Balthas Seibold

I am a technical advisor with the ‘Sector Project: Digital World’ of the 'Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ)'. The Sector Project "Digital World" is part of GIZ’s department for ‘Sector and Global Programmes’. It provides advisory and project implementation services for the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) on digital transformations of societies and economies in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

I did advisory and training services for international cooperation programmes of the German government in areas such as: (1) peer-to-peer networking & community empowerment (2) commons-based peer production & knowledge sharing (3) open learning & open education (4) social networks for and with Alumni worldwide. My section (‘Global Knowledge Sharing & Learning’) was part of the international education work of GIZ managed by its ‘German Academy for International Cooperation' (AIZ).

Before 2012, I led capacity building programmes with GIZ (formerly InWEnt) that promote the IT-sector in Africa and Asia, including ict@innovation, commons@ip, it@foss, FOSS-Bridge EU-Vietnam, it@coops To know more, please check - ict@innovation - Creating Business and Learning Opportunities through Free and Open Source Software in Africa (http://www.ict-innovation.fossfa - commons@ip: Harnessing the knowledge commons for open innovation in Africa / Open African Innovation Research and Training .

- Associate Expert in UNESCO's Bureau of Strategic Planning - Contributed to the elaboration of UNESCO's programmatic planning documents such as the Programme and Budget for 2004-2005 and 2006-2007, focus on communication & information and education.

- One-year post-graduate program - work phases at UNESCO and GTZ - Run jointly by the Robert Bosch Stiftung and the German National Academic Foundation. - Project: “Online-Content for Development - Information Needs of Internet Users in Developing Countries”.

“Foreign Policy of the United States” as part of the Washington Semester Program in Washington D.C.

Communication Science (major), Political Science, Computer Science and Sociology (minors)