What is GIIP?

The Global Information Internship Program (GIIP) mentors the next generation of social advocates to use technology and entrepreneurship in their campaign for a just and sustainable world.

  • Strategic Vision: We mobilize the creative energy of UCSC’s highly motivated undergrads to work in solidarity with civil society groups struggling to overcome the digital divide.
  • Training: We teach social analysis, social entrepreneurship, and information technologies in a practical way. All GIIP students are taught to design, fund and implement an information technology project in partnership with a community or civil society group.
  • Method: We prioritize project design, evaluation, “learning by doing”, social networking and collaborative learning with partner organizations.
  • Sustainability: We support sustainable development, by promoting solutions that strengthen the self-reliance of civil society groups, and by supporting projects that respect natural eco-systems.
  • Governance: Since 1998, we have been a self-governing social enterprise managed by student Fellows and staff. GIIP is sponsored by the Center for Global, International, and Regional Studies (CGIRS) with the support of the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

    • BANGALORE, INDIA- Internship with Microsoft Research

    By Dmitry Kogan

     

    Namaskara! In June 2009, I came here to Bangalore, India to work with the Technology for Emerging Markets Research (TEM) group part of Microsoft Research India.  The TEM group is an innovative think tank that recognizes the limitless potential for development thr...

    Two GIIP Fellows with the Progressive Technology Project

    This year, two GIIP Fellows had the opportunity to intern with the Progressive Technology Project (PTP) for six months in Minneapolis.  Helen Jentzen and  Robyn Perry are both implementing projects involving tech skills that they had acquired though their time with GIIP.

    Notes on Nigeria

    I’m Ian Anderson, a Sociology and Mechanical Engineering undergrad and GIIP Fellow. Along with another GIIP Fellow, Evelyn Castle, and GIIP Director Adam Thompson, I worked with a variety of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and universities to increase technical capacity.

    Launching GIIP East!

    Beginning next year, GIIP will begin expanding its enterprises to the East Coast.  The branch, which we are calling GIIP East, will be headquartered in Washington DC at the UC Washington Center, a multi-campus residential, instructional and research center.
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