Google Policy Fellows Fight for Internet Accessibility and Open Government

Dec 26, 2011

The Google Policy Fellowship program is like “Google’s Summer of Code with a public policy twist.” On this one-of-a-kind public policy fellowship, undergraduate, graduate, and law students spend 10 weeks in Washington, DC, San Francisco, Toronto, or Ottawa, Canada working at public interest organizations at the forefront of debates on broadband and access policy, content regulation, copyright and trademark reform, consumer privacy, and open government. Google provides a stipend of $7,500 USD to each Fellow for the summer.

More than a a dozen organizations participate in the program, including the American Library Association, Creative Commons, the Competitive Enterprise Institute or the New American Foundation through its Open Technology Initiative. The Open Technology Initiative recently received media attention for its “Internet in a briefcase” technology for the State Department, which will allow dissidents to make Internet networks portable across borders of repressive regimes in – literally – a suitcase.

This past May, Google also extended the fellowship program to the Asia Pacific region, providing opportunities to students in this region interested in legal and policy issues related to the open Internet.

Applications – including a resume and a 750-word personal statement, are due Feb. 3, 2012. Apply now!