The Power of the Commons: Digital Public Goods for a More Secure, Inclusive and Resilient World

Summary

This event focused on the power of digital commons and digital public goods (DPGs) in creating a more secure, inclusive, and resilient world. Speakers from governments, international organizations, academia, and civil society discussed the transformative potential of DPGs and digital public infrastructure (DPI) in fostering sustainable development and advancing human rights globally.

Key themes included the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration, the need to close digital divides, and the critical role of community-led initiatives in developing DPGs. Speakers highlighted successful examples like Wikipedia and emphasized how DPGs can democratize access to knowledge and technology. The discussion underscored the importance of embedding human rights and democratic values in the design of digital systems.

Participants stressed the need for robust governance frameworks and universal safeguards to ensure DPGs and DPIs respect privacy, promote inclusion, and protect against misuse. The role of governments in providing legal frameworks and supporting connectivity was discussed, alongside the importance of civil society participation in shaping digital governance.

Academia was highlighted as a key contributor to digital commons through knowledge creation, incubation of projects, and research on societal impacts. Speakers called for increased investment in digital skills and emphasized trust and safety as crucial for the continued development and use of DPGs.

The event concluded with calls to action for building a global ecosystem around DPGs, integrating them into various policy fields, and fostering international cooperation to leverage their potential in addressing global challenges and achieving sustainable development goals.

Keypoints

Major discussion points:

– The importance of digital public goods (DPGs) and digital public infrastructure (DPI) for inclusive development and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

– The need for multi-stakeholder collaboration and community-led approaches in developing and governing DPGs

– The role of governments in supporting DPGs through policy frameworks, funding, and infrastructure

– The critical importance of embedding human rights and democratic values in the design of digital systems and DPGs

– The potential of DPGs to democratize access to knowledge and empower marginalized communities

Overall purpose:

The discussion aimed to highlight the transformative potential of digital public goods and digital public infrastructure in fostering sustainable, inclusive development worldwide. It sought to encourage multi-stakeholder partnerships to promote and protect DPGs that are truly universal and reflect diverse voices.

Tone:

The overall tone was optimistic and forward-looking, with speakers expressing enthusiasm about the potential of DPGs while also acknowledging challenges. There was a sense of urgency about the need to act now to shape the digital future in line with democratic values and human rights. The tone remained consistent throughout, emphasizing collaboration and shared responsibility among different stakeholders.

Speakers

Moderators/Facilitators:

– Costanza Sciubba Caniglia (Anti-Disinformation Strategy Lead at Wikimedia Foundation)

– Nicole Manger (Lead Global AI Governance and Digital Cooperation at Federal Foreign Office of Germany)

Speakers:

– Amandeep Gill (UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology)

– Krzysztof Szczerski (Ambassador of Poland)

– Alicia Buenrostro Massieu (Deputy Permanent Representative of Mexico to the UN)

– Rebecca MacKinnon (Vice President Global Advocacy at Wikimedia Foundation)

– Ivan Sigal (Executive Director of Global Voices)

– Fabro Steibel (ITS Rio)

– Eileen Donahoe (Coordinator for Digital Freedom, US Department of State)

– Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi (Director General of NITDA Nigeria)

– Marianne Díaz Hernández (YID Campaigner at Access Now)

– Jimmy Wales (Co-founder of Wikipedia)

– Urs Gasser (Professor at Technical University of Munich)

– Emran Mian (Director General for Digital and Telecoms, UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

– Anna Christmann (Member of German Parliament, member of UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Body on AI)

Areas of expertise among speakers include digital governance, technology policy, digital rights, civil society engagement, digital public goods, artificial intelligence, and international relations.

Digital Public Goods: Building a More Secure, Inclusive, and Resilient World

This high-level discussion brought together experts from governments, international organizations, academia, and civil society to explore the transformative potential of digital public goods (DPGs) and digital public infrastructure (DPI) in fostering sustainable development and advancing human rights globally.

Event Structure and Overview

Costanza Sciubba Caniglia opened the event, outlining its structure: opening remarks, success stories, and a panel discussion. The event aimed to highlight the importance of DPGs and DPI in promoting inclusive digital transformation and sustainable development.

Key Themes and Discussions

1. The Importance of Digital Public Goods and Infrastructure

Speakers unanimously agreed on the critical role of DPGs and DPI in promoting inclusive, sustainable digital transformation. Amandeep Gill, UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology, set the tone by emphasising that “well-governed commons are the foundations of human civilization. Digital is no exception, and today more than ever digital commons are vital to our interconnected world.”

Fabro Steibel provided a thought-provoking perspective, noting that “DPIs emerge earlier and faster in the Global South than in the Global North. This is what research shows and most likely this is because out of necessity. In the Global South, we need better technologies to spread and equalise wealth and power.” This insight challenged common assumptions about technological innovation and highlighted the unique contributions of the Global South in developing digital public infrastructure.

Alicia Buenrostro Massieu, Deputy Permanent Representative of Mexico to the UN, stressed the importance of DPGs and DPI in closing the digital divide, while Eileen Donahoe, Coordinator for Digital Freedom at the US Department of State, emphasised the need for universal safeguards to protect human rights in the development and implementation of these technologies.

2. Multi-stakeholder Collaboration and Community-led Approaches

The discussion highlighted the crucial role of multi-stakeholder collaboration in developing and governing DPGs. Speakers agreed that involving diverse stakeholders, including civil society, academia, and community members, is essential for creating truly inclusive and effective digital public goods.

Marianne Díaz Hernández of Access Now emphasised the role of civil society in ensuring DPGs remain transparent, inclusive, and responsive to societal needs. Urs Gasser, Professor at Technical University of Munich, highlighted academia’s multifaceted contribution: “Academia can not only contribute in these different forms substantively to the formation of digital commons and digital public goods. It can also study and assess what we can learn about digital commons as we go forward, about the societal impact about the relevance, we can assess whether we pass the Wikipedia test when new policies are rolled out.”

Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, stressed the importance of community-driven governance, using Wikipedia as a prime example of a successful DPG. He suggested that when considering digital policies, one should ask, “If you’re about to pass some rule, think about, is this going to wreck Wikipedia? And if it is, it might not be a great rule.”

3. The Role of Governments and Policy Frameworks

While there was broad agreement on the importance of government support for DPGs, there were nuanced differences in how speakers viewed the government’s role. Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, Director General of NITDA Nigeria, emphasised the need for governments to provide legal frameworks and connectivity for DPGs.

Emran Mian, Director General for Digital and Telecoms at the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, focused on the importance of digital skills and trust and safety in the context of enjoying and creating DPGs. Anna Christmann, member of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Body on AI, called for bringing DPG discussions to other policy areas like climate change and COP negotiations.

4. Human Rights and Democratic Values in Digital Systems

A recurring theme throughout the discussion was the critical importance of embedding human rights and democratic values in the design of digital systems and DPGs. Marianne Díaz Hernández provided a thought-provoking comment on this issue: “When we focus on development above human rights, instead of understanding development as a tool to achieve human rights, we risk creating systems that have not been designed with human rights as a principle, but as an afterthought.”

Eileen Donahoe echoed this sentiment, advocating for universal safeguards to protect human rights in DPGs and DPI. This emphasis on human rights highlighted a key challenge: balancing rapid development of DPGs with ensuring robust protections for individual rights and freedoms.

5. Success Stories and Practical Applications

Ivan Sigal from Global Voices shared insights on the importance of multilingualism in DPGs, highlighting their work in creating tools for underrepresented languages. Fabro Steibel discussed successful DPI implementations in Brazil, emphasizing the role of open-source solutions in government services.

6. Global Digital Compact and Future Initiatives

Amandeep Gill highlighted the Global Digital Compact as a new foundation for international action on DPGs and DPI. He emphasized its role in addressing key digital issues and promoting cooperation. Gill also mentioned the upcoming OSPOS for Good Conference, focusing on open-source technologies for public good.

Anna Christmann called for new hands-on initiatives to co-design frontier open data and AI solutions as DPGs. The discussion also touched on the relevance of the upcoming Summit of the Future in shaping the global digital landscape.

7. Challenges and Future Directions

The discussion identified several challenges and areas for future focus in the development of DPGs:

– Balancing development goals with protecting human rights

– Establishing sustainable funding mechanisms for DPGs and open-source projects

– Improving data and AI literacy to enable wider participation in DPG development

– Addressing potential risks and misuse of DPGs and open data

– Ensuring multilingualism and local context in global DPGs

– Developing governance models that balance community-driven approaches with government support

– Integrating DPGs into broader policy discussions on climate change, education, and healthcare

Conclusion

The discussion underscored the transformative potential of digital public goods and digital public infrastructure in fostering sustainable, inclusive development worldwide. It emphasised the need for multi-stakeholder partnerships to promote and protect DPGs that are truly universal and reflect diverse voices. The overall tone was optimistic and forward-looking, with speakers expressing enthusiasm about the potential of DPGs while also acknowledging the challenges ahead.

As the world continues to grapple with digital transformation, the insights from this discussion provide a valuable framework for leveraging DPGs to create a more secure, inclusive, and resilient global digital ecosystem. The emphasis on human rights, community-driven approaches, and multi-stakeholder collaboration offers a path forward in harnessing the power of digital commons for the benefit of all.

Costanza Sciubba Caniglia: Hello, good morning, welcome, Excellencies, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much for joining us today for our event, The Power of the Commons, Digital Public Goods for a More Secure, Inclusive, and Resilient World. My name is Costanza Sciubba Caniglia, I am the Anti-Disinformation Strategy Lead at the Wikimedia Foundation, and I am honored today to co-moderate this event with my colleague, Nicole Mangier, Lead Global AI Governance and Digital Cooperation at the Federal Foreign Office of Germany. Before we start, I wanted to thank our co-organizers, the Office of the Tech Envoy, the Permanent Mission of Poland and Mexico, the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, TUM, the Network of Centers, and multiple Wikimedia affiliates, Wikimedia EU, Wikimedia Poland, Wikimedia Czech, and Wikimedia Deutschland. I’m going to leave the floor to Nicole in a moment, but just wanted to articulate the event is going to be divided in four parts. We’re going to have opening remarks, and then we’re going to have a section on success stories that will serve to ground the panel that will come afterwards, with a couple of examples of grassroots digital public good examples. And then we’re going to have a panel of experts, and then we’ll close with a couple of closing remarks. And with this, Nicole, to you.

Nicole Manger: Thank you so much, Amandeep. Thank you so much, Amandeep. So thanks a lot, Costanza. And I also very warmly welcome you to our side event, The Power of the Commons, the role of digital public goods for a more secure, inclusive, and resilient world. So this event, as Costanza said, is co-hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation and its affiliates by the governments of Mexico and Poland, and then by the UN Secretary General’s Envoy on Technology. So I want to step a little back. ask the question, like, why are we meeting here on this topic today? So, I guess we are all expecting to be, to see the pact for the future and especially the global digital compact to be adopted successfully tomorrow and adopted. Yeah, and so it’s going to be the first Compass truly global approach to an open, free, secure, and human-centered digital future for all and everywhere. And so for us today, we wanted to highlight especially the transformative potential of digital public goods for the values of the GDC, such as enabling access, inclusive access to digital technologies, and also enabling civil society to have a voice in how technology is designed and governed. Also to pool scarce resources like data and infrastructure to really increase resilience and sustainability and have a digital transformation that is also sustainable. So without further ado, I would like to introduce our esteemed speakers, opening speakers, and I first pass it on to His Excellency Under-Secretary-General Amandeep Gill, Secretary General’s Envoy on Technology.

Amandeep Gill: Thank you very much, Nicole, and I’d like to begin by welcoming all of you to the pre-summit of the Future Action Day. Thank you for being here at UN Headquarters with us. It means a lot. It means a lot to the Secretary General, to all of us. I want to also thank Mexico, Poland, and Wikimedia for organizing this event, this very important event, and I want to thank Germany for their consistent support to this constellation of important ideas. Ladies and gentlemen, well-governed commons are the foundations of human civilization. Digital is no exception, and today more than ever digital commons are vital to our interconnected world. When we speak about digital commons, we mean resources that are collectively owned and managed by a community and freely accessible to all members of our society, and on the technology front, open digital resources are key to the equitable advancement of digital digital technologies, particularly emerging technologies like AI. Nicole mentioned the Global Digital Compact. So after nearly two years of consultation and negotiations, the negotiations have concluded and there’s a text on the table as part of the pact for the future for a decision tomorrow. This document, the Global Digital Compact, embeds an international commitment to global digital commons through digital public goods and digital public infrastructure. So it is a new foundation for more meaningful, more impactful action in this area. This is very significant. The GDC can play a crucial role in democratizing access to knowledge and technological resources, ensuring that everyone everywhere, regardless of their socioeconomic status, has the opportunity to participate in benefit from the digital economy. This inclusivity is crucial for reducing inequalities and promoting social equity, aligning with the goal of leaving no one behind. Further, the collaborative nature of digital commons, including digital public goods and digital public infrastructure, fosters innovation and creativity. By enabling the free exchange of ideas and resources, by bringing data sets together, by bringing talent, coding talent in particular, together, digital commons help accelerate technological advancements and the development of new solutions to global challenges. At the same time, because you have many more eyes on the code, many more eyes on the data, you prevent misuse. You build a set of safeguards, a set of checks and balances that ensure that our digital commons work for everyone. This open and responsible innovation ecosystem can support economic growth, the creation of jobs, enhancement of productivity, contributing to overall economic prosperity and social well-being. At the UN, we know that the open nature of open source software, platforms, data, AI models are a key enabler of the Sustainable Development Goals. By leveraging the potential of Digital Commons, we believe we can accelerate progress towards the 2030 Agenda. As part of the Secretary General’s commitment to Digital Commons, my office, together with many partners, some of which are in the room today, organizes the yearly OSPOS for Good Conference. In July, we hosted this together with Germany and Kenya, the second edition of this conference. Through two days at the UN, over 600 participants from around the world gathered in New York with active engagement, high-quality discussions, and a collaborative spirit characteristic of the open-source community. I’d like to finish these remarks by inviting you all to join us in collaborating on the future of this conference in follow-up to the Global Digital Compact. In this spirit, I wish you an invigorating exchange today. Thank you.

Nicole Manger: Thank you so much, Under-Secretary General Gill. I pass on the word to His Excellency, Ambassador of Poland Krzysztof Szczerski. I am so sorry, possibly, for mispronouncing the name, but I hope I got it over to you.

Krzysztof Szczerski: Thank you very much, Excellencies, Mr. Special Envoy, ladies and gentlemen, I’m so excited to be here, being one of the, not only the daily reader of the Wikipedia, but also having my own profile on it. It’s good to be in the system, somehow. Okay, it’s my honor to be with you today, as we heard, in the dawn of the summit of the future, which we are all very excited about. First and foremost, let me congratulate the Wikimedia Foundation for gathering us and for working tirelessly to ensure the success of today’s discussions. Poland is, of course, happy to be the co-sponsor of this event. As a gentleman, digital cooperation is going to be heavily featured during the Summit of the Future and the entire High-Level Week. We expect, as we already heard, that already tomorrow the heads of states and governments will adopt the foundation for the global digital cooperation, the document which is named, as we heard, Global Digital Compact. This will mark the new era of recognition that we need to act swiftly, decisively and collectively to utilize and govern the ever-expanding digital sphere. I am more than happy to see involvement of many stakeholders from outside the governments like the lead organizer of this event, Wikimedia, in our discussions. It’s only with their active participation on equal footing that we can fully tap the potential of digital public goods and digital public infrastructure for realization of the Sustainable Development Goals. Colleagues, one of the aims of this meeting is to highlight the potential of digital commons, the role of which is inavailable in providing individuals and communities with free and easy access to information. And I just want to underline the word information because I think we get too much of the free and easy access to disinformation. And it’s crucially important since this device becomes now the best friend of many of ours. So therefore it’s very important to really guarantee that it’s free, easy, but also reliable. Therefore I would like to share with you just a couple of cases of how public open data is used by citizens in my country, Poland, to build interest in digital tools, to participate in public life, and to monitor the activity of public authorities. Take for example the portal dane.gov.pl. This is a universal access point to open data in Poland and has been enthusiastically embraced by various stakeholders. It’s a governmental portal, but open for everybody. Presidents interested in monitoring state activities use it as a tool for holding the government accountable. Companies leverage data to build innovative products and services. Another set of examples includes the fact-checking platforms run by civil society. There are various of them. Their adaptability to most recent events, such as fact-checking related to the upcoming elections, is one of their strengths. Our goal, however, in all these efforts, is not to simply implement open data policy, but to do more to construct a comprehensive, robust, citizen-friendly system that is fueled by the valuable data. And we have been recognized for our efforts by the major European and global open data rankings. Ladies and gentlemen, in conclusion, I am looking forward to learning about the concrete examples of how digital public goods and digital public infrastructure can contribute to a safe, resilient, and open digital world, which we strive to build in order to leave no one behind. And I wish you all the very enriching and exciting discussions, and I thank you. Thank you.

Nicole Manger: And next, I would pass on the word to Her Excellency Alicia Buenrostro Massieu, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Mexican United States to the United Nations in New York. The floor is yours.

Alicia Buenrostro Massieu: Thank you very much, and it’s also a pleasure to be here with all of you. In particular, it’s very good to share the floor with such a panel. And having the creator of Wikipedia, as my colleague from Poland has just mentioned, it’s just a real honor, and with them, a big deal as well. And for Mexico, a country that really has put a lot into the global digital compact. So it’s an honor, really, to be here today representing my country, Mexico. The Pact for the Future, and more specifically… the Global Digital Compact represents certainly an opportunity to consolidate a global digital governance framework that fosters inclusion, equity, and sustainability, as well as to emphasize the political relevance of this framework in the multilateral sphere. It’s the first time that we are working on this type of issue from a real compact, and that is a step forward and as the Ambassador of Poland has just mentioned, we really look forward to being able to witness that this has been passed tomorrow morning. So for my country, for Mexico, the promise of digital transformation lies in its ability to drive inclusive growth, reduce inequalities, and accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Technology must be a development catalyst and not a luxury for a few, and that is the position of my country. So this should be for everybody. Mexico’s priorities are very clear. First, we must close the digital divide and ensure that no one is left behind in the digital age. Second, to empower small and medium-sized enterprises. Technology can be a great equalizer by fostering innovation and supporting local economic activity. Third, Mexico is committed to ensuring that human rights are respected in all digital policies, and that is very important as well. As a country that enshrines the right to access information and communication technologies in our Constitution, we are dedicated to promoting meaningful digital inclusion, particularly for groups in vulnerable situations that have faced historical exclusions, such as women, indigenous peoples, and Afro-descendant communities. At the heart of our efforts is the concept of digital public goods as essential for building a digital commons that is transparent, equitable, and open to all. By investing in digital public infrastructure, we create pathways for marginalized communities to be able to fully participate in the global economy. It’s not just about providing access, but about empowering our people to innovate, to grow, and contribute to the development of their communities. Digital public goods align with Mexico’s goals of inclusive economic development and socio-economic equity. In this context, the Global Digital Compact gains relevance as a roadmap for building secure, inclusive, and rights- based digital ecosystems. Early last year, Mexico co-hosted the GDC consultation for the Americas in Mexico City, and Amandeep was there. That was along with Germany and the Office of the Secretary’s General Envoy, as I mentioned. This consultation brought together key actors from across the region to discuss the most pressing issues around digital governance and the role of digital public goods. Throughout the GDC negotiations, my country has pushed for the creation of open government initiatives, which focus on integrating digital tools into public administration to promote transparency and accountability. We are advocating for the development of inclusive and accessible digital tools, particularly tailored to small and medium enterprises and entrepreneurs. These tools must be affordable and adaptable to the needs of small businesses and local innovators, helping them leverage the power of technology for economic growth. Mexico is committed to investing in inclusive digital infrastructure, focusing on marginalized and underserved communities. By expanding access to the infrastructure in rural and in economically disadvantaged regions, we can help bridge the digital divide and ensure equitable opportunities for all. And to conclude, I would like to encourage all governments and stakeholders to ensure that digital transformation benefits all people everywhere, and that is a commitment that we almost assume. By investing in digital public goods and digital public infrastructure, and by collaborating and building on the principles, objectives, commitments, and actions outlined in the Global Digital Compact, we can consolidate the construction of a global digital environment that is inclusive, equitable, and sustainable. Thank you.

Nicole Manger: Thank you, and I would like to pass it on now to our civil society voice on this stage, Rebecca MacKinnon. She is Vice President Global Advocacy at Wikimedia Foundation and also founder of Global Voices. Rebecca, the floor is yours.

Rebecca MacKinnon: Thank you so much, Nicole. I’m here today representing the Wikimedia Foundation along with my colleague Costanza here and several other colleagues in the room. Someone was asking me just before we got seated what’s the difference between the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikipedia. We are the nonprofit organization that serves as the technical, legal, and fundraising host for Wikipedia and other volunteer-run projects that operate in over 300 languages. Wikipedia, of course, being created before the foundation existed by Jimmy Wales, who you’ll hear from later. We also have staff who support the global community of volunteers who build and maintain these projects around the world. And, of course, I’d like to thank all of our co-organizers shown on the screen today, in particular the governments of Poland, Mexico, and Germany and the Office of the UN Tech Envoy, without whose support we wouldn’t be here. And also grateful to the partnership of many others in the United Nations system, national governments, and civil society and academia who’ve helped organize this event and, more generally, in their commitment to support and protect digital public goods like Wikipedia. And we’ll take the next slide, please. So this is a group of just some of the people who maintain and create Wikipedia who traveled to Katowice in Poland just last month for an annual conference called Wikimania. It was organized, one of the key organizers actually sitting right there, the young man named Maciek. And thanks to our co-hosts and the gracious Polish people for welcoming us. We are very lucky to have him here today. Wikipedia is a digital native, but a lot of the people who build and govern this global resource of free knowledge actually find it very important to gather in person, as you see here, to brainstorm, learn from each other, and build human bonds that enable us to collaborate with empathy and understanding of each other’s lived experience. Next slide, please. New language communities are joining the Wikimedia family all the time. And this is an example, Wikimedia founder Jimmy Wales, sitting there, who you’ll hear from in a few minutes, gave the 2024 Newcomer of the Year Award at Wikimania to the people who’ve created a new version of Wikipedia in the Waiyu language. Next slide, please. And here is that new Waiyu language, Wikipedia. Waiyu is spoken by about 400,000 indigenous people in northwestern Venezuela and northeastern Colombia. It’s an example of a project that benefits an indigenous community that commercial internet companies have no financial incentive to care about. Top-down government services in a lot of countries also often fail to prioritize the needs of indigenous people whose ancient communities often span across several borders, which is why it’s so vital that governments must protect and support the people and the work behind such community-led bottom-up projects. Projects like Wikipedia, but many others, and we’ll hear some more examples later, serve the public interest by creating knowledge, infrastructure, and access to information built on a robust digital commons that we’ve heard about already, which includes open-source software, a range of open content and open data projects, and open licensing for content that enables projects to build upon one another in an interdependent ecosystem. Next slide, please. So here we have a photo of the Igbo language user group in Nigeria, jumping across. the Atlantic Ocean, and a community outreach activity that they carried out not too long ago. Wikipedia exists in several Nigerian languages, run by volunteers who all care passionately about preserving and strengthening their community’s linguistic and cultural heritage, while contributing also to a global body of knowledge about the people, places, issues, and ideas in their countries and communities. So then that knowledge also gets translated into other languages and ends up in English, et cetera. And in so doing, they’re also helping to advance technical capacity, economic opportunity, and cultural flourishing in their own communities. To put it another way, they’re directly contributing to the advancement of quite a number of SDGs. And there’s simply no way that a top-down approach to digital public infrastructure and digital public goods is going to be able to reach all of the underserved, vulnerable, and marginalized communities around the world, full of talented people who will take initiative in innovative ways if given half a chance, as we’ve been discovering throughout the Wikimedia communities. So we believe that the future of the internet should be one that promotes and protects these types of projects and these people, like those who we work with around the world. Wikipedia is one of the most famous examples, but there’s many others that have emerged over the past two decades, and we’re going to be hearing about a few of them in just a few minutes. Thank you.

Nicole Manger: Thank you, Rebecca, and thanks to all our distinguished speakers here on this stage. We are now transitioning to the second segment of hearing success stories of civil society grassroots organizations. because DPGs are really at its core about grassroots involvement and so that’s why we would like to highlight these success stories and also the perspectives of two organizations, one Global Voices and the second ITS Rio on how they are using the potential of DPGs and also possibly certain challenges what you know when it comes to governance structures, robust funding mechanisms and also creating robust data AI literacy to leverage DPGs successfully. So with that said I would like to call Fabro Steibel and Ivan Sigal on the stage with me. So we will start with one example of successful DPGs which is Global Voices. So this is really a multilingual community of writers, translators, academics and digital rights activists worldwide and I would like to give the floor to Ivan Seagal, Executive Director of Global Voices.

Ivan Sigal: Good morning. I’m Ivan Sigal as is just told. I’m now the actually outgoing Executive Director of Global Voices. This is my last public appearance in this role. We’re an organization that’s been for the past 20 years has been a forum for the perspectives and priorities of global majority writers and activists and explores how information technologies affect movements, politics, culture and information integrity. Some 8,000 writers, translators and researchers have participated from 160 countries and contributed to our to our work over the years. We’re dedicated to building understanding across cultures and languages and specifically we understand that the internet does not by itself bring around positive social change. Rather we need to invest in and build an internet based on a vision that reflects those values and we’re one of many communities and initiatives and organizations that exists as a digital public good that works in a much smaller level than a group like Wikipedia but is an example of what people can accomplish when the internet flourish functions as a flourishing and healthy information ecosystem rather than as a censored or surveilled information space or based on a small number of platforms that function as walled gardens or exists as a field of data to be extracted and monetized primarily for artificial intelligence. So my key message today is good internet regulation should support proactively support flourishing information ecosystems marked by a diversity of sources and languages and retaining the means of all people to be part of a network public’s participating in the creation sharing and consumption of information and knowledge. A key element of healthy information ecosystems is information integrity. By this I mean not just controlling or removing the most harmful elements of disinformation in online spaces, but proactively supporting the trustworthiness of information sources, ensuring that users have meaningful agency over information environments and control over their data, and working for more inclusive and diverse participation in online spaces. We work on these issues in numerous ways, such as our Civic Media Observatory, which is a research project to investigate and decode how people understand information and create knowledge in complex information ecosystems. We work with local researchers who have deep knowledge of local context and subtext of information and narrative to explain how information functions in their societies, rather than looking just at factuality or just at data flows. And the example we have there is the Unfreedom Monitor, which is a two-year, 20-country study in networked authoritarianism, which explores how states use both technology and regulation to restrict expression and augment those restrictions through information operations and propaganda. Another example of what this looks like, Global Voices for the last 15 years has run a project called Rising Voices, which is dedicated to supporting marginalized communities to participate and create online with networks of mutual support and learning. We focus on the ability of minority and indigenous language communities to create their own information spaces as they see fit. We work, for example, with Mayan language communities across the Americas to use the internet for language preservation and revitalization. These images come from our annual, this is from our 2024 Mayan Language Summit, which is now an annual event held in Mayan. Very unusual that an event is actually run in Mayan as opposed to being a secondary language to build networks of support for the use of Mayan in online contexts. Thank you.

Nicole Manger: Thank you so much, Ivan. And now, moving from a global organization, we are now zooming in on one regional use case. So, I am very glad to welcome Fabros Deibel here on stage for ITS Rio. So, ITS Rio, it’s the Institute of Technology Rio, that is really working to represent and strengthen Brazil’s and Latin America’s voice in global discussions and conversations on technology governance and digital rights. And it is also a member of the DPI Safeguards Initiative with Fabro himself also being in the Digital Public Goods Alliance. So, Fabro, the floor is yours.

Fabro Steibel: Nicole, thank you very much and thank you Wikimedia for the invitation. I start with a fact. DPIs emerge earlier and faster in the Global South than in the Global North. This is what research shows and most likely this is because out of necessity. In the Global South, we need better technologies to spread and equalize wealth and power. So, when you look at DPIs from the Global South, you ask them why they cannot be DPGs, why you cannot open the digital public infrastructures for good. And this is what we bring as a civil society member of Brazil, also as an academic, as a member of the network of centers, and as a member of the DPGA alliance. So, openness in Brazil is no coincidence. In the 90s, people from civil society and academia, they penetrate the government, they enter the government, and they start to foster open culture from inside the government. Outside the government, the culture keeps open and now we have a strong ecosystem. And we come from this ecosystem. So, what we are doing with DPGA and what do you think we can contribute to this debate today? Number one, we need very good green DPIs. We need open green DPIs. Brazil has CAR, C-A-R, which is a brilliant digital public infrastructure that can be even more brilliant if we bring the openness idea to it. It’s open data, but it’s not really a DPG yet. So, bringing this idea can have, as Wikimedia has a community around it that makes use of this data, make new… So, we have a lot of data, and we have a lot of data, and we can use it to do new surveillance of this data, and then we can fight deforestation or land rights. Number two, information integrity. We had Pegabot, Bot Catcher, that is an open algorithm that used to identify in Twitter the use of bots for this information. We collaborated with journalists and others having that. And we have a lot of data, and we have a lot of data, and we can use it to identify bots, and also, someone got our algorithm and made Atrapabot, a version of it using Mozilla language back to identify bots in Colombia. And lastly, the last case we have is on civic participation. So, we love to use technology to make new ways for people to enjoy deliberating together. So, we have a lot of data, and we have a lot of data, and we can use it to identify bots, and we can use it to make voting for people to deliberate in a more meaningful way other than a majority always wins. And the case studies we have shows that we have young football teams that are using Cucurdamos to select the coach. And we did this in partnership with Taiwan, who has a brilliant captain as well. And we tried it for the human aspect of the environment and it has to be, you know, you can now interact with it, and makes the environment better. You can now interact with it, and then becomes part of the more harmonious ecosystem. And we see now the perspective that can not only open technology, but open technology thinking about the human aspect as well.

Nicole Manger: I talked to leveraging DPGs, you know, across different themes and topics. And I will now pass it over to our expert panel with Costanza moderating, and they will pick up on these success stories, but also look more deeply into potential challenges like funding mechanisms, governing structures, and also data AI literacy. And also really be informed by other existing successful initiatives Amandeep mentioned before, the DPI safeguards initiative, the Digital Public Goods Alliance, and also the OSPO for Good conference that was just hosted here in New York in July. So with that, I hand it over to Costanza and our esteemed panelists. Thank you.

Costanza Sciubba Caniglia: Let’s give a moment to our speakers to get seated. There’s, yes, a very, a very exciting panel. So we’re now going to move to the panel section of our event. I am honored to introduce some of the world-leading experts on the topic of digital public goods and digital governance. This past month and the months in front of us, as we all know, are critical times for the future of digital, global digital governance. And the global digital compact process, the pact of the future, WISE’s review, the high-level advisory board on artificial intelligence are all elements that are going to shape the future of our digital and physical world. One thing before we start that I want to say is this event is in many ways a follow-up event to a conversation that we started with Access Now during the CSW this year and before. So I just wanted to mention this and it’s great to be with Marianne today and with Access Now. But going to the panel, we wanted to have a moment here in the action day to reflect in particular on the transformative potential of digital public goods such as Wikipedia and others and digital public infrastructure and fostering sustainable development worldwide. Digital public goods, especially when grounded in robust digital commons, are essential for inclusive open, sustainable, and digital world and so we want to really encourage this multi-stakeholder partnership. As you can see, this panel has a really wide multi-stakeholder perspective and so we want to encourage this to promote and protect TPGs that truly are universal and reflect on how to best enable civil society and communities globally to have a voice in how technology is developed. So without further ado, I’ll pass it on to our panelists. Dr. Donahoe, I would like to start with you. Dr. Donahoe is the coordinator for digital freedom in the US Department of State’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy. So Dr. Donahoe, digital public goods and DPIs have been such a central topic of discussion in the negotiations around the Global Digital Compact and more in general in the discussion about how to rethink global internet governance. I know you’ve been working about a model of right-respecting DPI which is achieved through universal safeguards. Can you tell us more about this and how multilateral and multi-stakeholder effort to protect TPGs and DPI should be shaped?

Eileen Donahoe: Great. First, let me congratulate the organizers here. This is a really remarkable event and it’s a very good reflection of where the DPG-DPI conversation is in the world and it’s very notable that this subject is at the top of the agenda at the high-level week at UNGA. I’m gonna make a comment that’s just based on observing what we’ve already heard. I think what we observed is that the multi-stakeholder community is way ahead and actually building digital public goods and global commons and that’s been going on for decades and you can use the case of Wikimedia, Wikipedia as an example. I think we’re here at UNGA which is a state-centric event. It’s a multilateral led body and I think it is really fair to say that states are generally behind and just catching on to these concepts and also that states are generally much more focused on DPIs and just trying to get ahead around that subject. So, But I will note that, so I’m gonna talk a little about what I see in the multilateral space that’s good and also what the U.S. is focused on and universal safeguards. Basically, here at the U.N. and in the Global Digital Compact, everybody’s really still focusing on definitions and concepts. And I think we’ve gravitated around several core features which include open interoperable standards and specifications that include delivery of public and private services at scale that are ideally and we will be fighting for rights respecting by design and protection of fundamental freedoms embedded in the design. But all of this is intended to drive toward inclusion, development, acceleration of the SDGs. And I just have to say it is really a giant change in the global conversation. This has been central to the G20 under the leadership of Brazil and India. It’s been part of the G7. It’s been in multiple agencies at the U.N. and that is brand new. That has never happened before. So this is really a new topic for states. What I will emphasize for the United States in particular, there are two key parts and it’s a combination of concern and excitement. The concern is that yes, DPGs and DPI hold tremendous promise to accelerate development. And obviously that is the core rationale that states are latching onto it. People are yearning to be part of the digital transformation. There is not equity around the world in that regard. And that is the driving motivation, animating energy here. But what we all have to be careful of is the risks that come with this digitization of infrastructure. And I’m sure we’re gonna be hearing. that from access, but we in the United States are also really focused on risk, and we have embraced the work of the Office of the Tech Envoy and UNDP on universal safeguards because we think that in every instance when DPIs, DPGs, digital commons are built, you have to be thinking about the impact on citizens’ rights. And the core of those concerns relates to privacy, and I will also say obviously equal protection, non-discrimination, and also the risk of exclusion from basic services if you do not build in safeguards and just embrace the technology itself. This is ultimately about bringing democratic values into the digital future around the world, and if we fail to bring safeguards with the actual access to the technology, we will be failing our citizens. The second part I want to mention that we’re really excited about, though, and this is what I do believe civil society has been onto for years, is that technology itself is now a vehicle for governance innovation. It is the way that the governing world can catch up to the pace of technological change, and I think it’s very exciting, this idea that the design, development, and deployment of the technology becomes the vehicle for spreading values and for governing in a way that protects citizens. And so, for me, that is why I’m really actually very excited about the opportunity of DPI, that it’s not just about inclusion in the digital transformation. It is about bringing values. by design in the technology. And last point I want to make is I really want to applaud the Universal Safeguards Initiative that last year at UNGA, OSET, Amandeep himself, Robert Opp from UNDP, they were on the stage launching the Universal Safeguards Initiative. That has been a year-long process. We have been part of it. Foundational principle number one is do no harm and it is about protecting human rights by design and we really applaud that. But the key idea here is no developing country and citizens in developing countries should never be asked to exchange their human rights. They do not trade off their human rights for inclusion in the digital ecosystem or for to be part of the digital transformation. That’s not okay. Development and human rights are not intention.

Costanza Sciubba Caniglia: They must go together so. Thank you, thank you Dr. Donahoe, such an important message. I love your conclusive message especially. Now I would like to move to Mr. Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, Director General of NITDA Nigeria. So Mr. Abdullahi, digital public goods seem to be very important of course for social and economic development, also what we were just talking about, respectful of human rights. In your current position and as an expert on digital development, how do you see the role of government support for people to operate digital public goods and also to develop digital public goods? And before passing the floor to you, I just also want to mention Wikipedia has a very active community also of Wikimedians in Nigeria who work especially on multilingualism. So that’s also something that how do you think about those communities, not Wikipedia in particular, but in general communities that develop digital public goods in Nigeria?

Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi: Okay, thank you very much. First and foremost, I want to thank the organizers for inviting me and also for giving Africa opportunity to be part of this conversation. Because for me, digital technology is dramatically transforming our world, offering immense potential benefits for the well-being and advancement of humanity, our societies and our planets. And it also holds the promise of accelerating the achievement of sustainable development goals. This can only be achieved through international cooperation that close all digital gaps. Because we recognize those digital gaps are really posing challenge to countries, in particular developing countries who have so many challenges to solve but with limited resources. So I think we should focus on closing that gap because imagine a person sitting next to you never clicked a link, never sent an email and never experienced social media. So almost half of the world population are excluded from this digital transformation, especially in Africa. So we cannot be talking about digital public good without ensuring every person is included. Because if that person is excluded, the technology will not consider that person when making its decisions. So that’s why we are quite fascinated about this conversation on digital public good. And also, like it mentioned before, this DPI-DPG conversation started from the global south, where people are excluded. And we can see the passion about bringing everyone to be part of it. And in Nigeria also, the government is focused on achieving that. We are starting with the digital public infrastructure. We are laying the foundation. We are putting the legal framework in place and also ensuring that we have a robust digital identity, a robust payment system and data exchange platform. So we have two and we are lacking the data exchange platform. platform. Now the government is working on coming up with standard and ensuring that we have that data exchange platform. That will enable us to build the digital public goods when we have the strong DPI stack in place. But now we are having some in silos, like you mentioned about Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a very good example in Nigeria of DPI, where people, the communities around are creating the platform. And that ensure democratization of access to services as well as quality information, fact-checking. Because we should learn from social media, how it started, where it is controlled by few, and also it is for profit. That’s why you can see a lot of things are happening without the control of the countries. Like we came from a way whereby most of these big techs, they don’t even listen to developing countries. They do things based on developed countries’ laws and mission, vision, and so on. And also that is really affecting us in the developing countries. Because for them it is about profit, it’s about what they will make. Few people decide what you see, what you buy, and what you can even think, or who you can friend, what you can believe. But with DPG, it will be open for societies, communities, and societies to look at information, to ensure you have the right information in place, and ensure things are fact-checked before being in public. So in Nigeria we have other smaller ones apart from the Wikipedia, which they are open, but in a siloes form. We cannot call them like a big DPGs. Like for example, we have a platform called Budget, where people can go and check information about government budget, and also do a fact-check to provide information for people in communities to look at budget line item, where the project is supposed to be executed, and check to ensure if it is executed or not. So this also can help for good governance, and it will make things to be open and transparent. So I think it’s good to support this kind of initiatives as well. We also have the National Health Information System project, which is driven by government to make health record available for decision makers, for health service providers, and so on, so that they can have access to health record and citizens can easily get services. So for governments, when you talk about DPGs, government has critical role to play, because it is about democratizing access, and also it is it is about breaking all the experience we have with social media, where few people are controlling everything. So we need to break that unaccountable control over public digital infrastructure. So the DPG will provide that. So government needs to provide the legal framework, because everything you do, you need to have laws that will guide it. You need to have framework and governance in place. So government has the convening power to bring the civil society, the private organizations, and everyone on board to discuss on the governance framework, to discuss on inclusive connectivity and also to intervene to connect the unconnected. So we have so many initiatives we are doing on that. Like in Nigeria, almost about more than 40% of the citizens are excluded. So government is promoting connectivity. We launched the 9,000 kilometers fiber optics project where government want to connect the remote societies and underserved communities. In addition to that also, we have other initiatives around digital literacy. Because it is not just about connecting, but people need to be digitally literate to navigate around the digital platform as well. So we do a lot in training people in developing our digital fluency in the country. We are working with other partners like Ministry of Education. We are developing digital literacy and skills curriculum to infuse it into our formal education so that people will learn from schools. We are also having other projects that will build talent. Because also you need to build your proficiency in building these digital offerings. Because no country will rely on another for its digital offerings. We need people within the country that can build the communities and services. So these are things government is doing in addition to the legal framework like we are working on enacting a law on digital economy and e-governance in Nigeria which can help in promoting digital public infrastructure as well as digital public good. But also for me the most important is this kind of conversation so that developing countries and African countries should have voice on what we are doing globally. Thank you.

Costanza Sciubba Caniglia: Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Marianne, I would like to move on to you now to talk about especially how civil society is a critical stakeholder in global digital governance and for the development of digital public goods. Marianne Diaz-Hernandez is the YID campaigner at Access Now. She’s also a Venezuelan lawyer and digital rights activist and fiction writer. So as I mentioned earlier, this panel really is born as a second step of a conversation that we started together with Access Now a few months back. And so it’s great to continue this conversation and have so many more partners joining it as well. So I’m particularly interested to hear, how you think things have changed in them and what the role of civil society really should be as we move towards a new digital governance. You work extensively to make sure that all stakeholders have a perspective on digital public goods, including community development, digital public goods, and civil society agency. So what can you tell us about that?

Marianne Díaz Hernández: Thank you, Costanza. And thank you, everyone, for the privilege and the honor of your time and attention. Digital public goods, as well as the public infrastructure, which has also been mentioned a lot today on the upcoming days, I’m sure, have a profound need for community-led and community developed spaces where free speech and free assembly and civic life and dissent can thrive. And that requires the existence of spaces of total or partial anonymity and pseudonymity. And it is only possible to understand, design, and regulate these type of spaces through a multi-stakeholder lens, which is the only way that can ensure that the development and the governance of these digital commons remains transparent, inclusive, and responsive to a wide array of societal needs. DPGs are not only extremely important to society on their own standing, as the stories that were previously shared very clearly highlight, but also as the foundation for DPI, as Fabro was detailing, among others. Both of these assets need to be protected and nurtured to enable equitable access and to prevent monopolization or control by a select few. And this inclusivity ensures that the governance of digital spaces aligns with public interest and is the only way to protect them as open participatory environments that will encourage democratic engagement and free expression. And to go back to what Dr. Donahue was touching upon, when we focus on development above human rights, instead of understanding development as a tool to achieve human rights, we risk creating systems that have not been designed with human rights as a principle, but as an afterthought. We are then in need of a paradigm shift that allows us to understand that privacy, anonymity, free speech are not principles that are intentioned with the notion of development, but that have to be at the core of the design of the systems that are necessary to build the trust that the systems require in order to operate. There will be no development without these principles built into the systems that we create. So if we are to build and implement systems that are either created by the private sector, or by governments, or by any sort of hybrid model, the only way that we can make these systems accomplish what we want them to do, which is to support us in achieving the sustainable development goals, and ultimately achieving universal human rights, it is to build systems that are based in solid trust. And the construction of that trust cannot be taken by granted. It requires full and meaningful participation of society in a way that ensures and protects their agency in how to build, implement, and engage with technology. I believe then that civil society needs to work together and with other multi-stakeholders in articulating and putting forward the notion that what we require at this moment in time is a paradigm shift. We are not only speaking about enabling or defending human rights, or when these technologies are created, but about creating these technologies for a world that is built. with public in mind. Where public means built to benefit everyone by shared resources and managed by the community. And this does require a paradigm shift from a world view where resources are meant to be administered by specific actors in society. That model is not sustainable. It’s not participatory and it doesn’t help us in building strong democracies. Thank you.

Costanza Sciubba Caniglia: Thank you so much, Marianne. And now that we are talking about civil society participation, I would like to move on to you, Jimmy. Jimmy is, Jimmy Wales is the co-founder of Wikipedia, so it’s really an honor to introduce you. So you have the unique experience of having created one of the largest, most used digital public goods in the world, which is really a unique kind of experience. What have you learned about how people are able to come together and create and govern projects that serve the public interest? And what advice can you give to all stakeholders and why is it important to do it today?

Jimmy Wales: Great, thank you. And thank you to the organizers and everyone for making this happen. It’s a great event. Yeah, so I think one of the key elements in terms of advice and thinking about this has already been mentioned a couple of times today and that is values. The original vision for Wikipedia was for all of us to imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. And that’s what we’re doing at Wikipedia. And so every element of that is really, really important to us. When we say every single person on the planet, that means that we’re inherently global. We’re in many, many, many languages. And when I say the sum of all human knowledge, it means we care a lot about the quality of what we put out. It isn’t just sort of a giant random message. board we actually try to impart knowledge. This was 23 years ago when I started Wikipedia and it was just a handful of us typing away on the internet with very very limited software and very limited resources. But today Wikipedia is one of the top 10 most visited websites in the world. We have hundreds of millions of visitors every month from all around the world. We’re in over 300 languages, although of course some of those languages are quite small and just getting going. And for me that aspect of our work is one that I’m probably the most passionate about. I’m always very excited to think about the impact that we can have in bringing the ability for people to share knowledge in their own world, in their own community, in their own mother tongue. Some of the values that really carry us forward, we really care a lot about reliable sources. We have policies, for example, our well we have a lot of internal jargon. BLP policy, biography of living persons, which basically says if you see something negative in a biography it better have a source and if it doesn’t you should just remove it immediately and not just discuss what to do about it. Take it out and let’s discuss it then to say of course there’s going to be negative information. It needs to be really reliable and this can be contrasted with of course social media where people just write whatever they want and who knows maybe it’s fact-checked eventually or not. We try to be really really careful about that. One of our core community rules is no personal attacks. So obviously a lot of open spaces on the internet are just rife with personal attacks and that can be fine if it’s a political debate and discussion that often can be quite personal but it’s not right for us. We’re trying to write an encyclopedia. We’re a global movement in many many many different languages but everything in Wikipedia is locally written. Even as we move into an era of AI and I’m actually very excited about the really rapid increases that we’re seeing in the quality of machine translation and yet we have no concept or idea that we should just start wholesale translating Wikipedia into small languages because we know that it’s about that local cultural context. It’s about the local people. They will of course use these tools and it will… you know, finally accelerate that work so that we’re going to see really rapid growth in a lot of the languages that previously have been much more slower to grow. Really, Wikipedia, when we think about a digital public good, I think one of the paradigm cases that everyone should have in mind is Wikipedia. It’s a global resource used by almost everyone on the planet. We’re a non-profit organization. We’re community-built, community-driven. And when I see things in the Global Digital Compact that talk about protecting and supporting digital public goods, I’m very, very happy about this. Because too often, when policymakers are thinking about how to make decisions on public policy and the Internet, they’re really thinking about top-down social media platforms that I always say they run like feudal estates. All the people using it are like the serfs, but the master makes the rules from top down. Whereas we’re a community. We’re a bunch of people. All the rules of Wikipedia are made by the community. All of the decisions are made out in the community. The Wikimedia Foundation doesn’t engage in sort of constant moderation. Boy, the number of times people have complained to me, Wikipedia says this, Jimmy Wales is a communist. I’m like, well, first, I’m not a communist, and second, I didn’t write it. And there’s the sources, and there’s actually a debate, and you can get involved, and let’s have a discourse about human knowledge. So my call to action, really, for everyone is to, and to governments in particular, is let’s think about, as we’re doing public policy, let’s really begin to adopt what I would call the Wikipedia test. If you’re about to pass some rule, think about, is this going to wreck Wikipedia? And if it is, it might not be a great rule. And that might not be, you might want to step back and say, hold on a second, we do need to, oh, yes, clap, please, yes. We need to protect these open communities. So, thank you.

Costanza Sciubba Caniglia: Thank you so much. First one was for the Wikipedia test. Yes, thank you so much. And now I’d like to move to Professor Gasser, who is Professor of Public Policy Governance and Innovative Technology at the Technical University of Munich, TUM, who has been a great partner also in organizing this event, and also the Dean of the TUM School of Social Sciences. So, Professor Gasser, I’d like to move to you as an expert scholar representing academia and go back to the idea of digital commons as a necessary condition for the development of digital public goods. So, academia is also a big contributor to the digital commons. How do you see its role in this context and in improving shared access to knowledge and digital public goods in general?

Urs Gasser: Wonderful. Thank you so much for inviting also perspectives from academia. And, of course, it’s a great honor to be on this panel. And I would like to start right where Jimmy started as well with values. I think if you look at the values of academia, and Fabro set the stage beautifully, you see how this idea of public interest mission of academic organizations and the public interest-driven mindset of academics and academic community make academia a natural ally to the cause of digital public goods and the commons. So, I see a lot of resemblance and echoes to what you just described. I think Fabro already pointed out and alluded to the different functions that academic institutions and, more importantly, also the human beings in academia can play as we aim for more robust commons ecosystems. I just would like to maybe highlight three such roles. The first one is academia, academic networks and individuals as trusted creators of knowledge. If you look back over the past couple of decades, academics have been key contributors to building the digital commons by sharing data and knowledge about the world and doing so through open access publishing, among other things. The second role I would like to highlight is academia as an incubator and convener. Academic communities and values have been a key driver in incubating and launching digital public infrastructures. Just think back about the origins of the internet and the world wide web that were shaped by academic values and communities. But also as we’ve heard examples today, I hope I don’t reveal secrets, but global voices or creative commons and many more projects were closely linked to academic institutions and communities when they started. So you see the role of academia here again as we think about the creation of digital public infrastructures. And let me emphasize one point, what the beauty of it is, is that it’s happening in a distributed way, in a collaborative spirit, and that’s very powerful. The third role I would like to briefly highlight is that academia can not only contribute in these different forms substantively to the formation of digital commons and digital public goods. It can also study and assess what we can learn about digital commons as we go forward, about the society. societal impact about the relevance, we can assess whether we pass the Wikipedia test when new policies are rolled out. So academia can be a learning partner in our endeavors, can help to inform policymaking and good governance. So you see all together, and I just highlighted three rules, you see how academia should actually join the calls around this table and stakeholders for strong principles, policies, and practices that embrace the wealth of distributed academic networks so that together with the other stakeholders we can double down on our commitment to build strong and robust commons ecosystems for the future. Thank you very much.

Costanza Sciubba Caniglia: Thank you so much, and thank you to all of the panelists. I now I’m gonna move to the closing section of this event because we are already running a little over time, but thank you so much for for your participation. And now I would like to call back my co-moderator, Nicole. And for the closing remarks, Mr. Emran Mian, the Director General for Digital and Telecoms in the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Yes, please, Dr. Emran Mian, you have the floor.

Emran Mian: Thank you very much. Conscious of time, I’ll be very brief. Thank you very much for organizing this event. It’s been a real pleasure to listen to stakeholders across this community talk about DPGs and their contributions to them. There’s just two things I wanted to bring out as reflections. One is focusing on digital skills and the skills that people need both to create DPGs but also to enjoy DPGs. And this is a shared responsibility, I think, across the stakeholder community, businesses, civil society, and government. And the UK government, for our part, we’re very pleased of the way in which we’re able to work with partners in countries such as Indonesia, Kenya, and Nigeria to help people to acquire these digital skills. And there’s a lot more to do on that front. And then the second thing I just wanted to draw out was trust and safety. To continue to enjoy DPGs and for DPGs to continue to be created, people need to trust the digital technologies that they are using, and they need to be safe when they’re doing so. And again, for our part as a UK government, we’ve been really pleased to be part of a conversation on AI safety and to have initiated that at Bletchley Park with a UK-hosted safety summit last year. And it’s great to see the continuance of that in all kinds of ways, including a summit in Seoul earlier this year. And earlier this morning we were hearing from the French about their plans for an AI action summit early next year. And I know this is a real source of concern. sort of attention and action for the UN as well. I’ll stop there. Thank you.

Nicole Manger: Thank you so much. And I will now introduce Dr. Anna Christmann. She has multiple heads in innovation technology in the German ecosystem, as member of parliament, amongst others. I guess most people here in New York know her from her role in the Secretary General’s high-level advisory body on AI. Anna, the floor is yours.

Anna Christmann: Yeah, thank you so much. I’m very happy to be part of this panel. And just mentioning first that I’m very inspired by the panels that we just had. And I think it’s an important signal that this panel takes place today in the context of the Global Digital Compact. I think that is just a very important signal of the relevance of digital common goods for the society on a global scale and all the things that we heard about leaving no one behind, strengthening the multi-stakeholder approach, access for everyone and everywhere. I think these are just very important principles and it’s good that they are here in New York in the context of the summit of the future. And then maybe two very concrete points to the questions. What is the call to action that we heard for the future now, building on what we heard today. It was all the great examples also, of course, what we have already as common global digital comments. And I would say one is to really be active now in building this international ecosystem of the multi-stakeholder approach of all the people who are involved already in the open source community and everything around, but also bringing all the other stakeholders into this field. And we heard states might not be the leaders so far, but bringing them as very active actors into this ecosystem. So I would invite us all to really start new hands on initiatives and. projects to co-design frontier open data and also AI solutions and I think there are also links to the work that we did at the high-level advisory body and artificial intelligence at the UN and we have the report which is a lot about capacity building and openness and I think that really links a lot to what we heard today. And of course they are crucial is bringing the people together have the ecosystem have also the investments and the multi-stakeholder governance I think that would be important principles for that. And then maybe mentioning also one very concrete thing that we can do from here on is bringing as a question of DPGs across policy fields and there of course in the UN context as a question of climate policy is one obvious one so bringing this idea and discussions that we had today also to the context of the COP I think would be very valuable as well and I think if everyone is active like we are also in Germany just to mention this very short with with also different initiatives around digital sovereignty data institutes as we are just building if we get this ecosystem on the global scale I think there’s lots to win for all of us. Thank you.

Nicole Manger: Thank you so much and so I guess in light of the timing Constanze and I will just wrap up. So it was our intention here today to convene high-level speakers from UN member states the United Nations and especially academia and civil society really to discuss best practices and a common understanding and I guess just linking to what Dr. Anna Christmann has said we really invite all of you to join our conversations to kick-start projects to really enable this global solutions architects, ecosystem on developing DPGs together.

Costanza Sciubba Caniglia: Yes, yes, thank you. Thank you everyone, it was a fantastic conversation that I am sure will lead to many more conversations. So to be continued, thank you everyone for participating.

Agreement Points

Importance of DPGs and DPI for inclusive development

Speakers

Amandeep Gill

Fabro Steibel

Alicia Buenrostro Massieu

Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi

Arguments

DPGs and DPI are essential for inclusive, sustainable digital transformation

DPGs emerge faster in the Global South out of necessity

DPGs and DPI are critical for closing the digital divide

Governments need to provide legal frameworks and connectivity for DPGs

Summary

Multiple speakers emphasized the crucial role of digital public goods (DPGs) and digital public infrastructure (DPI) in promoting inclusive development, particularly in the Global South.

Multi-stakeholder approach in DPG development and governance

Speakers

Marianne Díaz Hernández

Urs Gasser

Jimmy Wales

Arguments

Civil society ensures DPGs remain transparent, inclusive and responsive to societal needs

Academia serves as creators, incubators and assessors of DPGs

Community-driven governance is key for successful DPGs like Wikipedia

Summary

Speakers agreed on the importance of involving multiple stakeholders, including civil society, academia, and community members, in the development and governance of DPGs.

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers emphasized the need to prioritize human rights and public interest in the development of digital technologies and infrastructure.

Speakers

Eileen Donahoe

Marianne Díaz Hernández

Arguments

DPGs and DPI need universal safeguards to protect human rights

Need for a paradigm shift to build technologies with the public in mind

Unexpected Consensus

Global South leadership in DPG development

Speakers

Fabro Steibel

Alicia Buenrostro Massieu

Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi

Arguments

DPGs emerge faster in the Global South out of necessity

DPGs and DPI are critical for closing the digital divide

Governments need to provide legal frameworks and connectivity for DPGs

Explanation

There was an unexpected consensus on the Global South’s leadership and innovation in DPG development, challenging the common perception of technological advancement being primarily driven by the Global North.

Overall Assessment

Summary

The main areas of agreement included the importance of DPGs and DPI for inclusive development, the need for multi-stakeholder involvement in DPG development and governance, and the recognition of human rights and public interest in digital technologies.

Consensus level

There was a high level of consensus among speakers on the fundamental importance and potential of DPGs and DPI. This strong agreement suggests a solid foundation for future collaborative efforts in developing and implementing DPGs globally, particularly in addressing development challenges in the Global South.

Disagreement Points

Role of government in DPG development

Speakers

Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi

Jimmy Wales

Arguments

Governments need to provide legal frameworks and connectivity for DPGs

Community-driven governance is key for successful DPGs like Wikipedia

Summary

While Abdullahi emphasizes the critical role of governments in creating an enabling environment for DPGs, Wales stresses the importance of community-driven governance. This represents a difference in perspective on the primary drivers of successful DPG development.

Overall Assessment

Summary

The main areas of disagreement revolve around the role of different stakeholders in DPG development and governance, as well as the approach to integrating human rights and public interest into DPG design.

Disagreement level

The level of disagreement among the speakers is relatively low. Most speakers agree on the importance of DPGs for global development and the need for inclusive, rights-respecting approaches. The differences mainly lie in the emphasis placed on various stakeholders’ roles and the specific strategies for implementation. These nuanced disagreements can actually be beneficial for developing a comprehensive approach to DPG development and governance, as they highlight different perspectives that need to be considered.

Partial Agreements

Both speakers agree on the importance of protecting human rights in the development of DPGs, but they differ in their approach. Donahoe advocates for universal safeguards, while Díaz Hernández calls for a more fundamental paradigm shift in how technologies are developed.

Speakers

Eileen Donahoe

Marianne Díaz Hernández

Arguments

DPGs and DPI need universal safeguards to protect human rights

Need for a paradigm shift to build technologies with the public in mind

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers emphasized the need to prioritize human rights and public interest in the development of digital technologies and infrastructure.

Speakers

Eileen Donahoe

Marianne Díaz Hernández

Arguments

DPGs and DPI need universal safeguards to protect human rights

Need for a paradigm shift to build technologies with the public in mind

Key Takeaways

Digital public goods (DPGs) and digital public infrastructure (DPI) are essential for inclusive, sustainable global digital transformation

DPGs and DPI require multi-stakeholder collaboration between governments, civil society, academia, and communities

Universal safeguards and human rights protections must be built into DPGs and DPI by design

Community-driven governance and local context are crucial for successful global DPGs like Wikipedia

The Global Digital Compact provides a new foundation for international action on DPGs and DPI

Resolutions and Action Items

Incorporate the ‘Wikipedia test’ when developing digital policies to ensure they don’t harm open community projects

Bring DPG discussions to other policy areas like climate change and COP negotiations

Start new hands-on initiatives to co-design frontier open data and AI solutions as DPGs

Build a global ecosystem and multi-stakeholder governance structures for DPGs

Unresolved Issues

How to balance rapid development of DPGs with ensuring robust human rights protections

Sustainable funding mechanisms for DPGs and open-source projects

How to improve data and AI literacy to enable wider participation in DPG development

Addressing potential risks and misuse of DPGs and open data

Suggested Compromises

Develop universal safeguards for DPIs that protect rights while enabling development

Use AI and machine translation to accelerate growth of smaller language Wikipedias while maintaining local community involvement

Well-governed commons are the foundations of human civilization. Digital is no exception, and today more than ever digital commons are vital to our interconnected world.

Speaker

Amandeep Gill

Reason

This comment frames digital commons as a fundamental part of modern civilization, elevating their importance.

Impact

It set the tone for the discussion by emphasizing the critical nature of digital commons in our interconnected world, encouraging participants to consider their broad societal impact.

DPIs emerge earlier and faster in the Global South than in the Global North. This is what research shows and most likely this is because out of necessity. In the Global South, we need better technologies to spread and equalize wealth and power.

Speaker

Fabro Steibel

Reason

This insight challenges the common assumption that technological innovation primarily comes from the Global North.

Impact

It shifted the conversation to consider the unique needs and contributions of the Global South in developing digital public infrastructure, broadening the global perspective of the discussion.

When we focus on development above human rights, instead of understanding development as a tool to achieve human rights, we risk creating systems that have not been designed with human rights as a principle, but as an afterthought.

Speaker

Marianne Díaz Hernández

Reason

This comment highlights a crucial tension between development and human rights in the context of digital technologies.

Impact

It deepened the conversation by emphasizing the need to prioritize human rights in the design and implementation of digital systems, encouraging a more nuanced approach to development.

If you’re about to pass some rule, think about, is this going to wreck Wikipedia? And if it is, it might not be a great rule.

Speaker

Jimmy Wales

Reason

This ‘Wikipedia test’ provides a simple yet powerful heuristic for evaluating digital policies.

Impact

It introduced a practical framework for policymakers to consider the impact of regulations on open, community-driven digital public goods, potentially influencing future policy discussions.

Academia can not only contribute in these different forms substantively to the formation of digital commons and digital public goods. It can also study and assess what we can learn about digital commons as we go forward, about the societal impact about the relevance, we can assess whether we pass the Wikipedia test when new policies are rolled out.

Speaker

Urs Gasser

Reason

This comment highlights the multifaceted role of academia in both creating and studying digital commons.

Impact

It expanded the discussion to include the importance of ongoing research and assessment in the development and governance of digital public goods, emphasizing a learning-oriented approach.

Overall Assessment

These key comments shaped the discussion by broadening its scope from a primarily Western and government-centric view to a more global, multi-stakeholder perspective. They emphasized the critical importance of digital commons in modern society, highlighted the unique contributions of the Global South, stressed the need to prioritize human rights in technological development, introduced practical frameworks for policy evaluation, and underscored the role of academia in both creating and studying digital public goods. This resulted in a rich, nuanced conversation that considered the complex interplay between technology, policy, human rights, and global development in the context of digital public goods.

How can we ensure digital public goods and infrastructure are designed with human rights as a core principle rather than an afterthought?

Speaker

Marianne Díaz Hernández

Explanation

This is important to ensure development of digital systems aligns with human rights and builds necessary trust.

How can we better enable civil society and communities globally to have a voice in how technology is developed?

Speaker

Costanza Sciubba Caniglia

Explanation

This is crucial for ensuring digital public goods reflect diverse needs and perspectives.

How can we apply the ‘Wikipedia test’ when developing new internet regulations and policies?

Speaker

Jimmy Wales

Explanation

This approach could help protect open communities and digital public goods when crafting new rules.

How can we strengthen the multi-stakeholder ecosystem for developing digital public goods?

Speaker

Anna Christmann

Explanation

Building a robust ecosystem with diverse stakeholders is key for advancing digital public goods.

How can we integrate digital public goods into climate policy discussions, such as at COP?

Speaker

Anna Christmann

Explanation

Bringing digital public goods into other policy areas could expand their impact and application.

How can we improve digital skills both for creating and using digital public goods?

Speaker

Emran Mian

Explanation

Enhancing digital skills is crucial for the development and adoption of digital public goods.

How can we ensure trust and safety in the creation and use of digital public goods?

Speaker

Emran Mian

Explanation

Trust and safety are fundamental for the continued creation and enjoyment of digital public goods.