Inside the digital society
David Souter writes a weekly column for APC, looking at different aspects of the information society, development and rights. David’s pieces take a fresh look at many of the issues that concern APC and its members, with the aim of provoking discussion and debate. Issues covered include internet governance and sustainable development, human rights and the environment, policy, practice and the use of ICTs by individuals and communities.
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has come a long way in its 16 years. What is it today, and what should its future look like?
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.
Facebook-Meta's metaverse might be less Toy Story and more like The Matrix. Either way, here are five reasons we need to be cautious about the ethics of such virtual visions.
Climate change and digital society are the two trends that will underpin global development in our time. They interact much more than is being understood or discussed at conferences like COP and IGF.
At the IGF we often concentrate on specific themes which might be technical, like the domain name system, or more generic such as access or cybersecurity. The challenges I’m going to raise today are more fundamental issues that affect the internet as a whole.
The internet may be the same, in some ways, everywhere, but it’s also different everywhere.
Who “owns” data? Who should have access to them or rights to exploit them?
Media (or free media) are important facilitators of public discourse and of the environment for democracy and rights.
I’ve spent some time reflecting on the way we’ve thought about the internet and digitalisation over three decades, and how we may need to think differently in future. What assumptions have we made; and what assumptions should we make, about its relationship with politics and geopolitics?
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2020
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