Keep working: In recent months, several Internet Society Chapters have focused on helping people to keep working during COVID-19 lockdowns. The Benin Chapter recently published a guide to remote work, with recommendations for videoconferencing apps, project management software, and file storage services. “We are facing a real health crisis, COVID-19, which is shaking up our habits and pushing companies to adapt to new working methods,” the Chapter’s post says. “Authorizing employees to telecommute is the ideal solution for the continuity of your activity and avoiding contagion within your teams.”

Building your brand: Meanwhile, the Israel Chapter hosted a webinar on employment and careers in the digital industry. Speaker Shani Haddad, CEO and founder of Brainnu, talked about the importance of people marketing themselves and telling their own stories.

Learning at a distance: It’s not just workers dealing with new situations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Pacific Islands Chapter has posted about distance learning, noting that the Samoa Information Technology Association has developed an e-learning platform for students attending school from home. Education is “one of the key areas that is being heavily affected by the lockdown,” the post notes.

No censorship: The Chapter in Spain has raised concerns about a potential clampdown on free speech as the government there responds to information circulating about the coronavirus pandemic. “It is an essential task of the Internet Society to ensure an open Internet, based on the fullest freedom of expression and information, which therefore contributed to free communication between all its users, who in Spain are already today the vast majority of the population,” the Chapter writes. “Except for aberrant content that is openly contrary to public health, such measures are equivalent to prior censorship of information and opinion, and unlike other restrictions on freedoms, they are as unnecessary as they are ineffective in combating this disease.”

A partnership for the Internet: The Pacific Islands Chapter has recently signed a partnership agreement with the Asia Pacific Top Level Domain Association (APTLD), with the goal of building capacity in the TLD space in the region. The partnership will share expertise for training and seminars and will exchange information while “championing the Internet and Internet resources in the local community,” says Leonid Todorov, APTLD’s general manager.

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