2014 was a big year for the Web We Want campaign. Our first full year of work after launching on UN Human Rights Day in December 2013 coincided with the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Web, and featured a non-stop schedule of events, outreach programmes, small grants, and interactive workshops designed to support and amplify local, national, and global efforts to fight for the free and open Web. Throughout the year, the Web We Want worked with nearly 50 partners across more than 35 countries to promote net neutrality, decentralisation of the Internet, and human rights in the digital age, and our efforts reached citizens around the world and celebrated important political gains.
Millions of people joined us in wishing the Web a happy 25th birthday, and rallied around Web 25 (webat25.org) and Web We Want efforts to promote a Web that respects core human rights and is accessible to all. We brought this fight to parallel events at major Internet governance fora, including NETmundial in Brazil and the Internet Governance Forum in Istanbul, working to ensure that voices from marginalised communities were added to these important debates.
Over the course of the year, we worked with London’s Southbank Centre to put together the Web We Want Festival — a new, unique event, held over three dedicated weekends, which celebrates 25 years of the Web by exploring life at the intersection of the Web and the arts. Thousands of people flocked to the first two weekends of the Festival, held in September and November, where they were able to attend talks on current Web issues including online privacy and surveillance, participate in interactive workshops, explore art created on the Web, and add their thoughts and ideas to the creation of a Magna Carta for the Web. We’re already looking forward to the third and biggest weekend of the Festival, which will take place in May 2015.
Throughout 2014, the Web We Want campaign worked with local organisations from around the globe to support movements to respect human rights online and empower women and other digitally marginalised communities. We awarded small grants to over 50 organisations from across Africa, Latin America, Asia, Southern and Eastern Europe and North America that are fighting for an open and human rights-forward Web, enabling these organisations to host key events or otherwise work to achieve their missions. We also collaborated with initiatives working to increase women’s voices and participation in ICT, by supporting organisations like the Ada Camp Initiative to host workshops in Bangalore and Berlin.
Our work in 2014 has engaged communities from every region of the globe, and we plan to expand this work even further in 2015. Thank you for all you do in fighting for the Web We Want. We look forward to working together more in the coming year!
Best wishes for the new year.
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