OONI Partner Training 2021

1st OONI Partner Training 2021

Image: 1st OONI Partner Training, 28th-30th June 2021

2nd OONI Partner Training 2021

Image: 2nd OONI Partner Training, 5th-7th July 2021

Over the last week, we had the pleasure to host two 3-day OONI Partner Training events for our partners in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia. As part of these events, our goal was to share OONI-specific knowledge and skills, and to collect feedback to better serve community needs.

In this post, we share information about the training events.

About

Since 2016, we have had the opportunity to form partnerships with 39 digital rights organizations around the world on the study of internet censorship. These partnerships have resulted in the publication of numerous research reports, supported advocacy efforts, and helped facilitate de-centralized OONI community engagement efforts on monitoring and responding to censorship events (such as in Malaysia, Ukraine, and Venezuela).

As the organizations of our partners grow (and new team members join), there is the ongoing need to share OONI skills and knowledge and collect feedback to support ongoing collaboration. We therefore decided to host a 3-day OONI Partner Training, which was facilitated entirely online (in light of travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic). We also invited other community members (prospect partners) who expressed interest in using OONI tools and data as part of their research and advocacy.

To accommodate different time zones, we split participants into 2 groups and hosted the following two 3-day events:

The goal of the OONI Partner Training events was to share knowledge and skills on OONI’s censorship measurement tools, dataset, and methodologies to enable their use as part of research and advocacy efforts. We also aimed to collect feedback on how to improve OONI tools to better serve community needs.

To this end, we facilitated the following 6 sessions as part of each 3-day OONI Partner Training:

Overall (as part of the 2 events), we had the opportunity to facilitate OONI training for 86 participants who work with 49 digital rights organizations around the world. Many of the participants work with local/regional digital rights organizations in 25 countries, while other participants work internationally with human rights organizations and circumvention tool projects. To ensure a safe, friendly, and pleasant experience for all during the training, we asked all participants to adhere to OONI’s Code of Conduct and to follow the Chatham House Rule on Privacy.

Sessions

During each of the 3-day OONI Partner Training events, we facilitated 6 sessions (1.5 hour each). The creation of the training agenda was informed by partner feedback collected through a pre-training survey.

We share information about each training session below.

Session 1: Information Controls Around the World (Day 1)

During this interactive breakout session, participants were encouraged to discuss some of the key digital rights issues in their countries/regions, the work of their organization in tackling these issues, and any challenges they have encountered. The goal of this session was to share local context on information controls, shedding light on opportunities for collaboration.

Session 2: Introduction to Internet Censorship (Day 1)

During this session, we provided an introduction to network measurement and internet censorship, explaining terminologies used by OONI to investigate internet censorship. This session explained key concepts that are useful for understanding and interpreting OONI data.

The presentation slides are available here. During the 2 OONI Partners Training events, we received a total of 24 questions from participants during this session.

Session 3: Using the OONI Probe Apps (Day 2)

We provided a live demo of the OONI Probe mobile and desktop apps to show how they can be used to measure various forms of internet censorship. We walked through all of the OONI Probe app settings to ensure that participants are able to optimize their use of the tool and customize it based on their needs.

In breakout groups, participants practiced using the OONI Probe app to measure various forms of internet censorship through hands-on exercises. They also shared detailed feedback on the challenges they encountered in using OONI Probe, as well as feature requests and other suggestions for improving OONI Probe.

Session 4: Using OONI Run to coordinate censorship testing (Day 2)

We provided a live demo of the OONI Run platform and showed how participants can use this tool to coordinate censorship testing around the world – particularly leading up to and during political events (such as elections and protests), when censorship events tend to emerge.

In breakout groups, participants learned how to coordinate their own censorship measurement campaigns through hands-on exercises. In particular, they practiced using the OONI Run platform by simulating real-world scenarios. They also shared detailed feedback on how to improve the OONI Run platform to better meet their needs.

Session 5: Using OONI Explorer (Day 3)

We provided a live demo of OONI Explorer to show how participants can navigate the platform to find different types of OONI censorship measurement data. We walked through all the options, and participants learned how to independently find data (that can potentially serve as evidence of internet censorship) through OONI Explorer. We also discussed how participants can interpret OONI measurements and use the OONI Explorer Search Tool to monitor censorship events around the world in real-time.

Through breakout groups, participants learned how to use OONI Explorer through several hands-on exercises. These exercises required participants to find and interpret OONI measurements based on current (ongoing) censorship events. They also shared detailed feedback on how to improve OONI Explorer to better meet their needs.

Session 6: Interpreting OONI data (Day 3)

As part of this session, we provided a deep dive into OONI data. We explained how OONI Probe tests work, and how participants can interpret and make sense of OONI’s technical data so that it can potentially be used as part of their research and advocacy. The presentation slides are available here.

Through a live demo, we also provided a sneak peek into OONI’s new Measurement Aggregation Toolkit (a tool we’re currently developing) to collect community feedback in the (relatively) early stages of development.

At the end of the 3-day training, we shared a post-training survey with all participants to collect their feedback on how to improve future OONI training events.

To support ongoing learning, we shared a Resources document with participants that includes OONI-related resources, as well as other resources (on censorship circumvention, digital security, monitoring internet connectivity shutdowns, and other censorship measurement platforms) that participants expressed interest in. We also shared OONI training slides that they can use (and customize) to facilitate OONI workshops for their communities. We will be issuing OONI certificates for participation in the OONI Partner Training 2021.

Outcomes

Ultimately, our goal is to empower human rights defenders worldwide to lead censorship measurement efforts in their communities. Through the two OONI Partner Training events, participants gained knowledge and skills necessary for carrying out – and engaging their communities with – OONI censorship measurement research and advocacy.

More specifically, they gained in-depth knowledge on how to use and customize the OONI Probe apps to measure internet censorship based on their threat model and needs. They also learned how to use OONI Run to coordinate censorship measurement campaigns in their communities and around the world. The latter may be particularly useful leading up to and during political events (such as elections and protests), when new censorship events tend to emerge. We expect that the knowledge and skills gained through the OONI Probe and OONI Run sessions will help participants lead censorship measurement efforts and rapidly respond to emergent censorship events.

Through the sessions of Day 3, participants gained in-depth knowledge on how to interpret OONI data and use OONI Explorer to monitor censorship events around the world. We hope that the knowledge and skills gained through these sessions will enable participants to actively use OONI data as part of their research and advocacy efforts. As the OONI Partner Training included many interactive sessions through breakout groups, we hope that participants identified new opportunities for collaboration.

During all sessions, participants shared detailed feedback on OONI tools, data, and methodologies. We are grateful for this feedback as it will help us improve OONI tools and methodologies to better serve community needs and the global internet freedom community. Based on the feedback collected throughout the two training events, we will be opening relevant GitHub tickets in order to factor feature requests, bug reports, and other improvements as part of our development efforts. The questions raised by participants, as well as the challenges they shared, also helped us better understand community needs – and we are grateful for this.

At heart, OONI has always been a community-driven project, powered by the internet freedom fighters worldwide who run OONI Probe and contribute measurements. Community needs will therefore always inform the development of OONI’s strategies.

Warm thanks to all participants for taking time out of their busy schedules to join us for the OONI Partner Training! We greatly appreciate it. Thank you for all your questions and feedback – we learned a lot from you, and we hope you did too.