Announcing the 2023 VPN Village!
We are excited to announce the 2023 VPN Village, a two-week virtual series focused on VPN user education, cultivating solidarity between VPN providers, and mapping out legal, technical and product development challenges. The Village will feature a diverse type of virtual programming, which will take place between November 27 and December 5. Check out the confirmed sessions below, and make sure to RSVP as soon as possible! More sessions will be announced in coming weeks.
The VPN Village is part of TCU’s VPN Community Initiative which is focused on helping cultivate community within the VPN ecosystem to collectively address issues and challenges. Check out the findings of our 2022 edition. This work would not have been started without the support of Mullvad VPN and Jigsaw.
RSVP for the Upcoming Sessions
You must RSVP for each session individually, which will take place on either Zoom or BigBlueButton. Can’t attend? notes of each session will be stored on our wiki. We will be adding more sessions to the VPN Village on this page in coming days, so check-in regularly.
Monday, November 27
Presentaremos los cursos en línea de la Shutdown Academy, disponibles en español para el público hispano y latinoamericano interesado en aprender a lidiar con apagones de Internet en diferentes contextos.
Time: 9am EST / 2pm UTC (what time is it in my city?)
Language: Spanish
Speaker: Laura Vidal, responsable del alcance de los cursos (outreach) de la Shutdown Academy. Es investigadora independiente en ciencias de la educación y derechos digitales. Ha trabajado para organizaciones como IFEX, Global Voices/Advox, Mozilla, IRIS e Internews en distintos proyectos ligados a la investigación y la comunicación.
Review this session’s notes, here.
Wednesday, November 29
Learn ways to extend Outline and customize your deployment to make your service more resilient to blocking and scale better.
Time: 8am EST / 1pm UTC (what time is it in my city?)
Language: English
Speaker: Vinicius Fortuna, Lead Engineer for Internet Freedom at Google’s Jigsaw. He works on initiatives focused on protecting people’s ability to participate in the global internet. This includes preventing, mitigating and exposing censorship via stronger internet standards and platforms; circumvention tools such as the Outline VPN and Intra; and via measurements and data analysis.
Review this session’s notes, here.
Thursday, November 30
Learn about the current privacy right violation in Tanzania and discuss instances of surveillance and censorship in this country as they prepare toward elections in 2024 and 2025.
Time: 9am EST / 2pm UTC (what time is it in my city?)
Language: English
Speaker: Zaituni Njovu is Executive Director at Zaina Foundation an organization whose mission is to promote digital rights and inclusion in Tanzania through Privacy capacity building, Policy reform, Research, Advocate for Internet Freedom in Africa and localization of technological tools into Swahili language.
How to RSVP: You will not need to RSVP for this event as it will take place on TCU’s Mattermost "IF Square" Channel. Don't have an account to the TCU Mattermost? you can request one following the directions here.
Review this session’s notes, here.
Tuesday, December 5
Discuss findings from research conducted with 8 VPN providers who have built unique services using the Outline technology stack. We’ll explore the lived experience of people using VPNs in different regions and learn how providers have adapted to fit the needs—not only technically, but operationally and socially. This session is a preliminary preview of the research and intends to shed light into what VPN providers need now.
Time: 10am EST / 3pm UTC (what time is it in my city?)
Language: English
Speakers:
José Gutiérrez, UX Researcher and Designer, is a curious individual who tries to make sense of the world he lives in. He researches humans to survive. A newcomer to the internet freedom space, José has explored research in physical security, circumvention, and internet shutdowns.
Carrie Winfrey is founder and director of Okthanks, a collective of product designers, researchers and advocates pioneering technology for a freer, safer world. With a decade of experience and a passion for putting marginalized communities at the center of the design process, Carrie is molding the future of internet freedom around the world.
David Ho is a UX Researcher at Jigsaw, a unit at Google that explores threats to open societies. He investigates the needs of at-risk users for better online safety and freedom. Among this work, he works closely with the Outline VPN team to explore the needs of Outline VPN service providers and users.
Review this session’s notes, here.