It’s not that I disagree with you, Arsène – because I don’t, and I actually identified this as a barrier to participation in my earlier email – but I don’t think it is helpful to flag this obstacle if the NCSG responds to the consultation. My feeling is that this is a known hurdle which cannot easily be addressed until machine translation advances to a satisfactory standard. This is a painful reality because linguistic diversity is very important. But like it or not we are constrained by resources and so we need a common language. English has become the lingua franca of Internet policy; maybe it shouldn’t be, maybe that should be Portuguese or French another tongue, but it is. So in theory we could keep ICANN’s language services team very busy translating all the traffic on the fellowship mailing lists and Facebook groups, helping break down barriers to participation, but given ICANN’s website is barely translated into languages other than English, in practice I think we need to make better use of their time. I think it’s quite reasonable to expect that all public-facing documents are translated by ICANN into the seven official languages. Maybe more face-to-face sessions and working group calls should have simultaneous interpretation too. And I would like all sessions to have live captioning. But I respectfully submit that this is not a discussion for the renewed focus of the Fellowship programme. - Ayden On Wed, Jun 15, 2016 2:15 PM, Mamadou LO [log in to unmask] wrote: +1 Arsene TUNGALI =================================================================== Mamadou LO Chef du Département Communication et Information Documentaire Head of Communication and Information Department Crédit Agricole Sénégal Tel : 221 77 645 59 57 De : NCSG-Discuss <[log in to unmask]> de la part de Arsène Tungali <[log in to unmask]> Envoyé : mercredi 15 juin 2016 13:06 À : [log in to unmask] Objet : Re: ICANN Fellowship Program Application Process Review   Just a quick reaction, Fellows shouldn't be expected to speak English to be selected because ICANN meetings work with all UN languages (though English is their working language). It is still indeed a barrier because the application form is in English and I remember having serious issues to fill it some time ago (as a native French speaker). I think this needs to be looked into very seriously to ensure inclusion and diversity ------------------------ *Arsène Tungali* Co-Founder & Executive Director, Rudi international, CEO, Smart Services Sarl, Mabingwa Forum Tel: +243 993810967 GPG: 523644A0 Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo 2015 Mandela Washington Felllow (YALI) - ISOC IGF Ambassador - Blogger - ICANN Fellow. The HuffingtonPost UK 2016-06-15 14:06 GMT+02:00 Ayden Férdeline <[log in to unmask]>: Thanks for sharing this, Mamadou. Mama J has proposed some very sensible changes to the Fellowship programme here. I will review the supporting documents more closely over the coming weeks and respond to the consultation activity in my personal capacity, but I would hope that this renewed mandate and focus of the Fellowship programme is something we as the NCSG are able to support. From a cursory glance at the documents, I'm glad to see that we now acknowledge that there are factors other than nationality which contribute to inequality — so trying to bring voices in from women, indigenous people, the LGBT community, and those with disabilities is a push we need. I would also suggest that linguistic barriers remain in this proposal (I believe Fellows must speak English to participate?), but that's a much harder obstacle to overcome and I certainly don't have any solutions. The proposed changes to the Fellowship programme will see it being more goal-driven and merit-based: it has my support. - Ayden On Wed, Jun 15, 2016 12:52 PM, Mamadou LO [log in to unmask] wrote: FYI Mamadou Envoyé depuis mon smartphone Samsung Galaxy.   Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2016 3:15 AM Subject: ICANN News Alert -- ICANN Fellowship Program Application Process Review   News Alert https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2016-06-14-en ICANN Fellowship Program Application Process Review 14 June 2016 Open Date: 14 June 2016 Close Date: 29 July 2016 Originating Organization: Development and Public Responsibility Department Categories/Tags: Reviews/Improvements Brief Overview: Leading up to the ten-year anniversary of ICANN's Fellowship program, the organization has evaluated this successful initiative in order to address the needs of the global community and provide appropriate enhancements to ensure that the program will continue to thrive while addressing today's ICANN and its capacity-building needs. In this regard, the ICANN staff have identified areas of improvement, mainly to the language used to describe Applicant Selection Criteria and the application assessment process. In doing so, ICANN staff is looking to ensure that the Fellowship selection process remains accountable, transparent, and independent while continuing to strengthen the ICANN Multistakeholder Model. Link: https://www.icann.org/public-comments/fellowship-application-process-review-2016-06-14-en   _______________________________________________ Fellowships-alumni mailing list [log in to unmask] https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/fellowships-alumni Ayden Férdeline Statement of Interest Ayden Férdeline Statement of Interest