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Please note: Additional organizations may be added to the program prior to the application deadline. Please check back for additional updates.

American Library Association
Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic
Cato Institute
Center for Democracy and Technology
The Citizen Lab
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Creative Commons
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Future of Music Coalition
Internet Education Foundation
Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
Media Access Project
National Hispanic Media Coalition
New America Foundation
Progress and Freedom Foundation
Public Knowledge
Technology Policy Institute

American Library Association

The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit educational organization of over 65,000 librarians, library trustees, and other friends of libraries dedicated to improving library services and promoting the public interest in a free and open information society.

The Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) advances ALA's public policy activities by helping secure information technology policies that support and encourage efforts of libraries to ensure access to electronic information resources as a means of upholding the public's right to a free and open information society. It works to ensure a library voice in information policy debates and to promote full and equitable intellectual participation by the public by conducting research & analysis, educating the ALA community, advocating ALA’s information policy interests, and engaging in strategic outlook:

In coordination with OITP, its sister office, the Office of Government Relations (OGR) works to insure that libraries are consistently involved in the legislative and policy decision-making processes by:

  1. informing government of the needs and concerns of the library community;
  2. providing library supporters with up-to-date information on government actions or proposals;
  3. building coalitions with Washington-based representatives of other groups with similar concerns; and
  4. developing grassroots networks to lobby legislators and further library interests.

Fellowship Focus Areas:

OITP is organized into three substantive programs, to which the Google Fellow would make contributions:

Many of OGR’s issues are included in the taxonomy above, but OGR also engages in other issues such as advocating and lobbying for federal appropriations on behalf of the library community.


Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic

Please note that CIPPIC will only be considering applications from students enrolled in a law degree.

The Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) is based at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, in Canada's capital city, Ottawa. CIPPIC's mission is to fill voids in public policy debates on technology law issues, ensure balance in policy and law-making processes, and provide legal assistance to under-represented organizations and individuals on matters arising from the use of new technologies; and to provide a high quality and rewarding clinical legal education experience to students of law while accomplishing these goals.

CIPPIC has become a leading voice for under-represented interests in policy debates on internet-related issues such as privacy, copyright law, network neutrality, free speech and online consumer protection in Canada and internationally. Staff and students pursue these issues via legislative advocacy, cooperative policy-making, litigation, research, and public education.

Fellowship Focus Areas:

Cato Institute

The Cato Institute seeks to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets and peace. Toward that goal, the Institute strives to achieve greater involvement of the intelligent, concerned lay public in questions of policy and the proper role of government.

The Cato Institute's research on telecommunications and information policy advances the Institute's vision of free minds and free markets within the information policy, information technology, and telecommunications sectors of the American economy.

Fellowship Focus Areas:

Center for Democracy and Technology

The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit public policy organization dedicated to keeping the Internet open, innovative, and free. Our mission is to conceptualize, develop, and implement public policies to preserve and enhance free expression, privacy, open access, and other democratic values in the new and increasingly integrated communications environment.

Fellowship Focus Areas:

The Citizen Lab

The Citizen Lab, founded 2001, is an interdisciplinary research and development lab located at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto. Founded and directed by Professor Ron Deibert, the Citizen Lab does research and development at the intersection of technology, global security, and human rights.

Among the Citizen Lab’s main projects are:

Fellowship Focus Areas:

Google Fellows can focus on two areas related to any of these projects:

Competitive Enterprise Institute

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit public interest organization that studies the intersection of risk, regulation, and markets.

CEI is a leading national voice on a broad range of regulatory issues, from environmental policy to antitrust and technology policy to risk regulation. CEI is not, however, a traditional "think tank." While we frequently produce groundbreaking research on regulatory issues, we believe it is not enough to simply identify and articulate solutions to public policy problems. It is also necessary to defend and promote those solutions at all phases of the public policy debate. Thus, we reach out to the public and the media to ensure that our ideas are heard, work with policymakers to ensure that they are implemented, and, when necessary, take our arguments to court. This "full service approach" to public policy enables us to be an effective and powerful force for economic freedom.

The Google Policy Fellow will work closely with CEI analysts to research and promote innovative, efficient solutions to public policy challenges in the information age. Fellows will have the opportunity to write position papers, author opinion essays, and contribute to CEI’s blogs. Fellows will be invited to attend coalition meetings, aid in the drafting of comments to regulatory agencies, and participate in seminars and roundtable discussions.

Fellowship Focus Areas:

Creative Commons

Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved." We're a nonprofit organization and everything we do — including the software we create — is free. Too often the debate over creative control tends to the extremes. At one pole is a vision of total control — a world in which every last use of a work is regulated and in which "all rights reserved" (and then some) is the norm. At the other end is a vision of anarchy — a world in which creators enjoy a wide range of freedom but are left vulnerable to exploitation. Balance, compromise, and moderation — once the driving forces of a copyright system that valued innovation and protection equally — have become endangered species.

Creative Commons is working to revive them. We use private rights to create public goods: creative works set free for certain uses. Like the free software and open-source movements, our ends are cooperative and community-minded, but our means are voluntary and libertarian. We work to offer creators a best-of-both-worlds way to protect their works while encouraging certain uses of them — to declare "some rights reserved."

Creative Commons offers six public licenses that help creators achieve these ends. Our Google Policy Fellow will lead research and investigations into high-level policy and community oriented issues relating to the use of our licenses and tools.

Fellowship Focus Areas:

Electronic Frontier Foundation

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a nonprofit group of lawyers, policy analysts, technologists, and activists working to protect freedom of expression, civil liberties, digital consumer rights and innovation in the online world. Founded in 1990, EFF brings and defends lawsuits, engages in online advocacy campaigns, and works to educate U.S. and international policymakers, the media, and citizens.

Fellowship Focus Areas:

The Google Policy Fellow will work closely with mentors in the EFF international policy team. We are looking for someone who shares our passion for the free and open Internet, digital civil liberties and consumer rights; has strong research skills; can produce thoughtful original policy analysis; and has demonstrated the ability to communicate with different types of audiences. Depending on your background and expertise, the Google Policy Fellow may also work with attorneys in EFF’s legal team.

FF works in the following areas:

 The Google Policy Fellowship program provided a great mix of freedom and structure. I was able to choose the projects I worked on, and I always felt like my organization there to support me." -- Ren Bucholz (EFF)

Future of Music Coalition

Future of Music Coalition is a not-for-profit collaboration between members of the music, technology, public policy and intellectual property law communities. FMC seeks to educate the media, policymakers, and the public about music / technology issues, while also bringing together diverse voices in an effort to come up with creative solutions to some of the challenges in this space. FMC also aims to identify and promote innovative business models that will help musicians and citizens to benefit from new technologies.

Our policy agenda focuses on three broad themes, all of which have a direct impact on the ability for artists to make a living in the digital economy:

Fellowship Focus Areas:

FMC views policy issues through the frame of research, education and advocacy. The public policy fellow will work with FMC staff to identify issues of particular interest to the fellow, then develop and implement a strategy focusing on:

 I had the opportunity to work on the most cutting-edge policy debates, make relevant contributions and learn the issues inside and out. Moreover, I felt that I was truly a part of a vibrant, intellectual, and passionate community. I definitely recommend applying – being a Google Policy Fellow was the best thing I could have done with my summer." -- Shayne Wagman (FMC)

The Internet Education Foundation

The Internet Education Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public and policymakers about the potential of a decentralized global Internet to promote democracy, communications, and commerce. Founded in 1997, IEF facilitates many educational projects including: GetNetWise.org, The National Partnership for Safe Computing, the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee and the State of the Net Conference Series.

GetNetWise is an educational site that contains information to help parents and computer users stay safe online. GetNetWise.org has the largest searchable database of parental empowerment and cyber security tools on the Internet and uses multimedia audio and video to train users how to use these tools to enhance their safety. The Internet Education Foundation also does additional research and writing in the areas of online safety and security. The National Partnership for Safe Computing is a coalition of leading youth online safety organizations and advocates committed to educating citizens about taking control of the security of their computing experience and the safety of their family's online activities.

The Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee (ICAC) is a diverse group of public interest, non-profit and industry groups working to educate Congress, the federal government and the public about important Internet-related policy issues. The ICAC holds regular briefings for Congressional offices on topical Internet policy questions including broadband, net neutrality, copyright and intellectual property, cyber security, Internet governance and everything in between.

The State of the Net Conference Series brings together thought leaders, public Internet groups, industry and government to discuss the most relevant policy issues facing lawmakers. The annual State of the Net Conference in Washington is DC's largest technology policy conference.

Fellowship Focus Areas:

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies was founded in 1970 in the wake of the Voting Rights Act. The Joint Center is a nonpartisan, nonprofit public policy institute that focuses primarily on the concerns of African Americans and other communities of color. The Joint Center is widely known as the country’s most reliable source of information on the black electorate and on black elected officials. Over 11,000 black elected officials regularly seek the Joint Center’s advice on national public policy issues. Current Joint Center initiatives include its Health Policy Institute, the Media and Technology Institute, the Commission to Engage African Americans on Climate Change and the soon to be launched Civic Engagement and Governance Institute.

The Joint Center Media and Technology Institute focuses on how the media industry and emerging communications technologies such as broadband and social media can become avenues of advancement for people of color. The Media and Technology Institute produces and distributes research papers and policy reports to inform dialogue within this area and aligns its work with other Joint Center interests to influence policy and advocacy efforts. In 2009, the Institute will be producing the first national minority broadband adoption study to understand utilization trends within communities of color and the strategies for connecting these targeted groups to digital opportunities.

Fellowship Focus Areas:

Media Access Project

Media Access Project is a 37 year-old non-profit telecommunications law firm and advocacy group located in Washington, DC. It represents civil rights, civil liberties, environmental and other citizens groups in policy debates before the Federal Communications Commission and the courts. Its mission is to promote the public's First Amendment rights to speak and to be heard in the electronic mass media.

MAP's work is divided between the "old media" ("equal time" for candidates, media ownership limits, creating low power FM radio stations, etc.) and broadband related issues such as net neutrality, promoting openness and competition in the wireless market, expanding opportunities for unlicensed uses of the spectrum, municipal and community owned networks, and promoting minority ownership and participation.

MAP's small staff of attorneys is complemented by several law student interns each semester. Thus, mentorship and teaching is integral to its operation plan. Over recent years, MAP has made increasing use of economists and engineers in its activities.

Fellowship Focus Areas:

National Hispanic Media Coalition

Please note that NHMC will only consider candidates enrolled in a law degree program.

The National Hispanic Media Coalition is a non-profit 501(c)(3) civil rights organization. For 23 years the NHMC has pursued its mission to improve the image of American Latinos as portrayed by the media, increase the number of Latinos working in all facets of the media industry, and advocate for media and telecommunications policies that benefit the Latino community and other communities of color. NHMC is based in Los Angeles, but has an office in Washington, DC.

Fellowship Focus Areas:

In 2010 NHMC’s top priority is to eliminate the harms induced by hate speech in media. Its other key projects include diversification of media ownership, low power FM, ensuring that broadcasters fulfill their duties to serve the public interest, universal broadband, network neutrality and performance rights.

The Google Policy Fellow will work closely with NHMC’s DC-based Policy Counsel to advance NHMC’s agenda. The Fellow will work on complex legal and policy issues, and may be called upon to draft FCC pleadings, internal memoranda, press releases, blog posts, editorials and other documents as needed. The Fellow will be invited to attend meetings with decision makers at the FCC and in Congress, as well as coalition meetings with media reform and civil rights activists. Under the supervision of NHMC’s Policy Counsel, who has experience instructing and supervising law students’ media and telecommunications advocacy work, the Policy Fellow will develop legal research, writing and analytical skills. In addition, the Fellow will assist NHMC in updating its online presence and outreach efforts.


New America Foundation

Wireless Future Program - New America's Wireless Future Program develops and advocates policy proposals aimed at achieving universal and affordable wireless broadband access, expanding public access to the airwaves and updating our nation's communications infrastructure in the digital era. For more information, visit www.spectrumpolicy.org.

Open Technology Initiative - The Open Technology Initiative (OTI) formulates policy and regulatory reforms to support open architectures and open source innovations and facilitates the development and implementation of open technologies and communications networks. OTI promotes affordable, universal, and ubiquitous communications networks through partnerships with communities, researchers, industry, and public interest groups. OTI is committed to maximizing the potentials of innovative open technologies by studying their social and economic impacts – particularly for poor, rural, and other underserved constituencies.

The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States. New America emphasizes work that is responsive to the changing conditions and problems of our 21st Century information-age economy. Headquartered in our nation's capital, New America also has offices in California and New York.

Fellowship Focus Areas:

 I cannot recommend the Google Policy Fellowship enough. As a Fellow at one of the host organizations, you are immersed in policy debates and learn the issues in ways that are difficult to imagine until you experience it firsthand." -- Victor Pickard (NAF)

The Progress & Freedom Foundation

The Progress & Freedom Foundation (PFF) is a market-oriented think tank that studies the digital revolution and its implications for public policy. Its mission is to educate policymakers, opinion leaders, and the public about issues associated with technological change, based on a philosophy of limited government, free markets, and individual sovereignty. PFF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that was founded in 1993. We believe that the technological change embodied in the digital revolution has created tremendous opportunities for enhanced individual liberty, as well as wealth creation and higher living standards.

Fellowship Focus Areas:

Our Fellow will have the opportunity to work with PFF's analysts on all aspects of their work, which integrates legal, technical, and policy analysis. A background in law, economics or technology is preferred, but not required. Responsibilities will include research, writing, attending hearings and meetings, and organizing events. The Fellow will be engaged in rigorous research endeavors and will be given the opportunity to potentially author or co-author white papers, editorials, blog entries, and other articles and essays. Research areas include:

Public Knowledge

Public Knowledge is a public-interest advocacy organization dedicated to fortifying and defending a vibrant information commons. This Washington, D.C. based group works with a wide spectrum of stakeholders--libraries, educators, scientists, artists, musicians, journalists, consumers, software programmers, civic groups and enlightened businesses--to promote the core principles of openness, access, and the capacity to create and compete.

Fellowship Focus Areas:

A Public Knowledge fellow will work with members of PK staff and focus on copyright and/or telecommunications-related issues. The fellow will promote policy that ensures that U.S. copyright law and regulation reflect the "cultural bargain" intended by the framers of the Constitution: providing an incentive to creators and innovators while benefiting the public through the free flow of information and ideas. In the area of telecommunications, fellows will work to ensure that producers and consumers of online content will be able to operate without fear of intermediaries discriminating against them. Work may include writing and developing policy papers, briefing memos for policy makers, multimedia presentations, blog post, regulatory comments, and hearing testimony. Fellows are expected to attend and brief PK staff on pertinent Congressional hearings, meetings with policy makers, public interest advocates, and industry coalitions. Public Knowledge also encourages fellows to create an independent research project based on their interests and academic and career goals.

 As a Google Policy Fellow, I had access to speakers and symposia that I would never have known about otherwise. I was able to learn about the basics of lobbying, FCC regulatory structure and procedure, and First Amendment and freedom of expression implications in the online world." -- Jon Law (PK)

Technology Policy Institute

The Technology Policy Institute is a think tank that focuses on the economics of innovation, technological change, and related regulation in the United States and around the world. Our mission is to advance knowledge and inform policymakers by producing independent, rigorous research and by sponsoring educational programs and conferences on major issues affecting information technology and communications policy. The Technology Policy Institute is a 501(c)(3) research and educational foundation.

Fellowship Focus Areas: