World Summit on the Information Society
A new paper says that the internet and its governance is now suffering from resistance to change, paranoia and a lack of strategic direction and accountability, among other problems. Some thoughts and critiques on the paper's conclusions and recommendations, as well as three ideas that it misses.
Technology is going to change faster than we can adapt to it or even understand it, and we are already seeing technological change outpace the capabilities of public policy. We need to adjust how we view and decide things so technology broadens our policy options rather than narrow them.
In my keynote speech to the intersessional meeting of the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development, I discuss how our progress reviews of the World Summit on the Information Society must account for how digital society is now inextricably linked to all aspects of global development and crises.
We want people, especially those facing discrimination and oppression, to have greater power and autonomy through digital technologies to exercise their full range of human rights online and offline. Check out our achievements in this area in 2020.
From 2016 to 2019, we worked for internet-related and ICT policy processes to protect the publicness of the internet and to be accessible, democratic, transparent, accountable and inclusive. How far did we get? Check it out!
The APC Impact Report 2016-2019 encapsulates the APC network's high level impact over the four years of our strategic cycle, which ended in 2019. While the report looks back at our work, it also brings us forward through the strategic direction that we set for ourselves in the next four years.
Twenty years ago, some of us old-timers were beginning to gear up for what became the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
“Human Rights in the Age of Platforms”, published by the MIT Press, examines the human rights implications of today's platform society. APCNews interviewed Rikke Frank Jørgensen, editor of the publication, who provided insight on the reflections and recommendations captured in this book.
What will ‘people-centred’ mean when decisions that matter are mainly taken by computer algorithms? What is development, or ‘sustainable development’, as now preferred? This week, what is inclusion?
It’s fifteen years since the World Summit on the Information Society – and the United Nations is pledged to hold a review of what has happened since the Summit in 2025. But are the outcomes of the Summit still relevant today? How should the UN go about reviewing it?
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2022
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