Proposal

APrIGF 2026 Session Proposal Submission Form
Part 1 - Lead Organizer
Contact Person
Ms. Titiksha Vashist
Email
Organization / Affiliation (Please state "Individual" if appropriate) *
The Pranava Institute
Designation
Co-Founder and Lead Researcher
Gender
Female
Economy of Residence
India
Stakeholder Group
Civil Society
Part 2 - Session Proposal
Session Title
The Cost of a Click: Unboxing AI and Internet Infrastructures to Shape a Greener Internet in the APAC
Thematic Track of Your Session

  • Option

    • Primary: Universal and Meaningful Connectivity
    • Secondary: Future of APrIGF & Multistakeholder Ecosystem
Session Format
Workshop (60 minutes)
Where do you plan to organize your session?
Hybrid (with onsite moderator and speakers both online and offline, with online moderator for questions and comments from remote participants)
Specific Issues for Discussion
Behind every click, stream and search online, lies a vast physical infrastructure, comprising of undersea cables, server farms, and satellite networks, that consumes electricity and water at an industrial scale, with components are sourced through mineral extraction across multiple continents. Yet, for most internet users, especially young people, this physical infrastructure and their ecological costs remain largely invisible. Young people are the largest user group of the internet, yet they are rarely included meaningfully in the decisions that shape their digital lives. Without knowledge of the physical and ecological dimensions of digital infrastructure, meaningful participation in its governance, especially around greening the internet and emerging technologies like AI, remains out of reach.
This workshop will be administered using the ‘Unboxing Tech Toolkit: The Cost of a Click’ (https://unboxingtech.pranavainstitute.com/unboxinginternetinfrastructures), an open source capacity building educational resource that unpacks the ecological costs of AI and the internet using hands-on, fun activities. Built around the lived experiences of young people as technology users, this toolkit combines informational content with reflective exercises and concrete calls to action. The toolkit is designed so that young people can carry it back into their own communities, engage peers across different contexts and become active participants in conversations about sustainable digital futures. Piloted with over 400 participants across India, Cambodia, and the Philippines, this workshop draws on those experiences to explore how young people can become more active participants in shaping a more sustainable digital world.
The toolkit has been designed and developed using participatory methods, keeping the APAC at the center, and includes insights from multidisciplinary research at the intersection of sustainability, AI, tech policy and multilateral efforts to make the internet green.
Describe the Relevance of Your Session to APrIGF
Universal and Meaningful Connectivity: Access to the internet is often framed as a question of speed, cost or reach. However, the infrastructure that facilitates this connectivity carries significant and often invisible ecological costs. Young people are both heavy internet users and among those most affected by climate change, yet are rarely included in conversations about how the internet is built and governed. Meaningful connectivity requires the capacity to understand, critique and engage with these systems in order to imagine sustainable digital alternatives. The Unboxing Tech Toolkit was designed on this premise to make complex information about internet infrastructure and its ecological costs accessible, engaging and actionable, and inspiring for young people.
Future of APrIGF & Multistakeholder Ecosystem: The Unboxing Tech Toolkit is itself a product of a multistakeholder process, developed through a systematic literature review and consultations with experts across disciplines, including digital rights, community networking, climate and sustainability, and feminist technology studies. It was tested and refined through implementation partnerships across India, Cambodia, and the Philippines. As a result of this process, the toolkit is adaptable across diverse contexts and has been translated into various languages including Khmer, Filipino, Kannada, Hindi and English.
Through this workshop, our implementation partners shall share best practices that emerged from their experience of administering this toolkit to young people under various regional and diverse contexts. We shall also explore how young people across different regions perceived the toolkit as a resource and how they engaged with it. The toolkit is designed to make sustainable technology futures an accessible discourse for young people, in order to facilitate them to take the resource back to their own communities, peer networks and contexts and drive these conversations independently.
Methodology / Agenda (Please add rows by clicking "+" on the right)
Time frame (e.g. 5 minutes, 20 minutes, should add up to the time limit of your selected session format) Description
7 minutes Introduction to the Unboxing Tech Toolkit: The Cost of a Click. Share workshop material. Grounding activity and context setting.
30 minutes Participants will be introduced to different worksheets in the Unboxing Tech Toolkit. Participants will go through selective worksheets of the toolkit that explore: The internet as a physical system, tracing how data travels through devices, networks, cables, satellites, servers, and data centres. How the internet and AI function at a systems level, including data packets, protocols, encryption, network layers, and computational infrastructure. The environmental footprint of digital technologies, including energy use, water consumption, carbon emissions, and e-waste. The material lifecycle of digital devices, from mineral extraction and manufacturing to disposal, reuse, and circular economy practices. The people, institutions, and governance structures that sustain the internet, and the role of youth in shaping fairer and more sustainable digital futures.
4 minutes Post worksheets debrief: Key Takeaways. The speakers share their methodology behind designing and disseminating the toolkit.
15 minutes Implementation partners of the Unboxing Tech Toolkit share their experience of administering the toolkit to young people In diverse contexts, share what strategies worked and how local action can be inspired through such workshops.
4 minutes Closing and next steps: How can actors across the APAC collaborate to make use of such resources, and share knowledge and best practices?
Moderators & Speakers Info (Please complete where possible) - (Required)

  • Moderator (Primary)

    • Name: Shyam Krishnakumar
    • Organization: The Pranava Institute
    • Designation: Executive Director and Co-Founder
    • Gender: Male
    • Economy / Country of Residence: India
    • Stakeholder Group: Civil Society
    • Expected Presence: In-person
    • Status of Confirmation: Confirmed
    • Link of Bio (URL only): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b8Te6UuMVk2IGC1nt-u7EvQvXlSrSZ_6/view?usp=drive_link

  • Moderator (Facilitator)

    • Name: Dhanyashri Kamalakannan
    • Organization: The Pranava Institute
    • Designation: Governance Lead
    • Gender: Female
    • Economy / Country of Residence: India
    • Stakeholder Group: Civil Society
    • Expected Presence: In-person
    • Status of Confirmation: Confirmed
    • Link of Bio (URL only): https://drive.google.com/file/d/10HMJOfk9KDFIEW9QNk87iAU6kSrfspDb/view?usp=drive_link

  • Speaker 1

    • Name: Try Thy
    • Organization: Open Development Cambodia
    • Designation: Executive Director/Editor-in-Chief
    • Gender: Male
    • Economy / Country of Residence: Cambodia
    • Stakeholder Group: Civil Society
    • Expected Presence: Online
    • Status of Confirmation: Confirmed
    • Link of Bio (URL only): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gwBjZkAvNnbt6h28bl19l6TJqe1tr5CX/view?usp=drive_link

  • Speaker 2

    • Name: Gabe Mercado
    • Organization: Vivita Philipines
    • Designation: Executive Director
    • Gender: Male
    • Economy / Country of Residence: Philipines
    • Stakeholder Group: Civil Society
    • Expected Presence: Online
    • Status of Confirmation: Confirmed
    • Link of Bio (URL only): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CAg3cm5RM1FxUAxcPWEy_HAF4GlMzrZY/view?usp=drive_link

  • Speaker 3

    • Name: Namrata Srihari
    • Organization: Vyuha Learning Labs
    • Designation: Co-Founder
    • Gender: Female
    • Economy / Country of Residence: India
    • Stakeholder Group: Private Sector
    • Expected Presence: Online
    • Status of Confirmation: Confirmed
    • Link of Bio (URL only): https://www.linkedin.com/in/namrata-sri-hari-841413171/

  • Speaker 4

    • Stakeholder Group: Select One
    • Expected Presence: Select One
    • Status of Confirmation: Select One

  • Speaker 5

    • Stakeholder Group: Select One
    • Expected Presence: Select One
    • Status of Confirmation: Select One
Please explain the rationale for choosing each of the above contributors to the session.
Shyam Krishnakumar is the Executive Director and Co-Founder at The Pranava Institute, where he leads the organisation's work on digital economy and tech geopolitics focusing on tech policy, semiconductor supply chains, and the use of AI within the public sector. Shyam has been a co-lead of the Unboxing Tech Toolkit Project since 2021.

Dhanyashri Kamalakannan is the Governance Lead at The Pranava Institute. She has worked on the second and third modules of the Unboxing Tech Toolkit Series and has experience conducting workshops at major conferences.

Try Thy, Gabe Mercado, and Namrata Srihari are implementation partners of the Unboxing Tech Toolkit project, having administered the toolkit to young people across Cambodia, the Philippines, and India respectively. Their inclusion as speakers brings direct, on-the-ground perspectives on how the toolkit was received and adapted across diverse regional, linguistic, and cultural contexts, and what best practices emerged.
If you need assistance to find a suitable speaker to contribute to your session, or an onsite facilitator for your online-only session, please specify your request with details of what you are looking for.
NA
Has AI been used to develop this proposal?
No
Please declare if you have any potential conflict of interest with the Program Committee 2026.
No
Are you or other session contributors planning to apply for the APrIGF Fellowship Program 2026?
No
Upon evaluation by the Program Committee, your session proposal may only be selected under the condition that you will accept the suggestion of merging with another proposal with similar topics. Please state your preference below:
Yes, I am willing to work with another session proposer on a suggested merger.
APrIGF offers live transcripts in English for all sessions. Do you need any disability related requirements for your session? APrIGF makes every effort to be a fully inclusive and accessible event, and will do the best to fulfill your needs.
NA
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