go to the next slide, please.
So the youth standing group started out as youth observe country and became youth SIG, and now it's the youth standing group. It's made by the young penal for young people. The idea is to ensure that all young people get a voice on the Internet and their opinions and their voices are voiced out and they hold at the highest level of policy‑making. So it started in 2015 and was (inaudible) as a special interest group, and in 2022, we received a permanent status as a standing group by the '22 SG. And you can see them on the screen, the board of directors for 2022 to 2024 are below. If you notice something carefully, you will notice that in the presentation Marko gave just before me, the youth Coalition of Internet governance and youth standing group work very closely together, so much so that one of the board of directors of the youth standing group and youth Coalition Internet governance, who is from Africa, are ‑‑ yeah, she's a member of both of the groups. So, this is something that we understand the idea of collaboration and the idea of involving (inaudible) about how we can take this forward. Can you go to the next slide, please.
) background noise) thank you. Yes. So, the question that comes up is youth engagement across the globe: What does the future hold for young people?
and next slide, please.
Yes. So, the youth standing group these are a few activities of the youth standing group that I wanted to highlight about what we have done and Marko highlighted about ‑‑ in his presentation as well about the youth standing group role that has taken place about Internet governance submissions so we created Working Groups to submit proposals to the IGF (inaudible). (Background noise) we need some help or understanding about how we can help and how we can participate. So this is something that we try to include and we try to ensure that can be incorporated and we can have the youth members participate in. So it can be a little intimidating initially if you are a youth member so this is how we try to make sure you feel welcome and you can get involved.
Can you go to the next slide, please.
One other factor that we participated in and that made huge ‑‑ that received a lot of response was the global digital compact, so the United Nations published the global digital compact and as youth members, we made a detailed submission about the youth community wants and what (inaudible) digital compact. It's available on the UN website so if anyone wants to check it out, it's there. Next slide, please.
Yes. This is something that has been launched ‑‑ is being launched tomorrow in person in Japan because we currently have the board members attending in Japan as well. And this is the youth atlas. It's a celebration of youth engagement and leadership in Internet governance. It will be launched tomorrow. We're very excited. The online version will also be launched tomorrow as well. Next slide, please.
Yes. Your future opportunities. Next slide, please.
One thing that I ‑‑ (inaudible).
>> ALINA USTINOVA: We have a problem with your connection because we don't hear you actually. Yeah.
>> SHRADHA PANDEY: (inaudible).
>> ALINA USTINOVA: Can you hear us? because you just went silent for a moment.
>> SHRADHA PANDEY: (inaudible).
>> ALINA USTINOVA: One moment. I will try to connect with ‑‑ oh, she's gone? Okay.
So, while we try to get the connection back to ‑‑ so, I will just talk about our youth project because I mentioned it, like, in the beginning. We ‑‑ in 2021, when it was, like, first ‑‑ she ‑‑ she's back?
>> Yes.
>> ALINA USTINOVA: Okay. Then I will tell this again. Shradha, are you there?
>> SHRADHA PANDEY: Can you hear me now?
>> ALINA USTINOVA: Yes, you want out. I understand you.
>> SHRADHA PANDEY: Yes.
>> ALINA USTINOVA: So I can hear you well now. You can continue with the slide. Yes, this one.
>> SHRADHA PANDEY: Yes. One second. Yes. So, one thing that I wanted to highlight was the (inaudible).
>> ALINA USTINOVA: You can. Let's put slides. Marko will tell us about it, yes. Thank you, Marko.
>> MARKO PALOSKI: Yes, because we worked closely, so I know what she maybe was intending to tell.
The youth standing group, they have two‑year ‑‑ like two‑year mandate. So she wanted to tell next year is the election of the new board for Internet society standing group. You must be first member of the youth standing group to be proposed to be, like, in the new board. So her idea was that if you want to make changes or if you want to do something for the youths, next year, as the slide mentions, beginning of early 2024, there will be open call for elections and for proposals for board. So, yeah. Join the mailing list. Join the youth standing group and if you want candidate yourself to the new two‑year term of board members for youth standing group in Internet society.
>> ALINA USTINOVA: Yes. Thank you. I guess this was actually the ‑‑
>> MARKO PALOSKI: Yeah, to join the Internet society. Even if you don't have Internet society chapter in your country, you can make your online account, and you will become a member of Internet society group and youth standing group, of course.
>> ALINA USTINOVA: Okay. Thank you. So, this was Q&A but I guess she hasn't joined us. We'll try to ‑‑ maybe she can answer online speakers in the chat if you send questions. Maybe she's still there, because I think that the problem is that ‑‑ or the (?) cannot be loaded. So I started about telling ‑‑ about the project. So, let's begin. In 2021 it was like first youth Russian IGF, we established a very, I think, interesting project, which is called youth (?). He was elected to this first youth IGF, and his idea was to create someone who can explain the tech laws to the youth audience. For example, like ‑‑ and also to enlighten them, how to have, like, secure connection to the web or if they have problems with, for example, some kind of a digital issues that they can go to someone and tell that they have a problem, what should they do? Where she they go? For example, if they're bullet in the web, how to deal with this, how to deal with psychological aspects of that problem with the law because there are still laws that can protect you from such things.
And he also ‑‑ it's ‑‑ he is called Mishguv, he participated in Poland and he told about his project. He works mostly with audience ‑‑ with the high school and middle school audience and try to explain because it's new generation who grew up when Internet was available all the time. Maybe they grew up with a phone in their hand, and still they have many pros with connecting online with secure ‑‑ having secure connection. What I mean by secure connection is that, like, you go to the web, and you know that you shouldn't say, like ‑‑ you shouldn't scroll the Internet for hours. You should probably have some time without phone in your hand, that there are some websites that can have malware, that can have, like, ‑‑ programmes that can bring virus to your computer, etc.
And he actually established his school, which is called, like, School of ‑‑ security school for Internet. And he tries to make some kind of course that school children can process and maybe tell their peers about the rules of behaviour on the web, because it's so important to behave well.
It's like not to insult anybody on the web because it's not a good behaviour, and I guess, that's actually what I tried to say about this project. He's still working. And since then, he was alone and now he has a whole team. So, maybe someone want to do something like that in his ‑‑ in their country. So, I guess because we left of the speaker so maybe if we have some kind of questions, we can answer them, but if someone want to jump in and say something, he's welcome or she. Thank you. So do we have someone to tell something? I guess not. Okay.
So, I think that because we're left of speakers and because they have like three speakers didn't join, there's no one. Right? Okay. Yeah. So, I guess we can probably wrap it up, so, because we have ‑‑ yeah. Yes. You want to say something?
>> I have a question.
>> ALINA USTINOVA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, take a mic.
>> Thanks. Well, while we are all here, I would just like to open the conversation and ask if you have any advice ‑‑ like, I'm from Canada, and I think we have an Internet society back home, but I'm not sure it's very active because I've never heard of it. So, I would like to have, like, maybe advice or a thing that worked particularly well in your own countries or areas to maybe inform our practises.
>> MARKO PALOSKI: I would try to answer that one. Yeah, there is a Internet society in Russia. I'm not sure how active. First I would try to contact them because in your country it's more easy to work. Also you can register, as I mentioned, if you're interested in special groups like the youth but there is more special groups that I don't know cyber‑security special group, gender balance I think had special groups, something like that where you can could berate. And I would ‑‑ because Internet governance topic, I think there's Internet governance national forum in Canada which is active. I can connect you with them because I know them.
And to check those kind of things so you can know what is in your country, how you can do it online.
I would say to anyone who is barely new to this Internet governance and I don't know maybe they don't have at home those kind of initiatives for someone created to take a look at the feltoships ‑‑ fellowships that are open. For example, one opens this week or last week. So it's active. It's very good ‑‑ I'm not promoting that one but I want to say that there are a lot of opportunities where it's very good experience where you learn what is Internet governance. They learn you how to advocate, maybe how to write the policy, so you ‑‑ it will get you some kind of (?) especially because they are some processes that need to be followed if you want to get more in that level, let's say.
I'm telling this because I'm technical person so for me this was like, okay, I don't know how policy works. I don't know how advocacy works. But it was very good.
And as I mentioned, contact them. Try to do something, because there is a lot of open space, especially for youth. I mean, it's not that open as we want to be, but it's more and more engaging. They include the youth more as a topic or as a trend. I don't know. We will see. But it's our chance we can get more (?) that we want to try. I don't know if I answer the question but ‑‑
>> ALINA USTINOVA: Yes. Thank you, Marko. Did he answer you?
>> Yes.
>> ALINA USTINOVA: Thank you. Because I said Shradha is with us again. Maybe we'll try to connect with her. So, Shradha, to you.
>> SHRADHA PANDEY: Thank you. I'm sorry for the technical issues, but how is it online call if there are no technical issues after all. Thank you so much, Marko, for continuing and completing the presentation, and this was something that I wanted to touch upon towards the end of my presentation about how you can get involved and if you have no idea and you don't know where to connect or who to connect to, so start out by reaching to the youth standing group or the youth Coalition for Internet governance mailing list and they're very open. The mailing lists and your interactions with people in the community. So what we can do in such instances is just the question that you asked here. We can put it on the group and for sure you'll be able to get connected to someone who either works in the field or who has experience or who can connect you to the right person in the Canada chapter or on any international event that's happening in the Canada region with youth members involvement. Furthermore one thing we realised works particularly well that we wanted to share about the youth members or the youth standing groups is' involvement and the generation connect idea group also use this, was before we start out any project or an idea, we send out a survey asking what exactly is it that the community wants and what exactly is it that the youth need and youth wants to prioritise. So we send out a list of priorities. We add an option towards the end that they can add more what they wish if there's any addition. But what we realised is that sometimes the list of priorities that we have in mind versus what the entire community has in mind can be different.
So one example that I can give you is the international telecommunication union set up this call for the generation connect youth members and Canada is particularly active in that particular arena. And one thing that came up was while we prioritise cyber‑security, all of these issues are extremely important, on par with that, gender equity and intersectionality on the Internet was also prioritised by the youth community members, which is why when we had the Youth Summit in Rwanda and the subsequent (?) in Romania, both of these issues were brought out and they were particularly highlighted by the community members, by the youth community as a top priority.
So, this is something that we realised has worked well for us. So, if you can get connected to the chapter, you can get involved with the youth members, and you can get initiatived into the ‑‑ initiated into the process and participating and contributing your ideas. I think this is something that will be really nice to look forward to.
>> ALINA USTINOVA: And so maybe also I will ask questions to our speaker. Like, if a person, for example, is not in the Internet governance at all, how can he actually start and are there any kind of maybe you can give some advice for person that wants to but doesn't know where to start, like, doesn't have any kind of knowledge of the topic. Maybe everyone can do it. So who wants to start?
>> MARKO PALOSKI: I might start. So, as mentioned now, I would say they are new to this, they don't know or ‑‑ I don't know ‑‑ they don't know what's happening. Maybe they don't like it. I would say joining the mailing list and Working Groups to find out to see how it's going. Also, as we mentioned, we have a telegram chat group, group chat where we have a channels and share those kind of opportunities happenings, events. And most of the events, they are available and free. Unfortunately, they are somewhere in the world but most of, like, IGF, it's available to join online. Just to join them, to see what are discussion, how is the process going because IGF is, for example, a platform discussion, so it's not (?) hear something that will be implemented where it's different from ‑‑ I don't know ‑‑ IT events where they are more, how can I say, intergovernmental, but there are many events, I will mention here also, icam, which is also more technical, I would say, technical on policy level, but it's still to see ‑‑ I would say if you don't know, try those events. You will find maybe something. You will meet nice people, even online. And you will find maybe in the end what you are ‑‑ in which direction you want to go. When you find which direction it's more easy than to ‑‑ I don't know ‑‑ get involved and engage and contribute what you can do.
And as I mentioned, try to apply for the opportunities like fellowships and those kind of things, because there you really learn all those kind of things and how to navigate on these convenients, how to ‑‑ events, how to.
Something, if you want to show, or I don't know, maybe cooperate with others. I would say those kind of things.
>> ALINA USTINOVA: Shradha, you want to add something?
>> SHRADHA PANDEY: Thank you. Yes. So, Marko was talking about the Internet society's youth ambassadors, the IGF youth ambassadors. I have just posted the Lynch on the chat peer ‑‑ link on the chat, on the Zoom room. If you're not on the chat, if you're not in the Zoom and you're tending the call in ‑‑ attending the call in person, just type Internet societies youth ambassadors 2024. The applications are closing nine days on the 20th of October. So you have plenty of time. The questions are going to mostly ask you about your passion for Internet governance and what exactly drew you to internet governance. So it doesn't have to be a topic that is 100 per cent internet governance related or you think is governance related, because most of these topics are intersectional. So environmental sustainability, equal Internet report, for example, that was brought in. So all of these are intersectionalities of you being interested in a different topic and connected to Internet and making sure that (?), so one example ‑‑ another example is the SDG digital issue. That was brought in by the telecommunications union. The report was released last week, I believe. And that report highlights how (?) and Internet governance can actually further any sort of ‑‑ all the SDG goals and how Internet can actually take your advocacy and your passion for a particular goal of the SDG forward. So that is something that you can highlight and you can explore and maybe bring in your fresh perspective.
And adding onto what Marko was saying about regional groups, so in relation to having national chapters, what we also have is something called schools of internet governance, so the if you do not know where to start and you want to figure out if this is an area of interest you might like, start out with the (?) School of Governance and if something catches your fancy, so we have for the Asia‑Pacific region, that is the Asia‑Pacific School of Internet governance, there is the Asia‑Pacific Internet governance forum. So these are avenues where you can build on and start contributing about your experiences, about what you have understood and what you have experienced. So these are a few avenues and opportunities that you can highlight. And above and beyond the youth standing groups, always here to welcome you and get you involved. So anytime you want, just reach out to us, any of us, all the board members, Veronica, all of them are attending the conference in person. So you can find them around the room somewhere. Ask Marko where they are. Call Marko. Ask him how to get involved, how to get added to the mailing list. And if not, you can always find me somewhere on LinkedIn or Instagram or on the Internet, and you can reach out to me and we will move you forward in this journey. Thank you so much, Alina. Back to you.
>> ALINA USTINOVA: Thank you. Marko?
>> MARKO PALOSKI: Yes, we talk about internet governance, but this is one topic that is an umbrella of topics. And I believe that anyone even if you're not tech, if you're not ‑‑ I don't know ‑‑ law student or something like that, you will find something that you want to do on this topic or correlate to someone, some of the topics. So it's a broad term internet governance. But somehow (?) in the name. I wanted to say that.
>> ALINA USTINOVA: Thank you very much. So is there anyone who wants to ask ‑‑ yes, please.
>> Hello. My I'm from the digital opportunities foundation based in Germany. I work in the field of (?) environment. Andda child rights environment. And in Germany we have several possibilities where young people can engage and participate, and they report different experience about their impact.
So, I would like to ask you what's your impression about your impact to your organisation, to the ITU, to IGF, to ICAN or what else?
And yeah, what's your impression? Do you have an impact? What challenges you face and maybe you can share some insights about that. Thanks a lot.
>> MARKO PALOSKI: Yeah, I can start. For some of the programmes, we have, like, how can I say, some reports we are doing. For example, for the ambassadorships that I mentioned, we decided also together with the youth standing group and internet governance doing the mentorship. Many of them when they finish they're more active or going in some of the positions. So I would say it's in a way successful because you have like a mentor. You collaborate with them and they have in the end ‑‑ I mean, they are making the programme more serious from year to year and the selected participants need to do a project to promote those kind of things. As I mentioned, youth Coalition internet governance was one of the ideas a project in the past so now it's like a Coalition in some way, which is proved by ‑‑ approved by IGF. For the Ruth IGF, it depends on the because anyone can request or do the ‑‑ for their country. But it has ‑‑ I would say impact in the raising the voice of the youth. It's still, I would say ‑‑ I mean, we are ‑‑ the youth are very much involved. You can see that here also in internet governance forum, we have, I would say not (?) but there are a lot of session with youth organised with them or they are part of the speaking arrangement. But I think that it's still hard to push so the seniors those kind of things or I don't know just to involve the youth, okay, we have the youth but what are they doing? Let's give them some kind of engagement. Of course, what can they do and how can they do it? But get more involved them not just to be present because sometimes in the past I felt that we are at the conference because youth need to be at the conference not giving back something.
Yes, and for the other things, I can say that ‑‑ I don't know ‑‑ the mailing list and those kind of things in the past, we have, as I mentioned, group chats. It's going in the members and mostly in the sharing because there's a section of events every region is doing something. We are doing this if you want to join or we are doing this, especially when we are organising here for IGF, it was very good collaboration because everyone was ‑‑ I need someone from that region who is working on this, and immediately someone will find someone in this collaboration. But for those kind of things that we hear, how can I say, (?) the impact is for some of the things that we don't have the reports or we are not doing, I cannot say some concrete answer if there is impact or no. But, yeah, that's ‑‑ that would be my answer.
>> ALINA USTINOVA: Yes, thank you, Marko. Shradha, maybe you will say something kind of insights you have.
>> SHRADHA PANDEY: Thank you. So one of the ways that we measured impact at the youth standing group is to understand the amount of participation and how much it has increased over a period of time and whether that has been meaningful participation. So meaningful participation in our context we define it as contributions with, for example, when Marko told us that it's not a token representation that youth is not at the the table just because they want someone to be represented because they want our voices to be heard and they want to include them in the presentation.
So something that we have observed in the past is even (?) events such as actions aft Asia‑Pacific region, the academy that was launched to get more youth members involved about what internet governance means. The number of applications, the number ‑‑ the amount of interest that has been growing in these fields has been tremendous. The youth standing group, the number of members who are part of the youth standing group started out from 1,200 in 2022 who are active members of the community, active members of the (?) and has reached about 2,500 last we checked which was a few weeks ago. This incremental increase that we've seen over a period of time is something that we use to measure our impact and to measure the contribution. Furthermore, what we are observing is the nuance of (?) has slowly started to diverge from just bringing youth to the table and making our voices heard to actual contribution to policies and governance issues of the government. So, one, for example, is the youth reports and the youth policies so Asia‑Pacific region is building a lot of its personal data protection laws, non‑personal data protection laws in recent times. And initially what used to happen was the statute would be brought in and it would be implemented and the do's and don'ts and the issues related to the loopholes that areal ared in those ladies and gentlemens will only figure out later. Now what they're doing is they're opening for for ult isation and for such community members we get together. We have people from different stakeholders who participate, bring in their opinion and then we send a detailed report to such governments, to any legislations that is brought in about what we think is ‑‑ has to be modified in that statute. And those public opinions are taken into account. So, this is the sort of contribution that we're looking at at the moment. And for meaningful contribution, what we have seen in terms of the International Telecommunications Union as well is that youth has been included, not as a party to the conversation who can just pass by, but for the first time ever, for example, youth ‑‑ young members were allowed to be part of the a conference between the ministers and the Heads of Governments of states across the regions that happens once in four years. But a start of the conversation ‑‑ again, it's a long way to go because initially this time youth were just observing members and they were not allowed to participate and some of them ‑‑ in most of the meetings. We were allowed to be in town hall but most of the meetings you either had to a special invite or the government or the representatives from your government had to include you. And this is something that we are trying to make sure that that sort of representation and that participation furthers and becomes more meaningful and that is something that we're trying to do. So, yeah, thank you, Alina.
>> ALINA USTINOVA: Thank you very much. I think you actually said a lot about youth involvement and how its impact. Actually, I want to say, for example, I as one of the organisers of youth rise when do you this and people come, especially young people, you may be like in your country, in your region the first thing they know about internet governance is usually from the youth IGF forums. So when they come, they see the interesting topic, for example, like first time and then maybe from that moment, they will stay in the movement. So, basically, you took a person from your region and then, like, a few years later, you meet him like here on (?). So basically it's one of the good things we do, bring people from different backgrounds to the IGF, which can ‑‑ and they can share their opinion on the subject. Now we don't have them right now but in the future we will. So I guess that's all. Answer the question, yes.
So do we have any questions, any more? No? So, I guess we can just end it right there. Thank you very much for your participation. I guess it was, like, wonderful talk. And we find out, like, really, really big information. Yes. If you want to share some kind of opinions afterwards, of course, you're always welcome. So thank you very much. Thank you very much.
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Bye.