Back in January, Microsoft announced the Council for Digital Good, a pilot program which aims to make the web healthier and safer for teens. After receiving many applications and videos, Jacqueline Beauchere, Microsoft’s Chief Online Safety Officer, has finally announced the 15 US teens who have been selected to take part in the first council summit.
According to the announcement, Microsoft selected “a group with diverse life experiences,” including nine young women and six young men from California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington. The process of selection was highly competitive, and involved essay or video responses to questions about life online, expectations for council experience, and about Microsoft generally. You can read an application excerpt from a 16-year-old from Maryland below.
“Through the Council (for) Digital Good experience, I would be able to enhance my perspective of how to engage other youth to rally and make a difference in our world … Growing up with this technology, I am aware of the malicious things on the internet, but I also know all the potential the internet holds. The intersection of technology and humanity is critical to advance society.”
Microsoft will begin engaging with the selected council members to prepare for the August summit and those who have been selected are urged to look for an invitation to a kickoff conference call in the coming weeks. Those who were not selected, however, are being urged to apply again and to continue to promote Microsoft’s Digital Civility Challenge. You can follow the council activities by visiting here, or on Facebook and Twitter with #CouncilforDigitalGood.
