In a proud moment for the organisation, DEF was selected last month to speak to a global audience at Mozilla Festival 2018 about it’s efforts at taking rural India online. The MozFest is a week-long celebration for, by, and about people who love the Internet. Tech enthusiasts come together on this platform to showcase world-changing ideas and technology through workshops, talks, and interactive sessions. DEF had the opportunity to host two sessions here. The first session, titled Local to Global, showcased how artisans in rural India are learning computers, designing on CAD/CAM, marketing on social media, and making sales on eCommerce portals.

Led by DEF Founder-Director Osama Manzar and Deputy Communications Manager Udita Chaturvedi, the session took a story-telling approach to discuss the problems of the handloom cluster, the solutions that lie in technology, and impact we’ve been able to see on ground.

In the second session, Media & Information Literacy Expert Network (MILEN), of which DEF Founder-Director Osama Manzar is a member, discussed the present scenario of MIL around the world, and the efforts that need to be made to ensure media literacy meets the needs of the present and the future. The other members in this panel discussion, moderated by Roslyn Kratochvil Moore of DW Akademie, were Director of Rising Voices (Bolivia) Eddie Avila and Executive Director of Media Development Foundation (Georgia) Tamar Kintsurashvili.

Celebrated every year as the world’s leading festival for the open internet movement, the MozFest gave a wonderful chance to all particicpants and audience to see the amazing work that people around the world are doing. This year, MozFest was celebrated in London from October 22-26, 2018.