Georgetown Receives $1 Million Gift From Yahoo! To Support Research on International Values and Communication Technology

Washington, DC -- Georgetown University announced today it has received a $1 million dollar gift from Yahoo! Inc. to establish a Yahoo! International Values, Communications, Technology, and Global Internet Fellowship Fund. The fund will support the education and research activities of an annual Yahoo! Fellow in Residence and two Junior Yahoo! Fellows who will study the link between international values and Internet and communication technologies.

“We appreciate Yahoo!’s generosity and look forward to entering a partnership that enables us to enhance our ability to address critical global issues and support research and scholarship that will inform business leaders, policymakers and others,” said Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia.

“Yahoo! is excited about forming a partnership with Georgetown University on global values and technology. This commitment is another step in our efforts to be actively engaged on issues that arise at the intersection of human rights and the Internet,” said Jerry Yang, Yahoo! co-founder.

Yahoo! is currently participating in a multi-stakeholder dialogue that includes industry representatives, human rights groups, leading academics, and socially responsible investors. This diverse group has made a formal and public commitment to creating a set of global principles and operating procedures on freedom of expression and privacy to guide company behavior when faced with laws, regulations and policies that interfere with human rights.

Georgetown’s first Yahoo! Fellow in Residence and Junior Yahoo! Fellows are expected to begin their research on campus during the fall 2007 semester. They will study how international values impact the development and use of new communication technologies such as how the operation and regulation of the global internet affects personal privacy, freedom of expression, education, socio-cultural change and cross-national contacts among civil society groups. The fund, which will support annual Yahoo! Fellows housed at the School of Foreign Service’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy (ISD) over the next eight years, builds upon the School’s mission to foster academic-practitioner collaborations around key foreign policy issues.

Since 1981 ISD has hosted professional practitioners as Resident Associates to conduct research on the craft of diplomacy and related issues in foreign affairs. The Institute also supports undergraduate and graduate research on diplomatic issues through its Junior Fellowships in Diplomacy program. Recent research topics have included diplomatic efforts to resolve U.S.-South Korean relations and the U.S.-India civil nuclear cooperation agreement negotiations.

The Yahoo! Fellow in Residence will be a professional selected from the corporate, government and/or academic sectors whose interests relate to the interaction of communications technologies and national systems and practices, with an emphasis on countries rapidly expanding in the global marketplace such as China, India, Russia and Brazil. Junior Yahoo! Fellows will be selected among graduate students in the Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) program. In addition to their research activities, Yahoo! Fellows will collaborate with faculty in the MSFS program to enhance curricular activities by contributing to guest lectures, special seminars, case studies and course modules.

“This gift complements our efforts in the School of Foreign Service to connect scholars and practitioners, and to share knowledge about critical issues in international affairs,” said Robert L. Gallucci, dean of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. “The Yahoo! Fellows will continue to build upon our efforts to address the most pressing topics facing the global community.”