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About

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The Public Interest Technology Group (PITG) is a loosely organized group of individuals who self-identify as public-interest technologists, or are otherwise working on and interested in, issues at the intersection of technology, rights, equity and advocacy.

Our participants draw from academic, corporate and civil society organisations working on Internet infrastructure. We were formed during the 2016 Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) 96 meeting in Berlin. Our group created a home for already existing conversations and collaborations between public interest technologists, funders, Internet governance participants and others involved in Internet infrastructure governance and standardization.

Over the past years, the group grew considerably reflecting the interest in, and need for, public interest advocacy in technical spaces. Our focus expanded beyond the IETF to include a number of other standardization organizations, including the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) as well as broader questions of technology governance down the Internet’s stack.

Travel Fund

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The Public Interest Technology Group (PITG) launched a Travel Fund to allow underrepresented voices to shape the dialogue in key Internet governance and standards bodies, injecting much-needed public interest perspectives.

Who can apply? This fund uniquely targets individuals from underrepresented groups, providing vital access to often exclusive and technically intricate Internet standards forums, historically devoid of civil society voices. It strives to cultivate a more diverse and inclusive landscape of participation and collaboration, bridging gaps between technical Internet governance communities, Standards Development Organizations (SDOs), and Civil Society.

Rolling basis. The PITG Travel Fund operates on a rolling basis and prioritizes low-threshold access to funding, aligning with its core objectives and mandate. Read more & apply

Join Us

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Great to see your interest in joining the Public Interest Technology Group!

Membership to the Public Interest Technology Group are no longer open. A current member can nominate a person to join the group.
Please send an email to [email protected] if you have any questions.

Please read our Code of Conduct and our Group policy on confidentiality

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The future of messaging is encrypted, and it is also interoperable. Now that the EU’s Digital Markets Act has gone into effect, the technical means by which gatekeepers of end-to-end encrypted messaging (e2ee) platforms must interoperate have been defined. Read more

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As governments worldwide grapple with how to govern the mobile Internet, an unlikely battleground has emerged – technical standardization. The global debate has centered intensely on China's role in developing 5G, the latest generation of mobile network technology that has become the primary gateway to the Internet for most people worldwide. Read more

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Today, the Public Interest Technology Group (PITG) is officially launching its Internet governance travel fund. The fund enables underrepresented voices to participate in, and promote, public interest technology work in key Internet governance and standards bodies. Read more