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Yuki Tadobayashi

A significant disparity exists between the content taught within universities and the fundamental needs of industries, specifically concerning cybersecurity education. It has been observed, with certain negativity, that universities are becoming entrenched in outdated teaching methodologies. These institutions often prompt students to demonstrate individual brilliance and foster innovation. However, this approach might inadvertently impede teamwork – an integral ingredient for problem-solving in cybersecurity. Moreover, they put an undue emphasis on inventing new technologies, such as AI, instead of instructing students on their secure usage.

Conversely, it is laudable how industry training programmes in Japan effectively cater to the necessities of the rapidly evolving cyber landscape. With an annual budget of $20m, these programmes concentrate on the future of technology. They focus on providing practical education on secure applications of cutting-edge technologies such as cloud security and AI implementation, among others. An outstanding aspect of these programmes is their emphatic endorsement of teamwork, acknowledging the multidimensional nature of tech issues within corporate structures.

Parallelly, attention ought to be drawn towards the untapped potential within industries possessing notable digital aspects. Notwithstanding the escalating level of digitisation within factories, individuals within these workforces frequently fail to recognise potential opportunities to shift towards a career in cybersecurity. To address this issue, a myriad of industry-sponsored training programmes has been initiated in a bid to arm individuals with essential cybersecurity skills. These comprehensive programmes stretch across a year, operating from Monday to Friday, and cover an array of topics including programming, penetration testing, and defence exercises. Intriguingly, they also conduct business-oriented drills, involving briefings to Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), board members, accountants, and lawyers.

Conversely, the switch to a cybersecurity profession necessitates a substantial commitment of a year, considering the intricate nature of both technological adaptations and legal/regulatory developments. This has triggered a backlash from certain industrial contingents, leading to the suggestion that the demanding duration could potentially deter prospective aspirants.

Lastly, it’s worth considering the ‘security hub’ – a proposed global collaboration platform designed to bolster internet safety. Ideally, this hub should promote less strenuous participation, encouraging involvement across various scales. However, the success of such an endeavour would heavily rely on establishing a network of trust. This brings associated risk as malevolent entities could potential exploit this network, hence careful strategic planning alongside stringent safeguards are indispensable to its development.

To summarise, whilst academia must endeavour to bridge the gap with industrial necessities in cybersecurity education, industry-sponsored training and innovative propositions like the ‘security hub’ offer unique opportunities to enhance cybersecurity skills and facilitate global teamwork. Nevertheless, elements such as the duration of training and trust issues in a collaborative platform require thorough analysis to ensure sustained engagement in these initiatives.

Review and Edit: Look for any grammatical mistakes, issues with sentence structure, typographical errors, or omitted details and rectify them. Ensure that UK spelling and grammar are employed in the text, and correct the same if not. The comprehensive summary should reflect the primary analysis text as accurately as possible. When summarising, aim to incorporate as many long-tail keywords as feasible without compromising the quality of the summary.

Ismalia Jawara

Ismalia Jawara, serving as the chair of the cybersecurity group named Gambia Information Security, has ardently championed the causes of diversity and women’s inclusion in the cybersecurity workforce. This testifies to her dedication to ‘SDG 5: Gender Equality’ and ‘SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth’. Under her stewardship, educational initiatives such as bootcamps have enabled approximately 50 university students to graduate with vital competencies in the cybersecurity sector. The fact that fifteen out of twenty-five individuals holding IC2 cybersecurity certifications are women serves as a powerful testament to the strides taken towards women empowerment within this domain.

Moreover, Jawara advocates for increased cooperation across disparate levels, while also encouraging greater involvement from the global south. Her influential role as a senior security analyst for the Gambia government further allows her to foster partnerships and collaborations with the aim of equipping more people with cybersecurity skills. She explicitly acknowledges Cisco’s contributions in providing free cybersecurity scholarships to disadvantaged communities, a commendable step towards fulfilling ‘SDG 17: Partnership for the Goals’.

Despite these affirmative actions, there remain considerable hurdles in achieving gender equality and workforce diversity in the cybersecurity field. Societal constructs such as gendered toys can have subtle, yet profound, impacts on career choices from an early age. Furthermore, despite concerted recruitment efforts, the quantity of women entering the cybersecurity industry remains remarkably low, necessitating an exploration into underlying issues.

Businesses are now being urged to re-evaluate their practices and prioritise the induction of women in the cybersecurity terrain. Such a shift would not only adhere to ‘SDG 5: Gender Equality’, but also cultivate diversity in the corporate ecosystem. The current recruitment stratagems are often interpreted as intimidating, potentially discouraging prospective female recruits. The exceedingly high benchmarks set also compound entry barriers.

Thus, there is a clear demand for the re-examination and adaptation of recruitment strategies. Emphasising inclusivity in hiring, evidenced when a woman with a legal background performed well in the offered position, could be an enlightened approach. Lowering entry-level requisites may render positions less daunting and far more approachable, thus enticing a higher number of female applications. Such measures could significantly bolster not only workforce diversity and gender parity but also embellish the cybersecurity workforce with a broader selection of viewpoints.

Larry CEO of connect safely

Larry is the dedicated CEO of Connect Safely, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) situated in the heart of innovation—Silicon Valley. This NGO is earnestly committed to issues concerning child safety, privacy, and security for all stakeholders. Larry’s roles are not limited to his leadership at Connect Safely. He is also an influential member of the Youth Standing Group, where he steadfastly focuses on advocating similar protections.

There is a deep-rooted concern about the ever-expanding gap in the cybersecurity field. Despite technological advances, the human capacity to develop solutions is not evolving at the same pace as the escalating complexity of cybersecurity threats. This imbalance emphasises a pressing requirement for further focus in this sector to certify the security of our digital environments.

A notable element is the explicit relevance of diversity, creativity, critical thinking, and holistic cognition skills in tackling cybersecurity complications. It is recognised that a diverse workforce is better positioned to cater to a varied community. Importantly, the possession of holistic and critical thinking abilities, often neglected over technical capabilities, can lead to more effective troubleshooting strategies in this sector.

The active involvement and early exposure of high-school students to the realities of the cybersecurity domain are enthusiastically endorsed. With numerous opportunities available, young individuals could potentially transition directly into cybersecurity roles post-schooling. This practical experience not only guarantees a thorough understanding of cyber infrastructure functions, but it also equips them with valuable skills that supplement their theoretical knowledge.

The significance of real-world interaction, networking, and practical experience in accelerating learning is undeniable. Insights from informal exchanges and networking at events often offer learning experiences far beyond traditional classrooms, enabling an intensified understanding of the sphere.

Despite being known for its stress-inducing nature, cybersecurity is identified as a critical sector offering significant and important jobs. Adequate measures such as satisfactory compensation and clear career advancement options are deemed imperative to maintain a motivated and committed workforce.

These findings intricately link with several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, Good Health and Well-being, Quality Education, and Decent Work and Economic Growth. These observations act as a vital reminder of the interconnectedness of various socio-economic, and political aspects in our pursuit of a secure, just, and sustainable future.

Hikohiro Lin

Hikohiro Lin from PwC Japan has specialised in product security, with a special focus on manufacturers and IoT devices. His efforts align with the ‘Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), demonstrating a positive stance towards enhancing technological infrastructure. Furthermore, Lin actively advocates for strengthening ties with Japanese manufacturers, thus creating a platform for investment in product security and IoT devices.

In addition to his work with manufacturers, Lin emphasises the importance of quality education in the cybersecurity sector. He deems the collaboration between industry and educational institutions as pivotal in implementing robust cybersecurity training modules. He also underscores the value of experiential learning initiatives such as internships, hackathons and industry conferences in augmenting understanding of the industry landscape and fostering networking among cybersecurity aspirants, thus facilitating decent work and economic growth.

Despite his optimistic outlook, Lin addresses the issue of high job turnover in cybersecurity due to the stressful nature of the work, which often requires 24-hour incident response. Instead of merely increasing salaries as a temporary solution, he advocates for improving the quality of life within the sector. He suggests this could be achieved by providing better professional development opportunities, such as conference attendance and training courses, and promoting a more comfortable work environment.

As a vocal proponent of cybersecurity as a career, Lin describes it as an enjoyable, essential, challenging, and prestigious field, offering job security and constant novelty. He aims to dispel misconceptions and portray it as an attractive profession. He also engages in constructive discussions with high school students, positioning cybersecurity as an exciting career prospect.

In keeping with his belief in continuous development and growth, Lin urges organisations within the cybersecurity hub ecosystem to consider their contributions towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals. This sentiment implies an ongoing self-reflection and conversation on the societal and environmental impacts of the industry.

In summary, Hikohiro Lin’s discourse underlines the importance and potential of cybersecurity in today’s digital landscape, putting emphasis on education, improved working conditions, and its crucial role in attaining Sustainable Development Goals.

Maciej Groń

Maciej Groń expresses robust positivity towards the initiatives of hotlines and help lines, viewed as instrumental in contributing to good health, wellbeing, and fortifying peace, justice, and robust institutions. He recognises these platforms’ crucial role in offering support and guidance to individuals, thereby enhancing societal welfare.

Groń underscores the significant role of universities in achieving quality education and crafting strategic partnerships to achieve broader goals. His belief in co-operating with educational institutions is rooted in the innovative ideas and diverse perspectives emanating from the academic space. Groń sees such collaboration as pivotal in driving progress and achieving sustainable development goals.

He places extraordinary emphasis on cybersecurity awareness and education in our digital age. Groń shows positivity towards cybersecurity training programmes spearheaded by NASC, credited with educating thousands of individuals. Further milestones encompass establishing a cyber science centre and partnering with three universities, collectively working towards bolstering cybersecurity education. These initiatives are reported to have facilitated responsible digital interactions, thereby fostering decent work and economic growth.

Groń also highlights the necessity for international cooperation in cybersecurity. He suggests that such cooperation leads to mutual learning and shared resources, improving cybersecurity measures globally. Policymakers and cybersecurity professionals, according to Groń, must strive to foster international collaborations to combat evolving threats in the digital landscape.

Mirroring sentiments of comprehensive engagement, Groń advocates for strategic cooperation between private and public sectors. He imagines this fusion as a combination of educational efforts and business interests, promoting decent work opportunities and economic growth. He highlights a partnership platform created specifically for cybersecurity, underlining its potential for fostering public-private collaborations.

Groń acknowledges NASC’s positive contributions to establishing a robust national cybersecurity system in Poland. He commends their influential role in steering related legislation, providing informed opinions and recommendations. Notably, he mentions their effective co-operation with the chamber of lawyers, indicating increasingly synchronised work among varied legal entities.

In summary, Maciej Groń emphasises the importance of comprehensive efforts, incorporating diverse sectors, educational institutions, and legal entities to bolster cybersecurity learning, devise efficacious legislation, and construct robust cybersecurity infrastructures. His comments reflect the collective efforts required to navigate complex cybersecurity terrains, accentuating the significance of effective partnerships in accomplishing these goals.

Anna Rywczyńska

Anna Rywczyńska is noted for her legal undertakings at an international research institute, concentrating on aspects of law, research and multinational privacy. She boasts wide-ranging contacts within the multinational privacy and security resource sector, crucial to SDG 16, which encourages peace, justice and robust institutions. Furthermore, since 2006, Rywczyńska has held the significant position of coordinator at the Polish Internet Centre, demonstrating her extensive experience and knowledge in the realm of technology and internet, aligning with SDG 9 which encompasses Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.

Rywczyńska is a vocal advocate for educational reforms, particularly concerning cybersecurity. She maintains that cybersecurity education should be integrated into both primary and secondary school curricula. Her arguments are underpinned by her participation in a hub focussed on the creation of recommendations for school curricula adaptations to digital transformation. As part of her continued efforts, she retains a productive dialogue with schools to prepare educational materials, organise events, and provide consultation.

However, she also addresses concerns about Poland’s current education system. Rywczyńska highlights that 57% of teachers reportedly believe that the existing curriculum does not sufficiently adapt to the swift progress of technological advancement, with 30% conceding to a lack of awareness regarding complex internet usage among students. These figures support Rywczyńska’s sentiments about the impracticality of the school curriculum, highlighting obstacles including lack of time, unsuitability of the curriculum, and inadequate parental cooperation, obstructing the integration of media education in schools.

Educators, she points out, acknowledge the necessity to include digital competences from the early years of education. This is believed to effectively equip students with the required skills for a digital world, falling in line with SDG 4’s target of quality education for all.

Regarding career prospects in the cybersecurity field, the perception of it being akin to a ‘war zone’ incites negative sentiments. This impression may deter both males and females from entering the field. However, the diversity of competences required in the cybersecurity field is positively received, with the clarification that these skills are not exclusively related to the gaming arena.

Rywczyńska points out the prominent gender gap in IT, stating that more needs to be done to inspire young girls to consider a career in cybersecurity. Educating parents about opportunities in the field and encouraging their daughters to see cybersecurity as a viable career option are essential steps towards achieving gender equality, supporting the SDG 5 goals and ensuring robust economic growth under SDG 8. Unconscious biases often determine student interests, with boys usually opting for coding classes while girls prefer dance classes. As such, challenging these stereotypes forms part of the broader strategy in advancing gender equality in the field of cybersecurity.

Julia Piechna

The importance of involving young individuals in cybersecurity is an issue at the forefront of international discussions, given the ever-rising threats in the cyber domain. Specifically, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Poland has been integral in marketing this involvement. Affiliated with the esteemed United Nations, the IGF in Poland placed a special focus on youth engagement, highlighting the importance of their active participation in this crucial issue.

Tertiary education students’ perspective on cybersecurity is noteworthy, revealing a solid interest and propensity for the subject. Meetings were organised between March and June of 2023 that brought these students into discussions on topics such as cyber policy, internet governance, and human rights in the digital realm. Importantly, 15% of student respondents in the questionnaire had attended university cybersecurity courses, whilst a staggering 71% endorsed that cybersecurity training should be a mandatory part of their tertiary studies.

It is particularly interesting to note from the questionnaire that an emerging academic interest exists among the youth in fields such as artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity. This finding indicates an urgent need for high-quality education and training programmes in these sectors, especially considering that digital careers are expected to dominate the future job market.

However, such enthusiasm is somewhat cooled by a considerable sense of apprehension and concern about potential cyber attacks. Notably, 63% of questionnaire respondents expressed concern about this issue, with 99% pinpointing cybercrime and 97% data leaks as substantial cybersecurity threats.

Julia Piechna’s professional experience presents a compelling argument for incorporating cybersecurity and safety education into the earliest stages of curriculum design. She suggested moving away from traditional teaching methods in favour of more unconventional and engaging approaches. This innovative perspective aligns with the argument that educational methodologies need to adapt quickly to the rapid advancements in technology and the evolving dynamics of the industry.

In summing up, it is clear that equipping young individuals with the knowledge and tools to navigate the cyber domain is of utmost importance. Not only does it prepare them for the future job market, but it also instils a profound understanding of the seriousness of cyber threats. The shift towards more innovative educational methods, coupled with fostering youth participation in forums such as the IGF, offers a promising path for addressing the multifaceted challenges within cybersecurity.

Katarzyna Kaliszewicz

A comprehensive analysis underscores the critical importance of proactive online participant engagement in driving strategic development and policy decisions. This level of involvement was facilitated through digital platforms like menti.com, which engendered an interactive environment for individuals to articulate their opinions. Participants’ collective interaction was enabled using a QR code, and they were invited to join the platform through a shared code.

The necessity of formulating a well-defined strategic plan emerged as a primary area of concern, alongside the requirement for an enhanced online presence. Participants highlighted this through their feedback and prioritisation, demonstrating a strong need for an online platform delivering comprehensive training and workshops, syncing with adult education needs.

The feedback signalled that promoting collaboration among industry professionals, universities, and the cybersecurity workforce is the top priority. This viewpoint indicates a broad consensus on the need to foster partnerships and establish direct links between these sectors to drive innovation, catalyse skills development, and enhance industry-university engagement.

Another top priority identified across all educational levels is the enhancement of cybersecurity skills, underscoring the pivotal role of cybersecurity in contemporary life. This necessity of integrating cybersecurity training at all stages of the educational pathway, from primary school to professional development, has emerged as a core recommendation, aiming at a universally cyber-literate society.

Participants also emphasised the importance of harnessing best practice from the cybersecurity and tertiary sectors. This attention to fostering a culture of knowledge sharing and standardising effective, secure practices is essential for prioritising infrastructure and network security in the broader educational and industrial context.

Raising interest in the cybersecurity industry, both in academia and the vocational space, is another crucial recommendation from the analysis. The promotion of this field is pivotal in harnessing a diverse talent pool, given the escalating demand for cybersecurity professionals.

Significant interest was also voiced in providing online training on emerging topics via digital platforms, with leadership from industry experts. This exhibits the need to maintain a contemporary repository of knowledge and expertise and demonstrates the appeal of accessible, high-quality professional development.

These priorities are notably endorsed by Katarzyna Kaliszewicz, further reinforcing their relevance and signalling the strategic focus that these preferences propose.

The analysis also reveals a growing consensus around the need to have specialised cybersecurity roles within corporate organisations. This perspective is underpinned by the universal interaction with digital technology and data across industries. The comparison with workplace safety specialists, which are commonplace in organisations, substantiates this viewpoint. Especially in sectors like the medical industry, where the integration of digital tools is rapidly increasing, the need for cybersecurity specialisation is paramount.

Lastly, the analysis foresees an impending need for an increased number of trained cybersecurity professionals. A call to action is thereby made to augment and amplify cybersecurity training in anticipation of this demand, mitigating the risk of a significant talent deficit. Emphasising these specific priorities at the core of strategic decision making is imperative, given the ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape.

Wout de Natris

This discourse is centered around two UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – SDG 4 and SDG 9. SDG 4 seeks Quality Education, advocating lifelong learning opportunities, whilst SDG 9 promotes the development of resilient infrastructure and the nourishing of innovation. In this context, the discussion’s focus is on the practical implementation of cybersecurity and enhanced education.

The dialogue is informed by the International Society of Service Innovation Professionals, Cybersecurity, and Cybercrime Advisors (IS3C), a dynamic coalition within the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) system. This coalition has stressed the diligent efforts of its two working groups, each centring on a distinct facet of cybersecurity.

The first of these groups is set to produce a comprehensive report on the security design of the Internet of Things (IoT). As IoT devices multiply, their security has transformed into a critical focus. The second working group is targeting government procurement and supply chain management, two areas crucial for a secure digital economy. Additionally, the creation of a tool designed to assist governments procuring ICT securely is seen as a adjunctive value addition to bolster cybersecurity.

The discussion unfailingly identified the persistent gap in cyber security education: a gap showing no signs of reducing, thus posing a concerning hindrance to cybersecurity progress. In response, the formation of a cybersecurity hub has been suggested, tapping into the IGF’s vast potential for creating connections and educational opportunities.

Throughout the conversation, a positive sentiment prevailed, suggesting an optimistic outlook towards these proposed strategies aimed at enhancing cybersecurity and education. This positivity underlined the general consensus on the urgent need for pragmatically implementing the knowledge produced in these reports.

Joao Falcão

The cybersecurity sphere offers a myriad of opportunities and challenges. Success in this field requires a profound understanding of a variety of systems, especially in the industrial sector, as demonstrated by Joao Falcao’s visit to a factory. The task of quickly comprehending how different machines operate within a constrained timetable was a significant challenge, emphasising the need to grasp how systems should and should not operate to pinpoint potential security weak points.

Transitioning into the cybersecurity industry, especially for young people, can often be an isolating experience. Joao’s solitary journey of self-education, spent with his computer, encapsulates the daunting task facing newcomers. His struggles on an industrial cybersecurity course, due to his unfamiliarity with machinery and ‘space’, highlight the urgent necessity of practical experience to complement theoretical knowledge. Conversely, individuals switching careers can utilise their previous experience, an advantage often out of reach for those at the start of their careers.

Interestingly, a distinct shift has been observed in the demography of the cybersecurity field. Once mainly drawing the interest of the curious, the sector now predominantly attracts mature professionals. Joao observed that cybersecurity events, previously dominated by interested individuals, are now primarily attended by professionals, spurring the field’s evolution through peer sharing and community building.

Efforts must be significantly ramped up to provide a welcoming avenue for new entrants into the cybersecurity field, particularly the younger generation. Knowledge sharing initiatives and bridging the gap between theoretical understanding and practical, hands-on experience could encourage interest and foster growth in the industry.

Furthermore, company dynamics play a pivotal role in shaping the cybersecurity landscape. Small security-focused teams often shoulder the entire responsibility for company security, which can precipitate relational difficulties due to the imposition of necessary security measures. To mitigate this, a shift in company culture towards a more encompassing acceptance of cybersecurity is needed. A more distributed responsibility for cybersecurity across the entire workforce could promote this shift.

Media depictions of cybersecurity also wield considerable influence, shaping perceptions and fostering interest in the field. Films such as ‘Hackers’ and ‘War Games’ have inspired the ’80s generation. Lastly, a distinct gender gap exists in the cybersecurity realm, underscored by Joao’s failed attempts to hire a woman for an open position. This situation, where the post remained empty until a man filled the gap, illustrates the need for proactive action to improve gender diversity within the industry.

Audience

The discussion encompassed a broad scope of subjects, relating primarily to the domains of education, policy development, and cybersecurity. The principal argument articulated the intimate connection between education and diverse sectors such as policy formulation and cybersecurity. This overlap precipitates an intersectional understanding of these sectors and their importance within our swiftly evolving landscape. The sentiment throughout this discourse remained neutral, delineating an equilibrium in the interconnectedness of these sectors.

A formidable case was made regarding cybersecurity, distinguishing between the discrete entities of cyber-safety and cybersecurity. A former police officer with Europol experience vehemently embraced the interconnectedness of these two concepts. This assertion was fundamentally optimistic, alluding to the common significance of these two facets of digital safety.

The benefits of a well-rounded strategy addressing both aspects were emphasised, underpinned by the argument that a simultaneous addressal of cyber-safety and cybersecurity would optimise results for end users. This stance exhibited positivity, thus accentuating a forward-thinking projection for future cybersecurity strategies.

The discourse then transitioned to the issues faced by smaller island nations, suggesting indigenous cyber community groups as a solution to build and retain cyber skills. Convincing examples from the Samoa Information Technology Association and Tonga Women in ICT were presented, emphasising these groups’ crucial role in facilitating training, industry knowledge sharing, and networking. This viewpoint was positively empowering, fostering a sense of resilience within these small island nations.

The important balance between formal hubs and informal spaces for information sharing was highlighted, resonating with the consensus on the key connect between academia and the industry. This endorsement of both formal and informal information sharing fosters a unified and thorough approach towards cybersecurity.

The focus then shifted to policy formulation, featuring experiential insights from the EU policy cycle that bases its strategy on research findings was a prime exemplification of a research-based approach. The sentiment here was positive, grounded on the EU’s demonstrably effective strategic cycle.

However, a word of caution was raised regarding the necessity for policies to reflect the current online threats accurately. A negative sentiment percolated through during this point, attributable to anecdotal instances when irrelevant policies did not adequately address the evolving cyber threat landscape. The conclusion drawn from this analytical discourse underscored the critical need for adaptable policies that are responsive to the current realities of online threats. Taken together, the discussion offered significant insights into the intersecting nature of multiple sectors and emphasised the urgency for accurate policy creation in response to present cyber threats.

Raul Echeverria

In 2022, a disturbing trend was noted where almost 70% of companies in Latin America reported experiencing some form of cybersecurity problem. This painted a picture of inadequate preparedness for significant cybersecurity threats across the corporate landscape. Notably, the governments of Costa Rica and Colombia faced significant cyber attacks, further emphasising the gravity of the situation.

Interestingly, in challenging business times, companies often resort to cutting their security provisions in an attempt to save resources. However, this approach was questioned as these companies ended up losing millions in cyber attacks, predicaments that are not only costlier but also more disruptive and could have been effectively managed or even avoided with adequate security provisions in place.

On a positive note, awareness of the necessity for widespread, scalable solutions to enhance cybersecurity is increasing. More emphasis is being placed on robust, far-reaching education and training programmes to equip more professionals with essential cybersecurity skills. The adoption of these education and training initiatives are gradually increasing, with instances of new cybersecurity measures being implemented by companies increasing by approximately 10% per year.

However, this progress is overshadowed by the fact that cyber attacks continue to grow far more menacingly, increasing by a worrying 20%, thus pointing to a vast shortfall in the necessary measures. It is evident that current measures are failing to keep pace with the rapidly evolving threat landscape, with it being estimated that at least 200,000 professionals skilled in this sector are needed in Mexico alone to prevent such cyber intrudiations.

In response to these insights, a concerted effort among various stakeholders is being called for. The public sector, private enterprises, and academic institutions are all urged to collaborate to understand and subsequently tackle the cybersecurity challenge. This joint strategy advocates sector-wide implementation of educational programmes aiming to enlighten companies about latent cyber risks and how to prevent potential attacks.

Arguably, certain individuals within the industry have exhibited varying levels of commitment towards these challenges, exemplified by Raul Echeverria who appears not to prioritise cybersecurity as strongly as necessary. Nevertheless, this should not discourage the broader industry from setting appropriate and effective cyber defence strategies.

Additionally, it is suggested that existing corporate culture could also be remodelled. Companies are advised to adopt short-term hiring strategies, whilst simultaneously offering prospective employees a progressive growth plan which exposes them to various areas within the organisation. This would likely attract more professionals to the sector, effectively helping to bridge the existing skills gap.

In conclusion, collaboration involving the public sector, private enterprises, and academic institutions is crucial for the sector to remain secure and efficiently combat ongoing threats to their cyber infrastructure. While certain industry players have demonstrated lesser commitment, it is vital for all players to accord equal attention to these issues to not only thwart cyber attacks but also build a robust workforce for the future.

Denis Susar

The analysis underscores the paramount importance of areas such as e-government, digital skills, cybersecurity, digital harm, and ICTs in the journey towards accomplishing the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDGs 16 and 17, which focus on fostering peace, justice, strong institutions and partnerships for the goals, stand at the forefront of these conversations.

Firstly, a resounding call emerges to utilise a hub for capacity building in e-government, which would enhance digital competencies as well as cybersecurity consciousness amongst all 193 member nations. The success of this endeavour is believed to rely heavily on the level of digital literacy and awareness surrounding cybersecurity within the populace.

Secondly, a significant change in perception is presented, advocating the inclusion of digital harms as threats to peace and security. This shift in stance has been partly encouraged by a high-level advisory board’s recent recommendation to extend the definition of threats to include digital harms, thus acknowledging the evolving challenges of the digital age.

The need for cybersecurity within the public sector and ICTs is also given emphasis, with capacity building including engagements with local public officials, thus implying a comprehensive, grassroots approach to addressing these issues.

The report also addresses the vital importance of retaining skilled cybersecurity professionals within the industry. Citing job stress as a key factor causing specialists to leave, it articulates a clear need to establish methods to retain this invaluable talent.

At the heart of the discourse is the role of incentives in fostering a culture of cybersecurity. Large companies, such as Amazon, are highlighted as examples of stakeholders for whom cybersecurity breaches would prove catastrophic. This underlines the vital role that cybersecurity plays in maintaining the health of industries today.

Supporting this assertion are the forthcoming opportunities for global digital compact discussions, due to take place in 2024 and a review set for 2025. These discussions present significant stakes for industry players, policymakers, and cybersecurity professionals alike.

It further suggests that a well-developed cybersecurity hub would most likely be utilised by governments, implying that increasing the competency of such hubs could significantly strengthen national cybersecurity measures.

The need for engagement from the educational sector is also strongly emphasised. A call to break out of conventional silos supports cooperation beyond the IT sector, involving a myriad of sectors, including the motor, fashion, and food industries, amongst others. This integrated approach signals an inventive strategy and is backed by an expectation for more industry participants in the coming year, illustrating a desire for more diversity within cybersecurity dialogues.

Concluding on the note of Denis Susar’s exhortation for industries to “think out of the box”, it sets forth a challenge for industries to step up, collaborate more, and adopt innovative thinking in their quest for more effective cybersecurity solutions.

Janice Richardson

A notable gap exists between the skills fostered in cybersecurity education at universities and the capabilities required in the wider industry. Industry professionals attribute the absence of abilities such as comprehensive holistic thinking, effective communication, and diversity among recent graduates. The education sector recognises the importance of critical thinking, albeit the focus currently tilts heavier towards technical skills like coding and product-specific training.

Addressing this discord, the inception of a multifaceted ‘cybersecurity hub’ is proposed. This critical institution would stimulate synergy between industry, tertiary education, and the younger generation, extending its functions to an international level. Imagined as a nexus for fostering knowledge exchange, providing authentic educational resources, and nurturing understanding of industry-wide best practices – this hub is slated to play a key role in consolidating learning and progress within the cybersecurity arena.

Further insight suggests the essential requirement for the early induction of youngsters in comprehending the functionality of the internet and cybersecurity components. Many reports indicate that young professionals have a limited understanding of the internet’s mechanics, cloud security, and other basics. This finding highlights the necessity of a comprehensive educational base, enabling adaptability to the constantly shifting cybersecurity landscape.

A report citing as many as 67% of respondents from the business and industry sectors implied a deficiency in the transversal skills among cybersecurity graduates, further spotlighting the flaws in the existing education structure. Thus, this perceived insufficiency emphasises the need for the proposed cybersecurity hub.

In terms of diversity, a clarion call has been made for the cybersecurity field to encourage a higher female representation, fostering diversity and inclusivity in technical disciplines. Although explicit supporting facts are not provided, there’s a general positive consensus towards such measures, indicating their significance in catalysing industry growth.

Additionally, an audience speaker stressed the importance of incorporating real-world cases into the strategic planning for the hub, solidifying the requirement for practical applications within cybersecurity education. At the moment, the hub is still in its embryonic stage of development. However, key coordinators, including Janice, are actively seeking public feedback and suggestions, endorsing a collaborative and inclusive approach for this promising initiative. A shared understanding exists that open dialogue will propel the forward motion of the hub’s development, enhancing the strategic focus and operational effectiveness of this indispensable entity.

Anna Rywczyńska:
have general contacts of multinational privacy and security Resource and is operating under standard law under the international research institute that I am coordinated the Polish Internet Center since 2006.

Maciej Groń:
There’s also the hotline and the help line that we have. So I think it’s a good thing that we have the cooperation with the universities.

Hikohiro Lin :
Thank you. My name is Hikohiro Lin from the PwC Japan and my focus is product security, the manufacturers, IoT devices, security things, and I’m facing all the Japanese manufacturers and also hiring the students or something like that. Nice to see you guys.

Ismalia Jawara:
Thank you very much for having me. Thank you for having me. Thank you for having me. Hello, my name is Ismail, and I’m from the Gambia, you know, chair of the Gambia information security community and also work with the Gambia revenue authority.

Joao Falcão:
Hello, my name is Joao Falcão. I am Brazilian. I’m the vice chair of the youth standing group and I also work in cyber security

Janice Richardson:
and I’m also a member of the youth standing group and I’m also a member of the youth standing group. We can pass it along to the other side and introduce the rest of our speakers. We do have one speaker online. Is Emmanuel ready to introduce himself? Good afternoon, my name is Emmanuel, I’m the vice chair of the youth standing group and I’m also a member of the youth standing group. I go ahead while you wait for that.

Denis Susar:
My name is Denis Susar, I’m from the United Nations department of economic and social affairs. I mostly cover e-government and IGF in my work.

Julia Piechna:
Good afternoon, my name is Julia Piechna, I work at NASC in cyber

Larry CEO of connect safely:
security and I’m also a member of the youth standing group. Good afternoon, my name is Larry, I’m a member of the youth standing group and I’m also a member of the youth standing group. I’m a CEO of connect safely, an NGO based in Silicon Valley. We work in the areas of child safety and safety for all stakeholders as well as privacy and security. If you see me typing, I’m not checking my e-mail, I’m the rapporteur, so my job is to try to remember some of what people are saying and I’m also a member of the youth standing group and I’m also a member of the youth standing group.

Raul Echeverria:
Good afternoon, my name is Raul Echeverria, I’m the executive director of the Latin American Internet Association.

Yuki Tadobayashi:
This is Yuki Kadobayashi from science and technology, I also do cyber security education and research and I also lead some cyber security training program for industry.

Wout de Natris:
Yes, thank you, Janice. The IS3C is a dynamic coalition within the IGF system and we announce ourselves at the virtual IGF of 2020. We made sure that we had something to announce and we did it in a way that was a little bit different than what we did in the past. I think it’s better, I think. Thank you, Raul, because I have no clue if you can hear me or not. So in Poland, we introduced our plans and last year in Addis Ababa, our first report was presented which was made by Janice Richardson and her team on education and skills. We did that in a way that we didn’t have the resources to do it in a way that we didn’t have in the past. So we are really hitting our stride, more or less. What we are going to discuss today is that it’s very nice to have a digital report on a fairly obscure website called Internet Governance Forum, but how to actually make sure that it moves into practice. So we have a lot of work to do, but we have a lot of work to do, but we have a lot of work to do. So what Janice is going to present on today and we are going to discuss together today is an idea of a cyber security hub. That’s where I will start to work and not that part of my introduction and not to take anything away from Janice. But how do we actually start moving? We have a working group on security by design of the Internet of Things that will produce this report over two days’ time in our dynamic coalition session. We have a working group on procurement, on government procurement and supply chain management. How are those ideas going to be translated into actions so that governments start procuring ICT in a secure way and not in an insecure way? We have a tool that is going to be developed to help them with that so that they have a list of the most urgent and most important Internet standards and ICT best practices that they can start using when procuring. I will stop there. There are more working groups. One that is going to start, hopefully, is on emerging technologies. What we’re discussing today is the report we produced last year on tertiary cyber security education. And what we found is that the curricula, most universities and higher education schools do not match what industry demands from them, let alone what society as a whole demands from them. And this is a gap that needs to close. And it needs to close in a few different ways. Obviously, it’s the content of these education curricula. But what about facilitating a mid-career change for people who may want to start working in this area? How to close a lack of experts in gender and how to make it more attractive for youth to work in cyber security? And that is something that is being discussed for probably two decades, but the gap is not closing. And we have some ideas to close that gap, and that’s what we’re doing. And we’re working on that, and we’re working on that, and we’re working on that, and we’re working on that, and we’re working on that, and we’re working on that, and we’re working on that, and we’re working on that. And that is what we will be discussing today. But how to proceed? We think that it’s important to bring the right people together, to create the context where people can start discussing this on an equal level. And what better place to do that is the IGF. It’s the place where people can discuss at the same level, at the same amount of importance and equality. So how to bring these people together and get them out of their silos? How to make something work that so far seems to have been beyond reach? And how to motivate people to join? How to find funding for this important work that determines all of our future? And how to move forward with this? So we have a group of panelists. We have a group of panelists, and we have a group of panelists with insight, which is the company of Janice, and NOSC, who presented themselves as well at this table. We present the concept of the cybersecurity hub, a hub where cooperation starts and concepts are turned into actions, and capacity-building is developed and supported. In this session, you will be invited to share your views on the subject of cybersecurity, and what you think about cybersecurity, and what you think about the potential issues that could not be solved. So I wish you a fruitful discussion, and I certainly look forward to see your input online when I look at the session. So instead of being the moderator, I’m handing over the microphone now to Janice, who will take the rest of the

Janice Richardson:
session, and when I leave, you know why I have to excuse myself. So thank you very much, and I hope we have a very good session. So, Janice, thank you very much for being here, and I’m very pleased to be here. And after each speaker, you can, you can ask questions. We would like this to be an interactive session. I’m going to tell you a little bit about the study that we did in 2021. We managed to reach 66 countries. We began by 30 interviews from countries as far-flung as Australia, Canada, and Canada, and we got a very clear idea of what we were looking for in cybersecurity. Firstly, from people from industry and business who participated, we got a very clear idea of the profile of what they’re looking for in cybersecurity. Firstly, creativity. Of course, critical thinking. That’s top of everyone’s list. We got a very clear idea of what we were looking for in cybersecurity. We got a big complaint. Young people who leave university, who come to the workforce, are not holistic thinkers. They do have good communication skills. This is very important. They are insufficiently diverse. Women are not joining the workforce. Young people don’t seem to be very involved in the workforce. We got a clear picture from the people from education who participated. Yes, they agreed, critical thinking. They agreed in theory, but where are we in practice? They seem to place a lot of focus on coding, on learning about specific products, and I’m glad to see that many of us agree here. We got a very clear picture of what we were looking for in cybersecurity. We got a very clear picture of teaching young people how things function. Young people arrive, they do not really understand how the Internet works, what is the backbone of the Internet, how does cloud security work. All of these issues remain the gap, I would say, between what industry wants from people who join the workforce, and what industry wants from young people. Of course, we know what is happening. Companies are training their own young people, school leavers. This leaves us with a workforce who know today’s products, but they don’t have that very broad education base to permit them to adapt to all of the changes. We have a lot of young people who are learning, and we have a lot of young people who are learning with chat, GPT, BAD, and all the rest of the generative AI that is rearing its head everywhere. So, what is the cybersecurity hub that we are dreaming of? It will be a place where industry and tertiary education sector are present, and as an educator, I would say, it is a place where young people are present, because if we don’t learn how things function from a very early age, we are not going to jump in and learn when we reach our teens. We need authentic resources for young people to learn with, and this could be an area of exchange also. We need to understand the best practice. We need to understand the best practice for young people, and we need to understand the best practice for young people. How can we do it at an international level? As Walt said, who are the people who should be involved? How do we get them around the table? These are some of the questions that we are hoping to answer during this session, and we are hoping that you will participate now, but as we move forward, I would like to invite you to join me in asking the question, unless anyone has any immediate questions, by handing the floor to the team at NASC. NASC has been our partners way back since we actually created the InSafe, Safer Internet Network, Safer Internet Day, et cetera. Once again, they have been our partners in the report, in the study, and as we move forward. I would like to invite you to join me in asking the question, what is the experience in the field of NASC?

Maciej Groń:
Thank you very much. I think that we are one of the few stakeholders that are, who came to the global IGF straight from the local IGF. Just this Wednesday, we had our local IGF in Poland, and we had a lot of participants. We had a lot of participants in Warsaw. But I can boast that our IGF in Poland, there was almost 800 registered people, and first time, the youth IGF constituted the majority of participants, so it’s a big difference, but it was also a big part of the discussion in Poland, which we had about the importance and education, I will tell you just a few words about the NASC, because the NASC, which is a research institute connected to, who has connected Poland to the Internet over 30 years ago, and today, it is a register of Internet domains, but also, we are part of the National Cyber Security Institute, which is responsible for cyber security. We are in our national cyber security system, we are the computer security incident response team. We are responsible for cyber security in Poland, and we are responsible for cyber security in Poland. That’s why education and building awareness is for us very, very, very important. The last years, we have trained thousands of people. We have our so-called secure VIP training. We have our so-called secure VIP training. We have trained more than 3,000 people, individual and multi-person training. We have trained the members of parliaments, of government, ministers, independent authorities, like financial supervision commission and others. We have also started training in the health care centers. We also have a large influence on the legislation. We work out our opinions and recommendations to the ministries, especially the Ministry of Digital Affairs. We also have a large influence on the law enforcement. We are entering into increasingly better and closer cooperation with the chamber of lawyers, especially the attorneys at law and barristers. Also, from our point of view, this has been a big challenge. We have also established a cybersecurity center. Also, we have, two years ago, we have established a cyber science center. This is the coalition of three universities in Silesia. We also provide with them, we have also established a partnership for cybersecurity. This is the new platform when we meet people from the private sector and the public sector, and we still see that, you know, the cooperation between private and public sector, and especially, we want to combine, you know, the education sector and the business, private business. We deeply think that it’s very important for us to cooperate with the rest of the world, and that’s why we want to cooperate with the rest of the world. Thank you. and that’s why we think that the hub is something that is very important. Thank you.

Janice Richardson:
Thank you. If you could please pass the microphone to Julia. I’ll pass this one along. Julia is in charge of IGF Youth Poland and wants to look at this from the perspective of tertiary students. Julia.

Julia Piechna:
Yes, I would like to share with you with our experience with involving young people, tertiary education students. So since 2020, under the patronage of NASK, we, the Youth IGF Poland has been run as a part of international global IGF that is operated under United Nations. And the main goal of Youth IGF Poland is to create an open forum for exchange of experience and views among young people and experts from different fields and backgrounds. And one of our main objective is also to create, to establish a community of young professionals interested in new technology, in internet governance, while encouraging youth participation in national and international events. For example, IGF, global IGF, or our national Polish IGF that was initiated in 2016. And just a few days ago, like Maciek mentioned, we organized IGF Poland. And actually the IGF Youth was a very focal and very important part of the event agenda. And this is a case actually each year. Since 2016. And this year, inspired strongly by the research that Janice presented you, we decided to strengthen our force and activities addressed to reach young people even stronger. And also to involve universities, involve representatives of academia in our activities. Because these are two very important and vital target groups that should be addressed by talking about bridging cyber security skills gap. And so from March to June 2023, we organized seven meetings with tertiary education students at several Polish universities. The topics covered during these gatherings involved, for example, cyber policy, internet governance, and privacy, and human rights in digital realm. We also presented them opportunities available to join IGF Youth. And we also discussed and presented them the opportunities that are available in professions connected to new technologies. And what is also very important, we invited them for joining competition with a prize being attendance here in Kyoto. So today, we are delighted to have two competition winners with us, Alexandra and Jakub. And the last very important thing is the questionnaire that we prepared and invited young people to participate. And this survey is not meant to be a representative one, but it’s rather serve us as initial analysis of students’ attitudes and concerns in online security and career prospects. So I will just present you a few findings from this questionnaire. For example, the top career interest for young people is artificial intelligence and cyber security. And 15% of our respondents attended university cyber security courses while 21 participated in external cyber security trainings. Cyber security trainings, 71% believed that cyber security training during their studies should be mandatory. Also, they think that education about cyber security should be involved in all educational levels, even in pre-school. What is also important, they think that according to soft skills like teamwork, communication, were considered by 89% as crucial as technical skills. Also, they think that cyber crime, according to 99%, and data leaks, according to 97%, were identified as major cyber security threats. And 63% expressed concern about future cyber attacks. These are only selected findings, and 139 respondents went and participated in this questionnaire. Thank you.

Janice Richardson:
So if I can now turn to Anja, and some of you may be thinking, but where is this initial report? How can we see the results? Well, you can very easily go to the IS3C website, and there you can get the report in English and in Polish. Anja.

Anna Rywczyńska:
Yes, in my few minutes, I would like to relate very strongly to what Jenny said in the very beginning, that the cyber security competence as education is not actually the question only for tertiary education, but it’s also the responsibility of primary and secondary education. And I think we strongly believe that the idea of the hub, that one of the goals of the hub, would be also to create recommendations on adopting school curriculums to the digital transformation. And having at NASK Cyber Threat Prevention Department, and having Cypher Internet Center for over almost 20 years or 17 years, we are in a permanent dialogue with schools. We prepare educational materials for them. We organize events for them. We have youth panelists that we talk a lot, and consult all the situations. And I’m very interested how it is in your countries. I hope to learn a lot during this workshop, but in Poland, there is really a significant need to focus more on media education in schools. And lately, when we were recently, when we were preparing educational materials for schools, the school scenarios, we did the research with our teachers. We asked them what are their needs just to prepare those scenarios exactly, meeting their needs. And I would like to share with you a couple of results that we got from them, like asking them what they think about actual media education at schools, and especially in the fields of cybersecurity. And according to the majority of teachers, it was 57%, they said the existing curriculum is not adapted to the realities of technological development. Almost 30% believe that they don’t have sufficient knowledge, like the teachers don’t have sufficient knowledge, even to recognize if something is happening bad for children, like if there is any sign of a problematic usage of internet among students. 57% of teachers that we asked, they say that they have only like two lessons, like twice for 45 minutes a year to talk about cybersecurity and internet safety. And of course, they think it should be multiplied. Mostly, when they talk about the obstacles, why they don’t raise media education at schools, they say that there is a lack of time, like that the curriculum of schools is totally not adjusted to the need of coming future. They also consider a big problem, the lack of cooperation with parents and the general kids environment. So I think in Poland at the moment is happening a lot, like there are many, many very good changes, but we need a bigger focus to change the curriculum and all what they say was that we need to include digital competences since first years of education. That was what the teachers and the questionnaires were talking to us. So I think we will talk a lot also about this, primary and secondary education in fields of cybersecurity competences.

Janice Richardson:
Thank you, Enya. So we’ve looked at some of the necessities and from what age we should start integrating these into education. We’ve also looked at the local or the national level, Poland. Let’s jump now to the international level, the United Nations. And I’d like to ask Denis Souza to take the floor, please, and to tell us a little bit about how we can push for this cooperation at the international level and the multi-sector level. Thank you.

Denis Susar:
Thank you, Janice. First of all, I would like to start thanking the National Research Institute, NASK, IS3C, and also Janice to you for inviting us here. I think it’s a very good learning opportunity for us as well, like turning this theory into practice and what can actually do in action with governments, with other stakeholders in the field. I think this is a very good example and it has great potential. So while listening to the participants, I was thinking like where we can use this actually, in which area. And I prepared some like major cybersecurity related activities from the ground, but I think this group here is very familiar with what I’m going to say. So instead of that, one thing that comes to mind is in our division, we look at e-government, how 193 member states are using ICTs to deliver services as well as the most populous city in each country. We look at them and we do a lot of capacity building in the area of e-government, including with the local public officials. And cybersecurity, both from the supply side, from the government, but also from digital skill side, from the demand, like how people is aware of the issues, the threats. I think this hub could be a great resource for both sides. So I just want to put that on the table. Other than that, please stop me when I run out because I think I just want to highlight the main things from my notes. This group is familiar with the UNGGG, an open-ended working group, et cetera. But one of the things that may not be familiar is the Secretary General recently, in 2022, established a high-level advisory board on effective multilateralism. One of the significant recommendations from the board is expanding the definition of threats to peace and security to include digital harms. And then in their recommendation, they also call for greater capacity building. So this is, again, it fits there. But other than that, the Global Digital Compact, et cetera, these are all security part of it, but I will not go to those principles. I see that this group is more action-oriented. So I’ll stop here, and if I have any other ideas,

Janice Richardson:
I’ll come back. Thank you very much, Dennis. And I think it’s important that we do look at e-government also, because that’s where the necessity is, and governments are also doing their own capacity building, as we hear. We are now going to turn to industry, and we’re going to call on Professor Yuki Tadobayashi. Is it right? Here is the microphone, please. Let’s hear about it from your point of view. Thank you.

Yuki Tadobayashi:
So this is Yuki, and I work for a graduate school, and I have many PhD students here. Also, I have many trainees from industry. I run cyber security education program in university, as well as cyber security training program for industry. So I would like to very much resonate what Janice said in the beginning. There is a huge gap between what university is doing and what industry wants. But there is a valid reason for that. For instance, university needs to innovate. University wants to, for instance, invent AI, whereas industry needs to use AI. So there is huge gap, because if we, for instance, try to develop industry training program, we teach them how to use AI securely, versus in the university, we teach them how to invent AI, right? So there is black box versus white box thinking. So there is a huge contrast, and this is with valid reason, and there is a huge gap. But I know, because I know, I do both, I mean white box teaching as well as black box teaching. And the industry training program, for instance, in Japan, which is huge program, which is funded by MITI, and $20 million every year, it’s huge program, and we actually teach them how to use devices, how to use cloud security, for instance, how to implement zero trust, how to implement DX with security. And this is kind of multidisciplinary, like you need to, how to use cloud, how to use zero trust, how to use AI securely, how to implement IoT securely, versus in the university, you have to implement IoT security, for instance, secure coding, et cetera. So this is like two phase sets of different, same problem, right? And in the industry training program also, we invite them to do a good teamwork, work in a team, to solve the huge problem, because the problem is multifaceted, IoT, AI, robotics, cloud, in a huge corporate system. So you need to intrinsically teamwork for problem solving. But in the university, you must be first author of some paper, you must insist, I did something, right? So you must prove that I’m innovator, I’m excellent. So because of that, I cannot invite every student to do teamwork and graduate all alone, because of the credit requirements and the graduation requirements, et cetera. So I think the university system is a bit old from the cybersecurity perspective. So I stop here, and for further question, thank you.

Janice Richardson:
So it seems that really we have a dilemma here. How do we put together the black box and the white box without getting a gray area? I’m wondering, is Emmanuel online now? Right, well, you’re going to do the work now. If you can take out your mobile phones, can we let you lead us on this, Katrina? Yes, do you have a microphone? Yes. So you’re going to have a question. You’re going to have to think about the various options that we give you, which will come up on the board. But first, we need to tell you where you go with your mobile phone.

Katarzyna Kaliszewicz:
Okay, give me a second. I need to, I need help. You need help, okay. Yeah, I need help because I need to share my screen. Where should I click? Oh, probably somewhere here. Oh, it’s here. If you tell them where to go, they will. Oh, I’m good, I’m good. You’re good, okay, great. Okay, so yeah. So we are going to have two questions for you. Let’s start with the first one. Can you enlarge the QR code a little bit, maybe? Yeah, let’s do it full screen. Yeah, I’m going to. So you can join us by using the QR code or just going to menti.com and. putting in the code 67413964. So let’s go more slowly, menti.com. That’s right, and the code is 67413964. It’s also here at the bottom. It’s there, very large now, they can see it. Yeah. Are you online, do you have the question? Yes. Yeah, we have 13 people online. Super. So what we would like you to do is to prioritize. Very good, good job. Yeah, so you have to drag the answers from the most important for you to the least important. And our question is, what should be the key functions of the hub in order of priority? And of course, we are relying on your input here so that we can really see what you think should be the priorities. Okay, we are still waiting for answers. Don’t be shy, we have 19 people and eight answers only. How many now? 13. We want to give you time because we do want you to think about it. Exactly. It’s a very complex question. If you have finished doing it, I’m wondering, is there anyone who has a question that they would like to ask at this point? We’ve been throwing information at you, but we haven’t heard very much from you yet. Okay, I think we are ready. Okay, we’ll move on then to the next question immediately. There is a second question, and I will give you the microphone, Jaou. Okay, let’s go to the second question. Which practical steps should be prioritized to launch and build the hub? And please vote on the most important. I know that here on the screen it looks small, but if you look at it on your phone, it’s probably more visible, but we have defined a strategic plan like goals and objectives, secure funding and resources to establish and maintain the hub, create an online platform to deliver training, workshops, and so on, seek accreditation or recognition from relevant industry bodies or government agencies, and develop marketing and outreach strategies to raise awareness and attract partnerships. You can pick only one here, yes. We are picking the one which is, in your opinion, the most important. Jaou, you want to get it? Thank you. Well, I would like just to comment on our last question because about the necessity of bringing the cybersecurity, well, the companies closer to the students because, well, I have the experience of learning and the problems I had because most of the systems that we try to test the security are very expensive, very specific, very difficult to put your hands on. So connecting the people that want to learn with these kinds of resources definitely eases the learning process. Well, it makes it possible. Thank you, and I think that’s an extremely pertinent comment and it’s one thing we hope that we’ll manage to do with the hub. I think we have our answer. Please tell us, what is the priority according to the people here? The priority is to define the strategic plan. So first we are going with goals, objectives, of course, long-term vision of the hub. This is the most important for 12 people. And then I think a good one is also create an online platform to deliver training workshops and networking opportunities.

Janice Richardson:
Great, and that’s really something that came up with the students, the PhD students that we were working with on the interviews and the survey. Samoa, for example, Nepal, both said there is no opportunity in our country to actually do this type of training. We are now going to move on to our speakers. As Dr. Emmanuelle is not online, I’m going to ask now, Raul Echiberria, if we could please hear from you.

Raul Echeverria:
Thank you very much. I was asked to speak about how prepared are the companies, private companies in Latin America. But let me provide some context. I think that’s everything that has been said here is applied to the whole world, I think. It’s not a regional issue. But in 2022, according to a study that was disseminated broadly in the region, almost 70% of the companies, different kind of companies, declared to have had some kind of security problems in the region. It was, unfortunately, we don’t have monthly studies, but to see how those issues are evolving. But everybody could see this year, just in the press, very big events, big security incidents in the regions, both the public and private sector. And two governments face a very big security problem. Two governments face serious attacks, Costa Rica and Colombia. In the case of Costa Rica, the government was really, it’s in difficult conditions to continue working in several areas. And the case of Colombia was very recent. But also, private companies have been in the press, even in dedicated areas, like law firms, very famous law firms that have been attacked and all the information of their customers have been compromised. And we don’t want to know what kind of information they had. So the point is that companies are becoming more concerned about this, what is good. They say in every survey, the companies seem to be more conscious about the risks and to consider the security risks as important issues. But the point is that it is not reflected at the time of allocating resources. And when in difficult times, as we faced the last couple of years, it was demonstrated by some studies that security is one of the areas where the resources were cut first. So there is a, at the end of the day, it seems that it means that they don’t understand really the risk that they are facing until they have a problem. Like usually the problems are in the form of RAT attacks and the access to information block and the criminals ask for randoms to ransom, sorry, to free the access to information. And in those cases, companies in average are losing a few millions, three, four millions in the for attack that is that they could have spent less money in trying to prevent those situations. I think that there is a need of massive programs. And I think that it is very interesting what we are discussing here about the skills and human resources because this is a problem. I have read in the news and in Mexico, the study says that only in Mexico, there is a need of 200,000 people to work in this area. Well, this really is an impressive number. But so we need to implement some scalable solutions and massive programs. It’s not enough that some with public resources, we support the companies to implement or try to educate, we need to do something massive. It is very interesting that the number of companies that say that they are adopting new measures is increasing approximately 10% per year, but the tax are increasing in 20%. So we will not win this battle in this. One of my hats is that I belong to the Uruguayan chapter of Internet Society. And we started to work with the Global Civil Alliance to disseminate some measures for SMEs. I think that this is something that could be done, one of the things, but we should try to find for solutions that are scalable, as I say before, and try to reach much more bigger audiences than we are doing now. Thank you.

Janice Richardson:
Thank you, sir. Here, I think a few important points came up that who are we talking about when we talk about the cybersecurity industry? Well, in fact, we all have to be cybersecure. The farmers, the trades, everyone needs this cybersecurity. The second thing I think of specific interest, a tax increasing by 20%, but resource allocation increasing by 10. So we are not going to get along very far if this situation continues. Our next speaker, I think, is going to tell us more about the expectations of the private sector, if I’m correct. And I’m going to pass the floor to Hiko, who works here in Japan. Over to you, Hiko.

Hikohiro Lin :
All right, thank you. I’m Hiko. I’d like to share something that graduates have to finish the school and join the companies. And currently, I’m working in the PWC, do the consulting for the cybersecurity for all the industries. So we are also hiring those people. And before that, before PWC, I was working for the Panasonic 18 years. So I was the interviewer for those grads, more than hundreds people. And what I think about, what I’d like to share is, well, those graduates, they have very plenty basic good knowledge for the cybersecurity, which means that it’s all pass, very good, very good. And why? Because I think maybe in Japan, we collaborate with those university, like Professor Katowice, and we go to all the university school to meet the professors and introduce those students. What we are doing, for example, what we are doing for the cybersecurity for the Panasonic or the PWC, we explain those people and let them understand what we are doing so that maybe make them interesting. And so we communicate, not the student, to communicate with the university, the academia, industry. It’s the very important things for the kids, I mean, not the kids, graduates. So I think this is the one good idea. And also, we are very encouraged the internship as well, for the not payment, not pay on we pay, but still, if those people are very interesting about to do something internship, we always open to let them work, to feel like what they are doing so that maybe they have some imagine for the cybersecurity job. So this is also important. So it’s make more opportunities, chance to give them. And also, what we can done to have more specialists that meet the business needs. I think this is a very interesting story. Three months ago, in Japan, there is one high school, major in technical high school, with the cybersecurity companies together, trying to do the workshop for the hacking the ship. The maritime, yes. With the real operation one for the ship, with the student and cybersecurity companies together, trying to attack and defense exercise for them. And I think it’s so very exciting. You can use the ship and trying to attack and feel like what they are doing. And so those high school students, very exciting, maybe we can do some maritime cybersecurity job in the future. So we need to give them some experience, real experience, which is very important. And also, usually the corporation doing some cybersecurity conference sponsor. So we also invite those students for free. You know, sometimes the cybersecurity conference is very expensive, right? 1,000 USD or 500 USD, I’m not sure, but I think it’s very expensive. But we get them for free to join. And of course, maybe let them do some brand here to do some small job, but let them also introduce those cybersecurity people, introduce them so that they can make the connection and maybe you can help support their future. I think I’m gonna stop right now, okay? Thank you so much. But I have a question for you because the cybersecurity industry or what we learned from the research is that they’re really looking for a very diverse workforce. They need the younger, the older, the males, the females. It seems to me that you’re talking about students. Do you have any great ideas to help along these mid-career shifts? How can we get a more diverse population involved? Do you have any ideas on that? You mean the mid-career shift? I mean, does that mean that once they work for different job, I’m trying to jump into the cybersecurity? Yes. Oh, okay. Well, I think this is a very important thing. Yes, actually, some people are not very good as software engineer or don’t know about the cybersecurity, but they’re trying to jump in to the cybersecurity job to carry a change. We also accept those people because I think the cybersecurity, they have very different point of view. I mean, they have the engineering technical and also the governance or regulation. And I think cybersecurity have many job involved. So I think I’m very encouraging those people to jump in. And if you need some training, we’re willing to support them and to let them make some different career for the cybersecurity. Yes, we do that.

Janice Richardson:
Okay, because it seems to me that a lot of people in their career aren’t aware that in fact they could do this switch. I think that you have something to say here. Yes, please do.

Yuki Tadobayashi:
Yeah, for such kind of a career change, actually, industry needs it, not the employee needs it. Because maybe they are, you know, have been working for factory for 10 years, but they’re not aware about the company needs cybersecurity people in factory because factory is becoming more digitized. And because of that, we have industry sponsored training program where a company chooses those nominees, not the individuals. And they send us the trainees to the one-year program. So it’s huge one-year program, right? Full-time one year from nine to five every day from Monday to Friday. They come to our facility and study and do cyber exercise, programming, penetration testing, defense exercises, everything from like July to August. July to June, it’s whole one year. And they do a lot of teamwork, and they do a lot of presentations. They do a lot of simulated exercises like briefing to CISOs, briefing to the boards, briefing to accountants, reporting to the lawyers. And lots of those business oriented exercises. So it’s one year program, it’s huge. But we have a lot of alumni by now, like more than 350 alumni. And everyone say, I was new to IT, but after finishing this program, I’m actually a cyber security specialist, and being able to defend the company. I’m very proud of it. But this requires one year. And there is huge industry backlash against management saying, do you actually require one year? But from our experience, this kind of cyber security training needs one year because of those huge technology stack and lots of regulatory and legal developments like standards and regulatory developments and lawsuit and case laws. And every complexity has to be taken into account in business context. So this requires a huge amount of time. But with this one year investment, one person can change from some person like lawyer or salesperson to cyber security professional. We have many, many living examples in Japan. Thank you.

Janice Richardson:
So that does seem a very interesting, good practice that other countries could benefit from. I’m going to pass the floor now to our youth. Joe, I’m sorry, I have a lot of trouble with your name. Can you please remind us where you come from and tell us your point of view on this?

Joao Falcão:
Hello, thank you, Janice. I think the best way to start talking right now is actually telling a story that happened to me last month. I was visiting a factory and as a cyber security specialist, I need to understand, to really understand what these factories work, how they work. And I sat with them and spent a couple of hours asking everything, how each one of the machines worked. And I said to the person, okay, well, we have two weeks for me to understand everything and point your errors. So the person looked to me and said, okay, so you are a generalist specialist. Yes, so to me, this shows the most difficult part of cyber security, which is that you need to have a transversal knowledge. You need to deeply understand how these machines work to know what they shouldn’t do. And this makes a huge barrier. So when we have people like pivoting their careers, you can take advantage of the knowing the sites, the factories. But when you are bringing young participants, you don’t have this advantage. So the person needs to learn all of it. And this is incredibly difficult. Like, I had the opportunity to sign up for a course on industrial security. And the first task was, okay, tell me more about the space you work for, because we are going to work on it. And I said, what? Space? Machines, I don’t have any experience with these machines. And the person said, oh, okay. And this became a major issue to me. So being a young person entering on this subject in the beginning was actually a very lonely task, because it was just only you and your computer learning how to work with these systems and how to exploit their vulnerabilities. And at least I am seeing a strong shift now. Like, when I used to go to security events, most of the people were just curious. And now they work in the field. And these experience shares really evolves the field, really evolves the community around it. But we really need to make closer the persons coming to this new field that have almost none prior knowledge, because, well, we know the basics of how to program, how to operate some machines. But this deep knowledge that you get from the experience of running it, we will not have. And this is a great barrier for us. Thank you.

Janice Richardson:
So you’re really underlining the importance of transversal knowledge. And yet in our report, 67% of people who responded from the business and industry sector consider that the cyber security graduates have insufficient capacity of transversal skills. So it’s really something that they picked up on. Ismalia is from Gambia. Where is Ismalia? Oh, sorry. Over to you. And I think that you’re going to tell us a little bit about how you think we can diversify the cyber security workforce and encourage more women into it.

Ismalia Jawara:
Of course. My name is Ismalia Jawara. And I am from the Gambia, West Africa. Small country, but a little over 2 million people, population. And I am the chair of a cyber security community called Gambia Information Security. And I also work as a security analyst, senior security analyst for the Gambia government. And I will share the same similar story as my brother here. I am from a developing country and a country where cyber security education is not offered in any university or college. And it’s literally impossible for someone to be encouraged to pursue a career in cyber security. And I stumbled upon it through one of my mentors, a peace cop, a US citizen, who was in the Gambia, actually on a boot camp. And being a curious guy, I always was with computers. And for some reason, which I regret, I had the computer network. And it was very, very serious, a little bit. And then she brought me in, mentored me. This was back in 2014, 2015. And this is where I kickstarted my cyber security career first, gave me some online courses. Now fast forward to 2019, when I started working for the Gambia government as a security analyst, first cyber security officer in that revenue authority, I realized over the years that women and youth are really interested in the industry, especially Africa in general. And this, obviously, looking at the skill gap and also the resources that are needed at the global level, cyber security expertise needed at the global level could be an opportunity for African governments to get youth into these industries, which is actually going to address youth unemployment at some point. So I started the community, Gambia Information Security Community, to see how best we can involve the academia and also the government and the youth leading that discourse and the initiative, organizing boot camps and cyber security education programs. And through our process, we were able to graduate about 50 university students. And this, obviously, there is this notion, as she mentioned, that many people think cyber security is an IT business or technical job. And that cross-cutting from moving from legal to cyber security, HR to cyber security, you will be surprised. When we first went to the Gambia University, University of the Gambia, we conducted a research to ask participants from cross-cutting departments, not just computer science, but also development studies students. You have the sciences, the legal department. And you will see almost 80% of the participants that actually show huge interest in cyber security are not more from the computer science department. Many of them want to become developers from the computer science department. They want to develop AI and some other programs. Then you see the legal department, GRC in place. They want to get into the industry. So what we did was the Tango to Cisco. And we have to give kudos to Cisco and the IC2 certification. I see it’s quite recently. They have actually done a great job recently by providing free cyber security scholarship for underprivileged communities and those that want to get into the industry. And we use that opportunity to train over 100 youth in getting this program. And I am really happy that we have 25 people that have done the IC2 certification. And obviously, out of these 25, 15 of them are, of course, female, women, and 10 male. And then they all get their cyber security certification that is IC2 initial certification. So literally, this is what I have to say. And then I also encourage collaboration and participating from a different level. When it comes to internationally, to involve the global south in these processes as well.

Janice Richardson:
So interesting, because the young people that we talked with during the research told us there was simply not enough online courses, not enough ways to access the cyber security sector. I’m wondering, how many people here, in all, raise your hand if you’re looking at cyber security from the point of view of industry, if your background or your workplace is industry. Please raise your hand so we can see who we are talking to. Industry? One hand. A big one. Yes, please, go ahead. Yes.

Raul Echeverria:
But people like, in my situation, for example, I’m not dedicated 100% to this topic. So it’s one of the things that I, so it’s less, this is why I don’t raise my hand.

Janice Richardson:
Well, does that mean that everyone in the room is more or less working in the education sector? Raise your hand if you consider that you are working in the education sector. There are some hands that weren’t raised, and I’m just wondering, which sector do you represent? Yes. Actually, I have a bit of a difficulty. Microphone.

Audience:
Thank you. Actually, I had a bit of difficulty to raise my hand because I’m half and half between education, because it’s hard to define, whereas either you provide some guidance or knowledge or you inspire policy or you educate as such. So I think there is an overlap between these two areas directly. Can you please tell us a little about yourself? What is your profile? My profile is, actually, I’m a former police officer. I used to work at Europol. And obviously, we are looking at cybersecurity from a bit different angle. But to this discussion, I think that this profile is especially of interest, because for us, police officers, there is no barrier between cybersecurity and cyber safety. And I think this is a dilemma here, that we should never look at either of each, but at both at the same time. Because whenever you take a perspective of a victim, it doesn’t matter, really. So I would appeal here that whatever is planned as far as the strategy is concerned, let’s address both. Because in the end, it will not matter to the end user or to the end victim. That’s the perspective of law enforcement, at least. Thank you.

Janice Richardson:
Thank you. And that is really interesting, because I think almost everyone here is involved in safety almost as much as the security. And you’ll remember that here we are, internet standards, safety, and security. But thank you for reminding us. I’m wondering, from those people that we haven’t heard from yet, do you have any really great examples, some good practice from your country that you think that we could all learn from and that it would help us as we go forward in building the cyber hub? Is there anyone who’d like to take the microphone and tell us about good practice in their country to add to what we’ve learned here so far? No? Would you like to take the microphone and tell us your point of view, anyone? Yes, take it around. No one? I’m sorry. I didn’t know there were people behind us.

Audience:
Thanks so much. I’m Clay from FIRST, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams. My previous job was working with the Pacific. And I think you mentioned Samoa earlier. So I can use an example from Samoa. But it’s an example that you can see in Tonga, Solomons, PNG, and across the Pacific. Obviously, being small island countries, they have a lot of challenges with retaining and building cyber skills, just like the rest of us, but almost more amplified just due to the size of the countries. And one of the most effective ways that we’ve seen to build a more sustainable cyber skill community is through organic cyber community groups, potentially like what you’ve been working on. So in Samoa, a few years ago, a bunch of folks came together just over breakfast and created something called Samoa Information Technology Association. This creates a space for training to occur, not just from external donors coming in and delivering training, but training between professionals within Samoa. It creates an informal space for industry knowledge to be shared, so similar to what happens in network operator groups, so very much an informal place to talk shop. For what we’ve seen, this space creates kind of that missing gap that folks were mentioning between the academic side and the industry side, because it’s where newcomers to the field can talk, and meet, and network, and learn lessons directly from current active operational experts. So yeah, Samoa Information Technology Association, you have Tonga Women in ICT. Again, that was just started over coffee at a coffee shop. So while hubs are really, really great, I think it’s really important to leave that space for informal information sharing as well, not just formal trainings and things like that.

Janice Richardson:
And that really is, I think, a very interesting idea, training each other, and this idea of community, which you mentioned. Is there anyone else who would like to tell us a little bit about good practice, something that they’ve been involved in, they think really made a difference, and we could take it on board? As we move off with this hub. Yes, please, take the floor again.

Audience:
I hope it will be useful. My experience originates from the EU policy cycle. So it very much helps as far as the strategy is concerned. We used to base, when I was working at the EU agency, we used to base our strategy on findings of the research. So first, as you’ve mentioned, the report is obviously very useful. But it’s necessary also to look at what is current experience and what are the threats of online threats. As you said, there is a nice bridge between practitioners and the learners. So it’s also. It’s always very important to look at the real cases and investigate them, research them, and then plan accordingly the research cycle or the policy cycle. Because I have also witnessed facts and instances when policy was not relevant to what’s happening online, for example, when there was a big gap and strategy was prepared in silos. This is the worst case scenario. So as far as EU policy cycle came into force, maybe this will be a useful good practice for this forum as well. Thank you.

Janice Richardson:
Yeah, I do think that’s extremely interesting. Because one of the first things that we were thinking of doing with the hub was going into universities, perhaps with a survey or beginning by interviews, to understand how cybersecurity is being taught. But what you’re telling us is that we should also be looking at the cases. And so our hub should have an easy mode of recording cases so that we can really link the two. Are there any other ideas? Because we’re really starting out now. We’re, over the next days, pushing forward to see how we’re going to develop this hub, what it will really look like. We really thank you for your input and your input. Are there any other ideas? We’d really love to hear from you. You’ve come to the session. I’m sure you’ve got ideas at the back of your mind. So please ask for the microphone or speakers. What have you got to add? Yes, please.

:
Thank you.

Denis Susar:
I can add a quick idea. Maybe what the hub can consider doing is like retaining the talent. As we know, maybe colleagues from the private sector can comment more, but the job is very stressful. And I think most of the cybersecurity experts leave their jobs. So what do we do to keep them at their posts? So this is something, a question for the table.

Hikohiro Lin :
Yes, the cybersecurity job is very stressful. Because there are many incident response. You need to take care. You need to do to the clients to be safe, to differentiate between the job and the client. Those attacks or something. So it’s very stressful and sometimes 24 hours. But sometimes some people are leaving that they don’t want to do this job anymore and go back to the software engineering, coding, or do some other job. And what we have to do is, of course, you can raise the salary is a good idea, but it’s just temporary. Yes, I think we need to think about their quality of life. Not to know pressures. You need to taking care of the quality of life, more something different ways to make them to be comfortable to work for the cybersecurity job. So I think that’s why we do like, if they want to attend this conference, let them go. Or if they want to do the training, I just let them do it. Or we always think of something, what they want, and maybe if we can accept, then we just give them that kind of offer. Yeah.

Joao Falcão:
I think we could have also a mind shift because usually the cybersecurity team is responsible for this cybersecurity. And if you put the whole responsibility into like this team, which are usually very small, you bring a lot of stress to them because it’s kind of difficult to work when you are in this cybersecurity team because everybody, even inside the company, see you as an enemy because you are trying to impose, you are trying to push things and make things harder, more difficult to them. And so you have this kind of difficult relation because you are responsible for the security and you also have very difficulty to implement the security changes. Right. I’m going to, and it’s really interesting.

Janice Richardson:
We haven’t talked about that stress, about that quality of life. So we see more and more things that the hub should take into account. Katarina, can you please remind us of the priorities? What were the answers of the first question, please? Yes, I think it’s- It’s the best idea. And then we’re going to have a brief summary of what we’ve looked at. Larry’s going to raise some of the points so that we can do some final discussion about these issues. So, yes.

Katarzyna Kaliszewicz:
Okay, so let’s, I think, the first one. Yeah, because we haven’t talked about the first one. So the key functions of the hub and the first priority for most of our audiences to promote collaboration between industry, universities, and the cybersecurity workforce. And I think that we all know that this is, this is something very popular here, that we are working between different stakeholders. Then the second one is enhance cybersecurity skills at all levels of education. The third one is gather and scale up good practice from cybersecurity and tertiary sectors. The fourth one, raise interest in careers in the cybersecurity industry. And the fifth one is provide online training from top experts on emerging topics, which I find is quite interesting because in our second question, creating an online platform for trainings and workshops is the second best, right? And here it’s the last one. And that is interesting.

Janice Richardson:
Yeah, it is. If we can get you to reflect on that, if we can figure out why that might be, I’m gonna ask you, Larry, to give us a brief rundown of what you’ve picked up. Larry is also from the United States and a CBIT. Well, come on, you should tell us a little bit of your background, a little more than what you’ve told us so that we can see the angle that you’re coming from.

Larry CEO of connect safely:
Well, I’m a recovering academic. It’s been many years since I’ve been at a university, but I came to technology from an academic perspective and then became a technical writer, wrote a newspaper column in the United States, actually still write it. It’s been running for almost 40 years, written for the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, now the Mercury News, been on national radio and television with CBS News. I’ve worked with the BBC and other news. So I’ve come in from a variety of angles. I guess I can’t keep a job, so I keep switching careers. I’m a mid-career person, changed myself. Really thinking about how you can take the kinds of things that we’re talking about here or the kinds of things we talk about at universities, the types of things that engineers talk about, the types of things that policy people talk about, and translate them to average people, to people who read at an eighth grade level, parents, kids, teachers, folks, the kind of people who listen to me on radio, which are just any everyday people, most of whom have never been to an Internet Governance Forum, most of whom have never taught at the university, most of whom have never worked in the tech industry, but they probably have a smartphone, they probably have a computer, they probably have kids that are using the technology, and so they have a very strong vested interest. So that’s where I come from this. But I have been listening carefully to your conversation today, and clearly my notes only reflect a small portion of what was said. And so if you said something brilliant and I didn’t get it down, accept my apologies, but this is sort of what I took away. One is making, well, first of all, I wanna put another context. About 20 years ago, I attended a conference at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh where this very problem was being articulated. So this is not a new conversation, as everybody in this room knows. It’s been an ongoing issue for many, many years. So I just wanted to kind of throw that in to the hopper, which is to why we need to make it more attractive to youth to work in cybersecurity. A couple people pointed out that the gap is not closing. I think it was that the problem grows by 20% a year. The human power to solve the problem grows by 10% a year. You don’t have to be an MIT graduate to figure out that that math is not working. So that was a really clear statement that was said. Also bringing the right people together to create the content. And that gets into something I’m gonna talk about in a few minutes, which is the interdisciplinary approach. What I heard over and over today is this is not something that simply comes out of the engineering side of the equation. You need to bring in youth social scientists, humanities, people from all walks of life and all disciplines need to be approaching this problem. You can’t solve it simply by code. Code’s important, but there’s so many other factors including social issues and norms, et cetera. Janice, I think, made a really good opening statement that I think it should be part of the overall discussion, sort of the foundation, which is what companies looking for critical thinking, creativity, holistic thinking, and diversity. And that’s so important. And those things tend to get overlooked when you’re looking for people who you think just have the right technical skills, but don’t necessarily have the creative skills, critical thinking skills, the holistic look at the world. And of course, as many people have talked about, don’t necessarily reflect the workforce and the communities that we should be serving. And that’s where diversity comes in. I love this comment someone made. I apologize, I don’t know who it was. Educators tend to focus on coding, but not teaching young people about how things function. What’s the backbone of the internet? How does cloud computing work? Understanding the gestalt, what it is you’re trying to fix is really important if you’re trying to fix it. It’d be like if you were a refrigerator repairman who’s never used a refrigerator. You might know where the parts go, but would you know what they do and why they’re there? I love the comment about cybersecurity. It’s important for primary and secondary education. Some think it should be mandatory, but clearly it needs to be something we start talking about very early and getting people excited about. I mean, we have, yeah, it’s true, we’ve got right now, at least in the United States, we have close to full employment, but that’s a temporary thing. There are many, many periods where we have far more applicants than we have jobs. And there are, I don’t know, thousands, hundreds of thousands of cybersecurity jobs that are open in the world, and certainly even in the country I come from. Also, I think another person, or several people made the comments, talked about factories, farms, that this is not just a tech sector problem, that no matter what it is you do, whatever industry you’re in, you need cybersecurity specialists. I mean, it’s almost like every company needs a chief financial officer or someone to do the books. Every company needs somebody to clean the floor, whatever it is. Well, every company needs somebody to watch cybersecurity. I don’t care if you’re a small organization or a multinational corporation, someone there needs to be thinking about cybersecurity. Even in my little NGO, we don’t have a dedicated person for it, but we sure have to pay attention to it, because like everybody, there are attacks against our infrastructure as well. Let me just find, okay, someone, a couple people mentioned creating opportunities in developing countries. Gosh, that’s important. First of all, there are problems in developing countries that need to be addressed, and second of all, there’s a huge talent pool in the world that is not being used, not being exploited. I don’t mean exploited in the negative term, but taking, you know, all the terms are negative, taking advantage of, but you know what I’m saying, not being utilized, that’s the word I’m looking for. And we really need to utilize people from around the world. You know, we tend to think about that. I pick up the phone, I call a company, and I get somebody with an accent somewhere in the world, usually doing a relatively entry-level position. Well, there are very smart people in other parts of the world besides the developed world who could be doing high-level work, and we just can’t afford not to take advantage of that talent. I really like the comment about giving high school students real experience, really getting them involved. There’s such talent among high school kids, and I shouldn’t even call them kids. Many of them are capable of actually doing serious work, and while I would never advocate child labor, I do advocate taking advantage of young people’s ability to be part of the solution, and young people, and also to see cybersecurity as a place where they can go into college, or maybe not even go to college, maybe find jobs in cybersecurity directly out of high school. There’s certainly plenty of work, and probably talented people who could work with or without a college education. Someone made the comment, and it gets back to the comment I made about the sort of joke I made about the refrigerator. Visiting a factory, the cybersecurity specialist needing to understand how the factory works, and how each machine, I believe it was you that made that point. And again, you can’t fix something in a vacuum. You really have to understand the context in which it works, and I think that should be generally very important to any kind of a hub based on what I heard today. Lots of graduates have insufficient knowledge about real world applications. Again, the same notion. You need to have a gestalt, a real understanding. Someone made the comment about networking, and I’m gonna combine that with the suggestion someone made that more young people should be coming to conferences like these. And I have to tell you something. 90% of what I learn at conferences like the IGF doesn’t happen in meetings like this. And with all due respect to the brilliant people who just spoke, and all of you were very good, it’s the conversations you have in the hallway. It’s the connections you make. That networking. Same thing you get at the university. Why do Harvard students tend to do better than people at other schools? Because they meet people who can open doors for them. In the last 12 hours, not even that, I guess I’ve been here probably eight hours, I’ve already opened so many doors and so many things that I can do with my little NGO based on people I’ve talked to since I got here this morning. It’s amazing to me what I’ve accomplished in the last few hours just walking around talking to people. And so getting young people as part of those conversations are so important. You know, connecting them with mentors, connecting them with each other. It’s just essential. The other, I guess the last one, which I thought was very interesting, is this comment about how cybersecurity is stressful. And I could see that. It’s probably one of those jobs, it’s like the joke they talk about airline pilots, a flight is six hours of pure boredom and three seconds of sheer terror. When the system goes down, and maybe it doesn’t go down that often, but when it does, it’s hard for you to imagine what the cybersecurity staff have to go through. I mean, I kind of imagine, because our systems have gone down and we had connectsafely.org go down literally an hour before Safer Internet Day event. And we had to panic. And luckily we found somebody who could bring our system back up in time for our event when we were going on national television, promoting what we were doing. And that was the worst possible time for our system to go down. Well, those moments are very, very stressful. And finding ways to encourage people, to retain them, to promote them, to compensate them properly, to provide them with career advancement, all the things you need to keep a workforce happy and productive is very important. I would say that, you know, for a hub, and again, I came into this knowing very little, just taking notes, what I think I learned today from listening to all of you is that this hub that you build has to be something that goes from the highest level conceptualization about what it is you’re trying to do, and we also learned this from your little survey, what it is you’re trying to accomplish, what are the goals, what are the frameworks, all the way down to the nitty gritty of how it operates. And I would even argue, maybe even some kind of a job bank where you help people, link people who are looking for work to the jobs that are out there. So, you know, it’s a big effort that you’re taking on, but it seems to me, despite what I said about going to sessions, this session was extremely productive because you came away with a very kind of rich blueprint of what you need to do, what we need to do, what the world needs to do to have a more secure cyber infrastructure, and to provide good paying, meaningful, and important jobs to probably millions of people around the world.

Janice Richardson:
Thanks very much, Larry. And I’m gonna start with Raul, and I would like each of our speakers to just have a few words. some last thoughts to wrap up this session, but of course, if there are people in the audience who also want to have a few words, you are most welcome. Yes, thank you. Oh, I found every comment

Raul Echeverria:
very interesting, but especially what Hiko said about that we have to understand that this is probably, this is very interesting because maybe the companies should start to hire people already with the idea that these are people that will work in this position just for a short term, and so maybe just to offer a plan, a growing plan to move to other area inside of the technology aid of the company. I think that’s all the, what really concerns me is that the idea of scalability is, because we speak about providing training on a platform, yes, but how many people we can train on a platform, is what we can do really to achieve things that are in a different dimension, quantitatively different. So I think we say that there is a demand of talents that is not satisfied, but at the same time, I don’t know how it’s being calculated, because if we calculate how many people we need to face those challenges, so yes, we need more people, but on the other hand, how many people, at least in Latin America, how many companies are really hiding, especially? So I think that’s probably if they look for more people, if the demand is increasing, so more people we want to work in this area, and so this is a complicated equation, because probably that’s we need public support for private sector to understand what the challenge is, what to do, but we have also the same problems at the public sector, because public sector don’t understand that’s the problem. I mentioned two cases in Latin America that were very serious in the last year, so maybe we should work with intergovernmental organizations more, trying to convince them about the dimension of the problem, and how we can involve them as to be part of the solution, instead of being part of the problem, say how we can work together to work with a private sector, but an education system, so really to understand that this is a problem for the country, for the region, for the world, and to elevate the level of the priority. Thank you. Yes, Catarina, also has

Janice Richardson:
anyone come online? Do you see anyone who has raised a question? Unfortunately not, but we have some listeners. Okay, great, and do you have anything you’d like to add to this discussion? I can have a question, okay. I think my opinion might be either controversial or very boring,

Katarzyna Kaliszewicz:
it depends how you look at it, but I think that we are at a point where each company should have a cyber security specialist, like we have a work safety specialist, yes, so we learn that when you see water on the floor, you should avoid it, because you will slip on it and fall over. I think it should be the same for cyber security now, because we all use computers at some points, and even if we think about industries that normally we would say, oh, they do not use computers, we have now a situation in our country, in Poland, that many, many more people in medical industry are starting to use computers, the system for doctors is in the computers, so nurses also should have access there, and we are going to continue to spread this thing, so I think it’s just necessary to have this awareness that there will be more and more specialists needed in the field, and we should start training those people, because it might shock us soon. Thanks, Katarina. Denis, do you, sorry,

Denis Susar:
there’s one here. Thank you. I think very quickly, at the end of today, it all comes to incentives, either to people or to companies, like a major company will not be able to afford their online, like Amazon, to be off because of cyber security, there are incentives there. From the UN perspective, if we want to reach out to stakeholders, global digital compact discussions coming up in 2024, this is plus 20 overall review, which is also coming up in 2025, I’m just putting those on the table, those are the areas that you can, we can hear your voices, and we can, you can lobby, and this cyber security hub, whatever you are developing, if it’s good, it will be used by governments, so it’s again back to incentives, if you put a good product out there, then it will be used, but it’s all, I think, all for all of us to improve it. Super, and that is an incentive.

Julia Piechna:
Yes, many important things were mentioned here, so maybe I will just focus on the thing that comes from my professional experience, so I think that what is really important, among, of course, other things is education from the beginning, and integrating cyber security, safety education into curricula, into education, and maybe resigning from traditional methods for the sake of unconventional and involving methods, to really, well, that was mentioned many times here, that really make these young people to understand the tools they are using, and like, understand the mechanism. Thank you. Thanks, Julia. I think, I don’t know if you want to, no? And I really love that

Janice Richardson:
fun idea. We have a project running in the Scandinavian countries, it’s been running for about four years, where we write a scenario about internet safety for 11 to 14 year olds, but then we find a local magician, and the magician and I work together to figure out what are the best tricks, and of course the tricks in Iceland are quite different from the ones we do in Finland or Norway, but this fun element seems to be so important. I’m really glad that, I think it was

Yuki Tadobayashi:
you who mentioned it. Yeah, so I think security hub is a very interesting concept, because in our training centre also, we were discussing internally, we should be collaborating with other global entities. We have some friends in the UK and France, etc, that we can have more possible diverse collaborations. But one thing about security hub is that we are all busy, so if security hub is going to be super complex stuff, then nobody will be involved. So I want to have it less demanding, or less workload. In terms of workload, it should be less binding, so that everybody from all scales, like non-profits and government agencies, etc, like IGF, everybody on all sides can join on a non-binding basis. But this should also be a network of trust, because this can be abused by criminals. So network of trust is very important for this project to be successful. Thank you.

Maciej Groń:
I have a message for industry, business and sector, and this is also the goal for us,

Denis Susar:
because I want to say that the education sector is open for cooperation. And I mean, not only the IT business, but also the motor company, fashion industry, food industry, and so on. And I deeply believe that next year, we will find more people from the industry, and think once again that you are with us. So let’s think out of the box.

Anna Rywczyńska:
Yes, and I would continue with this stress from Dennis that came with diversity. Some time ago, I took part in a panel about women in IT, and women participating in this panel, they also said that this kind of a stress and war field that is somehow related with work in cyber security discourage men and women to take part in this business, to go into these careers. So maybe extremely important is to repeat that not only you have to work really in this war field to be involved in the cyber security, that there’s so many different competences involved, like Janice started in the beginning, that you don’t really have to be in this gaming area that some people perceive the cyber security is. And second thing, I think it’s extremely important also talking about diversity, to open eyes of parents, to really be able to motivate their girls, their daughters, to see their future in this field. Because right now, you always see boys in the coding extra classes, and the girls go to dancing classes. So it needs parental awareness.

Hikohiro Lin :
All right, thank you for everything. Actually, I learned from you guys a lot about your insight, comment, and new information from me. And actually, next week, I have my daughter is high school, and high school principal asked me to talk about cyber security job. So actually, I have to do this, since we’ve discussed in this kind of session. So I want to tell them, I will tell them the cyber security is a very fun job, and it’s a very important job, and also it’s a very proud job, and it’s also a challenging job. It’s going to be a very interesting job forever. So I just want them to be more interested in the cyber security job. And also, I want to think about something, maybe we need something in the cyber security hub ecosystem, so that we can do more to the sustainable SDGs. We need to keep thinking, to keep maintaining this kind of conversation in the near future.

Joao Falcão:
Well, I will spend my last words talking about the importance of the culture on being this facilitator, how they help to create the imaginary, how they mold people to like cyber security. And for that, I would like to remember about two films, Hackers and War Games, which were very important for the 80s generation to see hackers as these very cool people that were hacking things, and how this created the cyber security imaginary. And also, when we talk about it, we need to think of the gender perspective, because, well, I opened a position in my crew to recruit a woman, and I couldn’t. Like, it stayed for one month open. When I gave up, I hired a man in the next day. So this is really a cultural thing, and we really need to work on it.

Ismalia Jawara:
next week. So, yes, so my last input will solely, you know, relate with what he said, but more importantly, having more women, you know, participating in this industry. And I think obviously this we are unaware of, but, you know, it’s some form of a cultural life. For example, when I take my niece and nephew to the shop, you know, to get toys for them, you know, for Christmas, you go to the boy’s shop, you get amazing stuff, you know, so many amazing cool toys. You go to the, you know, the guy, the girl’s shop, you get some unicorn. I’m not saying unicorns are not nice or whatsoever, but my point is, you know, culturally we need to also, it’s as if we are actually grooming, you know, them not to be innovative and also involved in these creative industries. And that being the case, you know, I think industries like companies or businesses should also be giving priorities to women, you know, to participate in, you know, in cybersecurity. And my advice for my brother, I also experienced similar in my office, but then what I did was rather than giving them, because it’s a stage level, you know, step by step, rather than looking for, you know, an expert in reverse engineering or someone who has, you know, years of experience, I, you know, went for GRC, you know, personnel. So when I was not able to get someone, you know, I just got a lady who studied law and then gave her, you know, opportunity and then she did tremendously well. So I think, you know, the bar also or how we get them on board, you know, need to be looked at. If you want to take them from a perspective where you’re looking for expert, we are going to chase them out. Thank you.

Janice Richardson:
And thank you. I’m wondering if the audience has any last word that they’d like to add. It’s really important that everyone feels that they’ve had their say. Anyone over that side want to take the microphone for a last thought about this hub? Because we’re going to be calling on all of you. Yes, someone behind me. We’re going to be calling on all of you to really support us in this, seems so important. Would you like? You would? There’s a microphone somewhere. No? No? No one further? Well, I hope that you’re going to join us in this enterprise. We are determined after what we learned with the report that we really have to move forward. We have to move forward together. And we talked about safety and security, but in French, security is the same word. And possibly in other languages also. No one can be safe if we don’t have this security. I hope we’re going to continue working together. If you have any ideas, please come up and tell us, because we’re chasing ideas now when we’re working on this strategic plan. Thank you very much for joining the session. Thank you, speakers. Thank you, Larry. And I, well, we’ll be meeting in the corridors and talking further about this. So thanks for a very interactive session. Thank you. We’ll be in touch. Should we go and join them somewhere? Yeah, we have 10 minutes.

Virtual Girl Nem

The Metaverse represents a transformative innovation within the realm of Virtual Reality, fostering environments conducive to the development of sustainable infrastructure and communities (SDG 9 and 11). It heralds a new norm of living; a universe consciously designed to enhance human existence. Statistics reveal a surge in daily user engagement, with a notable proportion of users spending more than three hours per session, indicative of widespread global adoption of this digital sphere.

Furthermore, the Metaverse significantly influences human communication mechanics, fostering unconventional social interactions that indirectly contribute to quality education and overall well-being (SDG 4 and 3). By eliminating traditional filters such as age, gender, and titles, the Metaverse cultivates relationships based on personalities over visuals, promoting a healthier form of digital sociability.

In the Metaverse, adopting a virtual identity effects a paradigm shift in personal representation, aiding in reducing socio-cultural inequalities and bolstering gender equity (SDG 10 and 5). Data suggests a trend, showing most users prefer avatars with feminine characteristics, hinting at an increased demand for feminine representation in digital culture.

Alongside this preference for feminine avatars, a reduction in the gender gap in virtual identities is apparent. This is primarily due to an increase in the availability of masculine avatars, offering users wider choices in customising their virtual selves. Changing avatar gender is gaining popularity for reasons beyond the available supply, encompassing fashion and the aspiration for more effective communication.

Consider the case of ‘Virtual Girl Nem’, who has spent between three to five years in the Metaverse. Her ability to switch seamlessly between the virtual and physical world by wearing VR goggles, exemplifies human adaptability to this new digital era. Nem’s experience showcases the evolution of human adaptability, as we navigate varied environments both professionally and personally.

Within the Metaverse, it has been identified that for success, effective user communication is vital—a challenge currently faced by numerous tech giants. The service sector should focus on establishing sound communication with users to garner positive results in the Metaverse. The Metaverse’s future invites considerable optimism, primarily due to its potential to offer myriad business opportunities and redefine human communication. Prioritising effective user service interactions is fundamental for the Metaverse to flourish successfully.

In summation, the Metaverse contributes to various Sustainable Development Goals by fostering innovation, promoting equality, and revolutionising communication dynamics. With a growing user base and evolving identities, the potential for the Metaverse is vast. However, to truly achieve its potential, an efficient communication approach, crucial to engaging users, is key to driving its progressive development.

Liudmila Bredikhina

The revie proves a testament to the transformative impact of the Metaverse, most notably underlining the pivotal role avatars possess as instruments of self-expression and communication. Equipped with these avatars, users transcend their physical world identities, thereby uniquely manifesting different aspects of their self-image, conforming or challenging prevailing gender norms. This premise supports SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure as the Metaverse serves as a creative conduit for its users.

Significant is the commonplace trend of gender swapping within the Metaverse. This potential proves avant-garde, administering individuals with a fresh platform to experience and embody alternate gender identities, which might be beyond their grasp in the physical realm. Disseminated statistics indicate that over 70% of both male and female Metaverse users adopt feminine persona. This remarkable progression promotes broader comprehension of gender, propelling the goals of SDG 5: Gender Equality and SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities.

Embedded within the insights is the revelation of the unfortunate ubiquity of harassment within the Metaverse, stressing that women and minorities predominantly suffer unwarranted behaviour. This distressing element poses a threat to SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities and SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, signalling urgent reforms needed to uphold user safety.

Responding to these safety anxieties, users have voiced fervent need for more secure and less restrictive experiences within the Metaverse. Their specifications embrace enhanced flexibility in self-defence mechanisms, rigorous moderation and an adjustable safety framework. They also emphasised trepidation regarding possible overarching restrictions curtailing their freedom within the Metaverse.

Interestingly, the analysis places heavy emphasis on the motivations of the involved companies, determining the success of the Metaverse. It elucidates that incorporating ethics at the heart of corporative goals assures optimal utilisation and effective marketisation within the Metaverse, whilst minimising exploitative practices.

Finally, there is substantial advocacy towards embedding rules within the Metaverse that champion diversity and ethical wellbeing, aligning with SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities and SDG 5: Gender Equality. This insight insists on the significance of such directives to counteract the potential emergence of monopolies, maintaining ethical equilibrium. This sentiment certainly parallels the understanding that behind every avatar in the Metaverse reside genuine individuals deserving courteous treatment.

In conclusion, the Metaverse renders a creative space teeming with opportunities for self-expression, communication and exploration. However, it equally flags challenges, from harassment to monopolistic threats, all of which require staunch mitigation strategies to construct an ethical, diverse, and equitable virtual world.

Moderator

The dialogue reveals multiple facets of the emerging Metaverse; a virtual realm which creates opportunities for personal expression, introduces unique challenges, and might potentially offer cognitive health benefits.

An intriguing insight is that individuals’ virtual identities within the Metaverse are frequently influenced by their cultural backgrounds. Crucially, this online platform provides a space for people to explore alternate gender identities, enabling them to challenge or uphold dominant gender norms. The Metaverse is thus a vehicle for users to express elements of their identities they might find hard to communicate in the physical world.

However, no digital universe is devoid of real-world problems. The discussion highlights a deeply troubling issue: harassment within the Metaverse. Alarmingly, women and minorities are particularly targeted for such experiences. More concerning is the notion that merely possessing a feminine avatar can invite more harassment, hinting at a concerning digital perpetuation of gender-based discrimination.

Complementing these insights, data from Japan demonstrates how economic stagnation and cultural expectations are spurring some men to assume feminine virtual avatars, as a means of escaping societal pressure. The Metaverse thus emerges as an instrument for challenging and navigating around pre-established socio-cultural norms.

Nonetheless, while grappling with the challenges the Metaverse presents, users are not necessarily advocating restrictive legislation. Most prefer superior moderating processes, improved reporting systems, and adaptable safety measures as opposed to stringent regulation that could potentially squash their virtual freedom and enjoyment.

Notwithstanding the challenges and inequalities, a positive aspect of this virtual experience comes to light. Adjusting between the Metaverse and physical reality is feasible. The transitional process is likened to mood shifts experienced when moving between formal and relaxed states.

Extending this concept, it is proposed that the cognitive effort needed to adapt to the Metaverse could serve a health-promoting role. The brain stimulation incurred from shifting realities might act as a form of anti-ageing training, supporting longevity and cognitive health.

In conclusion, this discourse presents a nuanced perspective of the Metaverse. It emphasises its potential as a platform for alternative identity performance and the troubling prevalence of harassment within it. There’s an urgent need for enhanced safety measures, albeit with a resistance to restrictive legislation. The evolving nature of the Metaverse continues to inspire questions and curiosity, particularly regarding the cognitive health benefits of engaging within this emerging virtual world.

Audience

The summary primarily probes into two predominant themes related to the virtual realm, with specific emphasis on the Metaverse.

One primary focal point is the possible fatigue and confusion triggered in the human brain due to exposure to virtual reality. This concern is rooted mainly in the proposal centred on Naem-san, who, despite existing within the virtual universe, may still be susceptible to physical exhaustion due to her organic essence remaining seeded in palpable reality. This sentiment is encapsulated by a palpable undercurrent of worry, with a spectator voicing apprehension over the possibility that the stark distinction between tangible and virtual realities could result in brain confusion, especially when both realities intermingle.

In contrast, the other focus orbits around curiosity and intrigue regarding commercial practices within the Metaverse. This curiosity hails from inquiries about the function of firms within this digital expanse and their strategic marketing operations. The sentiment resonates with neutrality, emerging from a quest to comprehend the mechanisms and dynamics of the Metaverse. The breadth of these inquiries broadens to encompass speculations about monetary exchanges within the Metaverse. This curiosity is solidified by the acknowledgment that the speakers have noted businesses inaugurating marketing ventures within the virtual dimension, and have voiced a keenness to discern more about the role and potential advantages for users and businesses alike.

The extensive dissection of these themes provides insight into human adaptability in relation to rising virtual environments such as the Metaverse. Moreover, the analysis underscores the escalating significance and potential of such digital spaces for commercial purposes, illustrating the importance of comprehending their dynamics and functionalities. Nevertheless, the analysis also highlights potential challenges, particularly concerning physical and mental well-being, hence presenting areas requiring further inquiry and research.

Moderator:
Kyoto International Conference Center, and as well as through Zoom, remote participation. This session is the D-Zero event, titled Talk with Metaverse Residents, New Identity and Diversity. This session is to, basically it’s a presentation session, but really quite different from the normal session, because this session is to feature Metaverse residents, and the main part of this is the presentation from the Metaverse. Then before we go into the detail, let me make the round of self-introduction. My name is Akinori Maemura, from Japan Network Information Center, JPNIC, the organizer and proposal of this session, and then I have another organizer, please make a self-introduction. So I’m Keisuke Kaneyasu from NEC Corporation. Thank you for coming today. Yeah, thank you very much. And then we have the two presenters, one is Ludmila Bradekina, Mila, please introduce yourself. Hi, thank you for inviting me here today. My name is Ludmila, and I’m a PhD candidate at the University of Malta in Europe. Thank you. Thank you, Milo. And then, Nem, it’s your turn, please. Hi, this is VirtualGAM Nem, call me Nem. I am a Metaverse culture evangelist. I’m spending much time in Metaverse, and I’m working on the activity to introduce the culture of Metaverse. I’m happy to talk with you today. Thank you. Great, Nem, thank you very much. So before getting into Nem’s presentation, I want to say I’m a PhD candidate at the University of Malta in Europe. Thank you very much. Thank you. presentation, just introduce the history of this session, because this session was first introduced in Japan Internet Governance Forum 2022. We have that in the same day zero session, by the way. It was really interesting for us to experience the Metaverse residents live. So I was quite convinced that this kind of a session should be needed in a global IGF in Kyoto. Then here I am. Thank you very much for the MAG and the IGF Secretariat to accept this proposal for Make it Real. With that, before I go long, please, I will hand over the microphone to Nem for her presentation. Nem, please. Thanks. Thank you, Maemura-san, for super kind introduction. And thank you people coming to Internet Governance Forum today. We are very, very happy to talk with you. Well, we, Nem and Mira, as a research unit to investigate the impact of the Metaverse and VTuber on humanity. Today, I will go ahead and I will talk about Metaverse and identity. And after that, Mira is going to talk about

Virtual Girl Nem:
diversity. My name is Nem. Do you know millions of people around the world are already spending their lives in the Metaverse, this virtual world? I am also one of them. As a Metaverse I’m spending much time in Metaverse every day and conveying its culture to you, people in physical world. I’m introducing the culture as a virtual YouTuber and from TV show. And also, I am publishing a book and getting a grand prize by the Japanese Book Award. Today, I’m going to talk about… In the first, I will do a demonstration of my Metaverse life. And after that, I will talk about Metaverse identity and communication. Okay, let’s go on to the first one. Demonstration of Metaverse life. In the beginning, let me explain my equipment. What kind of equipment Metaverse people use. This is VR goggle. I think some of you already use this, maybe. Well, this is a device that allows me to enter the first-person perspective of this avatar and fully dive into the world of Internet with my entire body. Currently, my physical body is something like this. Wearing this big headset. By the way, what is this big sensor, this one? This is really troublesome when I am drinking beverage. What do you think is this? This is facial tracking sensor. This sensor allows me to… It’s scanning my facial movement. my real body and applying the movement to this avatar. Look at my eye. Winking. Facial movement. Everything. By using this, my avatar’s face is something like my real body. And also, I am attaching so many devices, equipment on my real body and that allows me to this is finger trick tracking. My finger movement is also real-time tracked and applied to this avatar. And full-body tracking. Not only headset and controller, I am attaching so many sensors sensors like this on my stomach and legs. This allows me to move the foot movement of my avatar and even I can stand up. In my real room, my chair, gaming chair is around here, so I can sit down here. Yeah, this is equipment. By the way, why do you think we Metaverse people use this kind of tracking mechanism? The reason is to gain a sense of unity with this avatar. Feeling the avatar’s body as if it were my own physical body. As a result, experience in the Metaverse becomes super, super realistic. And in addition to VR equipment, I am using voice changer. Now I am speaking with my voice converted to girl voice. So, converting my avatar and voice, everything. It feels like I’ve been reborn as a completely different person in the Metaverse. This is VR equipment. And in the next, let me talk about VR world. Currently, now I am here. This is my study room. In VR, well, I live with a sense of freedom. I’m just great nature. My physical body is in a very, very small room. But I never feel confined because, yeah, I am feeling like I’m really in this Metaverse world. Now, I am opening up a vast space only for me, spanning tens of kilometers just for myself. In the Metaverse, you can generate space infinitely and for free. And you can also use teleportation. In the Metaverse, the concept of movement doesn’t exist. You can teleport to a friend at any time or summon a friend to your place. And you can also set free access restriction to this world. Unlike physical reality, you can freely set access restriction to the spaces. Usually, I am allowing my friend to enter my world freely. And I will spend time with my friend talking with each other or watching TV show together or something like that. Oppositely, well, I can also create a… space that only people who have paid can access and hold paid events. For example, yeah, this is my music live event. Yeah, this is me. And yeah, many people are coming. Well, yeah, in the music live, I have gathered up to 1.2 thousand people at most. If you try to hold such a big event in physical reality, it requires big costs, such as venue fees and many staff members. But in the Metaverse, you can operate it for free just by yourself. This is really fantastic. Also, Metaverse accelerates creativity. Within the VR space, you can work on programming, modeling, everything without removing your VR goggles. Unlike that on PC screen, the creative is very, very intuitive. I, G, F. Anyway, this is already working as a 3D model. Yeah, like this, you can use this VR world, yeah, to be more creative. Yeah, this is really wonderful. And after that, let me talk about my avatar. In the Metaverse, you can freely design your avatar and live in any form you like. My avatar, for example, is unique in this world. This is only designed for me. It is designed by my favorite famous manga artist based on the illustration, this one. Illustration, he drew for me. A modeler created a 3D model. It’s similar to having a hair styling or ordering tailor-made clothes in physical reality, but in Metaverse, everything can be edited, including your hair, face, everything. Also, you can quickly change your avatar. I have so many avatars. I have so many avatars. Yeah, these avatars are created by another artist. Let’s try. Now, my soul is moved from this avatar to this avatar. This is me. Now, this is me. Switching avatar changes my mood. By wearing this avatar, I could be more cute. And, yeah, this is me. This is also my avatar, yay. By, when I am wearing this, I am more, how can I say, I am more comical. Yeah, avatar changes my feeling. It’s very interesting. Okay, well, now, oh, now, this is me. Yoisho, avatar, katazukete, shoto. Shoto. Yeah, this is the secret of my avatar. By the way, how do you think? I think I am watching all of you right now. The answer is virtual display. Well, this one. Yeah, I am watching you using the window. And not only this, I can open so many windows around my body. Well, oh, this is my cunning pepper. Well, anyway, it’s like having several huge, weightless smartphones floating around my body. Yeah, this is super, super useful. You can make them invisible to the others. Yeah, it’s super useful. Yeah, this is a demonstration of my better birth life. Let’s go back to my study room. Okay. Have you started getting the image of better birth life? From now on, let’s talk about better birth. What is better birth? The word is coming from the combination of better, meaning beyond, and universe. Yes, it means, oh, it means a world surpassing physical reality. Now, the world is getting attention. As the next generation of Internet, the word is originally coming from a super famous SF novel named Snow Crash. And in the novel, the Metaverse world is something like that people can immerse themselves using VR goggles and people can communicate. Yes, what I am showing you is something that shows up on the Snow Crash Metaverse. Then, what actually is the detailed definition of Metaverse? Actually, the definition of the Metaverse is not yet so clear. But in my book, I am defining by the virtual space that meets the following seven criteria. Spatiality, self-identity, massive simultaneous connectivity, creativity, economic availability, accessibility, and immersiveness. I don’t explain the details of them, but simply that is not a game. The virtual world is where you can live your life. That is the Metaverse. Okay. The Metaverse world that meets those seven criteria already exists. That is social VR. The famous social VR is VRChat, NeosVR. Oh, this is NeosVR, what I am using now. And Cluster, VirtualCast, and so many services are there. And they have pros and cons, and they are not perfect. They are under hard development. Yes. And then, how many people are there living in the Metaverse world? Currently, there are… population is dynamically increasing. It’s increased by more than five times in the last three years. The reason is COVID. By the COVID accident situation, people want online communication, online but body-to-body communication. And second reason is Quest 2. Previously, VR goggles are super expensive, but Quest 2 can do everything. It’s more cheap. As a result, currently the population is estimated to be between several millions to around 10 million people worldwide. The population is so increasing, even right now. Then how are people spending their time? It is a big question. Yeah. To review the lifestyle of the Metaverse people, we conducted a large-scale survey. In 2021, we collected 1,200 responses worldwide. And this year, in 2023, the number reached 2,000. Thank you. And this is the service, user service. The VR chat is number one popular service worldwide. And the other services are used depending on the country. For example, VirtualJet, Cluster, they are popular in Japan. And Neo4j is popular in Europe and America. Yeah, it’s interesting. The trend is different depending on the region. And age. How old are the Metaverse people? Yeah. Every age of the people. are living in Metaverse, but more than half are in their 20s. Yes, it’s a little young. And the play frequency, how frequently do we use VR GO coming to this VR world? It’s very shocking data. Almost half of them are using Metaverse almost every day. Also, how long time do they spend in one time? The reason is more than half people spend more than three hours in one session in one day. It’s so long. Yeah, I’m also like that. And what actually is the purpose to use Metaverse? This is also interesting. There are so various reasons. Well, to socialize with friends, walking around the world, play games, to participate in events, broadcasting, making avatar, creating something, everything. Yes, in the Metaverse, you can do everything. Yeah. Today, I think the revolutionary point of Metaverse is these three. Identity, communication, and economy. Metaverse will result in the big revolution for humanity. Today, let me talk more about identity. Identity. Yeah. In the Metaverse world, you can freely design your identity, name, avatar, voice, everything. Identity transforms from what you receive, but what you design. exploring new selves, living life as the desired self, or switching between multiple selves. I am also switching the selves in the real world and the Metaverse world. The Metaverse allows the soul to be perceived in 3D, enabling awakening with aspects of yourself that could not be recognized in the physical reality world. One interesting fact is the difference of the physical sexuality and avatar appearance. This is the sexuality in the physical reality of the real user. This is the avatar appearance amongst male users and this is by female users. Both male and female use feminine avatars. It is almost 80%. This is very interesting data, I think. Do you think this is only about Japan? No. Even in Europe and America, the trend is the same. Feminine avatar is very popular. Why do you think? The reason is fashion and communication. The use of feminine avatars simply prefers the visual appearance of the avatar. Communication is a secondary big reason. It’s very interesting. Not only the avatar appearance, let’s go on to the avatar type. There are so many various types of avatars in the Metaverse world. We categorize these avatars into seven different categories. Human, semi-humanoid, robot, animal, plant, monster. one is used most. The result is the semi-humanoid. In the physical reality world, normal humanoid type is very popular, almost 100% I think, but in the metaphysical world, more fantasy state avatar is very popular. And the use is a little depending on the region. For example, in United States, the animal type avatar is a little bit more popular. And well, in Europe, robot type avatar is popular like this. The trend is different depending on the region. In the end, let me talk about communication. In the metaverse world, you can design yourself and how they communicate. Well, we investigated their communication distance, skinship, and love. In the metaverse world, filter such as age, gender, and titles are eliminated and accelerating more essential communication. This is the most wonderful point of the metaverse communication. Yes, this is the distance. 75% of people say in metaverse world, the avatar to distance, getting more close. And also, skinship extremely increased. 74% of people say they do skinship. Do you skinship in physical reality world? I think this is very interesting data. And love, this is also interesting. Yeah, this is the world you can spend life. So love is also popular. But love exists, but the trend is very different. For example, well, in the Metaverse world, they are falling in love because of their personality, not the visual. When you do similar question in the physical reality world, number one answer is basically the visual in the beginning of the love. But in the Metaverse, the trend of love is changed. And also, one more interesting thing is when you fall in love in Metaverse, the biological sexuality of your real lover is important for you. The 75% of people say it’s not important. It is very different from the love in the physical reality world. Yes, communication also changes in the Metaverse world. Conclusion. For the past four million years, humanity has lived in physical reality. Existing IT technology has been great, but it has only served to make life in physical reality more inconvenient. But in Metaverse, Metaverse is a fundamentally designed new universe where various magics are possible, allowing humans to live in a more humane way. Many people already live there, creating new unique cultures with more freedom. The evolution of humanity has already begun. Thank you. I hope this presentation make you more understand Metaverse. And then, let me pass over to my best friend, Mira. Thank you very much, Nem.

Moderator:
a very good presentation, maybe give her the applause. Thank you. Okay, Mira, your turn, and I think you can spend a full 20 minutes, and then we will still have the question Q&A time for 10 minutes. So if you had any question to the name part, you can definitely make that in the last part. I will definitely secure some time for the Q&A. With that, thank you, Mira, for your stuff, please.

Liudmila Bredikhina:
Thank you. Let me share my presentation. Can you see it? Is it all good? Yes. Yes. Thank you, Nem, so much for your amazing presentation and for your amazing introduction to The Metaverse. I think it encapsulated really well the overall different aspects of the virtual world. And so my talk will focus more on gender and diversity, especially from the academic perspective. So let me introduce a little bit myself. So I obtained my master’s degree in Asian Studies from the Geneva University back in 2021. And my master’s thesis focused on researching Japanese men who use feminine presenting characters in virtual worlds as a form of gender fluid practice rooted in traditional Japanese arts. And after completing my master’s degree, I received the Prix Jean, so Gender Prize in English, award from the Geneva University in 2022. So since 2019, I have published a dozen of peer-reviewed publications in international journals focusing on manners in which technology impacts self-expression, uses gender identity in social interactions. I’ve also had the pleasure of sharing my findings that numerous tech-related events such as SIGGRAPH, Labal Virtual, IEEE, VRNVR and VR Days Europe. And as of this year, I had the opportunity to lecture at Japanese universities such as Keio, Kindai and Kyoto University. So now, as a PhD student since 2023, I continue to work on my research that I started in 2019, but focus more broadly on gender practices among Japanese users in the metaverse. My perspective, my theoretical perspective, comes from feminist and critical men’s studies that inform my research and inscribe it in a global context. I conduct my participant observation in the metaverse and online spaces, what I do basically is virtual ethnography. And I find it very informative to go beyond the virtual slash physical world barrier and examine how changes on and beyond the screen can impact who we are, especially in terms of gender. So the theme of today’s talk is gender and diversity in the metaverse. So for a while now, the target set by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, as you can see on the left-hand side, the small picture, right? So those goals have been addressing, among other issues, diversity, safety and inclusion to rebuild the physical world. However, ensuring the representation of people’s diversity, ethical behaviour and providing a sense of community and belonging should not be limited to the physical world. For example, as Professor of Journalism and Media Studies, Erkan Sarkar notes in the book, The Future of Digital Communication, there have been debates about the lack of diversity, actually, among developers and decision makers in tech-related industries. In a recent article about designing the metaverse, Mateo Zaglio and John Clarkson propose 10 principles for designing a better metaverse that you see on this page. It’s the big black picture. So in that article, the authors outline several ideas for social equity and inclusion. And they highlight specifically the importance of empowerment of diversity through self-expression. So among other 10 principles, right? To construct a good and inclusive metaverse. And I want to focus specifically on the gender self-expression part of the metaverse. So today we have three parts. I’ll start with some very brief academic foundations. I will not make it too long, but I think it’s good to build up on existing research. I will then present several of my key studies. One from my masters and two from our research with them. One of which you’ve already heard about a little bit. And then I will close on with some potential issues stemming from self-expression and what could be good to consider if you want a safe experience for everyone. So let’s start with building on the strength foundation with the academic research. So first, an avatar appearance entails specific interactions, right? So for example, if you use a very small cutesy character, it will be probable that people will be very welcoming and warm towards you. If you use a very strong, big character, people might have a different interactions towards you. Just in the physical world, unfortunately, our appearances might determine certain interactions. So, and users know that they are judged on their looks. And the second aspect is that in the visual characteristics we choose can impact, for instance, user’s confidence and behaviors. Once again, depending on the character that you incarnate in the virtual world, you might act differently. It might give you confidence. It might give you self-fulfillment and it might also impact the way you interact, especially if you use a character of a different gender representations. the one you identify is as in the physical world. And finally, what is most relevant for today’s talk, avatars can be seen as tools that enhance the individual by making them virtual, empowering them to become who you want to be and create the person you want to be, as Nem has mentioned in their book. So an interesting phenomena that Nem briefly touched upon, and it has been also highlighted in quite a number of Western academic articles, that occurs in virtual environments, in gaming spaces, is what is called gender swapping. So gender swapping would be, for example, I, as a woman, would be using an avatar that has a very masculine appearance, right? So it basically changes using the virtual character of a different gender identity that is quite distinct from the one in the physical world. So through those virtual representations, for example, you can try out, play, or even try to identify yourself to a different gender identity. And according to researchers, for example, amongst male users who use feminine characters in games, in virtual games, they can deploy those characters for tactics to enhance their appearance and even for in-game benefits. So there can be some strategic aspect to it. But there’s also a number of literature that highlights that users swap their gender appearance in virtual worlds because they want to try out a different gender identity or because it provides them with something that they cannot obtain in the physical world. So the virtual body should not be underestimated as just this, you know, avatar that anybody can incarnate. Sometimes there are greater implications when users decide to choose this or that appearance. However, also what happens in the digital space or the metaverse is not limited to the confinements of the screen. So giving shape to this so-called called yourself in the virtual realm is not a naive activity detached from physical world and hits a preexisting online and offline phenomenon. In other words, the virtual self is not separated from the physical space self as the virtual identity is the self transformed from the physical world self, right? So for example, it is based on certain of your cultural background, a sociocultural background that you will choose this for that representation in the virtual reality, for example, those things can impact it. So as such, it is essential to consider the space outside of the metaverse, even that existing gender roles and discourses influence the choice of virtual identity as users bring perceptions and meaning shapes by the physical world setting. So this implies that through avatars, individuals can support and or subvert hegemonic gender norms of the physical world, making the virtual realm a really crucial data for gender and identity research. My suggestion here is that the virtual space and the physical world influence one another, never really detached as binary opposites. I hypothesize the gender norms of the physical world can lead certain users to desire or to experiment with their gender identity in the metaverse, encouraging gender diversity and representation through virtual characters. While not all users might desire to swap genders in the metaverse, we cannot overlook the fact that the virtual realm allows certain people to experience an alternative gender identity and indulge in self-expression. So I want to start with my case studies now that we see that there has been quite a great amount of research done on gender in the virtual realm, and it’s not something it has been going on for since the beginning of the internet, let’s say. So I want to share with you a graph from last year’s project titled Harassment in Metaverse, conducted together with. So this large scale quantitative study among Japanese, European and US users focused on harassment issues in the Metaverse. This graph might remind you of the one previously shown by NEM, but from another study that we did in 2021. So just very briefly, but to be eligible and participate in the studies, a user had to use social VR and HMD, so head mounted display system, at least five times since last year. Users could answer the Google form from September 5th to 24th of 2022. And then we collected 876 answers from users worldwide. So I’ll not go into details, but I encourage you to consult the full report that is available online for free. It’s titled Harassment in Metaverse, and you have the link written below. So just as a very brief note, we did not inquire about the user’s gender, as our study aimed not to investigate whether users’ currently physical world gender identity matched their assigned sex at birth. So just to avoid confusion, here you will see written biological sex of VR users and avatar appearance, because we wanted to use terms that would be the most inclusive and most understandable by the majority of the users. As you can see in this graph, very similar to what NEM has shown, the majority of the users are still male users, but more than 70% use feminine appearances, be they male users or female users. And we can also see that about 13% of female users play with masculine presenting avatars. So overall, we could see the gender swapping, especially amongst male users, is quite common. And we actually asked a similar question, 2101, as NEM has touched upon it. As you can see, the numbers are pretty similar with the 2022 report, with the difference being there are more female users in 2022, compared to men. to 2021. What is quite interesting is in the 2021 report, we ask users the reasons for engaging with avatars that had a different gender appearance. And this will be just a reiteration of what Nem said before. What I want you to pay attention to is that while for many the choice was motivated simply by the appearance, for about a quarter of overall users deploying an avatar of a different gender identity enabled them to express themselves better and communicate with others. So that implies that through the avatar appearance, they achieved a certain self-expression that was not attainable to them in the physical world. And when it comes to my finding that I collected through numerous surveys, in-depth interviews and participant observations since 2019, I can summarize them by saying that for my informants, so Japanese men who use cute looking avatars in virtual and digital spaces, becoming those characters enabled them to temporarily free themselves from the breadwinner model of manhood which still prevails in contemporary Japanese society. So of course not all men claim so, but the ones that I focus on did. So we can see that the virtual character enables something that people cannot attain in the physical world due to sociocultural norms. So during my master’s thesis data collection, out of 51 participants, 18 expressed that being a man is difficult in Japan. For instance, users told me that being masculine in Japanese society is a heavy responsibility, as you can see on the testimonies here, right? And that most men cannot fulfill their requirements. One informant even enumerated the difficulties. He said, for example, if you do not work hard, if you do not get ahead, if you do not earn money, many women will not look at you and that is difficult. Another user told me the image of men working to sustain their families is still very strong in Japan. And that image of man’s life. becomes work. As a result, it is easy to give an image of failure. Others also mentioned that adult male are oppressed, and mainly because of old-fashioned ideas that are still present in Japan, and that quite normal for men and women to have to act according to general masculine and feminine standards. So as such, conforming to the idea that one’s gender identity should be the one ensigns sex at birth. In reaction to the everyday difficulties, the participants I interviewed turned towards those cutie-looking avatars to get away from the expectations, right, and freed themselves from being male, or because they were tired of socio-cultural expectations, and because they couldn’t express themselves as they wanted to. So those above presented difficulties partially stem from the prolonged socio-economic stagnation that we see more or less everywhere in the world right now. Several academics have highlighted, as I show on the left-hand side of this graph, that basically since the 90s there has been some economic stagnation, which resulted in employment difficulties amongst men and women, and life has become overall more precarious. What I want to note, what is quite interesting, is Akure Takayuki Kiyota, a writer who collects love stories of more than 1,200 men and women, and published on the theme of love and gender, he says that men experience difficulties in maintaining self-sufficiency, self-esteem, and seeking approval and admiration from others, leading to difficulties in everyday masculinities. This is not to paint a negative image of the physical world, but more to highlight that there are certain issues that my informants have experienced have been also noted by academics around the globe, right? And while vulnerability might seem to be a fundamental human right, many of my… performance, I talked with explained that them as men, they felt they did not have access to or were allowed to be vulnerable in their daily lives. And according to researchers such as Ida Yumiko, by deploying what can be called feminine aesthetics, men distance themselves from dominant masculinity and strategically perform their gender identities. For example, my informants connect online in their free time and consciously or unconsciously challenge the daily gender expectations they are discontent with by becoming other gender identities in the metaverse. The picture I paint here is that of the physical world of socioeconomic conditions and sociocultural gender norms that influence users’ gender behavior online and in virtual environments. Of course, everyone’s story is different. Everyone uses aliters in different ways and for different means. And that’s what makes the metaverse so diverse. But to live in a more gender diverse and inclusive society, we have to pay attention, listen to, and acknowledge the variety of expressions in the metaverse going beyond the avatar’s appearance. I also believe that achieving gender diversity in the metaverse is not enough. We must also make it a safe place for users to express themselves or to replay characters. So on this page, I’m referring back to the large scale quantitative study harassment in the metaverse that I mentioned previously. And as we can see from this chart, harassment in the metaverse is quite significant, right? As you can see, quite a lot of users from Japan, North America, Europe, either male or female, have experienced it. Our findings regarding harassment were similar to those of other scholars. Women and minorities tended to experience more unwanted behavior. And our data also demonstrated that playing feminine avatar, be it because you are a woman or because you’re in a virtual character that has feminine representations, tended to be reasons for harassment. Also, for example, identity specific. slurs and physical attacks were quite common attacks to like non-cisgender identities. So these findings demonstrate that the identity exploration aspects of the embodied avatar can be kind of a double-edged sword. In other words, while the Metaverse provides users with a space to play and experiment with their gender identities, some users are also harassed for what they do. So in the Metaverse, I want to discuss, in the meantime, I want to discuss what we can do to make everyone’s experience better. As we can see in this chart, most users do not want limitations by legislations. Many also believe that platform guidelines are sufficient and the idea of excessive restrictions to prevent harassment is unappealing. So rather than having legislations, the people we asked those questions to wrote that they requested suggestions to platform to make our experience, everyone’s experience safer. So I want to conclude this talk by presenting their suggestions. As you can see here, we summarized everything in four main requests to platforms. As we can see, users would like to see a more flexible tool so that the user and the community could defend themselves. For example, that could be tools to hide users that friends have blocked or to have a safety zone. Second, users also mentioned wanting stricter moderation and a more robust reporting system to make it easier for moderators to go through claims and punish the harasser. Third, users wish to have an adjustable safety measure and a block feature for repeated offenders, be it the account or a suspension measure of an HMD. Finally, users showed concern regarding further restrictions that might hinder their freedom or make the VR experience less enjoyable. This is also probably why the majority did not want to see any legislations implemented with the social VR space as shown in the previous slide. I really suggest to you to have a look at the survey. It’s quite interesting. and I think in terms of how we can make the Metaverse a better place, there’s some quite valuable information. So thank you for having me here today. This was a very brief presentation and I just want to conclude by saying that to make everyone’s experience, we have to acknowledge everyone’s different manners to identify in the virtual space and that the virtual realm can become a space where users can express their gender and go beyond social and economic difficulties they might experience in the physical world. Thank you. Thank you.

Moderator:
Thank you very much, Mila. And thank you very much for keeping your presentation in the said 20 minutes. That’s great. We will have the Q&A session for the 10 minutes until the top of the hour. The first question will be that it’s already given in the chat window from Neo Neo-san. He will say, I am not so sure, but he thinks that the gap between the real gender and avatar gender might be because the supply of the avatar is dominated by the female one. What do you think, Neema, about this? Am I clear for the questioning?

Virtual Girl Nem:
Yeah, that is a very good question, I think. Yes, previously, the supply of the masculine avatar is very limited. But recently, masculine avatars is also increasing, so the gap is decreasing, I think. But as I explained, this is the reason why they are switching the gender in the virtual world. Half of them are answering the main reason is fashion. The supply might be affected for them. They might choose feminine avatar because of the supply. But the last half of them answers the reason is communication. They say feminine avatar is more, they are wearing feminine avatar to be more good communication to the others. This kind of people is not depending on the supply. So for the answer to the question, yes and no. Okay.

Moderator:
I hope this answers your question, Neo Neo-san. Thank you for that. And then the floor is open for another question. Please never hesitate to make yours. This is a very good chance for you to make that directly to them or Mila. Come on. Come on. Maybe from Maemura-san. Please come up to the microphone, state your name and then make it in English, please.

Audience:
This is question for Naem-san. I’m Tanaka from ITU-AJ. So I’m afraid that aren’t you tired because you in virtual world, but your physical body is real. So brain may cause some confusion or something like that. Aren’t you tired every day?

Virtual Girl Nem:
It’s also a very very good question. Well yeah that answer is again yes and no. In the beginning when I started the Metaverse life yeah my brain sometimes confused but after three or four five years I already completely accustomed to this life. How can I say switching Metaverse life and physical reality life is already very basic thing for me. For example for you now you are in the suit and joining the conversation yeah there you are very in formal state but when you go back to your home you wear the pyjama and talk with your family. Then this kind of mood switching is also basic thing also for the physical people of course the extension become very wide but yeah but yeah people can be accustomed to switching the life. Today I can super quickly change myself just wearing VR goggles. Thank you. Okay thank you good comment and also one more this is comment

Moderator:
I expect this confusion a kind of stress it’s good training anti-aging so good inspiration to the brain so I wish in future we will have an eternal life in Metaverse world. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much it’s really great great comment Tanaka-san. Thank you very much I need to do this then and for the anti-aging. Any other questions? We still have the five minutes please. State your name and go ahead with your question.

Audience:
Hi, thank you. My name is Maria De Brassefer from IFLA. Well, thanks, first of all, for your presentation. It was quite interesting. I think my question is more around, I don’t know much about the metaverse, but I’ve heard, for example, that there’s a lot of companies that are trying to launch marketing strategies via the metaverse. And because I don’t really fully understand how this works, I was wondering if, for example, NEM could tell us a bit about it. So how does this usually work in the metaverse? Is it still everything free or can you already interact with money on the metaverse? And do companies already have a place in it? And how are the users in the metaverse also interacting with this? Yeah, just what is the collateral effect of this? Thank you.

Virtual Girl Nem:
Maybe you’re caring about some company has super big power. That could be the future problem of the metaverse, right? Yes, yes. Yes, of course. Yeah, that is possible. That is a possible question. At the moment, we are making very good communication between users and companies. Making the good metaverse is something like to be a god. You can set the physical form of everything to the world. Yes, platform is a god. So I can understand your care, but to make a useful service, the communication with the actual user is very, very important. And these working services always have very good communication. And big tech is also working on making the Metaverse world, but their activity is not getting well at the moment because they are not making good communication with the customer. So I am very optimistic for the future of Metaverse because if they cannot make good communication with the customer, the people don’t use the service. So the business doesn’t work. So I think we can make good communication, keep good communication even in the future, I think. How do you think, Mira?

Liudmila Bredikhina:
Yes, I think it all depends, as usual, with what are the company’s motivations, whether it’s exploitative or not. Hence why I think, like I mentioned in the beginning, the year in Chad is about promoting diversity and ethical well-being in the physical world. And we have to apply the same rules and the same, let’s say, concerns to the virtual world, right, to the Metaverse. And if we do do so, yes, I think we can have a really good experience between the economy and the users without having monopolies and things like that. But it all depends, of course, on the intentions of certain companies and on the way the leaders of those companies want to market themselves and how they want to use the Metaverse. Because people in the Metaverse are people, they’re not just sabotage, you know. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Moderator:
It’s almost the top of the hour, and now I need to close the session. But before that, I’d like to have the last few words from the presenters. Then Mila first, please. Thank you so much for listening to us. We’re really happy to have this opportunity to share our research and our recent reports with all of you. And we hope that our presentations will spark some future discussions and new possibilities to collaborate and also to explore the metaverse. Thank you. Thank you, Mila. Nem? Thank you, everybody, for listening to our talk. I’m super happy because the metaverse is great, as I explained. But at the moment, that is a very, very small world. Yeah, this big body Internet Governance Forum finally recognized the metaverse world and we can talk to each other. This is a very good next step. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, Mila and Nem. So please give them a big hand for the great presentation. Thank you very much. This session is closed. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mila and Nem. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Thank you. It was fun. Thank you.

Baratang Miya

The analysis reveals a stark gender disparity in digital spaces, a phenomenon particularly prominent in Africa where a mere 15% of the population have proper access to the internet. Among those, a significant majority are men, indicating a deep-rooted gender gap in the digital landscape of the continent. The absence of women’s voices presents a prevalent issue in both political and digital discourse, undermining the premise of information democratisation. The lack of leadership opportunities for women in tech spaces further exacerbates this imbalance.

Progress has been observed in arenas such as the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), characterised by an emerging focus on women’s presence in leadership roles that help shape the digital platform. Despite such strides, challenges persist. A significant facet of these predicaments lies in the widespread digital illiteracy and limited understanding of technology’s benefits, reflecting slow technology adoption across Africa. Alarmingly, 85% of the African population remains unaware of their ‘rights’ outlined by the IGF, primarily due to their restricted access to the internet. In some countries, women’s access to the internet is extraordinarily low, at around 12% compared to their male counterparts. The need for comprehensive efforts to enhance digital infrastructure, elevate literacy levels, and implement capacity-building measures is crucial to usher more women into the digital domain.

However, not all is grim. The aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen a welcome increase in the number of women embracing the ICT sector. The persistent work-from-home requirement has allowed female participation on the internet substantially, letting a previously underrepresented section of society contribute to the digital conversation.

Initiatives emphasising women’s entrepreneurship are also noteworthy. They leverage digital technology to improve business operations. An exemplary programme is the ECA, which has successfully assisted numerous women; ambitions are set high to expand this programme to all African countries by 2025. Complementary to these efforts are strides to ensure female inclusivity and active participation in digital spaces, supported by the expected surge in Africa’s young demographic and various capacity-building endeavours.

Support for the Feminist Global Digital Compact principles is also significant. These principles encompass a myriad of provisions focused on digital rights, freedom from gender-based violence, universal digital rights, safe internet usage, safeguards against harmful surveillance and transparency in AI. This endorsement heralds a future of digital spaces that adhere to the principles of equality and safety.

Yet, significant hurdles persist. One crucial issue is that of inadequate and inconsistent electricity supply, as observed in South Africa, which directly influences consistent digital connectivity. This issue highlights the broader need for inclusivity in addressing the challenges faced by nations in the Global South in relation to digital economies. It is instrumental for global digital discourse to extensively acknowledge these challenges to develop a well-rounded global approach.

The argument for promoting women’s technological literacy carries considerable weight given their vital role in educating future generations. It is cautioned that the onset of an under-educated or technologically illiterate generation could severely compromise the future. The importance of empowerment is underscored as a fundamental element of progress. The insights gained call for an expansion of initiatives like Women in IGF beyond Africa to achieve truly global coverage. Ultimately, striving for gender equality remains pivotal in fostering a diversified, inclusive, and innovative digital future.

Mactar Seck

In Africa, despite substantial progress, wide disparities persist in the engagement of women in the tech sector and the equalisation of internet access. Women currently comprise less than 12% of the workforce in the tech field, significantly lower than the global average of 40%. The primary contributing factors involve limited internet access and the gender digital divide. To counter these issues, several African nations have initiated funding schemes to encourage and support women’s involvement in tech.

The positive increase in women joining the digital sector, spurred by changes to work dynamics during the COVID pandemic, has strengthened these efforts. This trend highlights the potential of African women to substantively contribute to the digital economy given suitable resources and opportunities.

Nonetheless, progress remains hindered, particularly for rural women who continue to face appreciable barriers to accessing the digital world. These obstructions include inadequate internet connectivity, with less than 10% of rural areas having access, and entrenched cultural practices that impede efforts to overcome the digital divide and restrict women from utilising digital technologies and gaining necessary skills.

The digital divide also extends to a significant proportion of Africa’s population, suffering from lack of access to electricity. This challenge, impacting over 50% of African inhabitants, substantially hinders digital access. However, solutions are being proposed, including efficient use of existing infrastructure and the deployment of innovative low-energy technologies, offering potential improvements to digital access.

Moreover, it’s important to recognise that not only access but safe navigation of the digital sphere remains a concern for African women. Reports indicate that 30-40% of women face online harassment, depending on the country, highlighting the need for robust protective measures such as raising awareness about cybersecurity. This will ensure women’s safety in the digital arena.

Adding to these complexities, many African women lack legal identity due to established cultural norms. This reality affects approximately 5 million people, predominantly women. This absence of official identification further marginalises these women, exacerbating the issues connected with digital exclusion and complicating the trajectory towards gender equality.

In conclusion, whilst strategic interventions and improvements in digital infrastructure have been implemented, achieving digital inclusion of women in Africa still necessitates comprehensive, concerted and context-specific actions. These initiatives should address the multifaceted challenges, from enhancing digital and electricity access to altering cultural attitudes and ensuring legal recognition. This comprehensive approach is a prerequisite to realising an inclusive digital future and, in doing so, fostering progress towards the broader Sustainable Development Goals.

Audience

This comprehensive examination primarily focusses on the intertwined issues of inadequate representation, digital disconnection, and gender disparities within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There is a pressing need for broader representation from the global majority and a more significant involvement of women in the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), and the Digital Economy.

Concerningly, reports and statistics on digital connectivity appear to overlook rural areas and regions suffering from disrupted electricity supply, pointing to a perceived urban bias. It’s necessary to understand that the question of consistent electricity supply is intrinsically linked to the progress of digital connectivity. Acknowledging this is a vital step towards ensuring digital inclusion for all.

The conversation also tackles the prevailing societal fear that the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) will lead to an increase in unemployment, particularly hitting young Africans. This stereotype overshadows the potential positive effects of AI in the workforce.

However, there are also positive aspects within this argument. It recognises achievements made by women within the technology sector. Documenting and showcasing these successes and innovations will boost much-needed visibility and acknowledgement. For initiatives such as the Global Digital Compact, it’s argued that women and young individuals should be treated as stakeholders, rather than just beneficiaries. Their voices and contributions are vital in moulding the digital landscape.

A striking observation within the analysis is the substantial digital divide in Mexico, with stark disparities in internet access and usage. Women and the older generations are disproportionately affected by this issue, with almost 78.1% of Mexican women reported to have trouble using the internet, primarily due to age and lack of knowledge. There’s a positive mindset emerging that suggests these demographics should be empowered through an education about the internet.

In summary, this detailed analysis calls for concerted efforts to overcome representation gaps, disparities in digital connectivity, and gender inequality within the digital sphere. These measures are critical to effectuate the related SDGs to ensure that advancements in technology, AI included, promote inclusive growth and equality. Recognition of achievements, especially amongst women in technology, and the shift from mere beneficiaries to stakeholders in digital initiatives, are key steps on this journey.

Margret Nyambura

The sentiment across the analysed items suggests a strong emphasis on securing meaningful connectivity and representation for women in the digital realm, particularly in STEM careers. This assertion is supported by statements revealing a considerable ‘leaky pipeline’ effect globally, resulting in fewer women and reduced retention in STEM-related sectors. Worryingly, the data reveals that only 22% of primary schools in Africa offer reliable internet connectivity, and women are 19% less likely to utilise mobile internet compared to men.

There is a robust case for the urgent need to increase involvement and representation of women in the STEM field. It is posited that, whilst opportunities for both genders are ostensibly equal at an early age, cultural norms and deep-seated biases often guide women towards the arts.

The review also underlines the potential risk of women’s exclusion from forthcoming opportunities in emerging technologies. The sentiment expressed suggests that unless the integration and participation of women in this digital revolution are considered from early childhood, achieving meaningful gender equality in these areas could remain elusive.

Crucially, the importance of data reflecting women’s experiences in the digital economy is emphasised, supporting fair decision-making. In its absence, there is an elevated risk of biased outcomes and decisions, perpetuating systemic gender-based discrimination in resource allocation. Better representation within collected data could serve as an effective remedy to such bias.

Addressing digital inclusion in rural areas, there is suggestion of implementing innovative methods, such as art and drama. These creative outlets are proposed as means to expand digital space awareness, transcending connectivity issues to ensure vital information reaches rural populations. Moreover, the role of African youth, who constitute the majority of the continent’s population, could be instrumental in disseminating these technologies.

Additionally, there is a compelling argument for utilising innovative technological solutions to bridge the digital divide, particularly acute in rural areas. The belief is that all individuals can bring digital awareness to their local communities, thus facilitating potential technological progress. The digital space is envisioned as a pivotal tool in driving such advancement, reducing inequalities for sustainable development.

In conclusion, the arguments and evidence presented suggest a positive shift in attitudes towards gender equality, quality education, and reduced inequalities. However, substantial work needs to be done to ensure comprehensive digital inclusion and equal representation in STEM fields, particularly concerning women and rural communities.

Baratang Miya:
So, again, welcome, everyone. My name is Baratang Mia. I am from Gal Hype, Women Who Code, and we’re organizing women in IGF for the second year now. We had one in Addis. And following that up is this particular one. So I will start the session. We have three speakers, one presentation about what’s happening with women in the ecosystem. And then we’ll have Mr. Mark Tasek to tell us about what has he done in the past year about what we aimed for. Last year, the focus was on contributing towards the global digital compact. And we have done that very well. So I will touch on that. But in the interim, I just want to say that the reason we hold women in IGF is that even though women are a huge part of the IGF community and make up half of the population globally, women’s voices have been historically low and entirely absent in the political and digital spaces. So these imbalances ultimately deny leadership opportunities to women in spaces, especially in the spaces that they would have to impact the technology, build it, and create it in their local environments, especially women who face additional forms of discrimination. So IGF Women’s Summit focuses on leadership mindset and spotlight the women who can harness the power in this pivotal moment on the Internet and to shape the digital platform. We want to contribute a new way forward and come up with actionable solutions to drive meaningful progress in Internet governance. So, the final output of this particular summit would be a resource produced by a community of participants at the summit. One of the thing is making sure that the planning for next year, which we want to take this and hopefully turn it into an NRI where women’s issues and gender issues could be discussed in a formal setting. At the moment, it’s been driven by one organization and few of us that were there last year, but I think now we want to make it bigger and try to approach the Internet Governance Secretariat and say, please give us an opportunity to become an NRI at global level that women across the world, across the globe, can contribute towards the IGF and contribute at the leadership level and make sure that the impact of what women and gender issues should be covered at that level. So, based on that, whatever we come up with, Margaret will do a presentation and what the presentation she will do will publish it as part of the final outcome of this and take some of the points on what do we do with what came out of that presentation. So it’s more of an open forum. Everyone who is here is allowed to contribute to how can we make gender be taken as an entity that could contribute towards IGF, because at the moment there isn’t one entity that is really focusing on gender issues and we take Women’s Summit as part of that. With that in mind, I will give an opportunity to Mr. Maktasek who will talk to us, but I just want to say that gender disparity is very huge. In Africa, I know that Women are working very hard. I’m looking at Lily here who’s driving so much about internet governance from the basic and on the ground, but at the same time, because of the literacy level and because of the misunderstanding of where AI is going and what technology is bringing to the communities, the uptake is very slow. The people are still not understanding what is technology doing for them and why is it beneficial? And if you come and you talk about the rights and digital rights and human rights of people in the technology space to people who do not have technology, it’s as if you are taking away something from them. So we have to find the balance of making sure that even if we’re talking about the rights of women online and we talk about cybersecurity and we talk about gender and we talk about all these issues that comes up at IGF, we also have to talk about how do we make sure that the same people that we’re talking about on the ground have access to internet? Because at the moment, I think it’s only 15% of Africans who have proper internet access. That means when we talk about the rights that we’re talking about at IGF, 85% of Africans don’t know what the hell we’re talking about because it’s not implemented yet. So how do we talk about something they don’t have? So that balance, it’s something that I think we would have to address, especially women, because they are the ones who are literally not online. And with that said, I’ll hand over to Mr. Mactar.

Mactar Seck:
Thank you very much, Mrs. Baratang, and good morning, everyone. To attend this important event to discuss women in IGF. As you know, women is playing an important role in the Africa ecosystem. But we have a lot of concern about their participation. When we look at the African culture, the women are the ones who educated children. They wake up early, very early, to go to try to get some things done, some work, to give food to their kids. Women also leave their country, their rural area, to come in the urban city. Try to get some work to support their family inside their respective country. Women also suffer a lot in Africa due to the lack of health hospitals. When you look at the number of women who died due to lack of hospitals, there are too many in Africa. At school also, a lot of women don’t have a chance to go to school for several reasons. Sometimes it’s cultural. In some cultures, women are not allowed to go to school. In other cultures, they put priority for women to work at home to support their mother. Another problem also, in several African countries, women don’t have any legal form of identity. Because, for the culture… in global networks, you are here, in the middle of internet, in the middle of internet, it’s available to you or want to purchase Arey Very welcome and I like to And the digital technology, we have a lot of progress, in the several in the activities of women. now, in this e-commerce, they are applications on e-commerce, in the food system, have developed a lot of application focus on their activity. And with the development of this technology, the role of women become more, more important. And we have seen, since the COVID, an increased number of women in the digital sector. And I think now, everybody agree, women is part of this digital ecosystem. When you look at the room, I think we have more women than men. It is a case also in the population. We have more women than men. But we have several challenge for that, to access to this digital technology. Still, we have more men connected. We have more than 1,000 women in Africa. We have 45 men connected compared to 34 women. Access also on the tech work is very low for women. Generally, it’s around 12% compared to the world average 40%. They are not doing their work here. It’s already point that this is women harassment online. In a lot of countries numbers are very high. This number goes to 30 to 40% of women on the Internet have been high racists. There are many countries where there is an increase in quantity, one less control concrete affects 5 million people in the continent without any legal identity. And most of them are women. Why it is important to have a woman in the digital ecosystem is because we have to understand what is the future we want for women, what role we want for women in this digital ecosystem. And we can link this to this global digital compact, the role of women in this digital compact. Now, first, let’s start by key model that defenders can try to develop in the next 30 years. Thank you very much. to women and youth to this digital technology. How we can do? We have 24% access to Internet, less than 10% in the rural area. We have to put the right infrastructure in the city, in the urban city, as well as in the rural area. It is something very important. The government should put in place the right infrastructure to provide equitable and affordable access to the women. This can be done through several ways. We can provide a lot of facilities for women to access to this service. Also we can develop public infrastructure to provide more access to women to this digital technology. Also, we need to build the capacity of women. It is very important. When we look at the COVID period in Africa, we identify around 5,000 innovation, application focused on linkage to the COVID. More of these applications have been developed by women. We have a ground in the continent. We need to build their capacity. We should have a lot of programs to build the capacity of women, not at the university or high school, but as a primary school, like what Kenya already started last year. third, we provide access, we look at the capacity of the women, but we need also to involve the women in the tech sector. It is very important, when you have the capacity, the government should promote access to the women, for women to this sector. And through access to the market, through also support, funding support to this women entrepreneur to access to this market is something very important. It is something some country did very successfully, like Tunisia and Morocco. They have an incentive fund to support women tech in the sector. Another one, it is we need awareness about this cyber security child online, it’s not only child, but I think all women are concerned by this cyber crime issue. We need to secure the cyber space for women. By organizing several information working group, awareness campaign to explain to the women the opportunity and the risk to be online. I think it is something very important we have to highlight for all women, such as those in Africa. And in the Global Digital Compact also, we have highlighted the important role of women as gender crosscutting issue in all the ten key priority area. How to involve this women? to be part on this global digital compact, one, on the digital public infrastructure, how this woman can access to the digital public infrastructure like e-commerce platform, e-government service, digital ID platform, and we have a lot of, we have some recommendation for government, how government can have affordable access to this digital technology, this goes through building infrastructure and also an appropriate regulation to make sure everybody have access to this digital technology. Of course capacity building is very important through the global digital compact and focus more on the emerging technology, how we build the capacity of women in the emerging technology to make sure women are part on this revolution. As you know, by 2030, 90% of the new job will be on digital or need a digital component. We need also to build the capacity on this artificial intelligence because artificial intelligence is very easy, it’s not required a lot of infrastructure, just if you are smart, we need some application, some infrastructure to develop application and we have seen also this development during this COVID period. What is important also for women in this global digital compact, it is the issue of public good. We need to put in place infrastructure policy to provide opportunity of women to access to this. you select, raise money, and make there a connection to financing,ười doesn’t get money for public good, this is very important for the continent. Internet fragmentation, so employed because when you talk about internet fragmentation, we can talk about on one Internet, but you go, you have Africa, several Internet to you have it. People who don’t have access, they don’t have access to the Internet. So we have to make it open and access to everybody. Everybody should be have equal right access to Internet. Women and men should have equal right to access to Internet. Something very important we have to take into consideration. And also, we have to consider access to Internet. We have to consider access to Internet. We have to consider access to Internet. If we consider access to Internet is a human right, I think we can sort out the issue of access for women in the continent. And it is something we discussed last year. Several progress have been made. We organized a lot of forum to discuss this principles, but it is not enough. It is important to do this, to gather these ideas and programs in the country order to improve access for women to this technology to harness also their produce through digital technology and I can highlight some initiative with the ECA level. Thank you very much. This is a training program for women in the age between 12 and 25 years old. This program provides skills to these women, to these people, during a training for two weeks. The objective is to show without any skills on digital technology, within two-week formation, within two-week formation, to be part of this digital era. And the women are trained in several areas, like artificial intelligence, web gaming, we have also the statuses, we have also several applications on climate change, 3D printing, and other areas. And since we launched this program, now we have been problem-solving our dream of developing gender discriminatory program in seven countries. And we have 35,000 girl trainees and they have developed around 300 projects. It is very amazing to have a look at the project developed by this young girl just now in Africa. It is something we have in Africa, people who get a husband very early and they are faced with a lot of problems and they developed a website to show the problem faced by this young girl. We have also other applications related to the girl living in the city, coming from the rural area. And they teach here in Kenya. And they get a lot of problems. There staying in this city. It is a people you meet to work at home in several family and they develop a lot of application on that also On health sector. We have also several application developed by this girl Another project important we call it take African woman focus on the woman entrepreneurship and we support a woman to Improve their capacity to access to the market. It is a ECA program and we already organized this We last year we organized this in four country and several woman has been have been selected and they get price and to improve their business through digital and technology and the objective is by 2025 to have this program in all African country Another important project for for woman it is a capacity building on FinTech When we look at Kenya, Kenya is a good example where the FinTech sector Is leading by woman and we have a design a program with Alibaba to Build the capacity or to improve the capacity of women in the FinTech sector. It is something very important I think we can Say as example in several other country to see how we can duplicate What’s happened in Kenya in other African country this show the importance of? this session and I would like to congratulate Barata and her team to have this session in the second edition of the woman in IGF and To reassure the support of ECA of this on this activity Because, it is very important to support women, why? We are all coming from women. Without women, you don’t have anyone in this world. And we need to support them, to make them happy, to make them involved in all sectors, and they become leading this for industrial revolution. And I’m sure with the capacity we have now for the young generation, when you discuss with them, when you look at the project they develop, we are confident that African is on the right way to be part, such as a woman community, in this for industrial revolution. I’m going to stop there, and thank you very much for listening to me, bye.

Baratang Miya:
Thank you very much, Magda. I would like to ask everyone to join us on the table, because it looks very empty, but on the other side, if we can all just join up here, to make the room a little bit warmer. Thank you very much, Magda. I just want to thank you very much. When you started, you said that women are the ones who educate children. Maybe I am lost. Can we just join on the table as we walk in? As you mentioned, women are the ones who educate children, and one other thing that you mentioned is that since COVID, there has been an increased number of women in the ICT sector. And I think it’s one of the reality that COVID has really given women an opportunity to work from home, participate on the internet in manner that we wouldn’t before. You mentioned that access is around 12% to women compared to men. Africa has 500 million people in the continent, and in the next coming five years, 70% of those would be youth. but more women also. So I’m trying to think of the concrete strategization for the membership experience so that don’t basically have the intellectual experience, you know, we not necessarily need women to participate, we need to empower women to do that work on the country at largeμαι so that’s what we’re trying to do. So I’m trying to think of the concrete strategies for the membership experience so that don’t basically have the intellectual experience, you know, we not necessarily need women to participate, we need to empower women to do that work on the country at large. So I’m trying to think of the concrete strategies for the membership experience so that don’t basically have the intellectual experience. So I’m trying to think of the concrete strategies for the membership experience so that don’t basically have the intellectual experience, you know, we need women to do that work on the country at large. So I’m trying to think of the concrete strategies for the membership experience. So I’m trying to think of the concrete strategies for the membership experience. And so that is a contrary and it’s not an obvious and it’s not a confounding fact that we all see different possibilities and different ways how we can benefit from that coming unmillion dollar system. And as Dr. Chris was mentioned in terms of kind the conferences in France and Brazil people are increasingly prioritizing the digital transparency welfare by expanding Polish support but expanding the contribution to bilateral collaboration in this talk, so we want to make sure that in this If what is there meets our needs.

Margret Nyambura:
And probably to go deeper on these digital ecosystem that is much informed or driven by the STEM area. That existing data reveals that globally there is a leaky pipeline leading to few women and lack of retention in STEM careers. That as we start at an early age, we probably have the same opportunities, men and women. But as we continue as young children, do we get the same opportunities? Are there cultural issues? Are there biases? Are there issues at the household level that keeps on pushing women to more arts and men to more STEM subjects? What can we do to ensure that from that particular age, from young age, we are having women focused on STEM subjects so that when we come to their 20s, their 30s, their 40s, we are not saying that we do not have women in the STEM area or in artificial intelligence or emerging technologies. And yet, and I think statistics have been given that in the African context, most people are in the rural areas. And statistics have shown that 22% of primary schools in Africa have only 22% have reliable internet connectivity and we are talking about e-learning. We are talking about e-health. How do we ensure that our children that are in rural areas, they have the same opportunities as those who are in other places? So if connectivity is a start, then research shows that we are not where we need to be. We need to connect people in the rural areas. Majority of us in Africa, we are in rural areas and that’s where we don’t have connectivity. Again, statistics show that meaningful connectivity is still a wild dream for most of the women in the global majority. And as GDIP, we are looking deeper and learning how we can address the inequality. And the research we are doing. of female yearling differently coil with the flexible technology and a dimension for continued success and longevity of the global university and the educationarf the guide points is our mis送g ng ing ex z act el for women in this space. And what we mean by meaningful connectivity. You can be a consumer of content but you can also create. Again we are talking of appropriate devices. If you have a smart phone then you are probably able to do more than a basic phone. Again we are talking of unlimited broadband connectivity. That you can always get that connectivity whenever you want it and wherever you want it. And not only do you have that connectivity but then you are able to use it on a daily basis. And it is due to that, then you can keep on being innovative, keep on seeing how best to have a productive life in the digital space and with that you are able to improve your livelihood. So I know statistics have been given but using data of the 2023, we are saying that women are 19% less likely than men to use mobile internet. And again across the continent, all of us, we are using mobile internet. So you see again there’s that gap. And in Africa you know, there are a lot of youth in the space that have soft records and phones and they are not easily able to use those data. And for it is extended and out is still far away. So we are sending away our data so they are not necessarily easily able to access the data that they require. That’s something that we have to see. So a must save alf life So, we need to do an analysis of that, so that even as we are talking about inequalities in the digital space, then we are able to quantify that. So, meaningful connectivity of women in the global majority is a prerequisite for them to assume a central role in the digital space. So, we need to do an analysis of that, so that even as we are talking about inequalities in the digital space, then we are able to quantify that. So, meaningful connectivity of women in the global majority is a prerequisite for them to assume a central role as citizens and participants in the digital economy, that emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning are the engines of the future economies. And we must be in that space as creators, not as consumers and our social and economic lives depend on these technologies. In the digital economy, the development outcome of digital execution can only be addressed if we can quantify the opportunity cost of digital inclusion, that every time try to see what are women losing if they’re not connected. And not just in terms of monetary value, in terms of shaping our future generation so that we contextualize that. And the aim is to contextualize the digital exclusion narrative and link it to livelihoods and social economic development, that in the digital ecosystem, there is something for everybody. Everybody can make a niche of themselves, but you need to be aware, you need to have the skills for you to be able to do that. And data on women’s experiences of digital economy and cost of inclusion is vital to reflect women’s world views in artificial intelligence decision-making based on gender data in public domain. That we are going to the world of artificial intelligence. Do we have enough data about women and then presenting that data, has it been collected? And if we don’t do that, then we end up with biased decisions, outcomes, which can lead to a negative outcome. Thank you. will lead to development outcomes. Actual intelligence replicates biases and discrimination in decision making algorithms due to lack of data on women and global health. So inequalities perpetuate when artificial intelligence are used to make decisions on allocation of resources. So again, this is an area that we need women to actively participate. So, contextualization of the opportunities for women in the digital space, once meaningfully connected and digitally skilled, will lead to digitally innovative livelihoods. And we have seen that, that as long as you give people the tools they need to navigate, then they are able to make their own livelihoods. And the ripple effect of empowering women through digital inclusion, skills development, and cyber hygiene, which again, we must emphasize to ensure that, again, we are bringing holy human beings, the young generation, we should not let them be influenced by these new technologies. They must use it to develop their socioeconomic, to shape their lives, and again, still not forget our culture, so that we are moving with our culture in a safely environment, a digital environment. And ultimately, giving meaning to artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and other emerging technologies in the eyes of the women in the global majority. That as long as these technologies are making sense to us, as long as they can make us change our livelihoods, as long as we can see a change, a positive change, after the usage of these technologies, then we can move forward, and we can actively participate in shaping the future of the emerging technologies. If you’re not thinking about holistic inclusion, that is from early childhood, from what they can do with these technologies, from the very beginning, meaningful integration and active participation of women in emerging technologies will remain a mirage, and we risk excluding them from the many opportunities in the digital space. So again, we need to start from early childhood, try to see what are the opportunities. So, I think it’s important for us to understand what is the role of the digital ecosystem and how can we be safe in the digital space and as we move that way, then everybody have a space in the digital ecosystem. Thank you, and back to you, Baratang. Thank you.

Baratang Miya:
Thank you, Margaret, that was a brilliant presentation, in fact. Thanks for covering all the elements from the digital platforms that are implemented in the digital environment and I think within the ecosystem, if 70% of Africa is going to be youth in the next coming five years, I think it’s just fair that a youth member of Africa speak on behalf of African issues, and I would like to give the opportunity to Lilly to speak. Two years ago, there was no definition of inclusionity or women participation when it comes to Duальных and the Youtube phrases and you basically Stereo can equal woman participation, how do we describe it? We get up and feed each other but we know what they say, now that the social media space gives us say yeah, we can go to one corner and one similar corner and we can see that they’re not included, that is huge. I’ve always been saying we add more to it, that is more inclusiveness, more inclusibility and the essence of bringing to the forefront issues that affect women the most to the IGF. I’m seeing that there’s actually a glaring evidence of things that don’t happen when women aren’t present. Who can speak as women do, who can talk about things that women have to share, in terms of the sexual violence issue we haven’t really hunted down yet is the pacific issue, how rich are our rights as women? What do we actually consider to be the most inclusive discourse we ever had? So, for me, that sets the cup as both a youth and as a woman, I’m seeing that, and also as an African, for people who are essentially growing to become next leaders in this space, I see that, for us, this is really the platform for us to also make sure that we have a place where we can be present. So, for me, that sets the cup as both a youth and as a woman, I’m seeing that, and also as an African, for people who are growing to become next leaders in this space, I see that, for me, that sets the cup as both a youth and as a woman, I see that, for me, this is really the platform for us to also amplify the voices of work we’ve been doing as young people, and just like we’ve said about the Global Digital Compact, especially with the focus on capacity building on the African continent, I just want to highlight some of the things you’re doing for the African-American community. So, for me, it’s about sharing in local languages, also expertise where we bring people from areas where there are issues that are happening, they can give grassroots ideas to the platforms to contribute, and to say what is the demand. All of those are things that, looking at the future, projecting will be important for us to make sure that we are building solutions that do not just assume that we’re going to be able to do it, but also to be able to communicate and to be able to say, hey, we’re going to be able to do it. So, for me, as also a youth, it is the reason why some of the work we’ve done on the African continent is very important, that we get to the grassroots, know what the issues are, and able to bring it to the forefront for authorities to see what it is that we feel and to demand it. So, it’s what I’ll add to the session. partnership and to also add this conversation, because this is time not to talk about et cetera, because also also in Europe, various spectrums have have been made one in five differentufence for theircategories, feminist principles for including gender in the global digital compact. I think that’s a very, the copies here that are focusing on gender equality came yesterday together and to endorse these principles. Those who want to still participate, there’s a sign in support. If you Google it, you can go in and support these principles. In fact, there’s 10 of them. And I think these are principles that organizations that work with participation of women online and safety in a global to be space to be included in the global digital compact. They were called the feminist global digital compact principles. So if you want to look at them, please go look at them. I’ll just browse through them. The first one is ensure concrete commitments to protect the digital rights of women and girls and marginalized groups. The second one guarantee freedom from technology, facilitate facilitated gender based violence. The third one promote universal rights to freedom of expression, privacy, peaceful assembly, and participation of women and girls in their diversity in all aspects of life. Ensure universal affordability accessible and safe internet access for all. Fifth, demand strict action against harmful surveillance application and high risk AI system. Six, expand women’s participation and leadership in the technology sector and digital policymaking. The seventh one is prioritize strategies that reduce the environmental impact of new technologies. Eight, implement measures for states. and transnational cooperation to ensure data privacy governance and consent. Nine, adopt equality by design principles and a human right-based approach throughout all phases of digital technology development. As a software engineer and a coder in my life, this was one of the principles I thought it’s critical to be included at the moment because 90% of the time women are consumers. If we don’t include them in the design phase, if we don’t get them to speak when the product is still at the initial stage, we’re going to miss their voice from the onset. So I felt this was one of the highlights for me to make sure that a human right-based approach and equality by design principle is included. Transparency and human rights and gender rights impact assessments and incorporated into their development of any algorithmic decision-making systems or digital technologies prior to deployment and are not tested without these principles to prevent discrimination and harmful biases being amplified and perpetuated. The last one is set AI safeguard and standards to prevent discriminatory biases. In closing of this session, I would like to ask if there’s anyone who has comments or questions for the speakers. Okay, thank

Audience:
you so much for this amazing discussion but also looking at the contribution that have been shared in the room in regards to women in IGF. I have two reflections as far as the participation of women and girls is concerned on the matters of digital economy and I’ll speak on the context of Africa but also I was also actually wondering why we do not have a representation from the global majority. Does it mean that the women in global majority are more advanced when it comes to issues of technology? or do we think there is need for us to have a shared equilibrium so that we’re also able to learn? This is just a reflection from the panel presentation. This is what I want to say that I think for me, looking at the contribution, but also the progress of women in tech, of course, there is a lot of biases, challenges, and barriers that women face. But when it comes to documentation of statistics and reports, we majorly focus on the women and girls in the urban areas when you’re looking at the content of connectivity, the content of access, affordability, and issues of safety. And for me, part of the learning from yesterday’s presentation on the feminist principles included in the GDC is how can we be able to also reach those who have not been reached when it comes to issues of digital connectivity? How can we be able to look at getting access to the rural communities, working with women and young people in the informal settlement so that we do not assume that the fact that there is a discussion on internet connectivity and digital governance, we also ensure that we are reaching them as early as now so that we do not wait when we’ve made a lot of progress for us to remember that there is someone we’ve not reached. That is one. Two, we cannot speak about digital connectivity without the question of electricity. What happens to the region that for them, electricity, it’s like a prophecy yet to be fulfilled? What are we doing about that as we push for the global digital compact? and we have to make sure that we are working with the countries and the member states to ensure that electricity does not become a question that we are still seeking answers to. Another thing is, I think we have had change and stories of progress for women in tech and specifically for Africa. But where are the success stories that we are able to document and showcase? I’ve heard about the innovations that have been made. How are we able to document the milestones we have made so far to inform the learning and inspiration to those young women who may want to get into the tech space, but also to be motivated that there is something that we can do and we can progress with. There is the fear that AI is going to take away the jobs of young people and young women in Africa. How can we be able to remove the stereotype around artificial intelligency and the connection of employment opportunities for the very many young Africans who are struggling with the struggle of employment? I think those are some of the discussions we need to start having as early as now. And my last reflection is, from the presentation we’ve had, is how is internet governance, how is global digital combat going to benefit women and young people? And this is a mistake that probably some legal frameworks at the global level have done, that we may not want to repeat looking at women as beneficiaries of frameworks being developed at the global level, and not as stakeholders, influencers, and key decision makers. The moment we take women as beneficiaries to this process, that is the beginning of failure because we’ll miss their input, we’ll miss their shaping of ideas, and we’ll also miss the ideology that they will have to contribute to this process. Thank you so much.

Baratang Miya:
Thank you very much. The issue of electricity is a very big one. I’m from South Africa. Every two hours, electricity is shut down. Like, what is that? It’s just such disempowering exercise. For me, electricity and internet are like this. Any other comment? There is a concern in the room that we haven’t had any Global South voice. North, if we can have one comment, is it? Yeah.

Audience:
Good morning. I’m going to try to speak in English. My name is Marta Lucia Meacher Camarena from Mexico. I’m senator in Mexico from Guanajuato, our states. Well, I’m very glad to be here. I will try to say, to talk about our country in America Latina, Latin American. Well, we have the, see, we only, I only, well, I’m very glad to be here and to hear the problems you have as the same as we have in Mexico. In Mexico, we are about 120 millions in Mexico, and we have the same gap that you have. We have discrimination. We are not. the first population that can talk about internet. We have very deep problems with the access at this kind of services. I want to tell you that in Mexico, 78, one percent of the total of women in our country and we have the problems to use internet. And to access to the text that you mentioned, we have the problem and the problem is the age you have. If you have my age, you have problems with the internet. But I see that our youth is, they have no problems to take this, to use this kind of services. But my worry is that we are very behind men in these issues. We have to empowerment women, we have to make them to use this kind of of herramientas, tools, to access not only at internet, to access to the right, to be informed, and to the right to be in the text and to the right to be in the development because we have this problem. Now, we have to know about this, but our countries are not interested in this kind of issue. So I’m glad that you are discussing this issue because in Mexico, we are worried about this because only the youth people and women are in this issues. But I don’t know, about 50 years. They don’t know this kind of tools. Thank you.

Baratang Miya:
Thank you very much. If we can just get one minute, half a minute, 30 seconds, closing from all the speakers.

Margret Nyambura:
Thank you, Baratang. I probably just to comment on her comment that I think you have to be innovative in this space so that we can include even those who are in the rural areas. And for me, I look at the use of art, drama, so that they use, that you have said, they make a majority of the African population, and we can use them to go back to their villages. They have access to the technologies, but every person must have their roots. And if we do that, then we are able to create awareness, we are able to educate women and the other young people in the village using various innovative technologies so that they use digital space as a tool to move to where they need to be. And if we do that, then we are able, even as we solve the issues of connectivity in the rural areas, then we are using other ways to ensure that these people are getting the right information. Thank you.

Mactar Seck:
Thank you. Let me focus on the issue of electricity. If you look at the statistics, there is no way for African people to get access to oil. We have around the world 733 million people without access to electricity in the world. In Africa, you have 600 million. It means 53 per cent of the population doesn’t have access to electricity. And there is a lot of disparity in this country. Look at South Sudan, 7.7 per cent only of the population has access to electricity. With that, how we can expand this digital access to all? We need to use it as a source of technology, we have it, we can use some technology, this technology doesn’t cost a lot of energy. Also we have the infrastructure, we don’t use efficiencies of infrastructure in the continent. We have to live. Thank you. But we can discuss bilateral on the issue of that.

Baratang Miya:
I just want to thank everyone for coming here. And in closing I would like to quote what Dr. Segg had said, which is, women are the ones who educate children. The meaning of that is women are the ones who educate the future. Because children are the future. And if the future is educated by people who don’t have opportunities and are illiterate in terms of technology, then we are building a wrong future. Hence we need to – Lily said what are the costs of not having women empowered? The cost is we will be talking about the same thing in the next coming 50 years if we do not give women opportunity, if we don’t change this dynamic of understanding that women are educating the future. We won’t change. So for me it’s – this is not an African issue, this is not a Mexican issue, this is a global issue. If Africa is not empowered, if Mexico is not empowered, if – Okay, Japan is a different story. If we’re not empowered, then nobody’s empowered because future, technology and AI doesn’t care about where you live. You can do anything you want on the internet. You can harass anyone from anywhere, any woman from anywhere, and we need to get that stopped. Now, there are two things that I wanted to highlight. One was that education. The second one that came from you as a speaker is to say, how do we take women in IGF and make it a global issue? Not just an African issue. Now, it was formed, I started this in the African IGF and focusing on women in Africa. So, obviously, the legacy came to the IGF in Japan. The speakers are also from Africa, and now we need to grow it. And I hope that next year we’ll get speakers from across the world, and it will be about global issues and not just issues that are reflective of Africa. And I would like to encourage everyone to really look at the feminist principles for including gender in the GDC. This was discussed yesterday by all organizations that are focusing on gender issues, and we’ve endorsed it. I’m hoping that people are going to join. There’s a sign-in on support of this principle online, so you should just Google feminist principles for including gender in the GDC. So, personally, as Gale Hype and as Baratang, I have signed on that document to say I support these principles, and these are reflective of so many organizations coming together and putting this, thanks to Equality Now, APC, World Wide Web, UN Women, and all those who played part, and UNFPA for literally bringing us all together to come up with this document. So, I’m endorsing this document. As part of Women in IGF, we are saying this is something that we really endorse to take to the GDC. Thank you very much to everyone for coming. Bye. Thank you.

Sorina Telenau

The analysis unveils an assemblage of sentiments regarding the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in multifaceted domains such as negotiations, decision-making, educational sectors, foreign affairs, and surmounting challenges faced by smaller and developing nations.

A positive aspect of AI is enlightened in its capacity to support complex decision-making procedures and foster critical thinking within educational environments. The effectiveness of AI in enhancing decision-making and negotiation is showcased in the global digital compact simulation. The AI advisor was utilised to refine arguments and language, whilst being trained to offer details on digital policy and internet governance. Further, in the realm of education, dismissing the use of AI in schools is argued to be counter-productive. The significance of AI in stimulating critical thinking and understanding intricate policy matters is underscored, thereby highlighting its role in shaping quality education and nurturing innovation.

However, the sentiment isn’t unequivocally positive. The analysis also uncovers AI’s limitations, stressing the importance of its critical application. Instances where AI hallucinates and doesn’t always deliver perfect results have been pointed out, demonstrating that although AI could be a valuable tool, it must not be relied upon blindly.

The evaluation also delves into the struggles of small and developing nations, particularly in digital governance and diplomacy. The overwhelming volume of information and tasks, combined with limited resources and a dearth of time, often poses significant challenges for these countries, thereby requiring the use of AI for effective decision-making and negotiation.

AI’s significance in foreign affairs emerges as it economises time and provides diplomats with a foundation for negotiations. Ministries of Foreign Affairs are encouraged to develop their own AI systems to retain control over data, relying on their knowledge base and experience. The concept of ‘bottom-up AI’ is proposed, arguing that it could allow a more controlled and tailored use of AI, and return AI back to users.

The potential of AI to promote underserved communities and mitigate representation inequalities is also explored. Bottom-up AI’s development based on knowledge from these communities bolsters this argument, aided by the observed stance that AI can encourage more meaningful engagement for smaller countries.

Nevertheless, despite the proposed benefits, the need for transparency and accountability of AI systems is underscored, with apprehensions regarding the non-explainability of neural networks being raised. There is significant criticism regarding uncritically accepting statements from large AI systems and a generic tendency for blind trust.

The evaluation concludes by emphasising the importance of addressing current AI issues, such as regulation, before getting consumed with future challenges. Large firms are depicted as demanding future AI regulation whilst disregarding existing issues, prompting a call for allocating resources to counter today’s challenges before concerning ourselves with future ordeals.

In harmony with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 4, 9, 10, 16, and 17, the overall analysis accentuates the potential of AI in driving innovation, assisting in quality education, reducing inequalities, aiding in institution-building, and fostering partnerships. Nevertheless, the pivotal importance of careful, regulated, and transparent usage of AI is underscored.

Audience

The discourse unveiled a plethora of critical points spanning numerous subjects. A significant challenge was identified in Brazil with regard to technology – a substantial number of NGOs are grappling with integrating technological approaches due to lacking tech literacy. This issue hampers these organisations from fully capitalising on their potential in their operations, suggesting the necessity for dedicated digital literacy programmes.

Interestingly, the proposition was raised that augmenting participation and representation in tech-related matters could bolster the advocacy of local perspectives. This argument was underpinned by the desire to categorise knowledge in a manner that respects and supports local viewpoints, shining a spotlight on an essential consideration in the democratisation of technology and inclusivity.

The discussion then veered towards concerns about the economic ramifications of automation. Technological tools such as chatbots in Brazil’s service sector usage have soared, stirring anxieties surrounding potential structural unemployment and escalating the possibility for diminished economic opportunities and job security. In view of this, there was concurrence on the need for a paradigm shift to orchestrate the origination of dignified, rewarding economic opportunities.

The discourse additionally exhibited a robust belief in innovation and its prospective benefits. Participants conveyed stout support for a bottom-up Artificial Intelligence (AI) approach and open-source methods for managing knowledge on a grander scale. The capacity of these methods to organise and categorise knowledge with sensitivity to local perspectives was seen as a hopeful potential.

However, feedback and constructive criticism were deemed essential for the amelioration of larger systems. Questions were raised about whether insights from these systems were being considered and whether prevailing systemic problems required addressing, indicating a need for rigorous examination and rectification of these systems.

A particularly thought-provoking point in the discourse was the expression of concern regarding the rapid displacement of families due to the expanding influence of modern technology. This issue particularly afflicts rural areas of Brazil, leading to a diminution of the countryside and augmentation of cities. This cultural and knowledge erosion is significant, especially in small communities.

A suggestion was forwarded in response to these challenges to utilise AI to preserve and cultivate the history and culture of small communities. This would involve AI assisting in updating and uploading knowledge about these areas, spanning physical practices, agricultural practices, stories, and mythologies.

One neutral sentiment proffered revolved around AI’s design and adaptability, specifically tailored towards individuals with disabilities. Current AI systems are often trained on ‘perfect’ data, potentially making them less adaptable to human error. Conversely, humans are able to learn from their mistakes. Consequently, developers must cultivate more adaptable AI that can accommodate humanlike errors.

In a related argument, it was posited that AI should be enhanced to aid persons with disabilities rather than marginalising them. There is apprehension that current AI protocols might inadvertently engender a standard of ‘perfection’ that could be exclusionary, particularly for individuals with disabilities. However, by ensuring AI is a tool for inclusivity rather than exclusion, an opportunity arises.

In sum, these insights prompt a reassessment of how technology, specifically AI, is utilised and incorporated into diverse sectors of society. The call is widespread for more tech literacy programmes, adaptable AI, and active involvement in technology decision-making. These transformations would contribute significantly to striking a healthy balance between swift technological progression and preserving crucial aspects of our cultural heritage and humanity.

Jovan Kurbalija

Jovan Kurbalija, the esteemed Director of the Diplo Foundation, professes the significant intersection of philosophy, technology, and artificial intelligence (AI), particularly concerning education, cultural context, governance, and ethics. He promotes profound understanding of technological advancements without becoming engrossed by its complexities, thereby maintaining a steadfast focus on the broader societal and philosophical effects.

At the heart of Kurbalija’s argument is the Diplo Foundation’s innovative development of a hybrid system. This unique construct, merging artificial intelligence with human intelligence for reporting, has been cultivated based on the Foundation’s extensive experience and session management. The potential capabilities of this system in promoting dynamic learning environments and stimulating intellectual engagement were also highlighted.

Adding a fresh perspective to the discourse, Kurbalija proposed that AI models should harmonise with each community’s distinct traditions and practices. He believes this would contribute to a more authentic, bottom-up AI model that does not limit itself to predominantly European philosophical traditions. In a similar vein, he emphasised the urgent need for high-quality data in developing diverse, flexible open-source AI models.

However, he stressed the importance of preserving individual and community-based knowledge rights, protecting against its potential commodification by AI. Kurbalija highlighted concerns regarding transparency and explainability within AI applications, allied with apprehensions about AI’s misuse in creating disinformation.

Certain aspects of AI’s current governance invoked criticism, notably the sidelining of smaller entities by larger corporations. A call was made for increased corporate responsibility due to the extant challenges related to AI usage. Despite AI’s potential in preserving small communities’ heritage and culture, a significant gap was recognised concerning the lack of initiatives that leverage AI to safeguard cultural diversity.

While acknowledging AI’s potential in aiding individuals with disabilities, caution was raised about anthropomorphising AI, reinforcing that AI should serve as a tool, not as a master. The uniqueness and imperfection of human traits were lauded as invaluable characteristics and were claimed to be essential considerations in the development of AI.

In conclusion, Kurbalija’s discussions presented a potent outlook on AI’s broad societal impacts, issuing an urgent summons for more inclusive and ethical AI development, whilst highlighting concerns regarding transparency, accountability, and the conservation of local cultures and individual rights.

Jovan Kurbalija:
My name is Jovan Kurbalija, I’m Director of Diplo Foundation and Head of Geneva Internet Platform. Together with me is Sorina Teleanu, who is Director of Knowledge at Diplo Foundation and person who is involved extensively in AI developments. And now, while we were preparing for today’s session, we thought of having two ways to approach it and we will be guided by your questions and comments about this session. We want to develop it by genuinely as a dialogue. We have a lot to offer in terms of ideas, concepts and overall approach of Diplo to artificial intelligence, but I’m sure there is a lot of expertise in the room. And this is basically the key, therefore let me suggest a few practicalities. We will talk, but whenever you have a question or comments, raise the hand and don’t feel intimidated. The only stupid question is the question which is not asked. There are a few exceptions of this rule, but that’s basically our approach. Therefore you can, I always think when we gather for a meeting or for a course, because we are teaching a lot, I said how we can really maximize on this hour, this valuable time for all of us, generally we sometimes underestimate that importance of moment, importance of being there. And I think in Kyoto with Zen Buddhism and other things, with the Asian religious traditions, we can learn more about being there, being at the moment, and trying to grasp, trying to really find this unique energy. And unique because this is moment, this very second, this very second of our life and our existence and our interaction. Therefore let’s maximize on that. Now, Serena, shall I monopolize the microphone or you’re so gently nice? I started with philosophy, and probably this is one of the possible entry points. Because artificial intelligence for the first time pushed us to think about the questions, why do we do it, or questions of why for our existence, the question of our dignity, the question of purpose, the question of efficiency, many core questions that civilization has to face. Therefore, if you see our leaflet about the Humanism Project, you can see that we approach it through technology, through diplomacy, through governance, and through philosophy, linguistic and art. You can get any entry point. I suggested this philosophy entry point, and you will see why it is important. Now, I’m sure you will be using a lot of cameras. Unfortunately, these days we don’t use this. We just brought with my wife Nikon from Europe, very heavy Nikon, and she told me in Tokyo, she said, why do I need to carry this heavy Nikon with the lenses, you know? Zoom out, zoom in, when iPhone is basically, good iPhone camera is doing a lot. Now, we won’t get into this discussion. I’m sure that there will be passionate Nikonists or Canonists, you know, these two tribes, who will say, no, no, no, no, you still do it with Nikon. But idea is to zoom in, zoom out. We zoom in on philosophy, we zoom out on questions, zoom in on technology, or zoom out on philosophy. Therefore, try to use that optics within next hour. What is uniqueness of Diplo is that we, whatever we do in digital governance, since the very beginning of organization, we needed to touch technology. Therefore, we did the TCPI programming, we did the DNS, we did everything in order to know how it functions. We wanted to see what is under the bonnet. One problem, and I’m noticing, I was at the first IGF, at the Working Group on Internet Governance, which is ancient history, a long, long time ago. But I noticed that sometimes we discuss things without understanding it. We don’t need to be techies, mind you. These issues are sometimes even philosophical. But you have to have a basic understanding what’s going on and how it functions. This again, when we need to have the scale, you know, to understand technology, but not to become techies. Because then if you are only techie, you are basically, you won’t see the whole forest from the tree. Everything will be just neural networks these days. Or yesterday, crypto or blockchain, or the day before, TCPIP, and that’s then basically a problem. So it’s a tricky exercise. We have all of these entry points. And what I suggest, which is also in the title of the session, is also there is another aspect that we should keep in mind, that walk the talk approach works in a way that whole IGF will be reported by our hybrid system combining artificial intelligence and human intelligence. So if you go to IGF 2023, it’s Digwatch 2023, you can also download the iPhone or Android app, and you will be having the reports from the sessions coming by mix of artificial intelligence and human intelligence. Now, how does it work? We have been reporting from IGF for decades, summarizing long session into humanly, basically. Now we said, okay, let’s codify that, our reports, and create AI system. Therefore we can have something which could be called IGF GPT, or IGF AI. But basically we train the IGF on our reporting and our sessions. It is now deployed by our AI team. Poor guys have to wake up early in the morning, they are based in Belgrade. They are now doing reporting by AI system, doing everything automatically from transcribing, also special language for transcribing for IG and AI and cyber terminology. Everything transcribing, and then making it into the report which you can visit here for each session. Now, as you will see from the reports and you will see from our work, I think this session is, we have just to put that it’s GMT time because I was confused this morning. I said, what, 2 o’clock in the morning? You will have after the session, I don’t know, about 20 minutes or half an hour, I don’t know exactly what will be the timing. You will have reports from this discussion. Therefore, again, we think we have to walk the talk. It’s enough to talk about AI, how important AI is, how it’s changing the world, ethics. AI will eat us for breakfast, or we may survive, we may not survive. That’s another discussion which I’m very critical and skeptical about. But let’s use AI. And let’s see, only by using it, we can see how it works and how dangerous it is. We are not naive about dangers. There are risks. But many risks are now and here. If you just go to the risk in the future, it could be a bit tricky. Because whenever future was brought in negative way in discussions, it was often around certain ideologies. And the message is, forget it today, forget it now, we discuss future. And once we come to the bright future, we’ll be happy. But what’s happened in the meantime with our lives, you know, the references, I won’t make references to the historical experiences, but it’s a very tricky argument on the future. Therefore, there is something that you can use now. But let me again zoom out. And go to basically, if I manage to close this, oh, I managed to find, great, wow, now it’s again, make to be now. We call it that we had winter of excitement, ChargePT came into the force, everything is changing, it can write master thesis instead of you, blog post, you know, you know the whole stories, let’s say, December, January, February. Although AI is much, much older, as all of you know. Then there was a spring of metaphors. People suddenly realized, wow, it’s coming, let’s do something with this. Metaphors are danger, apocalyptic, a magnet on the risk for society, or nice ones, it will help us. Then you have summer of reflections. And we call it autumn of clarity. Think about four seasons, not the hotel, but four seasons in AI, winter of excitement, spring of metaphors, summer of reflections, autumn of clarity. Now, during the summer of reflections, what I did, I said, OK, let’s see what happened. Two things we did, Serena and myself, and she will explain the other thing, what she did at the course. We said, OK, let’s do, let’s recycle ideas. What were the ideas of ancient Greek on axial age? What can Socrates teach us about AI and prompting? What about journey of zero from Indian civilization via Al-Khwarizmi and Tunis to Fibonacci? What about ancient Greek? What about Chinese three big philosophers and AI? What would these people tell us? About knowledge, about ethics, about individuals and communities, about the Renaissance with Voltaire and Rousseau, great thinking of Renaissance period, Holbein’s painting, it’s a bit of my niche interest, the Vienna thinkers. When you really think about today’s era, and under this, there is a text, you can see that you have five thinkers who live in Vienna between two world wars who basically set the stage for AI in Geneva and Vienna and I’ll show Geneva thinkers. Hayek on knowledge, Freud about human psychology, and possibly a person who inspired thinking about AI is Ludwig Wittgenstein, who basically moved to the probability theory and language as a key element of the philosophy. Then we said, OK, those are Vienna thinkers. You have then Ubuntu thinkers in Africa, again another rich civilization and thinking not written in the texts, but basically codified in the practices. And in parallel, what we did during this summer of reflection, Serena went to deliver the course with the College of Europe for the group of students from Germany. She wrote the blog post. Whatever we do, we codify because we believe in creative commons and enriching discussion on, in this case, AI. Serena, you may tell us a few words how you, I will scroll, but what did you do during the course and what was the purpose of using AI and how did we use it?

Sorina Telenau:
Thank you, Jovan. Hello, everyone. We won’t spend more time talking, but just quickly because the title of this session includes this whole idea of bottom-up AI, and we hope to hear from you what you understand by that. But what we did at the summer school is just one example of bottom-up AI. So quickly explaining what happened there, we had a group of 25 students. And for about 10 days, we simulated the negotiations of a global digital compact. You’re at the IGF. I’m pretty sure you know what’s with the whole GDC and the discussions around it, so I won’t go into that. We split the team into, well, the group into a few teams. Technically representing some of the biggest countries and groups, we had China, the US, Brazil, and a few others, also civil society and technical community. And the task was to prepare and then negotiate how they would see a global digital compact looking like. But to help them, and also because many of them were newcomers to the whole idea of digital governance, what our team in Belgrade, Serbia did was to prepare this AI advisor. How it worked, we fed it. A lot of documents on internet governance and digital policy, and also with the contributions that stakeholder made to the global digital compact process. And then each of these five teams had their own advisor. What you see on the screen is the advisor of Brazil, right? The idea was for students to engage with the AI, to see how it works, to use it in the process of them preparing their arguments for negotiation, but also to discover the bad of the technology or the challenges. And that, I found the most beautiful part of it all. At the end, we sat a bit and talked about how they actually used the advisor, what they found useful and what they found challenging, and the discussion was really good. They were able to say, okay, we used it to fine-tune our language, to be better at negotiating for our position, to find things we might not know about our own country or our own stakeholder group. But we also understood that we cannot just rely on what the AI is telling us, but take it critically, assess it, and actually use our minds. Another reason why we did this is, as you probably know, some of the schools around the world have taken this very, very knee-jerk reaction, saying, okay, we’re going to ban the use of artificial intelligence in schools, which we think is not a good approach to take. So the idea at the summer school was to expose students to the use of AI for them to be able to develop this critical thinking as to how you can use it, why it’s good, and where you shouldn’t actually rely on it, because, again, it’s just the technology, and sometimes it does hallucinate. But this was just an example. example of a bottom-up AI and how we’re trying to build this from the bottom. And I think we can turn to the audience, Jovan, and ask what everyone here actually understands by bottom-up AI before we actually go into more of what we’re doing. So I’m going to move around. Do we have a roving mic? Ah, there is a mic there, right? A question to you all in the room, because we promised we’re going to have more of a discussion and not the two of us speaking for 90 minutes, which kind of defeats the whole purpose. What do you understand by bottom-up AI? Or if that doesn’t sound like an interesting question, why did you join this session? What did you expect from it?

Jovan Kurbalija:
Please. Is it before or after coffee? Thank you so much.

Audience:
The reason I’m here is because I want to know what you think of it. Help us wrestle the idea to the ground, and we’ll probably help you back.

Jovan Kurbalija:
Thank you. The AI charge EPT won’t reply in this way, you know, therefore it is really smart. Thank you. Thank you. But try to be, as we move to the next step, basically Sorina explained practical use on the critical issue when universities worldwide are banning use of AI, charge EPT. They tried with anti-plagiarism software, it doesn’t work. Even AI stopped using anti-plagiarism software, therefore this is not an option. Therefore our message, and it was successfully accepted, there are some anecdotes how some professors reacted to it, but we won’t mention the names. But academic community reacted, no, we are in charge. Forget AI. We said, no, AI can be interlocutor, can sharpen your thinking. As Sorina proven practically, and students love that, because it can sharpen your thinking. Then we comment on the questions that AI ask, provide it, answers that provide it, and say this is good, this is stupid, this works well, this works good. Therefore that element is critical. Now it is going to change educational system profoundly. We are on the similar generation, let’s put it this way, depending on the educational traditions, but there was a lot of learning by heart. There was a lot of listening to the ex-cathedra professors in my educational sort of process. And a few professors who basically acted like charge EPT, in mind question and answered and provide me stupid answers, stupid questions, are still people whom I can remember. Therefore that element of conversation AI can help us. And now the argument is that don’t kill the messengers, don’t put your head in the sand. Let’s see how AI can help us achieving critical elements of any educational system. It is improving critical thinking, it is improving creativity, and it can do. Therefore our argument, and we can substantiate it practically, whatever we are mentioning today can be substantiated practically, is that AI can be a great help for the real education. I’m sorry, not for the Bologna style, taking the assignments and number of the credits and this and that. That’s another story we can discuss. But for, I would say, ancient Greek or Roman education about inquiry, creativity, questioning, and consider yourself as a dignified thinker who can engage in the thinking process. Now let me, this is for example about Ubuntu ethos on these philosophical issues, where you can find really powerful thinking from Africa that can enhance artificial intelligence and basically should be codified, especially if the companies or hopefully African actors deploy AI in their context. And this is the first building block for bottom-up AI, which was the title of the session. We have to codify local traditions, practices, ideas that deal with questions of family, the question of universal individual creativity, knowledge, happiness, and whatever we ask charge EPT today, or even more advanced system in the future. It is, it cannot be designed only by European philosophical and thinking tradition. This is the first point on genuine bottom-up AI. The second important aspect, which we have been doing at Diplo, and I have so many windows open, I will hope that is to develop, I’m sorry, to, okay. We argue that there are a few, two points of relevance for bottom-up AI. First, it is ethically desirable because it let us preserve our knowledge. It’s not anymore just about data. It’s about our knowledge. This is what defines us as individuals, as humans, as a civilization, as a culture, as a family. And we are speaking about ultimately critical discussion for the future of our society and each of us individually. And what we did, we basically said, okay, what can we do? And first we went for open source. And as you can see, there is a very critical discussion about big systems bringing the fear and danger as a risk for society, mainly by a few big companies, OpenAI, Google, a few companies, you know, usually some Altman and these people were touring the Congress and places all over the world, which is a bit paradoxical situation. They created something and telling us, hey, guys, it’s very dangerous. I said, okay, but stop investing in it if it is too dangerous. Of course, there is a bottom-up competition argument, but there is something strange on a very logical level on these things. And most of them are very nervous about open source AI, except if somebody told me that he would become one of my heroes, I would be very surprised. Mark Zuckerberg created Meta, created Lama, and they made it for their own reasons, competition with Microsoft, with Google, and other actors. But Lama is doing quite well, and there are developments like Falcon in United Arab Emirates. There are now developments with quite a powerful model, which brings things to the relatively simple issue, and we can now discuss it. It is not that much innovation, neural networks, they were innovation when they were introduced. But now you need basically a lot of hardware and a lot to be friends with NVIDIA and basically to have processing GPUs. and a lot of hardware to process. If you can invest in that, you can train big models. That’s another issue which makes me personally nervous. It’s forget garage, forget bottom-up, in-depth scenario. Except for time being, there are pushbacks. And it will be dynamics in this way. Therefore, the first element is open-source approach. The second is you need high-quality data. And that will be an interesting story, because most of these companies more or less process the trillions of, I don’t know, whatever, books. I got a bit lost when it comes to this number, over the billion, but trillion something. And now they come to the point that they cannot get any more high-quality data. Therefore, they are doing so-called annotators, or data labeling, mainly. You know this Kenya case with OpenAI. There was the strike of people who were working on OpenAI data. But basically, they sit next to each other. And they’re basically annotating, say, for this is a bird, this is a cat, or this text is useful, this text is bad, and the other things. I will show you how we do it at Diplo, as sort of annotations. But this is, I would say, the key diagram, because quantity of data is limited by definition. You know, there is this idea of AI creating data itself, but I’m not sure that it will go too far. And you have the quantity, quality of data. Therefore, quality of data will be critical. And then, even with the small data, if you have high quality, you can create AI. That’s basically what is going to happen in the coming years. And this is the reason why companies are very nervous. They are rushing to get into quality of data, to get it in order to capture that future competition. Now, what we do in a, you can read the blog post, but what we do, we have a system which basically annotates any text. Therefore, when Sorina and I read the text, we annotate the text. And we are, our teaching system is based on annotations. Therefore, by teaching, by doing research, we are creating high quality data. Therefore, it’s integrated in the work. And I will show you practically how it works. Sorina, if you don’t mind. Okay, for example, for example, for example. You are following, obviously, developments in Middle East. You are on Alger’s era. And you are reading the text. And you will say, I’m not now, I’m just inventing the argument. You will basically, I will use the highlight. Let me see. If I’m in the Google, you will use highlight. You know how it works. It’s usually all, often does not work when it’s needed. When you try to show it. Ah, it’s a public. Okay. Okay. Or you can open. You annotate. And I write in annotator, Sorina. What do you think about this argument? Sorina will answer this. In this case, it’s public. She will answer this. She will receive the annotator. And two of us are adding a new layer on the thinking of the text on Alger’s era. Now, we have, because we have been using this as a teaching method for the last 20 years. Those of you who are from Diplo alumni, they know that we were basically, I designed this method based on metaphor that I like to highlight the text. And write something in annotations on the side, or have a sticker. We developed this system 20 years ago. But this is now the critical system of adding the layers of the quality on the text. Now, when AI comes and see this text, Charjiputi will just process it. But in our case, if there is discussion, we say, aha. This paragraph is important. Sorina, Jovan asks Sorina. Sorina asks answer. And then Sorina and I are developing our, basically, our very local bilateral AI, build around knowledge graphs. Therefore, we can then share it with the rest of the humanity, or keep it for ourselves, or share with Diplo, or share with you, share with the others. Therefore, our idea is that we can bring AI back to individuals. And then develop big systems. Ultimately, why should I send it to the big system? Well, I can do it. We can keep it for ourselves. And then share as our human right, our right of citizens of society with the rest of society. Now, this is the key concept behind AI. Now, has it triggered some ideas for questions or comments? How does it work, practicalities, anything else? It’s a bit intimidating where you have to stand and to walk next to Mike. But if you can shout also, I’m fine for any question or comment. So far? So far? No. Therefore, this is the basic idea. Return, let us preserve our knowledge. Why this knowledge that Sorina and I will create around discussion? She can comment then on what’s going on today is in Israel and Palestine. Why should we share it with somebody else? Why we don’t preserve and then share as our knowledge? It can become much more complex when you annotate complex texts, philosophical books, other texts. This belongs to us. Then we, in Diplo, we share it. You see, it’s public. We share it because we think everything should be creative commons. But we are very nervous if we, because of technical facilities, have to contribute it to open AI or to Google or to Baidu, whoever is basically providing this system. Therefore, what happened with Google 10 years ago, or Facebook and others, when they basically commodify our data and our sort of use of internet is now becoming, is starting on much higher level with knowledge. And that’s basically idea two, bottom up. One thing is that we talk, and I explain to maybe some people who have got interested into this. The other question is if we can prove it in practice. And this is different. If you have a system that can prove in the practice that it can work. That’s basically what we have been doing with the bottom-up AI, returning AI back to people with all their strengths and weaknesses. Serena?

Sorina Telenau:
Maybe we give one more close to practical example of how this could be implemented. We’re having these discussions in Geneva. A part of our work is to support engagement of small and developing countries in digital governance, digital diplomacy, and all these big organizations in Geneva, but also beyond. And we’re interacting a lot with missions in Geneva, and we hear a lot, especially from the smaller one, how they cannot follow everything and anything because, well, there’s a lot. And also how sometimes they don’t have enough time to research what they have done before to actually come up with a position to present at some organization or some negotiation. So in discussions with them about this whole idea of bottom-up AI and how we can or cannot use technology, this idea also came up. Can a Ministry of Foreign Affairs develop its own AI system to use for their own purpose instead of putting data into ChatGPT or BARD or whatever else, and actually rely on the wealth of knowledge they have developed over the years? And the simple answer is yes. And should they do it? Again, the simple answer would be yes, because you don’t give your data to a bigger system out there, and you don’t rely on all other information that might be coming from different sources, but you rely on what your Ministry of Foreign Affairs has developed over the years, policy papers, documents, and whatever else. And again, the question would come obviously here as well, can you rely completely only on AI to come up with a position that your diplomat will negotiate in an intergovernmental process? No. But you can use it as a starting point to save time, because you don’t have that much time to actually come up with something. So if you have a starting point, and then you bring your own expertise and your own abilities, that would help. So this would be one example of how we see bottom-up AI happening, and helping in this specific example smaller countries.

Jovan Kurbalija:
And here is, we may just display it again if you don’t mind, here is the conclusion from the last week discussion on, well, 10 days, on the General Assembly. We processed all statements delivered, you know, President Biden, heads of states, were basically saying what do they want to do, what are their views on different issues, from climate change, Ukraine war, digital, and we, okay, we asked the question, what did they say about digital? And we processed that, and we got to the report, which is a very interesting report. You say, let’s say, on artificial intelligence, line by line, relevance, what Barbados said, what Ethiopia, what India, what Malta, what Andorra, what Somalia, in the bullet points, what they said. And then you have also in-depth report with the statements, what each country basically, what is the transcript of the session, and what is the summary, let’s say, on Albania, you can see how many words, the speech length. What is knowledge graph? I mentioned already knowledge graph is critical. You can do knowledge graph on anything. We’ll be having knowledge graphs about all sessions in the IGF. This is a proximity of thinking. Could we have, Sorina and myself, knowledge graph about today’s session? What were the stances of what Albania was arguing it? What are the arguments? What is the speech itself? What is the summary of the session that was hosted by Albania? And then what was interesting, we asked also AI, based on all statements, if you put all knowledge in the General Assembly, or in IGF, we’ll do similar thing with the IGF. You asked the question, and you asked the question, what should we do to combine action on climate change, change and gender? I hope they’re not testing the system, because now they’re shifting to, let’s see, I hope it will work sometimes. I hope the system gives the question, the answer, based on all speeches delivered. Now we won’t read it, but that’s basically what is delivered. Or what was the, when there was a session in Security Council, we did the same thing. And then each session, you know how it is with the multi-stakeholder advisory group, you have at the beginning of the session, you have the key question, and then the answers, but also on, based on what parts of the speeches AI generated the text. Unlike charge EPT, which will give you just the basically answer, we said no, we want to ask AI to tell us what parts, for example, this answer was generated on part of speeches of the professor from King’s College, mainly his speech. But some other answer was generated, OK, this is Malta speech, or you can go through basically 360 questions that are based on transcript and generated around the idea of what is the climate change answer, the question Bangladesh, Nepal, Slovakia. And you suddenly realize that Bangladesh and Slovakia have something close when it comes to the discussion question is about climate change and digital commerce. Therefore you basically discover completely different event. And this will happen with IGF, maybe we’ll have, oh, at the session on AI, there was somebody else discussing bottom-up AI, which I’m not aware of. Maybe not calling bottom-up AI, maybe calling organic AI, or something like this. And you suddenly say, aha, here is a knowledge graph between Jovan, Sorina, and John, and Pietro, and Mohamed, and the other sessions, and said, OK, I didn’t know that we are doing the same thing. And that’s basically, I’m just giving you very concrete examples. What Sorina said, small states got really excited about it. Because you say Djibouti had three diplomats in Geneva. They don’t have a chance to follow the all sessions in Geneva on health, on migration, human rights. But if they have this system, they say they will receive alert, hey, by the way, Djibouti, at the working group, 70, 100, I don’t know how many working groups, at the ITU or WHO, there was discussion of relevance for your maritime security. They are very, because they are a big port, they’re interested in maritime security. By the way, follow that discussion. Therefore, suddenly, you have equalizing aspect of AI, that it brings small states that they can take care of their sort of interests, specific interests. We just highlighted a few options, and probably we’ll close with this. We started with philosophy. This is ultimately philosophy. philosophical issue, but give you a few concrete applications in education, in diplomacy, in IGF itself. You can follow IGF itself. And it would be interesting to hear your reflections on the quality of the report on the ideas around it. And then about this practicalities, how it can improve, let’s say, inclusion in global governance. For small countries, small organizations to follow what’s going on on their interests. The ultimate message is, let’s return AI to citizens. Let’s make it bottom up. Let’s build around it. And let’s find practical uses. It’s enough of the big talks about ethics and AI. Here are practical uses. And last point, which is important, it was part of the title of the session. As we are discussing, let’s preserve human imperfection. Because we cannot compete with machine. We should sometimes, people were critical about my title of this session, that we should let AI hallucinate, as we sometimes hallucinate. And if you think about the major breakthroughs in the history of humanity, they’re usually related to the time when some people had a chance to be lazy. And in ancient Greece, in, let’s say, British Empire time, when all sports were invented, from soccer to tennis to all major sports, because these people had a lot of time. Others were working for them. I won’t go into that. But if we can basically leave a bit of imperfection, and there is one blog post which I cannot find, about need for human imperfection, we should facilitate that. We won’t win the battle with machine on optimization. This is not possible. But we should preserve spaces for imperfection, for being lazy, for having time to reflect, for developing arts, for making mistakes. And this is the reason why I went to the flea market in Belgrade to search for the new Turing test. Basically, flea market traders, as you know, they’re masters of human psychology. And I said, they’re completely imperfect, always on the edge of the criminal milieu and the other things. And I was going through the market and asked one of the traders, who is not, who is legitimate. I asked him, OK, tell me, what do you think? For ultimate limits of artificial intelligence, with colleague of mine, Misko, we’ve been trying to see if AI can replace experienced trader at the flea market. Approaching a seller on a flea market can be a great way to find unique items at a reasonable price. But it’s important to be aware of the potential risks of being ripped off. It’s usually best to avoid revealing too much about your level of experience. Don’t be confrontational or aggressive, as this can put the seller on the defensive and make negotiations more difficult. Approach negotiations with confidence and a clear idea of what you’re looking for. You know, it’s like, OK, I’m going one more round. Well, I got confused. Trader Misko and AI gave us very similar answers. But, and big but, AI can explain what to do. However, AI cannot act yet as a flea market trader. For the time being, flea markets remain a refuge for human uniqueness. That was one of the, in my search for human imperfection, I go to the flea markets and other places and see what are going to be our niche. Because we cannot compete with machines. We cannot, they will be always more optimized than us. But we have a right and we have, I would say, duty to preserve the core humanity which has been passed to us from previous generations in all cultures, from Ubuntu to Zen to Shintoism to basically ancient Hinduism to Christianity to ancient Greece. Underlying element is that humans are in charge. And that is basically one thought which I would like to leave you with, that in this battle, we will be having a tough time. But we can do it and we show it practical how it can be done with bottom-up AI. I’m getting some sign, but my human imperfection is. No, I’m looking at the room.

Sorina Telenau:
I’m hoping now we can have a bit of a dialogue. So please, questions, comments, your own thoughts about your interactions with AI, how we preserve our humanity in all this, how we build bottom-up AI, how we rely on it for whatever your work is. Yes, please.

Audience:
Hello, everyone. My name is Emanuela. I’m from Brazil. And I represent Instituto Alana, which is an organization that is focused on defending children’s rights on the internet, on the environment, and focused on social justice as well. I have a few questions for you. One thing that I thought that was really interesting about the diplomatic view and the advocacy view is that these two that you guys presented, like this approach, could be really good for advocacy organizations because you have a knowledge management system approach that I think that could be very helpful and contextual. But I think my question is very practical, like how to incorporate this when considering especially in Brazil, I see that a lot of NGOs and organizations, they are not very tech. So you said about open source. I want to know the practical side. How can we benefit from this kind of technology? I have a second question that another issue that we face is considering how to increase voices and increase participation in such a big world. But how can Can we increase participation on these matters about tech, and do you think that this approach of bottom-up could be something that could be used to organize different participation approaches from different places and, you know, categorize knowledge in a way that could be sensitive to local perspectives, but with more, you know, data analysis? So this is my second question. And the last question, sorry, but just to, you know, fill up the debate. Sorry? You compensate for other people. And one thing that worries me a lot is about the structural unemployment that we are seeing in the service sector. Like, this is a sector that employs a lot of people in Brazil. So and we see the increase of usage of chatbot and automation. So I was wondering, what are the economic perspectives of bottom-up AI that you are presenting? How do we move, like, economic opportunities for people that are rewarding, that, you know, that signify, yeah, dignity? Because we see a lot of unemployment and we don’t see a lot of – anyway, I think you guys understood, like, the basic approach. Thank you a lot.

Jovan Kurbalija:
Thank you for excellent questions. Well, all inspiring, let’s probably start with the third one. This is exactly what I mentioned when I said instead of discussing what will – may happen with AI generative, artificial generic intelligence basically killing us, which you can hear from some Altman and his gurus, there are things that are happening now. People are losing jobs. And there is a risk that whole generation, if I can use the slang, could be basically thrown under the bus. Not only anymore blue-collar jobs, but white-collar jobs, lawyers, accountants, I would say many of us in this room. That’s a big, big problem. And how to deal with this now and here? I hope that IGF, we can report in the – with AI basically what will IGF say about that, but it’s a huge problem. Our argument and strong argument is that job is not about – only about universal income. It’s a question of dignity. It’s a question of realization of your potentials. It cannot be reduced of, oh, you will get the money at the end of the day and go fishing or go whatever you want to do, what makes you happy. No. This job has been throughout the civilization the way of realizing our potential and appreciating our core human dignity. Now, it’s a big issue. This is why this is a social contract discussion of utmost relevance. And for example, Ubuntu civilization, African traditions are interesting. You are because I am. And there are different ways of seeing it, not just optimization, optimization, optimization. I don’t have an answer, but I would say that should be on the top of the agenda or whoever discusses policy and the other issues. Do we need always to optimize? In some cases, we may step back. It will be counterintuitive. It would be difficult to promote, but we should introduce this right, human right, to be imperfect. We have that right because it defines us as humans. Therefore, that’s the – Sorina, if you want to add anything on that.

Sorina Telenau:
No, no, no. Shall we take the other two questions? So we had the other one on how bottom-up AI might be able to help better representation from the underserved communities, I guess. I guess there are multiple ways. First of all, as Jovan was saying earlier, making sure that we do use knowledge from these communities when developing these AI systems. And then as we were giving the examples of small missions or these kind of, yeah, smaller entities, that would be a way to help them better represented in the discussion. But what I didn’t understand from your question was whether you’re talking about representation in governance discussion or representation in the development of AI. Then the example we were giving with following the reporting, for instance, from the UNGA, which would then be able to alert the smaller countries, okay, this is something that might be of interest for you. This is a country that you might want to build an alliance with. So in this way, it can help foster more meaningful engagement while or where these countries cannot follow everything and anything. And then the other example we were giving, how it can help build the position to get to that meaningful engagement. And then what we usually say that if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu, then AI in these examples can help avoid that very unpleasant situation, especially with the smaller countries that don’t afford to follow everything because of limited resources. So we do see these issues, and it’s not only us, again, it’s countries seeing it themselves. We have had quite a few discussions in Geneva with smaller missions.

Jovan Kurbalija:
What Sorina said, I think what applies to small countries, let’s say in Geneva, applies to small NGOs or civil society coming from Brazil, I guess, or any other country. You don’t have human resources. I mean, Diplo delegation, this place is three of us in the room, and Anastasia will come. Comparing to other delegations, it’s basically a statistical mistake. But we will contribute to public good by this reporting. And now practically what can be done, and it’s the most important, we are starting the project where we will try to push some of the ideas on civil society supported by European Union and engagement and inclusion of civil society. You basically, how would it work? Your organization deals with jobs or? Child rights, okay. You will make your map and say knowledge graph based on your documents, based on your Zoom meetings, whatever you want to put it, it will be your knowledge, knowledge graph. You will just apply it on the whole analysis of IGF, and you will say, aha, here is the similar problem that people face in Uganda, or in Romania, or in whatever place. Therefore, suddenly out of the transcript you will get and you will say hints how to do it. Or how to frame discussion next time for the next IGF to be more persuasive. Because you realize that this argument in child protection didn’t fly at this IGF. People just brush it and say, that’s not next question, you know how it works. But somebody’s rhetorical approach made the wonder that we will get really deep insights into this. And you, what is beautiful, through the process you develop AI. Because by commenting on what worked, what didn’t work, you have reinforced learning. And your system is on every stage stronger and stronger. Therefore, in two or three IGFs, even with delegation of two people, you can have impact of organization of 200 sometimes. Because you know what is your focus, you know what are your strengths, what sessions you will follow, and what you will do practically. That’s powerful. Now, how to do it? The best way is, Paulina, my colleague, can brief you. on later on, or you can exchange details about this project that is starting in January, which will have one of the elements, how to use AI to enhance basically participation of the local communities and the other actors. And what Sorina said, by developing your knowledge graph, you will take specificities of Brazil, and it will be element which won’t be generic child safety or child rights, which is developed by big system. No, it will be specific to Brazil or even local communities. I don’t know, Rio, I don’t know Brazil very well, but specific problems that exist in communities. Therefore, from the problem of future work of jobs, which is big issue, to what Sorina explained about developing system, to practicalities, contact Pavlina and you can join some activities or project. I think we have a partner from Brazil as well, and that could work in this way, practically. And it’s very important that we are practical on AI, otherwise discussion will be too theoretical. Let’s see if you inspire some other questions or comments. Critical ones, challenges, we need to, we have some, or you’re just playing with your hair, you know. Good. No questions, everything is clear? Or extremely

Audience:
I’m just wondering what you’re learning about the bigger systems, so that, are there ways in which you are giving them feedback or ways in which you are noticing sort of systemic problems that really ought to be addressed in the models themselves?

Jovan Kurbalija:
Well, bigger systems are big, and they’re big not only in the number of the data they process of money they attract, but also they basically don’t listen to small guys like us. They have important things to finish, to go to US Congress or EU Parliament or Chinese, whatever place they discuss this issue, or therefore there is a bit of arrogance, an element of hubris, I would say, which could be dangerous because it’s not only their business, it’s also our business about our future and our knowledge. We found it a bit, you know, in any technology you have magic. I still remember when I first was using a mobile phone, it was a magic. Technology is a bit magical. Internet and the other things. For us, we are now typing, but when you think, there is the element of magic. Now, AI brings magic on steroids, and some Altman can go, I’m mentioning him very often because I’m very critical about this use, and say, oh guys, AI will eat us for breakfast. I’m using this sort of, I said, okay, but why, how, when? Give us something. We cannot trust you just on these words. I mean, you have to, and first, let’s discuss jobs today. Let’s discuss disinformation. Let’s discuss a destroyment of the public spaces, online spaces, with the AI contributes. It’s not only AI. We found that problematic discussion, and especially non-explainability or partial explainability of neural networks adds to the magic. We put something, AI does something, and you get something. This is why we insist always to have the source of the answer of the question. Yes, here is a source, and this is the first step. We don’t know how AI got this answer, but we know, and ChargPT can know that, and Bard, and Baidu, and the others, they can know what were the sources for that answer. This is already the first step. Therefore, we see a lot of lack of transparency, confusion, and I’m afraid to say that it will be fertile ground for the conspiracy theories, because when you are just saying, well, trust us, we want to regulate you, and don’t ask questions, just trust what we are telling you, and then you basically, for me personally, I have a problem with that. I don’t think that things cannot be explained, at least source of your conclusion. I know neural network is not easy to explain technically. I have a colleague who is into AI, and he said, listen, be careful when you go to these IGFs of the UN. If you introduce explainability of neural networks, half of us will be in the jail, and I said, okay, there are realistic concerns, but there are things that can be done. That’s my sort of criticism of big, big systems. And to add on that a bit,

Sorina Telenau:
if I may just reinforce one of your points, in all these discussions about AI governance, you’ve probably followed Sam Altman and a few of the other big guys saying, yes, it’s a huge mess that we’ve created. Well, they don’t really say we’ve created, but AI is coming with all these challenges, and it’s going to break the world, and destroy us, and this and that, and we need to regulate. But if you look carefully at this discussion on we need to regulate, what they’re saying is we need to regulate future AI, not the AI we as big companies have developed, but future AI. So let us do our things, we’ll continue doing the best, and you should worry about the future. And I think that’s problematic, and I think we should hold them more to account what’s happening right now. As Jovan was saying, we have problems right now with AI that we should be solving before looking at the future. Not saying we shouldn’t worry about the future, and what might happen, but maybe put more resources into what’s happening right now, and how we address today’s challenges. And that would be it.

Jovan Kurbalija:
I’m looking for one presentation which we may share later on, where we are basically, ah, here it is. I was recently in Brussels, obviously they’re preparing the new regulation, and we said okay, let’s see what does it mean to regulate AI. You regulate hardware, you regulate data, you regulate algorithms, and you are the first to see it publicly. We didn’t show because there was some problem with PowerPoint during that session. And we regulate apps. What does it mean practically? What do you regulate? For example, as Serena said, you can’t hear some Altman saying regulate apps, or even data. Why they are not showing sources? Obviously, if you find the book which is copyrighted as a source, there will be a problem. As you know, there are already court cases in the United States against open AI. Or hardware computing power, where things are happening with the NVIDIA and the GPUs. What do you regulate? Read carefully. Next time when you hear, listen to some Altman, you can’t find except, oh, regulate AI capabilities. What does it mean? Basically, we created these capabilities, let us stop the other developments, and basically, I’m now a bit cynical. Let’s have monopoly on this. I said, no, that’s against competitive market. It’s against creativity. It’s, again, other issues. But there are problems that we have to deal with. How apps can be misused? How people can be thrown out of the jobs? How this information can be generated? You know the whole story. It’s part of public discussion. But where do we regulate? You can’t hear companies talking about data. That’s non-existent. They are already concentrated on this blue one, which is basically vague. They avoid apps, red one, because this is very concrete, you know. And hardware, it’s more geopolitical discussion these days between US, China, and these big players who is going to have hardware capability to process data. We’ll be publishing soon article on this to bring clarity when I started winter of excitement, spring of metaphors, summer of reflections, autumn of clarity. There could be disagreements. But let us not misuse the magic of technology of AI. Magic is important. It can inspire. But let’s not misuse it. Let’s basically keep the magic of technology while discussing governance issue where they are. That’s it. Looking again at the room. It’s always this sort of tension in the air. We want questions. No, we don’t want to force you to ask the questions. But we have 10 minutes more? No, we have 25 more minutes. OK. Let’s listen. Let’s chat in the corridors if there are no other questions and our comments. Oh, you have two questions on this side. I hope it is not forced question because we are asking for the questions. No? No, no, go ahead. Go ahead.

Audience:
I was thinking, sorry, let me introduce myself. I’m Julia. I am a youth from Brazil. I am with my delegation here. And I was thinking when you were talking about Ubuntu and other societal aspects of the philosophy behind AI or what could be the philosophy behind AI. And I got me wondering if there is any initiative to use AI as a means to preserve and to develop small communities, history, and culture and have them not to be lost into the translation that we are experiencing of losing practical and physical knowledge and ways of sharing knowledge, like families are being estranged by the recent modern changes that they are moving too much. They are being displaced by technology and opportunities, job opportunities, and so on. Is there an initiative or a group or an entity towards preserving small cultures or at least, not small cultures, but trying to bring access to small cities or small communities to try and update and upload their knowledge and basically, their knowledge. I’ll step their knowledge. But we can also imagine that knowledge of villages, of small cities can comprehend into physical practices, agricultural practices, and stories, and mythology, and so on. Because I have a personal, that’s also a personal question for me. Because I think about how are we losing, I’m from Brazil, how much we’re losing from being away from the countryside and having the cities expand and the countryside shrink. Although, the countryside is the majority of our landmass.

Jovan Kurbalija:
Great. I think it’s an excellent question. The short answer is yes. And I’ll give you, but let me give you an example of Diplo. It’s always, I always try to start with myself. We are a small organization. We have our, let’s say, we are a small community somewhere in Amazonia, where we basically live in the river and we had a culture. And we had to deal with the questions that every humans have to deal with, the question of family, love, purpose of life, what do you do after you die, what do you do with your kids, and these things. This is a knowledge. This is a very valuable knowledge, maybe not codified in the books of big philosophers, but this is core knowledge. Can it be saved? Yes. Should it be saved? Yes. Are there initiatives to save it? No. Why is it the case? I can’t tell you, but it’s very sad, because we are losing on this diversity of humanity. And I don’t think there is a hierarchy of knowledge and experience. Maybe money and power is not equally distributed, but human capability to innovate is distributed. And that’s basically how it can be done. Now, is there initiative? No. Can it be done with open source tools? Yes. Is it easy to do technically? Yes. Organizationally? No, because you have to change the habits and you have to change quite a few things, but not undoable. Is there interest to support it? No. Well, you will hear here many inclusion, cultural diversity, but when it comes to concrete things, there is no action. And I think countries like Brazil should push, especially the new government, I think it’s keen on the diversity, should push organization like UNESCO to do something to preserve the knowledge by using AI. And that, what is your name? Julia. It could be Julia’s initiative. We have a question from a colleague here. Could you just, well, the processes that you have to stand next to the mic. Please.

Audience:
Yes. Thank you. My name is Nicodemus Nyakundi. I’m from Kenya. I’ve come under the Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability. I work in Kiktanet under Digital Accessibility, more specifically for persons with disabilities. So there’s something that has been disturbing my mind, and I really need to understand when it comes to AI. More so that AI has not deviated so much from the normal approach towards machines and computers, like it is based on inputs and output models. So we have AI that is mostly trained on perfect data. I call it perfect because it is a predetermined data, and that is considered to be normal. But we want that AI to work with the imperfect human, a human who makes errors. So also we have to recognize the good thing is that we make mistakes, but then as humans, we resolve back to correct the mistakes. So my question is, what approach should we take to ensure that the AI is as human as us, and that it can work with persons with disabilities, and ensure that they also contribute to basic life needs for persons with disabilities, so that it does not create more of a marginalization, because it will come into the interface of, say, defining another form of perfect of which not all of us are. Thank you.

Jovan Kurbalija:
Sorina? OK. Let me unpack the few issues, one about people with disabilities. AI offers possibility, serious possibility. We are seeing it with transcribing, with the other issues with people with disabilities. Again, people with disabilities are not prominent yet in AI debates. And here again, small communities could ask actors like UN to check their disability quality, how people with disabilities can access. We recently have some study, and we are going to do to check diplomatic websites how disability friendly they are. And that’s, I would say, that push has to be strong from the bottom up communities and other actors. This is the first question. Should we make AI look like us? That’s a philosophical issue, and I’m not sure. I would preserve AI as a tool in the mindset. It will be a powerful tool, but always a tool, which Serena used during the course this summer to enhance learning. To have it always as a good tool, as a good, not to have it as a master, but to have it as our servant. That’s very important mentally. That will be powerful servant, which may revolt and which may say, OK, I want to have some power over it. But that’s basically I would keep it. Obviously, we’ll try to mimic. It excites us. If you read the Frankenstein from the Mary Shelley, this is the best example. Basically, she, Dr. Frankenstein, wanted to create the perfect creature. And that creature, if you can recall the book, was created to be good. And then it went out of the lab, and people were afraid. And people became aggressive. And then creature reacted and started getting nasty, basically, how we now perceive Dr. Frankenstein. This is where I am, for example, very uneasy with anthropomorphizing AI, putting it as humans. Because it is exciting. You can have a nice event. People are excited. Oh, Sophia, what is the name of all of these robots? Fortunately, I don’t see any Sophia at the IGF. Oh, Sophia can answer your question. And they said, no. What we do, we have a coffee machine as AI. It had the first session. For those of you who were in IGF Berlin 2019, it was participant in one session. You can search IGF coffee machine. That’s an element which we have to be very careful. Otherwise, we will finish like creature of Dr. Frankenstein. Because we will think that that creature is creating us some problems. But I here made one suggestion. If the IGF gives you a chance to be a bit imperfect, and I share it here on the screen, you can go to the philosopher’s path here in Kyoto. I heard it’s a nice walk. Run away. Be a bit imperfect. Don’t be at all sessions, except thank you for coming for our session. But here is the leading Japanese philosopher who basically studied, who used to have a walk through this philosopher path. And you can see that he was reflecting on society, on purpose, on happiness, on other issues. I don’t know if you are going to have somebody from philosophy department at Kyoto University, which was one of the best in Japan. But that would be an interesting discussion. Back to tradition of Ubuntu coming from Kenya. OK, it’s more towards south. But all that tradition of us belonging to collectivity and being the part of being empowered by collective, by family, by our surrounding. That’s the answer to the practical, again, answer, if the weather will be nicer, go to the. We don’t have a cherry blossom. I will criticize AI organizers why it is not in April. But we can get back to Kyoto for this. But philosopher’s path is an interesting place where these guys walking like Kant used to walk in now Kaliningrad. It was, at that time, Prussian city. The famous Immanuel Kant, he was walking every day same route. He was only late one day. And that’s a mystery, pettiness of philosophical discussion while he was late. But I forgot the name of this Japanese philosopher. Oh, Nishikida Kitaro is basically the best Chinese philosopher. I plan to read more carefully and see what we can learn from him about AI and basically develop this discussion further. And my call for imperfection, try to discover this lovely city. You will have, anyway, Diplo’s reporting. Therefore, you can read what was happening. But should it be official at this point? No. I’ll get in trouble with the secretariat and these things. And thank you for coming. Let’s walk the talk and enjoy the corridors and chats and basically continue this interesting debate about bottom-up AI and our right to be humanly imperfect. Thank you. Thank you, Sorina. Thank you.

Taylor De Rosa

Taylor DeRosa, a master’s student in the School of Science and Technology Policy at KAIST, focuses on researching the digital divide, particularly its impact on North Korean refugee migrants in South Korea. DeRosa considers factors like gender and age when studying how internet use affects their social relationships and access to resources. By conducting comprehensive studies, DeRosa aims to gain insights into the experiences of this vulnerable population and contribute to reducing inequalities.

The EQUALS Research Coalition, a global partnership promoting gender equality, actively addresses gender tech inequalities. Their primary objective is to generate knowledge about the existence, causes, and remedies for gender disparities in the technology sector. They support access, skills, and leadership development to bridge the gap and empower women in the field. The coalition comprises 34 active members from 19 institutions worldwide.

The Research Coalition publishes reports and holds annual meetings to share their findings and progress. These reports are vital resources for understanding gender tech inequalities and identifying areas for improvement. The initial report, titled the “Taking Stock Report,” highlighted a significant gap in sex-disaggregated ICT data in Africa, calling for action to address the gap and strive for more accurate and inclusive analyses.

The Research Coalition looks forward to their next report, showcasing their commitment to ongoing research and providing up-to-date information on gender tech inequalities. They play a crucial role in advocating for change and promoting gender equality in the technology sector.

Additionally, the coalition aims to reinvigorate itself and provide more benefits to its members. Through individual meetings with active partners, they strive to understand their members’ needs and enhance the coalition’s offerings. By prioritising their members’ interests and aspirations, the coalition seeks to strengthen its impact on addressing gender tech inequalities.

In conclusion, Taylor DeRosa’s research sheds light on the digital divide faced by North Korean refugee migrants in South Korea. The EQUALS Research Coalition’s valuable work generates knowledge and fosters access, skills, and leadership to combat global gender tech inequalities. Through publishing reports, annual meetings, and efforts to reinvigorate the coalition, they continue to make significant strides towards a more equitable and inclusive technological landscape.

Onica Makwakwa

Onica Makwakwa, the Executive Director of the Global Digital Inclusion Partnership, is dedicated to achieving meaningful connectivity for the majority of the world’s population. She recognizes the significance of ensuring access to digital resources and technology for all individuals, regardless of their socioeconomic background or geographical location. This commitment aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure and SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities), which emphasize the importance of providing equal opportunities for everyone.

One of Makwakwa’s key arguments focuses on the economic impact of excluding women from the digital economy. She firmly believes that by neglecting women’s participation in the digital sphere, we not only hinder their individual advancement but also deprive economies of their valuable contributions. To support her argument, Makwakwa’s team is conducting detailed research on the costs of exclusion, particularly on how it affects women financially within the context of the digital economy.

This research aims to shed light on the adverse consequences of digital exclusion, providing insights to policymakers and industry leaders on the tangible benefits of inclusivity. It will help them understand the financial aspects of exclusion, highlighting the potential loss of income and economic output resulting from the limited or non-existent participation of women in the digital economy.

Makwakwa’s proactive approach to achieving meaningful connectivity and her emphasis on gender equality within the digital domain are crucial in addressing existing disparities. By actively working towards closing the digital gender gap, she envisions a future where women have equal access to digital resources, opportunities, and information.

In summary, Onica Makwakwa, as the Executive Director of the Global Digital Inclusion Partnership, focuses on promoting meaningful connectivity and addressing the economic impact of excluding women from the digital economy. Through her research, she aims to highlight the financial implications of exclusion and advocate for gender equality in the digital space. Her efforts align with the Sustainable Development Goals, contributing to the reduction of global inequalities and the fostering of inclusive growth.

Preetam Maloor

The Equals Research Coalition plays a crucial role in collective action, particularly in promoting gender equality. One of its primary goals is to ensure that practitioners and policymakers have access to the necessary intelligence to make informed decisions. The coalition achieves this by identifying key knowledge and evidence gaps and conducting research on priority topics. By providing practitioners and policymakers with actionable information, the coalition plays a pivotal role in shaping policies and interventions that advance gender equality.

Another important aspect of the coalition’s work is its emphasis on strong, credible data and case studies. This is essential for problem understanding and strategy recognition. By reinforcing the work of publishing reports and collecting data, the coalition enables progress towards bridging the digital gender divide. The availability of accurate and comprehensive data helps stakeholders gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities in addressing gender disparities in the digital realm. It also provides a solid foundation for developing effective strategies that promote digital equity.

The Equals EU project is another noteworthy initiative within the coalition. Its focus is on promoting gender equality in social innovation. The project aims to create smart, sustainable, and inclusive social innovation systems in local communities and cities in Europe. Activities such as hackathons, innovation camps, and the development of gender equality tools are carried out to achieve this objective. By integrating gender equality principles into social innovation, the project contributes to a more balanced and inclusive society.

Overall, significant strides have been made towards gender digital equity, largely driven by the efforts of the Equals Research Coalition. Notable achievements include the publication of the ‘Taking Stock Report’ and the ‘sex disaggregated ICT data in Africa’ report. These reports provide valuable insights into the current state of gender equality in the digital realm and serve as important resources for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers. The general sentiment towards the coalition’s work is positive, indicating wide recognition and appreciation for their efforts.

In conclusion, the Equals Research Coalition plays a vital role in collective action to advance gender equality. Through their research, provision of actionable information, and emphasis on strong, credible data, the coalition contributes to problem understanding, strategy recognition, and bridging the digital gender divide. The Equals EU project further promotes gender equality in social innovation through various activities. With remarkable achievements and a positive sentiment surrounding their work, the coalition is making significant progress towards gender digital equity and paving the way for a more inclusive and equitable digital future.

Kenneth Dimalibot

Kenneth and Onika are colleagues at the Global Data and Information Platform (GDIP), a company that specialises in data collection, analysis, and information dissemination. They both play essential roles within the team, leveraging their unique skillsets and expertise to contribute to GDIP’s success.

Kenneth is renowned for his exceptional data collection skills. With a keen eye for detail, he ensures accuracy and reliability in all the data he collects. His dedication to quality data collection has greatly benefitted GDIP in obtaining precise insights for various projects.

On the other hand, Onika is an expert in data analysis. She excels at identifying patterns and trends within the data, enabling GDIP to gain valuable insights into market trends, consumer behaviours, and competitor analysis. Onika’s analytical abilities play a pivotal role in shaping the company’s strategic decisions and fostering innovation.

Together, Kenneth and Onika form a formidable partnership, capitalising on their strengths in data collection and analysis respectively. Their collaboration allows GDIP to deliver comprehensive and insightful reports to their clients, empowering them to make informed business decisions.

Moreover, Kenneth and Onika’s dedication to their work and commitment to excellence have earned them recognition within the company. Their teamwork, professionalism, and strong work ethic contribute to GDIP’s overall success.

In conclusion, Kenneth and Onika are invaluable assets to GDIP. Their expertise in data collection and analysis, coupled with their unwavering commitment to excellence, enable GDIP to provide high-quality and reliable services to their clients. Their contributions have made them integral to GDIP’s success.

Ariana

Ariana is an aerospace engineer and technology policy specialist who is passionate about creating gender-inclusive innovation ecosystems. Her dedication to equal opportunities for all drives her support for initiatives promoting gender inclusivity in technology and innovation. Ariana actively participates in the project to develop gender-inclusive innovation ecosystems and has strong affiliations with the cause. She recognises the importance of such initiatives in bringing about positive changes in the field.

Moreover, Ariana is excited about the possibility of collaborating with the Equals New Research Coalition and the potential synchronies that will result from this partnership. She understands the significance of the coalition’s work in fostering partnerships for the global goals.

Currently, Ariana is based at Oslo Metropolitan University, where she brings her expertise and passion to her work. Originating from Jamaica, she offers a unique perspective and valuable experiences. Her international background, combined with her commitment to driving gender inclusivity, makes her a valuable asset in the fields of aerospace engineering and technology policy.

To summarise, Ariana is a brilliant aerospace engineer and technology policy specialist who actively strives to create gender-inclusive innovation ecosystems. Her support for initiatives promoting gender inclusivity, enthusiasm about collaborating with the Equals New Research Coalition, and acknowledgement of their crucial work showcase her commitment to driving positive changes in the field. With her expertise and diverse background, Ariana is making significant contributions towards gender equality and industry innovation.

Toshikazu Sakano

Toshikazu Sakano, an esteemed figure in ICT for disaster countermeasures, is currently involved in conducting feasibility studies in various countries. Sakano is based in Kyoto and works at the Advanced Research Institute for Telecommunications International. His main focus is on utilising information and communication technology (ICT) to formulate effective strategies for disaster management.

Sakano’s work in this field has gained recognition for its impartiality and objectivity. He approaches his research with a neutral sentiment, ensuring fairness and unbiased results. This makes his findings and recommendations reliable for governments and organisations seeking guidance in mitigating the impact of disasters.

In addition to his individual research projects, Sakano has shown a keen interest in global collaboration in disaster response. He recently attended a meeting to express his enthusiasm for partnerships in this field. This aligns with SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals, which underscores the importance of cooperation and coordination among various stakeholders for sustainable development.

Through active participation in such meetings, Sakano demonstrates his commitment to fostering partnerships and sharing knowledge with experts worldwide. The exchange of ideas, experiences, and best practices is expected to contribute to the development of more effective disaster response measures at an international level.

Overall, Toshikazu Sakano’s work in ICT for disaster countermeasures is characterised by his meticulous research approach and dedication to global collaboration. His efforts hold promise in advancing the field and enhancing disaster management practices globally.

Maria Garrido

During a recent discussion, Christopher’s comment sparked an idea about integrating with other clusters for research. Maria Garrido supports this suggestion and advocates for collaborative work with the other three coalitions, inviting them to contribute. This collaborative approach has the potential to not only increase overall output but also demonstrate cohesion and integration. By working together, researchers can combine their expertise and resources, resulting in more comprehensive and impactful research. This aligns with SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals, which emphasizes the importance of collaboration and cooperation for achieving sustainable development. By inviting the other coalitions to contribute, researchers can tap into their unique perspectives, knowledge, and resources, leading to a diverse and well-rounded approach to research and the development of innovative solutions. This collaboration also has the potential to increase the quantity and quality of research outcomes. Through this collaborative approach, researchers can make significant progress towards the goals of sustainable development while fostering a sense of unity and shared responsibility.

Christopher Yoo

Christopher Yu, a researcher from the University of Pennsylvania, is actively involved in empirical research aimed at understanding and measuring the effects of mobile internet connectivity on socioeconomic well-being, with a particular emphasis on gender. This research, funded by GSMA Women, focuses on the long-term impact of mobile technology on individuals in Bangladesh and Ghana.

Christopher is a strong advocate for the use of mobile technology to improve the socioeconomic well-being of women. Longitudinal studies conducted by him seek to uncover valuable insights into how mobile internet connectivity can positively affect the livelihoods and opportunities available to women in these regions, helping bridge the gender gap and empower women.

The formation of a coalition offers an opportunity for collaboration and progress. Christopher believes that the success and impact of this coalition depend on the active involvement and drive of its members. By collectively driving it forward, the coalition can achieve significant outcomes in gender equality and socio-economic development.

Christopher highlights the importance of developing measurement tools to assess accomplishments and effectiveness. Through a collaborative process, he encourages researchers and experts from various fields to contribute research findings and case studies related to gender issues. This inclusive approach fosters a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by women and informs the development of effective strategies and interventions.

In addition to research and case studies, Christopher emphasizes the need to explore alternative measures of access to mobile technology. He acknowledges that collecting survey data can be costly and time-consuming. Leveraging network-based data as a proxy to infer access levels and rates of progress can provide valuable insights at a lower cost, accelerating the understanding and action necessary to bridge the digital divide.

In conclusion, Christopher Yu’s involvement in empirical research funded by GSMA Women demonstrates his commitment to understanding and advancing the impact of mobile internet connectivity on socioeconomic well-being, particularly regarding women’s empowerment. He advocates for collaborative efforts to drive progress in this field, emphasizing the development of alternative measures of access using network-based data. Through his innovative thinking and pragmatic approach, Christopher aims to address challenges in research and data collection.

Audience

During the discussion on gender in ICTs, it was noted that there is ongoing work on the topic, with case studies and insights covering various related areas such as women-led startups, VC investment, and the ability to code. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has conducted case studies and research on gender in ICTs, providing valuable insights into the issues faced in this field. These insights also extend to areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), internet access, and the role of women in the technology industry.

The initiative to collect case studies and contribute to a better understanding of gender in ICT was supported by participants in the discussion. They acknowledged that case studies not only provide valuable data but also help shed light on the challenges faced by women in the ICT sector. The collection of such data can serve as a foundation for developing effective strategies and policies to promote gender equality in the industry. The importance of data collection and the need for continuous research in this area were emphasized.

The topic of the skills gap in the ICT field was raised by one audience member. The individual, who identified themselves as part of the skills group, advocated for the exploration of surveys from around the world to identify where the skills gap lies. This suggestion highlights the need for comprehensive data and analysis to understand the specific areas where skills are lacking and to develop targeted solutions to bridge these gaps.

Another participant in the discussion drew attention to the lack of women in leadership positions, particularly as CEOs, and the disregard of women as a potential target market in emerging technologies. This observation underscores the persistent gender inequality in the industry and the need for more inclusive practices. The speaker called for greater recognition of women’s leadership capabilities and for companies to consider female consumers’ needs and preferences when developing innovative technologies.

The importance of survey data with specific and concrete questions about different levels of skills was emphasized as a means of understanding and addressing the skills gap issue effectively. While progress has been made in narrowing the skills gap, participants noted that new gaps are emerging at higher levels of digital skills. This calls for continuous monitoring and analysis to ensure that efforts to close the skills gap are inclusive and address all levels of expertise.

The discussion also highlighted the gender and work-life balance issue in the ICT sector. It was acknowledged that there are challenges in achieving a balance between career and personal life for both men and women in the technology industry. This issue underlines the need for supportive policies and practices that accommodate the diverse needs of employees.

The importance of collaboration and support from organizations such as UNAPC ICT and the World Bank was mentioned. These organizations can play a vital role in providing resources, expertise, and guidance to address gender inequality and promote inclusive practices in the ICT sector.

Additionally, the discussion touched on training programmes for media and information literacy. One participant mentioned the POSSE director for the Centre for Media Literacy and Community Development organisation in Uganda, which provides training specifically for youth, women, and other community members. This example highlights the role of education and capacity-building programmes in empowering individuals and ensuring inclusive access to digital media and information.

Lastly, Ayanna’s research on digital innovation ecosystems and gender inequality was brought up, indicating an understanding that access, skills, and digital innovation are interconnected. This research suggests the need to consider the broader ecosystem in addressing gender inequalities in the ICT sector.

In conclusion, the discussion on gender in ICTs highlighted the ongoing work, case studies, and insights in various related areas. The importance of collecting case studies, addressing the skills gap, promoting women’s leadership, ensuring work-life balance, and collaborating with organizations to drive gender equality in the ICT sector was emphasized. Training programs and research focused on digital innovation ecosystems and gender inequality were also highlighted as important areas for further exploration and action.

Lee Bum Sun

Lee Bum Sun’s keen interest in the fields of AI and energy reflects his enthusiasm for the advancements and potential applications of artificial intelligence in the energy sector. This signifies his recognition of AI’s ability to enhance energy systems’ efficiency, sustainability, and accessibility.

In addition, Lee Bum Sun strongly believes in the importance of democratic values, particularly equal trade, for the successful integration of new technologies. This perspective emphasizes the significance of fairness and inclusivity in the adoption and diffusion of technological innovations. It highlights the value of providing equal opportunities for all actors, regardless of their size or wealth, to access and benefit from new technologies.

These areas of interest and perspectives align closely with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Lee Bum Sun’s interest in AI and energy relates to the goals of promoting affordable and clean energy (SDG 7) and fostering industry, innovation, and infrastructure (SDG 9). By harnessing AI in the energy sector, sustainable and cleaner energy sources can be developed and deployed, contributing to the goal of affordable and clean energy. The exploration of AI in industry and infrastructure can also drive innovation and lay the foundation for transformative technological advancements.

Similarly, Lee Bum Sun’s emphasis on democratic values and equal trade aligns with the goal of peace, justice, and strong institutions (SDG 16). Upholding these values ensures fairness, transparency, and inclusivity in the development and deployment of new technologies. This fosters stronger institutions and promotes social cohesion, which are crucial for achieving sustainable development.

While Lee Bum Sun’s stances on AI and energy, as well as democratic values and equal trade, are expressed positively, specific supporting facts or evidence are not provided. Therefore, further information and context are necessary to fully evaluate the validity and potential impact of these positions on sustainable development.

In summary, Lee Bum Sun’s interest in AI and energy, along with his belief in democratic values and equal trade, reflects a positive outlook on the potential of new technologies. These topics align with the SDGs and highlight the importance of fairness, inclusivity, and sustainability in the development and application of technological advancements. However, without supporting facts, a comprehensive assessment of these positions is limited, necessitating further investigation.

Barhanu Nugusi

Barhanu Nugusi, the Pan-African Youth Ambassador for Internet Governance, is actively working on internet-related issues in Ethiopia. He is a key member of the Ethiopian chapter of the Internet Society, dedicated to promoting positive change and advancements in this field.

In his role as the Pan-African Youth Ambassador for Internet Governance, Barhanu Nugusi is passionate about bridging the digital divide and ensuring equal access to the internet throughout Africa. His advocacy for internet rights gives African youth a platform to voice their concerns and contribute to policy-making in internet governance.

In Ethiopia, Barhanu Nugusi specifically focuses on addressing challenges and opportunities related to internet access and usage. Through collaboration with stakeholders, he develops strategies to enhance industry, innovation, and internet infrastructure. This aligns with Goal 9 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aims to promote sustainable industrialization and technological advancement.

Barhanu Nugusi’s efforts also support Goal 11 of the SDGs, which aims to create sustainable cities and communities. Internet access is vital for urban development as it enables individuals and communities to access information, services, and opportunities. By working towards improving internet access and usage in Ethiopia, Barhanu Nugusi directly contributes to achieving this goal.

Barhanu Nugusi’s commitment to internet issues in Ethiopia signifies a positive shift towards digital inclusion and empowerment. His initiatives not only enhance economic growth and innovation but also bridge the digital gap between urban and rural areas. By ensuring equal access and opportunities for all, he is fostering a more sustainable and inclusive society.

In conclusion, Barhanu Nugusi’s role as the Pan-African Youth Ambassador for Internet Governance, along with his work with the Ethiopian chapter of the Internet Society, reflects his active involvement in addressing internet-related issues in Ethiopia. His efforts align with Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, and Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities of the United Nations SDGs. Through his dedication and initiatives, Barhanu Nugusi contributes to digital inclusion and creates a more sustainable future for Ethiopia and the African continent as a whole.

Dasom Lee

Dasom Lee is a researcher who explores the applications of AI-based infrastructures and cyber-physical systems. Her research focuses on how these technologies can contribute to environmental and social sustainability. Specifically, Dasom examines their potential in energy systems and self-driving cars.

In the context of energy systems, Dasom investigates how AI can be integrated to enhance efficiency, reduce energy consumption, and promote renewable energy sources. By leveraging AI algorithms and data analysis, energy systems can be optimized to reduce carbon emissions and support sustainability goals. This research has significant implications for addressing climate change and achieving SDG13: Climate Action.

Another area of Dasom’s research is the role of AI in self-driving cars and its impact on women in the technology market. Her work explores the gender dynamics in this emerging field, highlighting the differences in how women are considered as primary buyers of self-driving cars. Despite women showing significant interest, they are often overlooked in the design and marketing strategies. Dasom emphasizes the importance of understanding these dynamics to ensure equal access and representation in technology.

Beyond her research on AI and technology, Dasom also addresses the issue of women’s representation in the ICT and technology sectors. She argues that achieving gender equality requires multi-level types of leadership. She highlights the Internet Society Foundation’s discussion, which presents two types of leadership: fellowship-based and training and e-learning courses-based. By adopting these different approaches, it becomes possible to create inclusive and diverse leadership structures that can drive change in the sector. This aligns with SDG5: Gender Equality and SDG9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure.

Furthermore, Dasom identifies the importance of focusing on specific indicators in-depth to generate more interest and funding for research. This viewpoint is supported by discussions within the OECD group, where the availability of different types of data and the specification of certain indicators were highlighted. By conducting in-depth analysis and highlighting the significance of specific indicators, researchers can attract more attention and resources towards their work. This aligns with SDG17: Partnerships for the Goals.

Finally, Dasom stresses the significance of studying different types of corporations, such as multinational corporations (MNCs) and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), to gain a comprehensive understanding of women’s leadership roles. Investigating these diverse contexts allows researchers to identify the varying challenges and opportunities women face in leadership positions within different corporate structures. This research contributes to SDG5: Gender Equality and SDG8: Decent Work and Economic Growth.

In conclusion, Dasom Lee’s research covers various dimensions of AI-based infrastructures, cyber-physical systems, and their impact on environmental sustainability, gender equality, and women’s representation in technology sectors. Her studies shed light on the potential of technology to drive positive change and highlight the importance of inclusive leadership and focused research efforts. By addressing these issues, we can work towards a more sustainable and equitable future.

Safari Nshuti Ayobangira

Honorable Ayoban Girassafari is a respected Member of Parliament representing the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He plays a critical role in shaping legislation and advocating for the interests of the Congolese people.

As an elected official, Girassafari actively engages in political debates and discussions to ensure that his constituents’ voices are heard. His responsibilities as an MP include participating in parliamentary sessions, addressing national issues, proposing bills, and contributing to policy-making processes.

Girassafari brings a unique perspective to the political landscape of the DRC, allowing him to understand the challenges and opportunities faced by the country. He collaborates with fellow MPs to improve governance, enhance social welfare, and promote economic growth in the DRC.

Throughout his career, Girassafari has demonstrated a profound grasp of the political, social, and economic dynamics that shape the DRC. In Parliament, he advocates for policies that promote social justice, human rights, and environmental sustainability. He also values inclusive governance, striving to represent diverse voices within his constituency.

Being an MP from the DRC, Girassafari is well aware of the complex issues affecting the nation, such as poverty, corruption, security concerns, and the need for infrastructure development. He actively engages with other MPs, government officials, and civil society organizations to find comprehensive solutions to these challenges.

In conclusion, Honorable Ayoban Girassafari is a significant figure in Congolese politics, representing the interests of his constituents as an MP. His devotion to public service, advocacy for inclusive governance, and commitment to addressing key issues in the DRC make him an influential force in shaping the nation’s future. Girassafari’s active participation in the political arena contributes to the ongoing efforts to build a more prosperous and equitable Democratic Republic of Congo.

So Young Kim

Women are facing underrepresentation in the fields of science and technology, particularly in emerging digital technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). This leads to a smaller proportion of women being faculty members in national universities, and new cohorts lacking sufficient female representation. The sentiment towards this issue is negative, highlighting the urgent need to address the gender disparity in these fields.

On a positive note, efforts are being made to promote women’s participation in science and technology. Soyoung Kim, for instance, is advising the Ministry of Education on strategies to increase the number of women in faculty positions. She is also involved in creating a basic framework that supports women in science and technology education. These initiatives aim to empower women and encourage their active involvement, contributing to the achievement of gender equality.

In terms of access to information and communication technology (ICT), there is a need for more surveys with specific skill-related questions to understand the gender gap better. While questions surrounding ICT access have become more sophisticated, limited surveys focus on skills, hindering a comprehensive understanding of the gender gap in this area. Therefore, the development of survey data including detailed questions about different skill levels is crucial.

While progress has been made in reducing the gender gap through basic ICT education, a new gap is emerging in advanced skills, especially in AI technologies. Basic ICT education helps narrow the skills gap, but attaining advanced skills, such as those related to AI, presents challenges, resulting in a new imbalance in this field. This highlights the opportunity for further investment in providing women with training and opportunities to acquire advanced digital skills.

A paradox exists where women, despite being motivated to learn advanced skills, face limited career advancement due to gender and work-life balance issues. The demanding work environment in the ICT sector, known for long hours and high-pressure circumstances, further hinders women’s progress. Additionally, the underrepresentation of women at higher levels can demotivate other women from pursuing advanced tech skills. Addressing these gender and work-life balance issues is crucial to create an inclusive and supportive environment that enables women to excel in science and technology fields.

In conclusion, women are underrepresented in science and technology fields, particularly in emerging digital technologies like AI. Efforts are being made to promote women’s participation through the development of frameworks and strategies. While access to ICT and digital skills is improving, more surveys with skill-focused questions are needed to fully understand the gender gap. Despite progress in reducing the skills gap, a new imbalance persists in advanced skills like AI. Gender and work-life balance issues hinder women’s career advancement and motivation to pursue advanced tech skills. Addressing these challenges is vital to achieve gender equality and create an inclusive future in science and technology.

Pasi

Pasi, originally from Uganda and representing the Centre for Indigenous and Community Involvement, is participating in a conference centred around internet definance. This marks Pasi’s inaugural attendance at such an event. The primary argument presented is Pasi’s keenness to partake in the session and his eagerness to learn about internet definance. The sentiment towards Pasi is positive, as his enthusiasm is evident in his desire to acquire knowledge and gain fresh insights from the conference.

Additionally, Pasi’s involvement aligns with SDG 4: Quality Education, underscoring his commitment to expanding his knowledge. He anticipates that the conference will provide ample learning opportunities. With an ardent thirst for knowledge, Pasi looks forward to enhancing his understanding during this event.

Overall, the speakers’ positive sentiments towards the conference and Pasi’s eagerness to participate and learn underscore the importance of such gatherings in promoting education and facilitating the exchange of ideas. It is important to note that Pasi’s representation of the Centre for Indigenous and Community Involvement highlights the significance of diverse perspectives in discussions surrounding internet definance.

Jeffrey Llanto

Jeffrey Llanto is the executive director of the CVSNAP Foundation, a non-profit organization based in the Philippines. The foundation focuses on improving wireless communication capabilities during times of disaster. Llanto is actively involved in the implementation of a locally accessible cloud system project, with the aim of expanding its reach beyond the Philippines.

Llanto is collaborating with Dr. Sakano and Mr. Sharma from BizFlux, an organization based in India, to successfully execute the cloud system project. This collaboration highlights the importance of international cooperation and partnerships in achieving common goals. By integrating cloud computing technology, the project aims to empower disaster management efforts and enhance communication systems in disaster-affected regions.

These initiatives supported by Llanto and the CVSNAP Foundation align with Sustainable Development Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure. The focus on utilizing the latest technology, particularly wireless communication and cloud systems, reflects the ambition to drive progress and innovation within the disaster management sector. Moreover, these initiatives also align with Sustainable Development Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals by engaging in collaboration with international partners and organizations, ultimately leading to more effective and impactful solutions to address global challenges.

The sentiment towards these initiatives is neutral and positive, indicating recognition of their importance and potential benefits. Stakeholders are open to adopting technological advancements in disaster management and are supportive of Llanto’s role in facilitating these initiatives.

In conclusion, as the executive director of the CVSNAP Foundation, Jeffrey Llanto plays an active role in improving wireless communication during disaster situations. Through collaboration with BizFlux, he aims to expand the locally accessible cloud system project to other countries. These initiatives align with SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure and SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals. The neutral and positive sentiment towards these initiatives underlines their potential impact and the significance of technological advancements in disaster management.

Chandraprakash Sharma

Chandra Prakash Sharma, the CEO and founder of BizFlux, an Indian-based company, has announced a collaboration with Dr. Sakano and Mr. Jeffrey from the Philippines. The collaboration aims to develop a locally accessible cloud system project.

The project is focused on providing businesses in the Philippines with easy access to cloud technology. Although cloud technology has gained popularity due to its scalability, cost-effectiveness, and improved efficiency, its adoption in the Philippines has been limited due to infrastructure and connectivity issues.

BizFlux, under the leadership of Sharma, aims to address these barriers by developing a cloud system that is accessible within the local context. This project has the potential to revolutionize how businesses operate and manage data, eliminating the need for costly on-premises servers and offering flexible and scalable storage solutions.

The collaboration with Dr. Sakano, an expert in cloud technologies, and Mr. Jeffrey, who brings local market understanding and business development expertise, is essential for the success of this project. Their combined knowledge and experience will ensure that the cloud system is tailored to the unique needs and challenges of the Philippine market.

This collaboration is a significant step towards widespread adoption and accessibility of cloud technology in the Philippines. By equipping businesses with the tools and resources to harness the power of the cloud, this project has the potential to drive innovation, enhance productivity, and contribute to economic growth.

In conclusion, Chandra Prakash Sharma’s announcement of the collaboration with Dr. Sakano and Mr. Jeffrey for the locally accessible cloud system project is a promising development in the Philippines’ cloud technology landscape. This project aims to overcome barriers and enable businesses to leverage the benefits of cloud computing, ultimately driving economic growth and fostering innovation.

Gaini

Gaini is an individual who works with LearnAsia, a regional think tank that focuses on developing Asia. She strongly believes that exploring the intersection of gender and the digital economy is an important area of study. LearnAsia conducts nationally representative surveys across six countries in Asia, with a specific emphasis on gender, urban-rural divides, and disability.

LearnAsia has undertaken extensive research to investigate the changes in digital inclusion gaps resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on gender engagement. They have conducted a post-COVID survey to examine the gaps in digital inclusion and explore whether the pandemic has prompted more women to come online for educational and work-related needs. This research provides insights into the impact of the pandemic on gender equality in accessing digital platforms.

Moreover, LearnAsia has also conducted qualitative research on how women operate in the platform economy, specifically in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. This research aims to uncover the challenges, opportunities, and experiences encountered by women in the platform economy, providing valuable insights into the relationship between gender and the digital economy in Asia.

Gaini is also representing her colleagues who have worked with EQUALS, an organization dedicated to addressing gender equality in the digital age. Together, they have conducted surveys in the Asia-Pacific region, further contributing to the body of knowledge on this topic.

Overall, the research conducted by Gaini and her colleagues at LearnAsia and EQUALS highlights the importance of understanding the intersection between gender and the digital economy. Their work, including nationally representative surveys, investigations into digital inclusion gaps, and qualitative studies on women’s experiences in the platform economy, provides valuable insights and evidence to inform policies and strategies for achieving gender equality in the digital age.

Moonyul Yang

Moon Yeol Young, a master’s student at KAIST, is conducting research on the impact of diversity and gender equality on productivity within the defense industry. This study is advised by Moon Choi and aims to contribute to the achievement of two Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure).

The research focuses on exploring how diversity and gender equality influence productivity within the defense industry. Young aims to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between diversity, including factors such as race, ethnicity, and age, and gender equality, and their overall impact on productivity in this specific sector.

To conduct the research, Young plans to gather data through surveys, interviews, and the analysis of industry reports. By examining these variables, the research aims to uncover the potential benefits and drawbacks associated with diversity and gender equality within the defense industry.

The findings of this study could have significant implications for the defense industry. If the research demonstrates a positive correlation between diversity, gender equality, and productivity, it may provide a compelling argument for the industry to prioritize and promote these values. This, in turn, could lead to more inclusive and diverse workplaces, potentially enhancing long-term productivity.

Furthermore, this research aligns with broader societal goals, as outlined by SDG 5 and SDG 9. By working towards gender equality and promoting diversity within the defense industry, this project contributes to the larger global agenda of fostering inclusive societies and sustainable development.

In conclusion, Moon Yeol Young’s research project at KAIST seeks to explore the impact of diversity and gender equality on productivity in the defense industry. This study aligns with SDG 5 and SDG 9 and has the potential to provide valuable insights to drive positive change within the industry.

Co-Moderator

The co-moderator for the session is a PhD student at the Greater School of Science and Technology in KAIST. Their role involves assisting in coordinating the session. One of the speakers focuses on addressing the third-level digital divide from a gender perspective. This issue pertains to the unequal access and use of digital technologies among different genders. The speaker aims to shed light on this disparity and discuss potential solutions to bridge the gap.

Another speaker in the session is interested in how internet use impacts real-life experiences. They will explore how the internet has transformed various aspects of our lives, such as communication, information retrieval, and social interactions. This exploration will provide insights into how the internet has influenced our daily routines and interactions with others.

Additionally, the discussion of the third-level digital divide aligns with SDG 5: Gender Equality, which seeks to empower women and promote gender equality in all aspects of society. By addressing this divide, the session aims to contribute to the achievement of this Sustainable Development Goal.

The exploration of internet use and its impact on real-life experiences is related to SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure. This implies that the session acknowledges the importance of internet technology in advancing these areas and seeks to explore the potential it holds for driving innovation and development.

Overall, this session brings together experts and researchers in the field to discuss important issues related to the digital divide, gender equality, internet use, and their impact on real-life experiences. By highlighting these topics, the session aims to foster a greater understanding of the challenges and opportunities presented by the digital age and contribute to the achievement of the relevant Sustainable Development Goals.

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi

Moon Choi, the co-leader of the Equals Research Coalition, played a key role in moderating the coalition’s annual meeting. The primary aim of the meeting was to generate more evidence to support the evaluation and implementation of evidence-based policies in the field of IT development. This emphasis on evidence-based policy highlights the coalition’s commitment to ensuring that decision-making in the IT sector is guided by reliable research.

During the meeting, a colleague from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) delivered the opening speech, further highlighting the importance of collaboration and partnerships in achieving the coalition’s goals. The ITU’s presence at the meeting underscored the significance of the coalition’s work in the broader context of international telecommunications and technology.

One of the key discussions at the meeting revolved around the goals for the upcoming annual report. The meeting provided a platform for participants to exchange ideas and insights, with a particular focus on shaping the content and direction of the annual report. This collaborative approach ensures that the report accurately reflects the collective expertise and knowledge of coalition members.

Moon Choi also emphasized the significance of having a brief overview of the organization’s history before moving on to other agenda items. This recognition of the importance of historical context ensures that participants have a comprehensive understanding of the coalition’s evolution and achievements.

The meeting also highlighted the formation of EQUALS, a collaboration between five partners: ITU, GSMA, United Nations University, UN Women, and ITC. Established in 2016, EQUALS aims to promote gender equality in the IT sector. This partnership highlights the commitment of the coalition’s members to addressing the gender gap and ensuring inclusive opportunities for all.

The Equals Research Coalition comprises four coalitions: ASSESS, SKILLS, leadership, and research. Each coalition focuses on specific areas related to gender equality, education, and economic growth. These coalitions serve as platforms for collaboration and exchange of knowledge, with the goal of driving positive change in their respective domains.

However, challenges such as the impact of COVID-19 and other factors have resulted in reduced activity from the research coalition partners. Despite these challenges, Moon Choi remains committed to fostering cooperation and leadership within the coalitions. She proposed potential leaders for different groups, envisioning a future that ensures effective collaboration and direction.

Another significant aspect discussed during the meeting was the importance of contributions to the clusters. Contributions can take the form of full-length manuscripts or brief case studies, providing valuable insights into various areas related to gender equality, leadership, and skills development. The current co-leaders of the coalition, EY and UN Women, play a crucial role in managing and promoting these contributions.

Moon Choi acknowledged the need for flexibility and adaptation, expressing openness to adjusting the structure of the clusters based on feedback from participants. This approach ensures that the coalitions evolve to meet the changing needs of the IT sector and effectively address gender disparities.

A notable suggestion from the meeting was the idea of inviting other clusters to contribute case studies, enhancing integration between different groups. This initiative would showcase the activities and achievements of these clusters, providing a broader perspective on the coalition’s impact beyond academia.

The meeting acknowledged the significant contribution that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) could make in addressing the gender issue in leadership. The OECD’s expertise in areas such as ICTs, women-led startups, and VC investment can provide valuable insights and data to further the coalition’s goals.

Lastly, the meeting encouraged researchers to join relevant skills groups and emphasized the importance of intensive research and collaboration. The coalition plans to organize a research workshop next summer, facilitating increased collaborations between different groups, and promoting knowledge-sharing within the coalition.

In conclusion, Moon Choi effectively led the Equals Research Coalition’s annual meeting, fostering collaboration and strengthening the coalition’s commitment to evidence-based policy in IT development. The meeting highlighted the importance of historical context, the formation of EQUALS, and the role of the four coalition groups. The challenges faced, such as COVID-19, were acknowledged, and potential solutions were discussed. The meeting resulted in actionable steps, including adjustments to the cluster structure, invited contributions, and planned research workshops, ensuring continued progress towards gender equality and inclusive IT development.

Chung Park

Chung Park, a participant from KAIST School, expresses his gratitude to Professor Choi for attending the conference venue. However, Chung is unable to register on-site due to temporary unavailability. He apologizes for any inconvenience caused. Despite not being physically present, he has been actively engaging in the conference by listening to various interviews. Chung eagerly looks forward to meeting with Professor Choi. This remote participation showcases his commitment and enthusiasm for the event.

Pranav Bhaskar Tiwari

Two individuals were interviewed about their involvement with the Internet Society Foundation, an organisation dedicated to connecting the unconnected and improving digital connectivity. Pranav, who works for the foundation, is specifically focused on bridging the digital divide by providing internet access to individuals who currently lack it.

The foundation’s primary goal is to ensure that everyone has access to the internet, as it has become an indispensable tool for communication, education, and economic opportunities in today’s connected world. Pranav’s work involves identifying communities and regions that are underserved or completely disconnected and devising strategies to bring them online. His efforts align with Sustainable Development Goal 9, which emphasises the importance of industry, innovation, and infrastructure in driving economic growth and development.

In addition to their efforts in connecting the unconnected, the Internet Society Foundation also supports researchers working in the field of digital connectivity. Pranav encourages researchers to visit their website, where they can explore various funding opportunities to further their research. By providing financial support, the foundation aims to stimulate research and innovation in the area of digital connectivity, ultimately contributing to the overall goal of global internet access for all.

The foundation’s commitment to bridging the digital divide and promoting digital connectivity is commendable. Their initiatives not only address the immediate issue of access but also contribute to long-term societal and economic development. By connecting the unconnected and supporting research in this field, the Internet Society Foundation is playing a crucial role in ensuring that everyone can benefit from the advantages and opportunities offered by the internet.

In conclusion, Pranav’s work with the Internet Society Foundation focuses on connecting the unconnected and improving digital connectivity. The foundation’s efforts align with Sustainable Development Goal 9, and they also provide funding opportunities for researchers in this field. With their dedication and support, they are making significant strides towards bringing internet access to underserved communities and driving global progress in the digital age.

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
I’m Moon Choi, one of the co-leaders of the Research Coalition. We are very excited, you know, to see you finally in person. So this Equals Research Coalition Annual Meeting has several goals, and that the moderator, the coordinator, the tailor, is distributing the documents, and this is a concept note. So as you know that Equals Research Coalition is really working hard to provide more evidence about the evaluation, the evidence-based policy. And if you go to the second, you know, there are more details, but before going through the overarching goals, I would like to introduce, you know, our colleague. Carla was not able to make it, so we have, you know, the colleague from the ITU, so he’s going to give an opening speech, so please.

Preetam Maloor:
Thank you, Professor. So again, I send, you know, Carla sends her apologies. So my name is Preetam Malur, I’m a colleague of Carla at the ITU, and I head the Emerging Technologies Division there. So this, I have, you know, Carla has been a close colleague, so I’ve interacted with her over the years, but I have to admit that, you know, I haven’t been totally up to speed on the research coalition, so maybe this is the opportunity. So let me just, you know, give some short remarks, again, on behalf of Carla and on behalf of the ITU. So it’s a pleasure to be here today, you know, to see you all at the Equals Research Coalition, to see the partners united in person after more than a year. And again, thank you very much to KEST and to Georgia Tech for leading the work of the coalition. And, you know, the coalition plays a very pivotal role in our collective action and our collective mission. You know, the primary goals, of course, includes ensuring that the practitioners and the policymakers have the intelligence they need to make informed decisions and to drive evidence-based actions. And we achieve this by identifying, you know, key knowledge and evidence gaps, conducting research on priority topics, providing practitioners and policymakers with actionable information. So why does it all matter? You know, strong, credible data, case studies are vital to understand the problem, recognize successful strategies, identify gaps, and opportunities. And this enables us to move on, you know, move towards bridging the digital gender divide. This is a vital piece, of course. And it’s of utmost importance that we continue and we reinforce the work of publishing reports, collecting data, informing other equals coalitions, you know, the access, skills, and leadership pillars. And we have some great achievements as a coalition here, you know. An example, the Taking Stock Report, Data and Evidence on Gender Equality in Digital Access, Skills, and Leadership, which served as the inaugural report of the research coalition. The most recent accomplishment is the report on sex disaggregated ICT data in Africa. I’m also pleased to highlight the flagship project, Equals EU, which is Europe’s regional partnership on gender equality in the digital age. It aims to promote gender equality in social innovation through capacity building and creating smart, sustainable, and inclusive social innovation systems in local communities and in cities in Europe and the global north and south. So the collaborative efforts of the partners from all over Europe have manifested in activities such as hackathons, innovation camps, a three-week summer school, and the development of gender equality tools, gender equity tools. So together, we are making significant strides towards gender digital equity, and I’m excited to see the impactful work that lies ahead for our research coalition. Again, you know, thank you very much for your dedication and continued contribution.

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you so much for the opening speech by ITU and the representative. And now we are moving to the program. So if you see the third page, the tentative agenda, the IT, the support team, would you show the tentative, yes, the next page, next, next. This is the first page, so would you move to the third one, next, yes. So this is the program of today’s meeting. So we will give you the, you know, the time to introduce yourself. We have old friends and also new faces, so we would like to hear who you are and your research interests, maybe briefly from here. I’ll give you the mic, yeah, from the Christopher, the Professor Christopher Yu.

Christopher Yoo:
I’m Christopher Yu at the University of Pennsylvania. We are, among other things, most relevantly in this space, doing empirical work to try to understand the impact of mobile Internet connectivity on socioeconomic well-being with gender, particularly projects funded by GSMA women, to really try to understand the dynamics of how that works. We’re doing a longitudinal study in Bangladesh and Ghana. We have the baseline done. We’re currently in the process of funding and just fielding the end line to try to see what that’s going to be. And we’re doing other things in school connectivity and other assessment means, and happy to talk about any of that.

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
Maria.

Maria Garrido:
Hello. My name is Maria Garrido. I come from the University of Washington Information School, and I’m here with my colleague, Matias Centeno, from the National Institute of Technology and Agriculture. And my research, we center mainly in trying to find alternative measures for finding the progress and bridging the digital divide. And yeah, thank you very much, Dr. and Professor Moon, for the invitation, and we’re very happy to be here.

Pranav Bhaskar Tiwari:
Thank you. My name is Pranav. I work with the Internet Society Foundation, and we work towards connecting the unconnected, among many other projects. And we don’t only conduct research, but we also fund researchers in this area. So please feel free to go through our website, and I’ll be happy to connect you with more colleagues in that space. Thank you.

Moonyul Yang:
Hello. My name is Moon Yeol Young, and I’m a master student of KAIST, who is Moon Choi, one of my advisors. And I’m working on how the diversity, including women, gender equality, performs in the productivity in defense industry area. Thank you.

Onica Makwakwa:
Hi. Good afternoon. My name is Onika Makwakwa. I’m the Executive Director at the Global Digital Inclusion Partnership, where we work on meaningful connectivity for the global majority. You would know our work as the team that led the Alliance for Affordable Internet in the past. We’re doing research currently on the cost of exclusion, looking at the economic impact of excluding women from the digital economy.

Kenneth Dimalibot:
I’m Kenneth. I work with Onika with GDIP.

Gaini:
Hi. My name is Gaini. I’m from LearnAsia, a very regional think tank working across the Asia-Pacific, particularly in developing Asia. I think my colleagues, Helani and Ayesha, have worked very closely with EQUALS in the past, and I’m here on their behalf. We do a lot of work. In terms of gender, we do nationally representative surveys, looking at breakdowns by gender, also looking at other things like urban-rural divides, disability, and whatnot. So we’ve done nationally representative surveys in the past across six Asian countries, and we just did one in post-COVID to look at the changes in digital inclusion gaps. Due to COVID, looking at the gender elements of people coming online, whether COVID actually got more women to come online because of needing to help their children with their educational needs, what that did for platform work. And we also have just concluded some qualitative research to look at how women have sort of operated in the platform economy, particularly in the context of COVID, so very much looking at that intersection of gender and the digital economy, amongst other things.

So Young Kim:
Thank you. Hello, everyone. Nice to meet you all, and I’m with the same School of Science and Technology Policy with Professor Moon Choi, and my name is Soyoung Kim. I am a political scientist by training, but these days, I am doing much more on how women can be more promoted in the fields of science and technology. And over the last few years, actually, not few, but several years, I’ve been working as an advisor to the Ministry of Education, chairing the committee to promote women in university faculty as a whole. And also, for that, we have been actually evaluating 39 national universities over more than 20 years in terms of whether new faculty members around the nation have sufficient portion of women in the new cohorts, and also in terms of how women actually get promoted over the long track, you know, from assistant to associate and full professors. And lately, I’ve been involved in advising and actually creating the fifth basic framework for women in science and technology. And so, I guess I’m dealing with the question of double-mask marginalization in S&T because women are very much underrepresented in S&T in general, but also, especially in terms of digital technologies, latest digital technologies like AI, women are much more less represented. So somehow, I got involved in this, of course, because of Professor Moon Choi, but we have a new faculty member, and I guess we will be taking a greater role in the next few years. Thank you.

Dasom Lee:
Hi, lovely to meet you. My name is Dasom Lee. I joined KAIST-STP a year ago from now, and I study AI-based infrastructures and cyber-physical systems. So, more specifically, I look at how AI can be used in the energy systems and self-driving cars and how they can support environmental and social sustainability. More specifically, regarding gender, I’m looking at how women understand or how women have access to this new and emerging technology in a very different way compared to their male counterparts. So, how they use these technologies, how they are considered as a market in a very different way. So, often with self-driving cars, women are not considered as the primary buyer, but women actually do show a significant interest in these new and emerging technologies. So, that’s one of my research interests, and I’m very new to e-calls, but I’m very excited to be here, and I recognize some of the faces that I saw on Zoom, which is always nice. So, lovely to meet you.

Co-Moderator:
So, hello, everyone. It’s so nice to meet you all here. I’m a Ph.D. student in the Greater School of Science and Technology in KAIST. So, I’m assisting Professor Mun Choi to coordinate this session, and my interest that related to the gender-digital divide, it’s about the gender gap, about how Internet use really impact a real-life experience. So, in overall, I focus on the third level digital divide in the gender perspective. So, it’s nice to meet you all, and I look forward to talking more about these topics more. Yes.

Taylor De Rosa:
Hi, everybody. My name is Taylor DeRosa. I’m also working with Professor Mun Choi. I’m a master’s student in the School of Science and Technology Policy at KAIST, and my research mainly focuses on actually also looking at the digital divide, but through the lens of the North Korean refugee migrants living in South Korea. And I also look at some intersections, like gender and age as well, in terms of how different forms of Internet use relate to their social relationships and resources. So, it’s really nice to see you all in person.

Lee Bum Sun:
Hello. My name is Lee Bum Sun, and my advisor is Dasom Lee. And I’m also from Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy. And nice to meet you all. I’m interested mostly about AI and energy, but I think what democratic values, like equal trade, is very important for this new technology. So, thank you.

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
Thank you so much for the introduction. There’s always one or two persons who speak long, but somehow today everyone introduced themselves very briefly, so we are on time. So, I’m Mun Choi, and I’m a professor at KAIST. And actually, my research background is more social welfare policy and gerontology. But recently, we have completed a project about gender inequality in AI labor force. So, we have some empirical data. And also, recently, I have been involved in the NIA. It is called NIA in Korea, National Information Agency, about the IAC project. That’s Information Assessor Center around the developing countries. So, I really look forward to working with many partners in this room. Okay. So, now we are moving to the… Ah, okay. Yes. Yeah. Thank you for the reminder. Okay. Okay. So, would you please show the Zoom participants on the screen? So… How many are in the Zoom? Three? Okay. Can you hear their voice? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Arianna? Okay. Arianna, can you introduce yourself? Absolutely. I’m Samuels, and I am trying to get my video up, but I’m having trouble. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Ariana:
Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I think you couldn’t see it on the video, but I’m having… Okay. I think you can see me now, wonderful. I am originally from Jamaica and I am an aerospace engineer by training and technology policy specialist. I’m based at Oslo Metropolitan University and I’m working with how we can create gender-inclusive innovation ecosystems and within this space, I’m very involved and affiliated with the project and very excited about the synchronies I can form with the equals new research coalition and it’s important work. Thank you.

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
Wonderful. Thank you. And the next person, Barhanu. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Oh, wonderful.

Barhanu Nugusi:
My name is Barhanu Nugusi from Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Actually, I am Pan-African Youth Ambassador for Internet Governance and I’m actively working with my chapter, Ethiopian chapter, Internet Society and also I’m involving in civil society to solve the problems of internet-related issues. Today I’m happy to be here with you. Thank you very much.

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
Thank you so much. Okay. The next person is Professor Park.

Chung Park:
Hello. Do you hear me?

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
Yes, we can hear you.

Chung Park:
Thank you very much, Professor Choi. My name is Chung Park. I’m from KAIST School. I’m actually literally at the conference venue and my onsite registration actually is temporary unavailable. So, I’m sorry for that. Sorry that I was not able to just come in, but I have been just listening to all the interviews possible and to see you. Thank you.

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
Okay. Thank you. And the next person is Pasi.

Pasi:
Hello.

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
Yes, we can hear you.

Pasi:
I’m not sure whether you’re hearing me. Yes. Hello, everyone. My name is Pasi and I’m from Uganda, the Center for Indigenous and Community Involvement. I actually just joined and I think that’s the introduction I can do. I’m really happy to be here and to be joining this session, and I’m looking forward to listening to insights about internet definance. It’s my first time attending this conference, so I’m really looking forward to a lot of learning. Thank you.

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
Okay. Thank you. And also, we have a new attendance in the back. Would you please introduce yourself, your name, and your affiliation, and your research, or the work, the priorities and interests?

Toshikazu Sakano:
My name is Toshikazu Sakano from Advanced Research Institute for Telecommunications International based in Kyoto, and I’m doing research on ICT for disaster countermeasure. And our global team, we are doing some feasibility studies in many countries. So, I’m interested in global collaboration, that’s why I’m here. Thank you.

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
Thank you.

Chandraprakash Sharma:
Hello, everyone. I’m Chandra Prakash Sharma, CEO and founder at BizFlux based in India. We are collaborating with Dr. Sakano and Mr. Jeffrey here from Philippines on the locally accessible cloud system project. Thank you.

Jeffrey Llanto:
Thank you. Good afternoon. I’m Jeffrey Lianto. I’m the executive director of the CVSNAP Foundation based in the Philippines. We are working on the wireless communication during disaster, working with Dr. Sakano and Mr. Sharma for this one to be implemented to the other countries also. Thank you very much.

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
Thank you. And also, we have a new participant here.

Safari Nshuti Ayobangira:
I’m Honorable Ayoban Girassafari. I’m an MP from DRC Congo.

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
Thank you. Thank you so much. Is there any that I missed? No? Okay. We are good. Thank you very much. And so, now we are moving to the next agenda. So, the primary purpose of this meeting is to, you know, discuss about the next annual report. And we know that Equality Research Coalition have two primary goals. The first one is about the, you know, the annual meeting, and second one is annual report. So, maybe Taylor, can you give overview about what we have done for the brief presentation? Would you be able to do so? The PowerPoint? Yeah. No. You’re not? Okay. Okay. Okay. Because we have new members here, so it would be nice to have a brief overview about what we have done. So, before moving to the next agenda. Okay. So, EQUALS has, you know, started from 2016 by the collaboration efforts of five partners. So, ITU, GSMA, United Nations University, and UN Women, and also ITC. So, five partners started this EQUALS. And the primary purpose is a global partnership, you know, to promote gender equality. So, we have four coalition. One is ASSESS, second is SKILLS, and leadership and research. So, this is one of the coalition. And our goal is to, you know, help to do evidence-based policy. So, Taylor is one of our coordinator. We do on-time, and she’s going to give an overview about what we have done for a year. Okay, so, as you may know that we started 2006, 2016, and then UNUCS was a very active leader of this research coalition. But there’s up and downs, and then, you know, there’s a change in the leadership. But because of COVID-19 and other situation, there’s not active, you know, the activities among the research coalition partners. So, KAIST and also Georgia Tech took over the leadership role. So, now we are moving to the next step. Okay, so, Taylor, are you ready?

Taylor De Rosa:
Okay, so, we can briefly talk about what the EQUALS Research Coalition is and what we have done up until this point for the newer members who are in the room. So, as Professor Mun Choi mentioned, we support the larger EQUALS Global Partnership, which is made up of three pillars, access, skills, and leadership. And there are members across civil society, as well as the private sector and non-profit sector. And so, we are trying to support providing actionable insights using evidence-based policy and our research. And so, the purpose at a very high level of the research coalition is to generate knowledge about the existence, causes, and remedies for gender tech inequalities. And so, right now, so, as of 2023, so, the last research report was 2019, I believe. And then, because of COVID, the research coalition kind of dropped off a little bit, and then we have reinvigorated ourselves this year. And so, as of this year, we have 34 more active members across 19 different institutions, largely in the U.S. and Europe, but we are trying to spread, actually, more of our researcher base more globally. As Professor Mun Choi mentioned, the first report, the inaugural report for the EQUALS Research Coalition was called the Taking Stock Report, Data and Evidence on Gender Inequality in Digital Access, Skills, and Leadership. And this was focused into two parts. Part one was really actually about compiling all of the different data sources about the gender digital gap across many different countries and sources. And it was also identifying where there were many gaps, as you all know. It’s very difficult to get a hold of this data. And part two was organized by different chapters based on focus areas of interest of the different contributors. And so, we’re keeping this in mind as we think to the next iteration of the report, which we want to discuss here today. And then, there was another follow-up report. So, the first report really identified that there was a very, very significant gap in sex-disaggregated ICT data in Africa. And so, Dr. Arabese and other colleagues spearheaded an initiative to create a special report specifically on this topic. And so, that came out a bit later. And so, those are the two reports that this coalition has published. And now, we are looking forward to the next report. Just really briefly, the two primary activities that we focus on, as Professor Mun Choi mentioned, is publishing the reports and meeting annually. So, the annual meeting is now. I will skip this. So, we actually started when we wanted to reinvigorate the research coalition by having a series of individual meetings with some of the most active partners in previous years to understand what they wanted to get out of the research coalition and how we should move forward as a group. The biggest takeaways from that was we needed to re-energize this community because we’re basically starting from nothing. And I think one thing that we still maybe need to solve as a group is exactly the benefit and value proposition of participating in this coalition. So, we’re hoping that now that we have re-energized the group a bit, when we think about the next iteration of the report, we can also focus on what the research coalition can also offer to the members besides just some great networking opportunities. We had a series of bimonthly research coalition meetings, largely planning. I think actually we have two sessions at IGF tomorrow and Tuesday, a lightning talk session about measuring gender digital inequality in the global south, and then a session about empowering women in advanced technologies, which is about equals-related initiatives on Tuesday. So, a lot of the meetings were focused on planning for those. This is just briefly an overview of the schedule of events, but I believe it’s also in the concept note that you were handed out. So, yeah, I hope this gave a little bit of an overview for people who are less familiar with equals about exactly what we’ve done up to date. But I think it’s equalsintech.org is the website, so if you’re interested in finding information about the other coalitions and other work that is going on, I encourage you to look there for more information. Thank you.

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
Thank you so much. And there’s a dinner, network dinner, after this session at 7 p.m. It’s about several stops away by the subway, and it’s Kiyon, what’s the name of the restaurant? Kiyoshoton? Okay, Kiyonshoton. Yeah, yeah. So, we will have a dinner there, so you are all invited, so please come and have dinner together. Okay, so the reason that we get together today is to discuss about the direction or structure of our annual report that’s most important as end of equals, you know? So, we have a thought about what would be the right direction, so there was a small discussion and also by monthly, you know, the online meetings, and now, finally, we got some ideas, and technicians, would you please post the second document? Yeah. Yeah. It’s called the planning. Yes. Would you make it bigger? Okay. Okay. I think all of you have a hard copy, so this is the draft note about how to proceed with the annual report. There’s equals vision, and also there’s, you know, each coalition assess leadership skills, but so far, you know, it’s a very much bottom-up approach, so we have, you know, the very active stakeholders like partners, and they propose certain topics, and, you know, editorial board get together and then cross those ideas into groups and make a report, but I think that was the very, you know, the initial report, but now it’s about the time to move to work with other coalitions, so I think three, like, part, three, the clusters, you know, it will be a very, you know, formed structure, and we have to discuss, you know, who will be the editorial committee and who will contribute to each cluster, so based on our previous meeting or so, you know, discussions through the several meetings, I think we figure out each active partner’s research interest, so we tried to group into three, and about the assess, I think, you know, Professor Christopher Yu and Professor Mike Bastu and, you know, Professor Maria Galio and, you know, also Allison and also Dr. Allison and also, you know, other members have a very active project on that, so I think there are two options of contribution. It’s not about the full-length, you know, manuscript that’s more like a chapter that’s between 4,000 and 6,000 words, but case study, it’s a brief one, 1,000 words, so you have choices, but we know that, you know, it’s not for you to develop a new research project and, you know, gathering new data, it’s more, I think the annual report is more like outlet to promote your research findings like the previous one, so but important thing is that each cluster should have one leader, and then we are going to work with those leaders, you know, regularly, so, you know, I propose, you know, Professor Christopher Yu to lead the first assess group, okay, but if other persons want to switch their, you know, the cluster or want to be a leader or want to contribute to different way, please, you know, say so, you know, we are happy to discuss that, and about the second one is leadership that’s more private sector or so, you know, more cultural part, too, and current co-leader of this coalition is EY and UN Women, and about this, the cluster, I think our team and also Michelle and, you know, Kara is not here, but ITU group and also Professor Dasomly and, you know, also the director, Audrey Plunk, and Ms. Molly Lesher, I think they are from OECD, and also the Professor Pranav and also, you know, the Professor Lillian and also other members can contribute to the leadership part based on what they have done, and about the cluster skills, it’s lead, the coalition is lead by the GSMA and ITU, and about this group, Tamara was not able to make it even online because of time difference, but, you know, we proposed Tamara as a cluster leader and also Professor Soyoung Kim and also, you know, Director Helani Kapaya and also, you know, other members, so, but we were not able to include everyone, you know, so there are people in online, also offline, so maybe there are even people who came to the annual meeting for the first time, but this report, we aim to publish next, probably October or November, and so I think it will be a one-year project, so, you know, we would like to hear from you what you think, and then after a brief discussion, we are going to make a group into three clusters and then discuss about the details of, you know, who will do what, and also, you know, how the timeline, and so themes, and, you know, et cetera, so, okay, comments and questions or, yeah, please feel free to, so there are several microphones here, or so I can walk around, do you have any thoughts over, about the structure, maybe, want to be a co-leader?

Christopher Yoo:
Well, I guess the first thing I would say is, as someone who’s been volunteered to be a leader, you kind of, this coalition will be what we make of it, and it really is up to us to drive it forward. I think that what, Moon, you’re suggesting is there’s part of it which is taking advantage of the work we’re already doing and putting it together, you know, that’s a big part of it, but we should also be thinking about more proactively reaching out to the, each of the coalitions is doing work, they’re probably not doing very good evaluation work, you know, and working with them to try to learn, so it’s, try to make sure that the projects they do aren’t one-offs, public relations devices, that we can actually make sure we learn what we’re trying to, develop measurements of what we’re trying to accomplish, and assessments of what is actually effective and working. And I guess we’re really inviting, I think, everyone in the room, if this is going to work, if you’re doing work on gender, even just a brief case study, two or three page describing any of the research you’re doing in all these fields would actually go a long way to making, to help us push this process forward.

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
Yes, yeah, that’s exactly what we are aiming to, and any comments?

Maria Garrido:
Thank you very much. I’m wondering if, in order for us also to show more integration with the other clusters following from Christopher’s comment, we should invite the other clusters to contribute with case studies, small pieces that perhaps are not fully research-oriented, but still can be turned into, and show the integration of the work with the other three coalitions. That’s the suggestion, Dr. Choi.

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
Yeah, that’s a great idea. So it’s like a small showcase of what their activities from the non-academic, yeah. From the broader initiative. Uh-huh, yeah. We will announce the call for contributions, or call for, you know, the case studies. So, yeah, we’ll do that. Thank you. And any comments from the audience, or from ITU, right? No. Introduce yourself.

Audience:
Yeah, hi. I’m Audrey Plunk. I’m from the OECD. Hi. Yeah, yeah. We do a fair amount of work on gender in ICTs. I think you’ve articulated some of the challenges in terms of statistics disaggregated by sex or gender are difficult. I think we have some coverage in our work, and we have lots of case studies, and things like women-led startups, and VC investment, and AI, and things like that, that we do have insights on a certain amount of countries relative to gender. Also, things like ability to code, and ability to access the internet, and things like that. So, I think there’s some out there. Again, our coverage is not global in the sense of 191 countries. It varies on the data, depending on what kind of data we can get our hands on. So, anyway, it’s a very good initiative, and we’re happy to help if we can. Thank you.

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
Thank you so much. Yes. OECD group can be a part of leadership. So, leadership is focused on that issue, about the gender issue in leadership in the private sector. So, yeah, that would be a perfect field. Okay. Any comments?

Audience:
So, I’m now listed under the skills group, and I have very little knowledge of how these issues are addressed, at least in South Korea. But I’m sure there have been a lot of effort by the Korean government, and also by the Japanese government, and also some Asian countries. So, although this is not specifically about East Asia, when we address skills issues, I think we can also aim to achieve something like the access group, which have been really doing real data collection efforts. So, somehow, although we may not be able to really embark on true data analysis project, at least it would be good to actually canvass the whole round of surveys available around the world, and then at least have some snapshot of where this skills gap actually lies. I guess I belong to the right group, compared to the other two sections. I think I belong to the right group as well. The leadership, I think what we often don’t think about is the number of CEOs in business worlds that are women, are significantly small. And when we look at these, I mean, new and emerging technologies are what I study. And if you look at those technologies and how they’re being developed, women are largely neglected as the potential target market. And in that sense, I think hopefully I’ll have something to contribute to the group.

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
Okay. So, Professor Soyoung, do you want to move to the more access group? No, no. You want to stay? Okay. Because we don’t have Tamara here, so we need a person who can lead that cluster today. And Professor Soyoung, would you mind to moderate? Yeah. Thank you so much. So, now we are going to make a small group. But as you know, this is just a start point. So, you know, we just set the goal. and then leader, and then each, you know, the crosser is going to invite more people, you know, not just like active, you know, existing member of partner of coalition, research coalition, because I know that you know many colleagues, right, working in this field, so it’s a great opportunity to put together and then invite people. So after this meeting, you know, our team is going to draft the flyer, you know, call for authors or call for contribution to the 2024 research report, and then we are going to distribute that to the leaders, and then, you know, we can invite more people. We expect about five to seven authors of each the crosser, so we don’t expect a long, like 300 pages report like that we did, you know, previously. This is more like a shorter version, but it will evolve over the years. You know, this is just the second, you know, beginning. So, okay. Okay, let’s make, let’s have a break our sessions. So the first assess group will get together around the professor Christopher New, and also the second leadership group, that’s me, so please come to me, and about skills the group can be together around the professor Soyoung Kim, so let’s get together. So we allocate about half hour, so we are on time, so we will get back at 5 p.m., and each group is going to present to what they have discussed, okay? What’s your overall theme, or what kind of topics each authors are covering, and also list of potential authors you can invite to the group as an author, and then, you know, about the next step, and also, I just want to give a heads up, if you serve as, you know, the leader of each cluster, we are going to invite you to KAIST, probably next summer, so we can have a small research workshop, very intensive research workshop, so yeah. Okay, thank you, and let’s come back like 5 p.m. after small group discussions, thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. and then maybe each group uh brief uh you know summary about what you have discussed it’s about you know whether the about the topics of each partner’s contribution the title of the topic that the chapter or case uh analysis and also if there are any partners who want to move from one group to another based on uh the the fit of what they are doing and also uh maybe list of potential authors of each you know that the group okay so professor christopher you you go first and then we’ll move

Christopher Yoo:
so our group was small but that was not a problem maria matias and i had a very interesting conversation and we identified several possible natural topics matias is doing very interesting work with women-led community networks and it’s proposing to understand in three different in levels of urban rural urban peri-urban and rural to understand how they would play out differently the benefits in the other ways we also are going to ask all the people at the lightning talks because we know allison’s got to be doing some work in this you know and we’re they’re going to look at the presentations and it’s a very natural thing for them to leverage this and my guess is the beautiful thing about researchers like that they’ve already written part of it up we got to find out what lunasia is up to you know because you know i know there’s some gender access stuff you’re doing and so just uh we’ll touch base and try to get some ideas you know we’re talking about two three four pages just stealing stuff out of your reports just to give you a platform to talk about the great work you’re doing uh we’re going to reach out to apc georgia tech you know the work we’re doing which will highlight nurse our talk and then what marina was thinking also is to probably not so much just report for existing work but on a forward-looking basis something that’s interesting to her which i think is fabulously is a great idea thinking about alternative measures of access not just you know we try to find ways to proxy for it particularly in what i heard you say in whitehead is network-based data that we can infer stuff from yeah because if we can get network proxies that’s information we can get the rest of the stuff survey it’s just it’s so ungodly expensive you know and if there’s a way we can actually validate a measure and generalize it up then we could actually do a lot and maybe not getting absolute levels but a minimum of changes in rates you know progress these sorts of things and so we’re probably going to devote part of our section on a forward-looking basis of more speculative stuff which is not data-based in the same way but i don’t think it matters i think it’d be a neat

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
contribution. Thank you so much and the next is professor Tasom Lee. So we’re the leadership

Dasom Lee:
group and to specify the leadership refers to women’s representation in the ICT and technology sectors and we had the internet society foundation and they discussed how to assess um so that right so let me just clarify the internet society foundation discussed the two types of leadership one is fellowship based the other one is training and e-learning courses based so you can actually see that there’s a multi-level types of leadership going on there and the OECD group discussed the statistics so we looked at different types of stats going on and they mentioned that they had lots of different types of data available and what we kind of discussed was that it would be really interesting if we could just look at one signature indicator just choose one and then try to get into as much depth as possible and that would maybe gain some traction and then lead to a bit more funding a bit more you know contributors kind of joining in and what we’re hoping to do is that we kind of write about the existing research and then kind of write a short or long proposal to to discuss how we would actually continue to do this in the future too. Most specifically on my site as well I think what I want to what we discussed was that we want to look at regarding leadership we want to look at different types of corporations so that be multi-level or transnational corporations which would we would have to look at the multi the headquarters to see where they’re geographically located the small and medium-sized enterprises and then the the startups which the OECD has data on so that we can actually have a look at all these different aspects of corporations and leadership. Is everything okay? Okay yeah so that’s that’s basically the gist of what we were saying.

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
Okay thank you so much and Professor Soyoung Kim would you you know summarize the discussions with the skills group?

So Young Kim:
We were only a two-person group so I’ll just speak up and then maybe Karani, Kayani can just fill up the rest. So we have actually found interesting commonalities with the other the other two groups because the skills are related to access and also leadership in two ways. The first one is that you know you have to be a leader and you have to be a in two ways. The first one we need questions like access anyway and we have to define skills very very specifically instead of just asking whether you use the internet. So the first point we actually agreed on is we need to develop at least find really good source of survey data around the world which contains those specific very concrete questions about different layers and levels of skills. We know that there are many surveys on ICT access and also related to gender but we don’t really see many questions like these specific ones. So that way we can benchmark some of the access questions because access questions as Professor Pasumil and also other people said you know questions are increasingly being more sophisticated. So skills questions need to be more sophisticated in the same fashion. The second one related to leadership we also find an interesting paradox because as skills gap is being narrowed down the more gaps are actually created in upper level of digital skills. So now people get to obtain some very basic ICT education so we don’t really see much gap gender gap but really really difficult to learn skills such as very fancy AI technologies. This is extremely hard to obtain and then now when even they get education for these really latest upscale technologies when they get to the job market and also when they get to work there’s a gender and work and life balance especially in ICT sector as you know this is kind of a crunch mode 24-hour work so that we don’t really find very high level in the sector which actually backfires because when we motivate women and girls to obtain more high-tech in ICT but they don’t see anybody up there then what’s the motivational incentive for them to learn more advanced technologies. So in that way this is also related to the leadership section and finally we have been discussing who could be mobilized to provide some writing here and we talked about UNAPC something in World Bank or whatever but she has a very good idea of who is really available.

Audience:
So yeah we were just coming up with a couple of names but of course I’m sure the room people in the room will have a better idea but we were just thinking that I think UNAPC ICT was doing some work on skilling then maybe agenda angle in that work because I think that was also some level of benchmarking what different countries were doing. I know the World Bank does in their sort of digital economy assessments they look at skills elements of all the other countries the different countries and maybe also look at programs so I don’t know if we want to approach them and have some sort of conversation about taking case studies from there but that also may be a function of just looking at what countries are doing so perhaps if there are any good programs that countries are doing perhaps if anyone knows of good programs.

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
Okay thank you so much and what about the online yes thank you again. Is there any summary from

Audience:
their discussions? Yeah maybe I can just briefly summarize so thanks to the great tech team we were able to like solve our issues and communicate with each other but the time was quite short so we really just got to hear about POSSE and Ayanna’s research and how it might fit in and so actually POSSE is the director for the Center for Media Literacy and Community Development organization in Uganda and they do training for youth and women and other community members in media and information literacy so I think that you know their organization can write a lot of very interesting case study in either the access or the skills dimension and Ayanna was actually describing her research as well which spans all three of the different pillars so we actually described like oh maybe there is space also to touch in the report about how all of these three pieces actually come together so her research is about digital innovation ecosystems and gender inequality so she will contribute some section related to that. Wonderful also our team has

Moderator – Moon Jeong Choi:
created a gem board would you you know the show the gem board on the screen the technician team? Okay yeah but you see

Audience:
I’m Thankyou

Thabisa Zimbini Faye-Mwangi

The exploration of future networks’ potential, such as Beyond 5G, is under scrutiny, particularly in developing nations like those in Africa. The feasibility of their implementation faces several considerable obstacles, from high costs and substantial energy demands to the pressing need for infrastructure development. South Africa, for example, is currently grappling with an energy crisis and persistent power cuts, exacerbating the high energy consumption required to operate these networks. The added burden these systems would place on existing power supplies adds an extra layer of complexity. Economic viability presents additional challenges, especially in countries with a variety of competing economic interests. Together, these factors underscore the broader sentiment of uncertainty and concern.

However, the expected impact of future networks isn’t entirely negative. Indeed, they could stimulate extensive economic participation and growth by increasing purchasing power and catalysing economic engagement. With the potential to unlock significant development, the advent of future networks could also invigorate subsidiary industries like textiles.

In response to these Industry 4.0 challenges, regulatory frameworks must adapt to remain relevant. Agile and transparent regulations and regulatory sandboxes can foster increased industry participation, and this tool allows the private sector to demonstrate regulatory compliance without the necessity for a full-scale Research and Development budget.

Spectrum-sharing and interoperability are given significant importance in the context of networking systems. Increasing market diversity, these two aspects not only promote resource expansion but also facilitate participation from smaller players. This challenges the existing network system’s tendency to favour the most financially robust entities, thereby creating a more equitable playing field for all market participants.

Moreover, specific working contexts should ideally incorporate localised data. This could trigger the development of bespoke knowledge systems, promoting a more inclusive and applicable approach to systems.

At a global level, spectrum harmonisation is deemed essential for enhancing sustainability and accessibility in global mobile communication. Currently, the lack of harmonisation, often a product of global debates favouring larger stakeholders, engenders a fragmented landscape. Therefore, collaboration and knowledge sharing are critical to overcoming this disparity.

An emergent sentiment perceives the necessity for a new approach to digital world regulation, considering many existing regulatory models obsolete. Digital regulators are becoming increasingly research-oriented, moving away from traditional regulatory tools such as ‘call termination’.

Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) are progressively deriving economic value from the obligations associated with spectrum auctions. Rather than seeking substantial profits, this strategy aims to sustain the development of similar Wi-Fi projects in venues like schools, thus addressing wider developmental imperatives and serving broader communities.

Community networks are seen as challenging the traditional business model within the telecommunications sector. Bridging the true access gap in underserved rural areas with low economic participation and significant physical barriers, these networks diverge from industry norms.

Looking ahead, the development of 6G faces staunch resistance, primarily due to the substantial energy demands it would incur. Concerns primarily stem from the developing South, which faces the risk of being overlooked amidst the rapid pace of technological evolution. Without addressing issues of energy sustainability, the leap into 6G could consolidate systems that are little more than ‘5G plus’. To sidestep these challenges, international collaboration and knowledge sharing amongst countries are strongly advocated. These partnerships could leverage the progress of more technologically advanced nations to shape the policies and regulations of developing nations, firmly grounding these developments in sustainability.

Tony Quek

Tony Quek presented a detailed overview of Singapore’s leading role in the development and implementation of O-RAN technology, emphasising on various potential research areas such as cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and sustainability. He disclosed that Singapore commenced an investment of US $50 million in 2019, instigating the construction of a test bed for research revolving around O-RAN technology. Singapore also launched the execution of its first open, disaggregated radio access network (O-RAN) in 2021.

Quek highlighted Singapore’s geopolitical and political neutrality, maintaining that this could provide an advantageous position in the creation of secure and trustworthy O-RAN systems. In his perspective, this unique geopolitical position provides Singapore with leverage in becoming a pivotal player in the evolution towards 5G technology and potentially beyond.

Furthermore, Quek endorses employing Open-RAN technology as an effective instrument to enhance AI/ML capabilities within the network, offer enhanced transparency, and exploit the advantages of vertical services integration. The flexibility of O-RAN in employing AI/ML across diverse controllers and providing opportunities for vertical services integration were emphasised.

Additionally, Quek underscored the importance of sustainability in the deployment of O-RAN and 5G technology, accentuating the environmental impacts critical for Singapore and Asia as a service region. He highlighted that Singapore has planned the introduction of a carbon tax and aspires for the city-state to lead in services sustainability within Asia.

Quek also stressed the necessity for technologies to demonstrate measurable social and economic impact, and the importance of remaining at the forefront in certain sectors by adopting innovative technologies. He offered the successful synergy with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) on a future communications project as evidence to his argument that innovative implementation of new technologies requires regulatory flexibility.

Moreover, Quek champions the concept of a ‘sandbox’, a creative ecosystem fostering collaboration amongst industry, academia, and vendors. He warned that neglection of sensitivity towards Spectrum regulations could trigger potential territorial issues with neighbours, advocating for a cautious approach to these regulations.

Simultaneously, Quek advocated extraordinary shifts within the telecoms industry, contesting the subscription model, while proposing an infrastructure akin to the S-line capabilities. He also emphasised the need to broaden the market beyond Asia, identifying Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam as possible arenas.

Quek also underlined the balancing act between long-term research and immediate goals such as Plugfest, Mobile World Congress (MWC), and other key events where progressive advancement can be showcased. He spotlighted synergistic partnerships as a method for achieving a cumulative result exceeding individual efforts.

Finally, Tony Quek voiced optimism regarding the potential outcomes from a workshop in which he participated as a panelist, focusing on open service platforms in the era beyond 5G or 6G. He highlighted that this event, organised by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), should yield substantial results.

Marja Anneli Matinmikko-Blue

Marja Anneli Matinmikko-Blue expresses a prevailing positive sentiment towards the prospects of 6G as a formidable platform for new solutions and services, all grounded in a multidisciplinary approach. As a researcher at the University of Oulu in Finland, she articulates that the evolution of 6G will mark a natural progression from 5G, emanating from an enhanced emphasis on network sharing between local networks and current users of the spectrum.

However, she underscores that the trajectory of 6G must be guided by paramount considerations surrounding sustainability. She avers that the UN Sustainable Development Goals should serve as the design criteria for 6G. This perspective is punctuated by apprehensions regarding the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector’s total energy consumption. Matinmikko-Blue encapsulates both the enablement effect – ICT’s potential to catalyse sustainable practices across different sectors – as well as the sector’s own environmental footprint.

In dissecting the process of 6G development, Matinmikko-Blue opines that a broader spectrum of stakeholders must participate in the dialogue. She notes that the current conversation is largely led by existing major players, including infrastructure vendors and operators. Nonetheless, she perceives an immediate need to incorporate the viewpoints of end-users into this decision-making process. By acknowledging a shifting ecosystem and business environment, she advocates for the inclusion of such diverse perspectives, promoting a sustainable transition towards 6G.

When discussing the global aspect of mobile communication, Matinmikko-Blue registers concern about spectrum divergence and fragmentation, primarily due to nation-specific bands for local 5G. This fragmentation, she asserts, presents a challenge as mobile communication heavily hinges on the global use of the same equipment. She maintains a neutral sentiment about harmonised regulation. Despite recognising the distinct regulatory requirements for public and private networks, she argues that harmonisation is essential for efficient and streamlined mobile communication. She identifies the harmonisation of the spectrum as a formidable challenge, especially in light of varying viewpoints on the 6G spectrum across Europe.

Matinmikko-Blue also alludes to the evolution of business models in the wake of 5G. She posits that 6G will engender new business ecosystems involving multiple organisations, prompting a shift in the business model from a company-centric focus to an ecosystem-oriented approach. In this context, she identifies the emergence of new enterprise opportunities centred around various usages of 6G, where value addition will be paramount. Despite this, she acknowledges a transformation in the mobile connectivity business with the onset of 5G, underscoring the enduring licenses held by operators and sustained gains from monthly subscriptions.

Subsequently, she underscores the critical role of understanding user expectations in the transition from 5G to 6G. Citing the disappointment users experienced due to unfulfilled promises with 5G, Matinmikko-Blue emphasises the importance of managing expectations realistically. She suggests striking a careful balance between comprehending the technological capabilities of 6G while meeting users’ expectations. She highlights the vital role of social scientists in facilitating this transition and preventing a potential recurrence of the 5G experience.

Lastly, Matinmikko-Blue stresses the importance of adequate funding for 6G research, citing existing support from national programmes and the European Union. However, she advocates for respecting the agreements of higher-level government entities, such as the EU and the US Trade and Technology Council. In doing so, Matinmikko-Blue accentuates the need for the inclusion of social scientists in the research process to ensure the transition towards 6G is appropriately responsive to societal needs and expectations.

Audience

The discussions centred on two critical aspects within the realm of Innovation and Infrastructure: Spectrum harmonisation and the advancement of 6G network technology. There was a distinct emphasis on the need for Spectrum harmonisation, a challenge stemming from divergent national strategies concerning Spectrum usage and management.

Dr Marie-Méconneau-Ambroux underscored these differences, focusing particularly on the discrepancy observed between Finland and Germany. This sheds light on the more extensive issue of geographic discrepancies in this sphere. Ms Faye Mwangi further highlighted the fragmentation of Spectrum, specifically addressing its uneven distribution and application across distinct regions.

Countering this fragmentation, Mr Angus Stein championed the role of technology, suggesting it as a viable solution. He articulated that with the swift development and application of technology, it could be a decisive tool in addressing such challenges, promoting harmonisation and more efficient utilisation of Spectrum.

The conversation shifted towards the development of 6G networks and the degree of standardisation required for its evolution. It was noted that several standards are currently operating for 4G and 5G networks, reflecting a variation in regional requirements and technical abilities among nations. Intriguingly, each country tends to propose different standards to meet their specific needs.

The dialogue, however, turned to the possibility of needing fewer standards for the evolution of 6G. Mass production was recognised as a potent force guiding this tactic. The large-scale production and global consumption of technology could demand more unified standards to streamline manufacturing processes and reduce complexity.

In conclusion, the various viewpoints illuminated the intricacies of Spectrum harmonisation and 6G network progression. They identified opportunities for technology to bridge gaps and further standardise approaches while allowing for diversity to accommodate unique circumstances and needs where necessary. These discussions deepened understanding about the complexity of harmonising communication technology and the concept of standardisation in 6G network development.

Moderator

The discussion primarily centred around the potential challenges, opportunities, and future prospects of digital infrastructure, with a particular focus on 5G and 6G technologies. The debate assembled an array of experts ranging from policy geniuses, tech gurus, business model strategists to individuals contributing insights from developing nations, creating a comprehensive discussion.

The participants emphasised the instrumental need for harmonisation and standardisation of equipment, perceiving it to be fundamental for sustainability and accessibility. In talks on developing African nations and other outlier regions, the active role these areas are playing in international tech debates was applauded. They identified the lack of harmonisation and standardisation as a potential cause for issues such as lack of interoperability and fragmented spectrum use.

In unison with these sentiments, a consensus unfolded on the need to remodel traditional regulations to cater for the ever-evolving digital age. It was brought to light that obsolete regulatory tools, such as call termination, necessitate a reassessment. Regulators are evolving into more digitally savvy entities, with focus skewing more towards research than regulating.

Another central point made was about the vital role of regulators in understanding the nuances of the technologies they regulate. The importance of a neutral platform as a learning spot for comprehending operational frameworks was also highlighted.

A significant portion of the discourse revolved around the ‘sandbox concept’, distinguished as an effective platform for trialling new business models as well as technologies. Narratives of these trials mentioned a two-year time frame to convince a telco to test the sandbox scheme, endorsing a realistic collaboration amongst industry, academia, and suppliers.

The discussion touched on spectrum sensitivity, acknowledging its impact on neighbours and thus accentuating the need for careful usage. This factor supports the premise that policy evolution can be accomplished by creating persuasive ecosystems making a viable case for change.

Dividing views amongst nations on the spectrum aspect of 6G development emerged as a major concern, with numerous European countries showing disinterest in any spectrum for 6G. However, within this debate, the concept of multiple proposals for 6G standards also materialised. Despite challenges, some participants welcomed the notion of accepting multiple 6G standard proposals.

The sustainability of the prevailing subscription model for telecom services was also questioned, underpinned by the increasing financial burden related to escalating infrastructure costs. Advocacy for alterative business models, drawing upon the S-line model by Docomo, were seen as more adaptable with the potential for broader market access.

The dialogue ensured consideration for developing countries where the cost of adopting progressive technologies such as 6G could be prohibitive. The panel concurred that device costs were a significant consideration in these regions, reflecting the recurring theme of inclusivity in the conversations.

Further expounding on the argument, participants underscored the importance of funding in both academia and industry to pioneer advancements in 6G technology. Alongside this, the necessity to instil key principles such as sustainability, inclusiveness and trust in 6G research was also highlighted as a focal point for 6G pursuits.

The conversation concluded on an optimistic note, acknowledging the need to continue discussions and collaborations centred on these themes. The moderator reiterated the importance of understanding variations among different nations and regions, suggesting this as a key factor in propelling collaboration and research for future networks. Stakeholders expressed interest in prolonging these important discussions, maintaining a forward-thinking, and future-oriented focus on the trajectory of technology.

Abhimanyu Gosain

The evolution of telecommunications standards, primarily 5G and 6G, is significantly influenced by public-private partnerships and collaborations. Abhimanyu Gosain’s influential work with the National Science Foundation and over 35 global industry member companies has founded the vision for future networks. His blueprint and reference architectures have been adopted by research groups worldwide, indicative of the pivotal role partnerships play in progressing telecommunications.

A shift towards more energy-efficient and virtualised networks is crucial for future advancements. The recent deployment of 5G underlined the need for such networks, despite revealing its shortcomings in energy efficiency. Accordingly, the argument stipulates that 6G should be more adaptive and energy-conscious than its predecessor.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation stand at the core of these future networks. Automation across various infrastructure facets is deemed necessary for network optimisation. Moreover, reliable AI models are key in safeguarding data privacy and security. Progress in AI and machine learning is expected to offer more refined control over available spectrum voxels.

However, these advancements present certain challenges. Regulatory concerns demand immediate resolution to ensure seamless network functioning. As AI and machine learning become central to networks, understanding and explicability of these AI systems take precedence.

Whilst technological adoption is growing worldwide, high device costs due to royalties could impede progress in developing countries. Hence, addressing device cost could fast-track technology adoption rates.

Global collaboration efforts are burgeoning to realise future networks beyond 5G and 6G. Collaborations between governments, industries, and academic researchers promote unified viewpoints, connecting disparate stakeholders and aligning regional competencies for international cooperation. This presents an opportunity for various regions to contribute to a more substantial and collaborative global system.

However, the consumer response to 5G indicates a disparity between expectations and delivery. This highlights the need to reassess the existing ‘build-it-and-they’ll-come’ mentality, ensuring both technological advancements and consumer expectations are met.

In conclusion, the success of future networks relies on a co-developmental and collaborative approach, involving all stakeholders from inception. This allows the creation of standards and spectrum allocation that align with all parties’ interests. These insights underscore the significant role of international collaboration, AI integration, and regulatory management in shaping the future of telecommunications.

Moderator:
of National Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Japan, and we organised this session and we would like to start this session. Session name is Future Network System as Open Service Platform, the Beyond 5G, 6G Era. At the first of this session, we would like to, on behalf of our organiser, we would like to greet, greetings from the NICT’s Vice-President, Dr. Ibaraki-san, I’m sorry. Thank you, Chihiro-san. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I’m honoured to be here at the first of today’s panel discussion, representing the National Institute of Information and Communication Technology, NICT. I’d like to extend a warm welcome to all of you and I’m delighted to have this opportunity to engage in meaningful discussion on this important topic. We are taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity of the Internet Governance Forum, IGF, is being held in Kyoto, where we can reflect on the future of network systems and I look forward to chattering new directions. Our theme for today is Future Network System as Open Service Platform in Beyond 5G, 6G Era. This theme explores how information and communication services will evolve and create new values through open innovation. We have assembled a distinguished panel of experts from around the world to explore this critical topic in depth and I believe that together we get gain valuable insights. Today’s discussion has the potential not only to shape the future of communication systems, but also to foster a common understanding of information and communication policies and research directions worldwide. NICT would like to play a leading role in research and development for the realisation of Beyond 5G and to enhance international co-ordination in this field. However, in order to achieve this important vision, stakeholders worldwide need to share a common vision and work together. Therefore, in today’s panel, we aim to integrate the diverse perspectives of Beyond 5G experts from around the world to deepen our understanding and foster collaborations. So let’s start today’s discussion. I look forward to hearing your valuable insights and opinions. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for the very warm words from Dr. Ibaraki and I would like to move to the next step and I would like to hand over the mic to Dr. Ishizu who is really planning this session and who will moderate the panel session. Okay, Ishizu-san, please. Thank you very much, Hosako-san. Could you show? Okay. Yes, the session is future network system as open service platform in Beyond 5G 6C era. So agenda is like this. To begin with, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Kentaro Ishizu. I’m a director of Beyond 5G design initiative of NICT and my background is wireless technology including spectrum sharing or cognitive radio heterogeneous networking, this kind of thing. I’m honored to serve as a moderator of this important session and looking forward to discussions on this important topic with you. Okay, so now I would like to go into the session. First, I would like to explain the motivation of this session and also I would like to present initial input on this topic. Okay, so I’m now moving on to the agenda item number two. Okay, motivation of this session. A future networking system with Beyond 5G 6C technologies are coming soon and the system would be composed of combinations of uncountable subsystems brought from many stakeholders from not only ICT industry but also across broad fields of industries. A new platform would be necessary to deal with such complicated systems. The platform might be based on an open concept so that small to medium-sized enterprises with cutting-edge technologies such as TR2 or 3 can directly join the future ecosystem. So moreover, even companies in developing countries could have opportunity and motivations to naturally and easily join the ecosystem. This is very important. So this session would like to focus on feasibility of the new platform in the Beyond 5G 6C era. Not only advantages but also concerns or issues must be there so we need discussions. Discussions are required based on experience and knowledge from various professional activities in different regions. As you can see, we have a distinguished panelist from different continents so I’m really looking forward to the discussion. Okay, so I would like to now introduce the distinguished four panelists. First, Mr. Tabisa Faye, she is a counselor for Independent Communications Authority of South Africa. The second panelist is Mr. Abhimanyu Ghosain, Senior Director at Institute for World Internet of Things, Northeastern University, USA. The third panelist is Dr. Maria Mattimikobu, Research Director at University of Aul, Finland. The last panelist is Professor Tony Quek, Professor at Singapore University of Technology and Design. Okay, so first I would like to input some information and then I would like to ask the panelist for a presentation. Okay, so NICT is only National Institute for R&D on ICT. We have around 700 researchers in ICT area. NICT has set Beyond 5G as one of interdepartmental research areas. My input is about the vision and R&D activities of NICT, especially regarding concept and open service platform. Okay, so NICT has published Beyond 5G successive white papers. The first version was published in 2021 and the latest version in 2023. The latest version was published in this March. The contents are a result of a discussion with more than 100 volunteering researchers in NICT. The white paper starts with five scenarios of future life in 2030s. Then by backcasting from the scenarios, we have extracted and categorized key technologies to tackle as current R&D topics. Okay, so there is a nice video. We have a nice video envisioning actually the future life described in the white paper. So I think it’s better to show this video rather than explain by myself. So please take a look. It takes just two minutes. The technology of NICT will shape the future. Let us take a look at how NICT will play a part in our lives to come. No matter how advanced the remote technology is, it won’t shift from the moon. It won’t shift. If we use NTN and space-time synchronization as predicted by AI. I see. Okay, here we go. NTN First of all, NTN is a communication network that connects the earth to the universe in three dimensions. And space-time synchronization can synchronize the time and position of cyber space and physical space to enable synchronization. If you have these, you can share information without worrying about location and enable new communication through avatars. In addition, we are promoting the use of terahertz waves and building a super-high-speed next-generation communication network. NICT NICT will create a bright, exciting future through inspirational next-generation research and technology. Thank you very much. What do you think? I think there is a very new type of life waiting for us. And new technologies must be there. So we need to tackle those technologies. Okay, so I would like to explain the structure of white paper. First, we have scenarios. And based on the scenarios, we have extracted use cases. Each of the three scenarios has a number of use cases. Each use case summarizes a system to be used and their details. Each key technology summarizes a technology to be used in the future and why it is needed, current status, and so on. This is how the white paper is organized. And now I would like to very briefly introduce the scenarios of the white paper. Scenario 1 is organized as a diary of a director working in a manufacturing company. In this scenario, people jack in remotely onto cybernetic avatars and human-type robots. And then next one, scenario 2, is focusing on working style when people go to the moon and conduct underground material survey and so on. So on the moon, we send avatars and then we control remotely so that we can work from the earth. The third one is regarding our activities area. And we are extending our active area from the ground to the 3D area. And we are going to use drones more actively, skycars or skytrucks and so on. So many things are flying. And if we think about the future, we also need to highlight a shadow part of the future. This is a message that Beyond 5G has such perspective, not perfect as we show in the scenario 1, 2, 3. We would like to extend our discussion to ethical, legal and social issues, so-called LC, in addition to technical activities. Scenario 5, the last one, focuses more into details of human life. Our new working style is going to be changed by using perfect research resource matching by cross-industry orchestration with AI. Those are scenarios. Maybe you think this is really fantasy, but actually these are not fantasy. We have some evidence, and based on the evidence, we imagine the future. And that’s how we have those scenarios. These are key technologies for Beyond 5G we have extracted from the scenarios. T1 to T3 are close to radio access and networking technologies. T4 is non-terrestrial network, so-called NTN technologies. T5 is a technology for space-time synchronization. We need precise location and time to enhance the application and communication. And T6, data-wide security and reliability. T7 is regarding innovative application. As such, the technologies are so distributed for Beyond 5G. This implies that systems are going to be increased and not very easy to be composed as one system, one box. So that’s how we need the following discussions. This is another important concept of Beyond 5G, cyber-physical system, or CPS. Physical space is the real world where human beings are really living. And cyberspace is an emulated world realized on computers. In the physical space, there are so many communication systems and application systems out there, such as non-terrestrial networking systems like satellites or airplanes. And also on the ground, there are new wireless systems. For example, using terahertz band, such systems will appear. Then sensing data is sent from the physical space to cyberspace. And then in the cyberspace, the data is accumulated, analyzed, and the future will be predicted. Then cyberspace actuates the physical space for optimization. And the important thing is the circulation of the cycle. The one cycle is not, maybe it’s already realized, and the circulation of the sensing and actuation is important, and it is realized not by humans, but by machines. Okay, so who creates the Beyond 5G system? It is too complicated for a single organization to build up a whole system by itself. It is already difficult now, but in the future, it is much more complicated. So it’s completely difficult for one organization to realize the system. So different organizations, including operators, providers, and individuals, need to bring their own subsystems, and somehow we need to combine the systems. This is an important concept. And this is, I think, the most important slide in my presentation. The concept of cross-industry orchestration. As you can see, on the left-hand side, there are mobile operators. There are mobile operators, and in the future, to enhance the spectrum frequency, spectrum sharing efficiency, for example, or to realize new applications, they need to collaborate with each other. And also, if you look horizontally, another industry, like hubs, or satellite communication, or metaverse, as you can see, or maybe it’s not shown, but for example, drone control systems, or traffic management systems, maybe, or other systems, for example, medical systems, or other things, I don’t know, maybe smart cities. Another industry also needs to collaborate with each other. So that’s why we have orchestration in the upper part. And by this, there might be an opportunity for everyone, including small, middle enterprises, to join this world. And optimized combinations of subsystems can be found by algorithm, maybe, in the orchestrator. the orchestrator may use some AI algorithm. The more systems are connected, the more service combination will be. So that’s why the concept is very, very important for the future. And beyond the 5G architecture for open service framework is now under consideration in NICT. Also, we break down the concept and really designing the functions and interfaces of those functions. You can see the orchestrator is, as I explained, but also you can see the service enabler. From users, it is very difficult to understand everything about the cyber-physical system, because there are so many complicated systems. So it is hard for users to understand the systems, subsystems. So there is some function. We call it service enabler. And service enabler receives the request from users and communicates with orchestrator to realize that to meet the requirement from users. And anyway, we are now investigating the details of them and designing a proof of concept system to discuss with many stakeholders. OK, this is my presentation. Now, I would like to ask position talks from the panelists, from panelists closer to me. OK, so I will switch to the presentation. OK, then, Tabisa-san, could you start your talk? I’m just waiting for it to come on. OK. All right, thank you very much. Good afternoon, very late afternoon to everyone in the room.

Thabisa Zimbini Faye-Mwangi:
My name is Tabisa Faye Mwangi. I am from ICASA, which is the ICT regulator in South Africa. I serve as a counselor there. This afternoon, I’ll just briefly give you the regulator’s perspective, but also the African perspective on where we are with regards to beyond 5G. And I think we provide a very different perspective in terms of our readiness, our participation, as well as the challenges that we face. The challenges that we see would impact the developing nations. So just a brief introduction around myself. Like I said, I’m a counselor at the regulatory authority in South Africa. I have an extensive professional background in management consulting prior to joining the regulator last year in December. My areas of interest are in ICT and renewable energies and their socioeconomic impact on the current context and the future that we’re all trying to shape and influence. I have working knowledge in 18 African countries in the sub-Saharan region, but I do have exposure to a lot more. So I think I can firmly say that I do speak for the African, or at least the sub-Saharan African context. Next. All right, I just want to quickly touch on future networks beyond 5G. And really, for developing nations, and I’d say the developing African nations, this is an inevitable reality. But when we get to participate and how we participate is really what is under debate. So we know that future networks have the potential to unlock immense development and growth for developing nations. South Africa is no exception to this. While increasingly, more African countries have access to 5G spectrum, with South Africa coming to the market during COVID through temporary spectrum assignment, and more recently, licensing through an auction in March 2022. The cost of rolling out 5G, however, is what has really hamstrung the true impact, or realizing the true impact of 5G in South Africa. The second challenge that has been seen is more around the infrastructure, the supporting infrastructure that is required for this to be realized. And this is mainly around electricity and the current electricity crisis that we’re having. As much as we want to leave no one behind, the economic feasibility of rolling out across the nation is one that is rather distant at the moment. The energy costs in a country that is battling with a national energy crisis and rolling blackouts, and the energy consumption and consistency that’s required to sustain these kind of networks is something that is not yet feasible in South Africa. But it’s not so distant, and it’s not something we have not tried, despite all the odds. This doesn’t stop us, like I say, from participating. We continue to shape and share the African insights. And future networks stand to have a great impact on agriculture, which remains to be a big contributor towards a lot of the GDPs in African countries. And I think as I go through the slide, I also, at the end of the slide, I’ll just share a bit of what we envision it looking like, or rather what I personally envision it looking like. So unlocking the value chain of agriculture and all vertically integrated industries would exponentially increase the economic value of agriculture. One of those vertically integrated industries is banking and finance, including and bringing into the circle more economic participants and active participants at that, which continue to be increasingly powered by ICT innovation. And then we also look at safety and security on future networks, which will determine user uptake and user base. And lastly, I spoke about the electricity crisis just now. And this is what really is one of the greatest impacts around us getting towards beyond 5G. Earlier this year at the 5G huddle that was hosted in Singapore, we spoke quite extensively around the energy constraints and the difficulties in rolling out and how we cannot really move to 6G if we haven’t solved for the energy demands of these networks. And in doing so, if we want to do that, if we push ahead with 6G in its current prototypes or pilot forms, we risk leaving behind the developing African nations. I think before I go into the slide of just explaining the African context, I want to paint a picture of what future networks could do for an African individual or a South African individual. My father lives in rural South Africa. He refuses to move to the city. He works there, and he still lives in his rural home. But one of my father’s things that he does is he’s a farmer of sheep. He has more than 200 sheep. And every year, he needs to shear those sheep and sell the wool. It’s his subsidiary income to being able to grow his livestock. But once he’s sheared those sheep, he then needs to load the wool into a truck. And then there are four cooperatives all around 200 or so kilometers away from his house, all of which he needs to travel to to get an assessment of his wool and then get a price. And then he will sell to the best offer. Now, imagine if he could shear his sheep, or even before he shears his sheep, drones could come and take samples of the wool, take them back to the cooperatives, or do the analysis, and then be able to then give him the price before he goes out and has to travel 600 kilometers roundtrip on a single day. So that, for me, is how I envision the impact of future networks in an African context. It would increase my father’s economic participation immensely. It would decrease his costs. It would save him time. It would allow him to grow his livestock to an even greater number and contribute. And secondly, it would then also then stimulate the subsidiary industries, the vertically integrated industries, the agri-processing, the textile industry, et cetera, et cetera. So I’m going to quickly go through the African context. And really, what this is is around what are the greatest impacts for us. And I’ve just highlighted a few impacts, six impacts there. The first is the economic growth and the economic participation by increasing the buying power and accelerating the economic participation of all. Secondly is infrastructure development, being able to maintain and expand essential infrastructure to sustain these networks. And then digital inclusion. This is so important. And really, it’s the one thing that underpins anything that we do in terms of future networks. It is the fundamental development imperative. Secondly, collaboration and shared resources. We cannot do this on our own strength. And it’s not just about collaboration in government, but it’s collaboration in the private sector. So the big private players taking on and creating space for the small-medium enterprises, as well as the regulator being more open and transparent in how we do things to allow greater participation with industry, having a light-touch approach to how we regulate, and sharing and leveraging of resources such as research and development. And then being an innovation enabler, being creating a conducive environment for innovation to thrive. And that comes from policy and regulation and how we shape and position ourselves. And then lastly, around sustainability, creating shared value for future generations to come. Next slide. Thank you. Here I’ve just highlighted some of the challenges that we see. And I think I’ve spoken to some of these in my earlier slides. The first is affordability, the cost of rolling out these future networks and establishing them. When you come from a country with so many competing interests, you know, when you’re talking about what we term in South Africa, stomach politics, it’s poverty, unemployment, and, you know, just having basic essentials. You know, the affordability and the cost factor becomes a huge hindrance for us. And then security and privacy, so ensuring that we’re not only just, you know, building these networks with a secure by design framework, but also ensuring that we understand how the open systems work, that we understand how we are going to regulate the open systems. And we position the regulator and the policy makers to be able to stand in that gap and provide that assurance. The regulatory frameworks, the agility of regulatory is something that is slowly coming into the African context. And so we’re hoping that with the introduction of that agility, it would change a lot of the regulatory frameworks and how we choose to regulate. And then lastly, infrastructure deployment, which I think I’ve spoken extensively to. So open system platforms, I think for me, I just picked four of what I think would be the biggest advantages to these platforms. The first is interoperability, especially when you’re talking about spectrum and it being such a scarce resource. So the ability to share the spectrum, a lot of countries, mine included, we do not support spectrum sharing or spectrum trading. And that becomes a massive legal issue. It is about protecting the value of the asset and giving the regulator the power to still have control over the radio frequency planning. However, you know, there are ways to get around it and ways to think about it to promote economic viability, et cetera. The second is about scalability and flexibility. So being able to scale at our own pace, being able to adopt things that are within the context that they’re going to be used in. And then around the ecosystem growth, I spoke earlier about collaboration and I’ll close off just now around collaboration and having that vibrant ecosystem that creates a space for small medium enterprises. And then lastly, around security and privacy. The promotion of security by design, you know, to reduce the regulatory framework expectations and limit the instances of reactive regulatory instead of proactive. The use of agile and innovative regulatory tools and I’ll speak in my next slide about that. And in South Africa, you know, we do have that legislation around privacy and protection of data. But what we haven’t quite wrapped our heads around is how we’re going to regulate the systems, the data systems that are going to be, you know, running or fueling beyond 5G networks. Next slide. And then in my last slide, I just touched a bit about cross-sectoral collaboration. And really, I think this is so important for developing nations, especially in the African context. So there are some regulatory considerations that need to be put to mind. And how do we create that agility? How do we make ourselves relevant? We don’t necessarily have the budget for a full-scale R&D. And so what do we do with what we have, considering the competing interests? And so sandboxes come to mind, you know, trying to start using regulatory sandboxes, inviting the private sector to do the tests and run the regulatory compliance in those sandboxes. And for us to then feed off the research and the development that comes out of that. It’s a quick win in terms of R&D when you don’t have the budget. And then digital transformation. And really, this is around the localisation of data. So ensuring that we have African solutions for the African context. The monetisation of models. And this is around diverse revenue streams and shared revenue models. Being able to have a transparent framework around that. Market competition. I think one of the greatest things when it comes, when you want to have transparency, is that we have a competition regulator. And the competition regulator immediately thinks collusion, collusion. And that’s not always the case. So having healthy market competition, which breeds innovation. And then lastly, global connectivity. We really cannot do this within our own strength. I’ve spoken about the competing interests that are the centre of a lot of African countries. So being able to tap into international research and international value chains to leverage the research that we are doing and to power how we move forward is very important for us. Thank you.

Moderator:
Okay, thank you very much. Okay, next move on to Gosain-san. Okay, now it’s… I’ll make it to the screen. Okay, perfect. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. I would like to add my welcome to this panel session and thank you for being here. Appreciate the invite to NICT and the other sponsors.

Abhimanyu Gosain:
Next slide, please. So I’m Abhimanyu Gosain from Northeastern University out in Boston, Massachusetts from the USA. Just a quick introduction. Just a quick introduction of myself and the perspectives I bring to this panel discussion. And just a quick disclaimer. I don’t… All the views and opinions here are my own personal ones, so please don’t attribute those to any of the agencies that you see listed here. So primarily, I work with the National Science Foundation on applied research projects for building future platforms for 5G, 6G. There’s a flagship project called Powered Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research, which was a public-private partnership that I’m going to get into a little bit. But primarily, this was the foray for the Science Foundation and about 35 industry member companies, global industry member companies, to define and shape the vision of 5G. So I’ll talk about some of the lessons that we’ve learned and how they could be applied to the 6G era. I’m also involved with the US Department of Defense in their 5G Future-G program as a senior advisor where we are shaping how does the US military, the services adopt commercial technologies and dual-use technologies that could also be adapted for military construct. And then lastly, I work with the US Federal Communications Commission on their 6G Technology Advisory Council as a co-chair and then a few various other board appointments. So the idea is to bring you a 360-degree view of what’s happening at technology policy and governance. Next slide, please. So a quick word about, to know and understand where we are going, we need to always reflect from the past. And this is a program that we’ve been working on now coming up in seven years where we set up a public-private partnership to develop an open, programmable research platform to help shape the vision of 5G. So this was a program that was founded in 2017. If you bring the clock back, that was around the time that 5G standardization had already occurred. The standards were in place, but the implementation prototypes, proof of concepts weren’t still there. And if you actually even look today in 2023, global adoption of a 5G standalone architecture is still something that the mobile network operators are working on. And again, I really appreciate the African context where that is still something that needs to be done. But the idea was, and again, the dollar figures are quite nominal. That’s the first lesson that we learned, that it will require a lot more investment to bring together multiple different stakeholders from industry, academia, as well as from the communities that we intend to serve. Get a little bit more technical, next slide please. We funded four research platforms across the US, and we’re also proud to say that the blueprints, and these are the words that I’ll say a lot in the time that’s remaining. The blueprints, the reference architectures that we’ve been able to develop, design, implement, have been adopted by our partner research groups and partner public-private partnerships across the globe. So in Europe, in Japan, in Korea, in Brazil, we’ve been able to work with a very open mindset, the ability to share how we are building a modular, softwareized infrastructure architecture that allows for accelerated research adoption, and the ability to onboard and build on-ramps for stakeholders who don’t necessarily care about the network or the communication. So we saw from the introductory slides, a future platform that we’re gonna talk about, where you’re gonna have multiple industries who frankly don’t care about what network they use. For them, it could just be Wi-Fi. The ability for them to move data from point A to point B in a timely, secure, resilient manner is all they care about. Wherever they get that, they’re gonna go there. And our job here is to develop and push the agenda for mobile network communication standards like 5G and 6G to be the choice there. So these four platforms are across various technology and application use case areas. Starting from the left, the platform out in University of Utah is primarily focused on core underlying softwareized technologies and radio technologies like Massive MIMO, which allows for large number of scaling of antennas that allows you to serve a very diverse region very effectively from a single antenna system. The other one, Cosmos in New York City, is mostly focused on smart communities. So this is deployed in downtown Manhattan, a very, very busy, highly dense area. So we’ve been focusing a lot on millimeter waves and optical communication, and how does that connect back up to smart communities and smart intersections, for example. The third one is focused on UAS. So I really appreciated your sort of future vision of drones flying out for farms. And that actually is conducting a lot of research and onboarding non-traditional industry partners that are using the UAS. And we’re also connecting the UAS mobility patterns with the communication technology. So building an entire UAS unmanned aerial system that is fully outfitted with a 5G radio, and that is a system that can then be deployed for various use cases, be it agriculture, be it transport, be it delivery, or even for communication for fixed backhaul and integrated access and backhaul. Last but not the least, and this sort of resonates quite closely with me as well, is around rural broadband digital inclusion. So this is the last test platform out in Ames, Iowa, which is in the middle of the U.S., very heavily dominated by farmland. And the spirit of this particular testbed was to develop a farm as an anchor, which was the ability to outfit connectivity across multiple hundreds of miles using Xhaul technology. So we are focused on free space optical communication, microwave backhaul technologies, and the underlying theme for all four of them is an open modular architecture that we have developed. Underneath that, there is an asset that we’ve also inherited and developed called Coliseum, which is a large-scale channel and network emulator. And this, I would encourage you to view this as a digital twin. The idea that the cyber-physical systems exist, this is the version where the physical systems that you see that have been deployed in geographically diverse contexts are now taken into the virtual world. So this is a network emulator that allows us to build digital versions of the channel, digital versions of the network, digital versions of the physical locations, and then be able to do early prototyping, validation, testing, modeling in the emulated environment, and then, as a closed-loop feedback, bring that learning back into the physical environment. So this is sort of helping us close that divide. Next slide, please. So this is, again, now, this slide is primarily more from the policy side, and this is the motivation that the USDOD, which is a huge juggernaut and, frankly speaking, a very large customer for commercial adoption of beyond 5G kind of technologies, and the idea here is to leverage the billions of dollars that are being invested and will continue to be invested in developing telecommunications standards. So the idea is how does the USDOD, and this is not, I want to be very clear, this is not with a warfighter mentality. This is primarily looking at DOD as an enterprise because they have multiple application use cases and they fit very nicely into the vision that was presented by NICT earlier where DOD is a logistics customer. They need to move trucks from point A to point B in a timely manner. They want to use AR, VR, and XR for training purposes. So view that as a context that the USDOD is trying to adopt the vision for 5G, and that has happened by installation at 14 U.S. Army bases that are located in the continental United States where experimentation with 5G technologies is ongoing, and then there is a separate office for future G which is trying to understand how does the DOD requirements get inserted in the standardization framework, and I think that’ll also be important when we talk about a future test platform because that has to be the springboard from which standardization takes place because that is a common platform where data test results are produced, validated, and can be mutually agreed upon when you move into the standardization phase as we will do for 6G in about two to three years which is when the technical performance requirements of IMT 2030 are gonna take place. Next slide, please. So this is the two by two for future G systems. So we talked about different industries. So we are here looking at different kind of use cases that we feel will be motivated, and again, as you see on the X axis, you’re looking at enterprise and mobility. So the extreme mobility use cases are to the right, more fixed on the enterprise side are on the left, and then you also are moving from the equipment which is the physical infrastructure up to more of the extreme environments and the softwarization elements that will need to be considered. So this is sort of kind of my distillation of the earlier slide that was presented by NICT which showed sort of the stovepiped different kind of industry mappings. Next slide, please. So again, I think the world is programmable. The world is virtual. The architectures are also moving in that direction. 5G has shown us the deployment of 5G, the deployment of virtualized and programmable networks, and we’re gonna hear a lot about open radio access networks and what that brings to the table. This is sort of just our kind of an academic version of how different modular elements in an entire network system, and just to spell it out for everybody, starting from the device to the edge, and the edge could be mobile itself. It could also be stationary or there could be a point cloud at the edge. Then you move into the core network, and then you move into the wide area system where different cores could also be interconnected. And the idea here is both horizontally and vertically on the protocol stack, we need open interfaces where you now have the ability to insert, depending on what quality of service, quality of experience you’re trying to reach, build a bespoke network for every individual. The analogy is that 5G today is building a interstate highway for every consumer which is not sustainable. Now with 6G, we have to be much more adaptive, and all of this is gonna distill back down to the energy point that Tabisa was making which resonates very clearly with us because energy efficiency is gonna be important, not over-provisioning our networks, and then having intelligence built into all the four different elements I talked about from the edge to the transport network to the core network and to the wide area network. Next slide, please. So this is just a kind of notional view. This is where sort of the academic and the industry worlds are sort of merging in. From the top down, and the top is the orchestration piece, you see multiple different interfaces southbound to the infrastructure and to the different network elements that will need to be controlled. So you’re going to need to have lifecycle management, you’re gonna need to have continuous integration and development, as well as the concept of network slicing which is gonna continue, in my opinion, into the era of 6G, which is bespoke, customized network experience, and building the underlying infrastructure and the different network functions that are required to meet whatever needs are gonna be. Next slide, please. So one, just last couple minutes that I have, a kind of a plea to those who are building platforms and sort of our perspective, at least on the US side, is looking for a uniform platform for automation. And this has to be key, because AI is gonna be inserted at each stage and the idea of being fully automated across the infrastructure, across the network functions that run on the infrastructure, and then the workloads that run on those network functions. And those all need to be automated and they need to be adapted to meet the user requirement that’s present there. So in addition to that, you’re also going to have to think about the capacity, you’re going to have to think about the latency, you’re going to have to think about sort of the KPIs that are going to be important for these future platforms as we sort of build the test prototypes over the next 24 months. Next slide, please. So, okay, so this is kind of, again, coming back and shining a light on the orchestrator as again, in this panel we’re focused on. The idea here is from the industry perspective to attract them to have this kind of a global 10,000 foot view where different industries can mix and match together, you can develop different service combinations. The availability is a parameter that’s going to be very, very important. The network needs to be available when you need it for the bits to go from point A to point B. Then there has to be resilience in that network and that will only happen if there is automation and resource optimization, which also touches on the energy efficiency, energy consumption point and the intelligence is very, very important. Security, privacy, the ability to trust the data that was inserted at the source and to make sure that it’s the same data that comes out at the destination and how are you going to make sure that it wasn’t snooped on, it wasn’t eavesdropped and you were able to operate through securely through this commercial network. Industry is going to be very, very astute and keen to make sure that the data that lives on their enterprise or on their cloud is not manipulated at all. Again, trustworthiness of the AI models that we use for each of those infrastructures is going to be very, very key and then the open and interoperable standards that are going to define the next generation of future networks. So with that, I’ll stop here. Thank you for your time and attention.

Moderator:
Thank you very much, Gosai-san. Okay, then a second. Next, Maria-san. Okay, I think this is. Great, thank you. Thank you.

Marja Anneli Matinmikko-Blue:
My name is Maria Matin-Mikko-Blue and I come from the University of Oulu in Finland and there I hold a research director position in Infotech Oulu Focus Institute and I’m also director of sustainability and regulation in our 6G flagship research program. That was the world’s first 6G research program globally started in 2018. Next slide, please. So we started this research already five years ago and from the very beginning, we took a multidisciplinary approach combining technical research together with research on business and also regulations, including contributions to regulation and this needs to be in multistakeholder collaboration. So industry has always been part of our research. You need to do it together to know the requirements, to know the technology developments and really do close collaboration with the different companies, as well as the public sector, including the regulator. And as an example of what we’ve done is we’ve been globally participating in the global 6G definition process at the ITUR called IMT 2030. I don’t have those figures yet in this presentation because they are not agreed. They were supposed to be agreed last week but that didn’t happen, so they are not here. But I want to give you an example of a success story from before. So you know local 5G network, you know private 5G networks. We were talking about them and developing them already in the year 2016 and presenting this idea that 5G spectrum awarding should not only be to the big MNOs, mobile network operators, but also local licensing should be done and everybody was criticizing this, but now it is a reality. So it’s an example of industry academia, regulator collaboration, which was then pushed through different forums of both research industry and regulatory forums. Next slide. So we did this world’s first 6G white paper already four years ago in September 2019 as a collaborative effort with almost 100 people, including Japan and many other countries, industry academia, some regulators were involved and you can download it in the internet. And one of the key things there was that 6G is not only about the communication, transferring of bits, it brings together different capabilities, including sensing, locationing, positioning, and all those things, computing and so on. And that creates a platform which is capable to realize new services that we don’t even know today. So there’ll be a lot of different capabilities brought together by the network, by the devices. The network can sense the environment. It can create very accurate picture of the surrounding environment. In real time, by capturing also the changes there. Next slide. This is also from that same white paper. We had a section about the business ecosystem and it’s an example of this multidisciplinary research, which is my favorite. So we see the world in such a way that it comes from different resource combinations, as we heard previously. So different companies, organizations, individuals, they provide resources to the table. Different users, user group, end users, machines, consumers, public sector companies, they have different needs for the services. They are often location specific, like this conference center has a substantial Wi-Fi network to cater the data in here, for example. Locations, different locations like ports, harbors, traffic hubs, hospitals, they have their very specific needs. And today they are still catered with traditional methods, but more and more location specific needs emerge and also solutions to serve those needs are coming up. They involve different stakeholders. They involve different company combinations to serve those very different needs. The same network can then serve different user group with different service level requirements and so on. And we already see the changing business ecosystem. So these new business ecosystems emerge around these different usages in the different locations. We’re already seeing the changes in what companies are doing with these local 5G networks, which most of the time are private networks serving a closed user group. But they also could be open public networks locally that then serve different customers, for example, MNOs customers and so on. So all these different combinations are possible. They are in different regulatory domains. So there’s a lot of regulatory burden here, but it’s very different in the different countries. But I’ll skip that for this part. Next slide. So the emergence of this large number of local 6G networks is kind of a natural step from what we see today. So we believe that this will happen. It’s not just the mobile network operators who can deploy 5G networks today. For example, Japan, Finland, Germany, US, many countries have made it possible for different stakeholders to apply for a radio permit to operate their own network. It was very rare in 4G era. Very few countries did that in the 4G era, but that is now happening without direct MNO involvement, but MNOs do it too. So there are many different ways to realize these networks, but the divergence between the countries is huge. So the spectrum is the key there. And for example, in Europe, where you can now deploy a private 5G network is very country-specific, different in Finland compared to Germany, but they are studying a common band from 3.8 to 4.2 gigahertz today so that it will be some level of harmonization. And how to realize this? A large number of 6G networks, the access to spectrum is a bottleneck. It’s based on sharing. It’s based on sharing between the local networks, but also most likely of sharing between the local networks and the existing users of the spectrum. We know that spectrum is allocated to a variety of services. Finding spectrum or cleaning the bands is really, really challenging. That’s very challenging for 6G. So gaining access to spectrum through shared access for local networks is definitely something that will happen in the future. There are some papers that we did several years ago on this topic. Then the next slide. Then going to the sustainability and sustainable development. So we know that the UNSTG framework is there. Our nations are committed to achieving that. It looks quite challenging. And if you look at it from the ICT perspective, seven out of the indicators from the 230 indicators are ICT-specific, capturing things like percentage of schools with internet access. So they are not really the design criteria for 6G alone. Of course, they are what’s the minimum that needs to be met. But for 6G, we need to… sustainable development from this triple bottom line of economic, social, and environmental perspectives. And that’s what the community is now starting to do or trying to do. But it’s quite challenging because these perspectives are not so well known in our field, ICT field, and they’re very much interrelated. You can solve environmental, social, sustainable challenges if you had all the money in the world, but mobile communication is not, unfortunately, it’s not charity, it’s business. So it all depends on the money and the investment in the networks and the services. The next slide. So in the first white paper from 2019 that was done in a global collaboration, one of the conclusions was that 6G should be driven by sustainability, for example by the UN SDGs. And then we did a follow-up paper, I coordinated that white paper that was published three years ago about connecting 6G with the UN SDGs. You can download both of these white papers from online. And we know this, this is from four and three years ago, but the reality is still not there. The community is still not doing that. We have energy efficiency, that is one indicator. That’s one environmental sustainability related indicator. Even if you improve energy efficiency, but if the total consumption still increases, it’s not enough. So when you talk about energy, you always have to have two indicators, at least two indicators, energy efficiency and energy consumption. Then the total energy consumption, it’s not just the bits and pieces, but what is the total energy consumption. And then optimize the operations, the whole network design, so that we minimize this use of resources. Next slide. So I see this sector’s dual role in sustainable development is something we have to keep in mind all the time. So we can, yes, we can enable a lot of great things in the different sectors of society through making their operations more efficient in an economically feasible manner. This is the enablement effect or the handprint. And a lot of emphasis is now on this, that yes, we help others, so that’s enough. But it’s definitely not enough. So the ICT sector’s own, for example, energy consumption keeps increasing. It’s not decreasing, it’s not stabilizing, it keeps increasing. And that energy is just one part, but other environmental burden, other social burden, the footprint part, we have to really pay attention to that. And luckily, at least the companies are into this now. The research community is doing this right now, but we’re still far away from having the solutions. But one thing we need to do is that we have to have these both roles, not to explain away that our own helping others is enough, so we don’t need to do it. We do need to act and we do need to define together the indicators and the measurement methods and the requirements for the solutions. For example, in Europe, the European regulators were asked about the indicators of environmental sustainability for the ICT sector, what they’re using. Most of them did not use anything. Some countries had some ICT-specific environmental sustainability indicators. So we really are in the starting point of this process. Next slide. Then key stakeholders, we all need to do something. Users want to know what the impact of their choices is. End users, when I talk to the younger generations, they want to know how much energy, how much greenhouse gases, gas emissions of the use of an ICT device and the ICT service creates. And the footprints are different depending on the device connectivity dimensions. So you have put these resources together and it’s quite different depending on which resource combinations you use. But that information is not available. That’s not for the end user to see. It’s not for the regulators to see, so that they could direct towards this development. And here the research community has a lot to give as bringing the unbiased research results in the table. But for that, we need the data from the industry. We need this real-life data. Next step. And the next step. Yes, so for 6G, ICT systems are a powerful measurement tool. They can provide a lot of data about environmental sustainability and social sustainability to solve major challenges. All the resources need to be used as efficiently as possible by optimizing the locations of what is done where. Today the world, like the leading countries in mobile communications, are those that consume most data. And that’s far from being sustainable. So we are leading something because we consume a lot. Well that’s not really sustainable. So we actually need to have a whole new way of looking into what is a forerunner in terms of the ICT sector and mobile communications. So we have to minimize, in the future we need to minimize the data we transfer, or at least minimize the impact, the environmental and social impact that transfer has. That is quite a different design criteria for the future. And our sector is not the only sector dealing with sustainability challenges. A lot of methodological development, a lot of indicator development, key performance, key value indicator development happens in other sectors. And it really requires a multidisciplinary approach and collaboration. Next slide. Then I have an example of spectrum management. It’s my own research topic. So what sustainability means there, and one thing what it means there is through shared access of spectrum you can gain access to spectrum. But it’s not done today. It really, we have the unlicensed band. So if you come up with a major solution, wireless solutions, you can only use the unlicensed band. It’s really hard to gain access to spectrum. For local networks we’re starting to get that now, but we need those sharing-based techniques and also technologies. But it’s also a regulatory challenge, so we need to have those implemented in the regulations. Next. So to conclude, I want you to remember that SICSI is not only about communication service, but it brings together different kinds of capabilities. And it brings pretty powerful platform, but it has to be optimized. So it cannot, if we just do as we did before, the consumption of energy will explode. If we just see the numbers of users increasing and data rates increasing. So we really have to do more efficient solutions. And business ecosystems change. Local 5G networks are already introducing local ecosystems around the different vertical use cases. And the same development will definitely continue. That will open new business opportunities for different kinds of companies to operate. And sustainability, that is a key driver. There are many values. In SICSI, the R&D, we have one value. Countries, we like-minded countries, they have shared values. And sustainability is one of them. And that is an umbrella term. I like to use that as the umbrella, because under that we have a lot of things, including bridging the digital divide. And end-users are forgotten usually in the process. The mobile network operators say that, yes, they bring the end-user perspective into the game, but they’re not really there. The developers aren’t there. So the developers of the solutions and services, the applications, they aren’t there. It’s still primarily dominated by the existing strong players, the infrastructure vendors, the operators who are there. So therefore, it’s time that we consider this whole ecosystem and the stakeholder process, that who are the stakeholders in the 2030s? They may not be the ones that are strong today. How do we include the new voices into this changing ecosystem and business environment, so that the end-users are really, their voices are heard towards sustainable SICSI? Thank you.

Moderator:
Okay, thank you very much, Maria-san. Okay, next one is Tony-san.

Tony Quek:
Okay, I’m Tony. So I’m a faculty at a university, but I’m also serving as a director of the Future Communities of Singapore’s B5G program. I just want to share the perspective from a small country. We started thinking about this about 2019. Our whole purpose at the end is what does it mean for us as Singapore, the economic impact, the social impact, and national resilience. So I just want to share why particularly we look at open RAN at around 2018. Next slide. As I mentioned, so the initial investment is about US$50 million, about Singapore, 68.7 million. The background was, it’s essentially we look at connectivity is going to be a foundation layer for a lot of services, a lot of services beyond 5G. Think about services that are important to Singapore, because aviation is important, maritime is important, a lot of services will be connected. The geopolitical situation is something that we have to keep in mind, especially Singapore is a neutral position, so how will it affect in terms of key technologies? How will it mean to have an ecosystem in Singapore? Investment in leadership role, so that we actually can play a part together with our like-minded partners, so this is some investment that we started. Next slide. So I’ll just skip this slide. So just for the background of some audience, so particularly we look at open RAN because essentially, as what Shih-Zhi Zhang has mentioned, how do we bring in Tier 2, Tier 3 player into the ecosystem? A traditional RAN, if you break it out in the open RAN systems, it’s de-aggregation, there’s multi-module open interfaces, that’s where a lot of emphasis on software, as we decouple the software from hardware, this is where some opportunities will come in, especially for a player like Singapore. Next slide. There’s a few areas that are potential research area. I’ll just pick three, there are a lot more. Next slide. The first slide is on security and trust, not just security only, but you need an infrastructure that will be trustworthy. So some of the security risks we look at, essentially a lot of all these systems will be cloud-native, how would cloud be essentially one security risk? How do you actually manage this? Vendors, if you look at a lot of vendors, security may not be a high priority list, performance reliability will be there, how do you actually complement and help these vendors to actually improve their capability of that? One of the issues with open RAN we see is the complexity, increasing of complexity, especially multi-vendor, the capability of SI is going to be very important, how would they play a role, how do we automate some of this process? Supply chain, especially in software, supply chain risk, different vendors coming in, it’s good that Nara talked about shared spectrum. Essentially once we do shared spectrum across all this open platform system, what is the risk of the disruption of services? This is something that I have to keep in mind during this capability. We look at it as how Singapore will use the role as neutrality, as neutral position to improve security and trust in this ecosystem and contribute. So we play a role in Plugfest, O-RAN Alliance and vendor adoption. Next slide. The next area we want to look at is actually one powerful capability of O-RAN is this transparency that allow us to actually implement intelligence, right, AI, ML across a different controller, the services, the generation of this data, how do you really trust the model, AI, ML for RAN sustainability, this will be the one key feature. Essentially how do you actually test it, how do you actually verify this, how do you actually apply this across the different vertical services, the capability across this. This will be implemented across the orchestration where Xi Jinping has mentioned. How do you benchmark as we have all of all these AI, ML, S apps across the different vendor, is there a common benchmarking, is there something that we mutually recognize. So this is something that a lot of opportunities for us to create vertical services and be needle-moving. The next slide. Sustainability as we have to think about the infrastructure. Singapore has re-announced the carbon tax, we’re going to roll out carbon tax and down the road purely with some timeline. As we implement, whether it’s private network or public network, we really have to think about sustainability. How will all this infra, even open RAN, capture this sustainability where it’s at RU side because RU consume a lot of power. How would all this sustainability, all the different requirements, energy efficiency come into play. So this is where we have to plan way ahead, work with the vendors. It’s a very green field for everyone, so how do we make, be a leader, especially for Asia. I think Asia will have a particular role in sustainability as a service, so it’s something we can leverage and work together. Next slide. So we built, as we in the beginning, we say we need a test bed. Let’s build a test bed, build around all this research area, make sure it’s open, modular, work with our partners, bring the ecosystem to Singapore. So these are some of the features we have, software-defined, reconfigurable. Next slide. So we have this first O-RAN network that’s set up around 2021. Once we sell, we think about what an interesting use case we can work with the vendors and build up capability. We go to the next slide. So one of the, we can move to the next slide, it’s fine. So essentially we started to build a drone arena. The reason why we net it up, because we are very close to the airport. Our university is within five kilometer from Changi Airport, so it’s a no-fly zone. So the way we actually work with the government is that if we net it up, it’s like the Jurong Bird Park if you have been to Singapore, then the drone will not fly out. So they say you can actually fly. So this is where our site, we have a private 5G O-RAN network. We can do a lot of use cases, channel measurements, some of the companies you look at, you look at XR drone racing. So this is where some of the use cases and metaverse could come in. How would 3D network essentially play a role in this setup? It’s a small test bed for us to look at. Next slide. Because we are looking at cyber-physical concepts, so we are looking at as a campus, it could be a factory, but as a university we have a campus, so we’re thinking about how in the future you incorporate the cyber and physical, because COVID pandemic has forced us to really think about cyber world. How would the virtual campus, virtual work experience change down the decade? How would connectivity change the way we work? So we were trying to understand is there a new way of communication as we bring in all this capability to the campus, and also work with the faculty and students trying to understand this extended AR personalized learning. Then once we understand this and build a capability, you can actually branch out to other sector. Next slide. Metaverse has been talked a lot, so we’re thinking about what is the connectivity requires for this, because web 3 is going to be a big impact across the different services. Particularly Singapore, we actually have a very consensus there. How would it change the consumer market? How will it change the enterprise market? How will it change even the way different enterprise, different companies collaborate, transact and communicate? Then how would connectivity play a role in this whole ballgame? Census coming in, so this is a sort of a playground that we work with, closely with the different partners, whether it’s a platform and also with the telco. Next slide. So some of the plans that we have currently with setting up or explain setting up OTIC to do measurement, to do testing, multi-vendor network, coordination of mmWave 3.5. We have mmWave band allocated to the telco. Unfortunately telco have not deployed essentially. Trying to understand even the service model, or is it possible to deploy an O-RAN type of mmWave together with a conventional network is something we work with them. The use of digital twin, we’re also trying to expand our testbed to include NTN. NTN is going to make a big difference, a lot of services etc around ASEAN, so it’s something we are looking at and trial technology. Next slide. So one concept was, just skip this, I mentioned about OTIC. We can skip this slide. I mentioned about this O-RAN, the relationship O-RAN and NTN, because down the road a lot of the satellite, especially from transparent type of a mode, when they move to a regenerative satellite, one of the opportunities that regenerative satellite has opportunities to apply concept of O-RAN, whether it’s the CUDU is there or different architecture. So once that comes in, there’s opportunities for even ecosystems trying to do testing around this sort of OTIC with NTN capability. So this is what we wanted to do to prepare for the next phase when NTN is going to be very big around particular Asia and ASEAN. Next slide. So this concept that we wanted to push beyond the cyber physical campus is that we have invest so much, since sustainability is a key, so how do we leverage our investment together with like-minded partners. So we had first connection with the 5G, 6G innovation center, University of Surrey. So we’re looking at with this, of course it’s a VPN, VPN and also the academic network. How do we actually work on sharing resources, sharing testing, sharing measurement and also data. How do we actually apply some of this federated model. How do we think about language distributed language model. So this is something we are looking at. Another thing we’re exploring is industry lab. So industry lab may not necessarily always have to be co-located physically with us. So how do we leverage on their lab and have access or remote access to it and how do we explore the different models. So this is something we are working with, thinking about other optics that could be one, different models. This is something we, I think it makes sense because if we talk about sustainability, it’s always good to for leverage on the different investments across different countries and different companies so that we have a common purpose and to share. So this is what we want to push from a Singapore side. Next slide. I think and thank you. Thank you very much

Moderator:
Tony-san. Okay, thank you for the panelist for the position talks. Okay, so actually I have prepared some questions for the discussions. So could you show the questions? Okay. Okay, so I have came up with some discussion points and I would like to start with these questions. First I, maybe you have already mentioned something about this, but I would like to ask again about expectations to the beyond 5G, 6G, so what are expected changes to networking systems in the 2030s where 5G, 6G is fully utilized? What are expected changes? So I would like to maybe go sign some first. Sure.

Abhimanyu Gosain:
I get the easy question here. So it’s artificial intelligence and machine learning, right? So that’s sort of the low-hanging fruit. I think we’re already starting to see some of the emergence and the dependence or kind of the forward integration of artificial intelligence moving from the compute side, the large language models, et cetera, that is happening now moving into the network side, the transport, as you’d call it. And then we’re going to see that more natively on the air interface side. So from the spectrum sharing thing that you heard was a common theme across all panelists, the idea that you have smart software-defined radios that have the intelligence already built in, you now have much finer-grained resolution on how you could control the spectrum voxels that are available. So again, being a little bit technical, the physical resource blocks on the spectrum in the time and frequency domain, how they could be shared, how they could be divided, and then how does the radio interface sense and communicate on the same channel, and how are those policies and how is that decentralized so you don’t necessarily have a central authority? Obviously, that adds a regulatory headache in terms of how these systems are, first of all, understood. So how is the AI explainable? And then how do you essentially make sure that these network systems are actually doing what they are supposed to be doing? Thank you very much. Okay. So who would you like to answer next? Okay. So, Tabitha-san. Thanks very much.

Thabisa Zimbini Faye-Mwangi:
I think for me, it’s something that I touched on a bit in my presentation. I think the most important thing for us is around the interoperability, so the spectrum sharing, the ability to leverage the resources, expand the resources quite extensively, and ensure that the spectrum is not only just for those who can afford it, especially if you use a process such as the one South Africa did around auctioning. It’s about the deepest pockets, and therefore you inevitably just leave out the small players who actually bring the innovation, who bring the diversity in the market. So for us, the expectations that we expect to see in these networking systems is around the diversity in the market participation with the small players. And then the other point was around the localization of the data, or the localization of the systems, the ability for the systems to address the context in which it’s working. And that speaks to having the access to the global knowledge system, but also being able to develop our own local knowledge systems, especially as the developing nations. Thank you very much.

Moderator:
Okay, Maria-san. It combines the communication service with the other capabilities, sensing, locating, emitting, computing. Those come together in SIGCHI. That’s one of the changes that we are seeing, that I was talking about. Maybe I’ll add just a perspective.

Tony Quek:
So with all these technologies, I think at the end, we have to convince our people, that means our government agencies, that it actually can generate social impact and economic impact. We have to ensure that with all these new technologies, networking technologies coming in, especially for Singapore, there are certain sectors we are still ahead. So this is important, whether it’s open platform or intelligence platform, how we would actually change our position, how do we stay ahead, and how we fully utilize all these different technologies. So this is one of the key basis of which technology or which investment we put in. Thank you very much. Okay, so to summarize, I get your comments. So beyond 5G, 6G, you are going to have more detailed, advanced management of the spectrum sharing, for example, by explainable AI. Also, if we have more interoperable scheme, we can expect much more proper market, and also maybe change the position of business, this kind of thing. So if you have some questions from before, please.

Moderator:
Okay, so until waiting for the questions. Okay, so to realize these things, what do you think about, for example, regulations? Maybe we need to think about regulations. And yes, of course, regulation is necessary to be changed, but how should we think about this? We need to change a lot, actually. So in my mind, it’s very, very difficult compared with the things that we have done for this 20, 30 years. Maybe we need a very big change in the regulations. So what do you think about this? Maria-san, maybe first?

Marja Anneli Matinmikko-Blue:
The spectrum part is definitely one, and we already see the divergence there. Countries are assigning different bands for local 5G. It leads to fragmentation, because the whole mobile communication is based on using the same equipment globally. My phone works here. So that was the whole point of IMD systems. So the same should continue in the future. So we have to have harmonized. And it’s a challenge, because countries decide themselves how to do things. And the private networks operate under different regulations than the public ones. The public networks have a certain set of rules that they have to follow. But they also have some kind of benefits that they then get from this status. And even this is very different in Europe, in Asia, in US. So it’s very, very complicated. And then the same pieces of equipment should work everywhere. I don’t end with the role of the regulator. So maybe I pass the mic there.

Thabisa Zimbini Faye-Mwangi:
I think you touched on a very important aspect, Maria, which is around harmonization. And being very intentional around harmonization and standardization of equipment. So one thing that the developing nations, at least in the African context, are good at is really participating in the international debates and discussions. So the WRC, the PP that happened last year, the ITU Council, et cetera. However, anyone who’s attended those sessions knows that it really is around the loudest voice in the room and the lobbying thereof. And so if we don’t keep the development imperatives, the global development imperatives in mind, we then lose sight of what it is that we’re trying to achieve. And therefore, we get the lack of interoperability, the lack of harmonization, et cetera, the fragmented spectrum use, et cetera. So I think that is very important in that impressing upon global regulatory bodies around the fact that harmonization is important for sustainability. And it’s important for accessibility in terms of cost and inclusion. The other aspect around the regulator’s role and what you say you don’t envy, which is now my daily job, it really, I think, for me, is around dismantling regulation as we’ve known it. And once again, let me add the disclaimer that you added. These are my personal views and not the views of South Africa. But I really believe that we need to dismantle regulation as we know it, because what we were previously, and some countries still are in the sub-Saharan region, regulating for has become obsolete. We cannot, we no longer talk about the typical regulatory tools that we used to have, you know, what was it, call termination and all those things. They don’t matter anymore. They don’t matter anymore, because, you know, we’re seeing that what regulators are starting to do is to become more digital and technical type of regulators. And the mandate is now more around research than it is around, you know, regulating the sector. So they are setting the standard. They are setting the bar. They are the ones determining how things should be done. And so that’s how I view the change in the regulator. And with that, it will bring the agility that’s required to keep up. Thank you very much.

Moderator:
Gosani-san, if you have something. Yeah, just to add, right, so you can only regulate something that you understand, right? So first you have to have a baseline of what is, and when we talk about scary things like AI and generative AI right now, obviously it’s sitting in a different domain, but it’s going to creep up into the networking domain as well. So how are decisions essentially made? So a regulator’s job is sort of learning on the fly and learning as things go along. And that’s why, to tie this back to the panel discussion, that’s why the platform, a neutral platform that has somewhat of a mirroring of what’s happening out in the broader deployment piece. So if you can’t measure it, if you can’t understand what is actually going on, what the operators are telling you, what are other private deployments doing, how is Spectrum being used, how are networks being used, how is data being managed, how are things being firewall protected, etc. So I think you’re essentially just reacting if you’re not in lockstep with where sort of the networks of the future are going to be. Okay, so Tony-san, my image of Singapore is you are very flexible about regulations, so what do you think about that?

Tony Quek:
Actually, Spectrum is a bit sensitive because we have neighbours, so anything goes to the neighbours is always not good. So I think the experience what we did together with IMDA, which is equal FCC to do this future comms is you try to look at whether it works, and see whether you can build an ecosystem which you believe will convince us. Then slowly we bring in the telco. It took us two years to convince the telco, why don’t we try something, because the telco says I’m really locked down by the conventional vendor, why should I try to explore? So I think we see a new business model of this sandbox concept. That’s what Kosen has mentioned. A sandbox, but the sandbox needs to be realistic, cannot be too academic. There needs to be industry, academy, there needs to be vendor inside. Once you break that ecosystem, then you actually can convince a policymaker to change a bit and try. So this is what we have been trying to do. Likewise, new technologies like NTN, something we really need to think about, because same thing, with this Spectrum, the neighbours, it propagates across so many people. What were the implications?

Moderator:
I think a sandbox is really important as we want to try out.

Tony Quek:
Then, of course, a new business model could come in. Okay, thank you very much. Any questions or comments? Please. My name is Norifumi Yamaguchi from NICT. I have two questions for the panellists. Thank you very much for today’s very fruitful and very informative session.

Audience:
One question is, I’m wondering, everyone talk about the Spectrum harmonisation, and Dr Marie-Méconneau-Ambroux has mentioned some difference of Spectrum between Finland and Germany, so it might be harmonised. And also, Ms Faye Mwangi has mentioned that some fragmentation of the Spectrum, which might be some disadvantage or some problem in the future. On the other hand, Mr Angus Stein has mentioned that this can be solved with the development of technology. Some software technology might give some integration of such a fragmentation of the Spectrum. And so, I’m wondering how they can solve this Spectrum harmonisation all over the world. I would like to do some opinion, observation of that. The second thing is the number of standards in the 6G, because we are now standards developing from the 1G to 2G, 3G. In this time, we just have a few standards, but in the 4G and 5G, we have some several standards, because each requirement has, you know, each country has proposed different standards according to their requirement. That’s why they need some standards for the competition, the view of the competition. But on the other hand, we might need not so many standards because of the mass production over for the manufacturing point of view. So, I’m wondering how many standards will be required, most ideal for the development of the 6G. Thank you very much.

Marja Anneli Matinmikko-Blue:
Thank you very much. Fubu-Tanaka, OK. Maria-San. I can start answering my view on both questions. The Spectrum part is a challenge. We already now see, when we’re starting to talk about 6G spectrum, the views are so divergent. Europe already is saying something that many countries don’t want any spectrum for 6G, and that is the big challenge that we face in Europe, how to make, convince that there is the need and then what those bands are. So, it’s a debate which will happen in the coming years, and we all need to be willing to bring the facts on the table, not just opinion or wishes, but the pure facts that we know. So, then I’ll already jump to the next one, that the standards part. So, 5G has maybe two standards. There’s the 3GPP standards, which is the dominant one, and then there is the ECDEC standard, a smaller one where smaller players came together in the European Telecom Standards Institute and proposed it to the ITU process, and it was approved there. Also, other proposals have been received to the global ITU process. So, those two exist. They say both networks are being sold, but we know mainly the 3GPP. That’s where the big players are. That’s where the big companies are. They create those standards, and the IP games are played in that standards arena. Those players who are within 3GPP, they say that they want just one 6G standard, which is their 3GPP standard. Nothing stops other organizations or standards parties to propose 6G standards to the ITU process once the requirements are defined. Personally, I think there might be more proposals, just one. In 5G, there were several proposals. In 3G, there were several accepted proposals. So, one definitely will be, but that one should not stop others. There’s room for many kinds of deployments.

Moderator:
Thank you very much. Who would like to answer more?

Abhimanyu Gosain:
Sure. So, on the spectrum side, basically, I think, well, like it or not, WRC that’s coming up in a month, month and a half, each member state, each country is going in with a position that’s been defined. So, there will be some harmonization. There will be some agreement. And again, as you know, the WRC cycle that will go out for the next four years or the next eight years, that agenda will also be set in November. So, unfortunately, the spectrum story has to be very carefully constructed. I think with 6G, you’re seeing the entrance of new players like the SATCOM, the NTN, the non-terrestrial networks, they’ll be included in there. So, how do you sort of harmonize it now when you add a third dimension? So, not just terrestrial, but non-terrestrial elements on the spectrum piece as well. So, yeah, not necessarily painting a very rosy picture on the spectrum front because that is such, needs to be very carefully coordinated. On the standards front, I think, yeah, as Maria sort of very nicely sort of pointed out, that is the 3GPP dominance. And I think, you know, there has been this debate about whether 6G will be an evolution or a revolution, right? So, the 3GPP standard will continue to be an evolution. That’s a juggernaut. It is, again, as, you know, she alluded to on the IP side, you know, the game is all about SEPs, the standard essential patents. And that’s where a huge amount of, you know, economic activity is generated. So, that part is not going to stop. That behemoth is going to go. The release cycle, so right now in the 3GPP realm, we are at release, you know, 17 was approved in June earlier this year. 18, 19 study items have been defined. And the 3GPP cycle says that, you know, somewhere around the release, you know, 21 time frame, you’re going to come up with the moniker 6G. Right now in 3GPP, we’re already past 5G. We are in 5G advanced. So, we’re already moving. But the other part is standards are also, if you really dissect a network, there are lots of different standardization bodies. There is IETF that talks about the transport piece. There are entities that ISO that talks about security. Then there’s 3GPP. So, you have to be very careful around how all of that is stacked. But if you just look at the wireless comms, the wireless communication side, yes, there are member states in different countries that have already made their commitments and announcements. They’ve all developed their own public-private partnerships, their alliances that are promoting what standard it has to be. And there has always been this struggle between the developing world where the cost of the devices is the key issue. And that is the key issue for adoption, because if there is a device cost that has a component or a chipset, where do you need to pay a royalty of hundreds of dollars that drives up the device cost. And that’s going to drive down or slow the adoption. So that is a key element that the developing world has to really think. And I think that’s one of the motivating factors outside of lots of other factors, terrain, population density, et cetera, et cetera, that need to be considered as well. OK, thank you very much.

Moderator:
Look, I need to think about the time, actually. So may I move on to the next one? OK, so I would like to discuss a business issue. So what is the new business model or ecosystem to be created by Beyond 5G, 6G? What type of disruptive progress is expected in the future business along with a shift to Beyond 5G, 6G? So if you have any opinion, Maria-san, I think you have.

Marja Anneli Matinmikko-Blue:
I have opinions. They are my personal opinions. But there are many types of businesses to consider here. One is the mobile communications connectivity business, what the mobile network operators offer. So that’s one part of the game. Another part is then the ecosystems that emerge around the different usages of the networks, like the local networks, harbor areas, hospitals, and so on. So those will have their own ecosystems. And then the business model is the logic that what is the value offering, what is being offered, who buys it. And it now is shifting from a company level to the ecosystem level. So we are starting to think about ecosystem level business model. So for this kind of usage, who are the stakeholders there who need to be in place? One company, it rarely involves just one organization, but multiple organizations. And they all need to get something for that. It should not be based on one, like the winner takes it all. But there should be some kind of balanced role that they all can support their businesses. Going back to this mobile connectivity business, we’ve seen changes in terms of, for example, the number of operators per country. Most countries started with one operator, the governmental operator, then gradually making that the liberalization, introducing the second one, and then the third one, and so on. And it went to the point that in many, especially European countries, there were like five, six operators. And there were auctions. The treaty brought the spectrum auctions. Crazy amounts of money were bid on spectrum. And it led to a lot of many operators suffering. And then they started buying each other. So the third and fourth merged in the list. So that happened. So now there’s a smaller number of MNOs in each country than there was in the hype time. They continue. Now they’re quite well-established. They claim they don’t have money. Well, some of them don’t have. But in Finland, they all make good revenue. They make good profit. Well, they haven’t paid much for the spectrum that has helped them. But anyway, they’ve made good money. So that business continues. They still have licenses for long future to come. So that business is there. What the revenues are in the future, they still get that money, monthly subscriptions. 5G is still based on monthly subscription fees as 4G was, as 3G was. So it’s the same building models still are there. So this continues to continue, at least for the future. And that continues. Then what 6G comes brings us a new thing for the business. That is unknown. That’s the unknown part where we need to look into what kind of new businesses could come. But one thing is that they will emerge around those different usages. And then who pays for what? You get connectivity for free. So you don’t necessarily pay for that so much. But still, if you get something great with that, you do pay for that, in addition to the service subscriptions that you have. Thank you very much.

Thabisa Zimbini Faye-Mwangi:
OK, so you have? I think what we’ve started seeing with 5G in South Africa is seeing the use or the monetization of what we would term in universal access and service the true access gap. So seeing small, medium enterprises starting to start to get some economic value out of that true access gap. And the way that they’ve done that is by tapping into the network, but also leveraging the obligations that came with the spectrum auction. So we’re starting to see new business models where the base stations are set up in schools. So we are addressing those development imperatives. But then the networks serve the greater community. And really, the models are not to make the obscene profits that we see in bigger companies, but rather to be able to sustain the development of another similar Wi-Fi project. So we’ve started to see that. And South Africa, in particular, and I think another nation that has a similar topography is Rwanda. But we have a vast amount of space to cover, and really high mountains and low valleys. And so having to get to coverages, and then we have a lot of rural spaces where there isn’t a lot of economic participation. So covering that becomes extremely expensive. And these community networks have really bridged that gap. And they’re slowly changing what we understood to be the business model in the sector, and really coming in with economic participation in what we can, I don’t think we can for much longer, call a true access gap anymore. So maybe we share one of what we are trying to do. So we’re trying to change the mindset of the telco.

Tony Quek:
So we’re trying to tell them that the subscription model is not going to work down the decade, because with all this infrastructure, it’s going to be more expensive. So the process we are trying to force them, open platform, open rail, is force them to build the capability of a S-line, for example, what Docomo is trying to do, so that eventually the market has to be outside Asia, outside Singapore. In particular, we’re looking at Indonesia, which is so close to us. Indonesia is one market, Thailand, Vietnam. So we hope that this could build a new business model for them, so that they will start to think out as an S-line. So this is probably a new business model, but it’s always very difficult to change the telco, because they are so used to get subscription. So this is something that we are trying to do from a government perspective, and agents, and national program. OK, thank you very much.

Moderator:
Actually, I have also questions, but it’s better to go next. OK, number three, collaborations. What are key items for international collaborations to realize the Beyond 5G, 6G as open platform, open service platform? What will be the international collaboration, if you have any questions, comments?

Abhimanyu Gosain:
Yeah, so again, I think first things first for international collaboration, you need a champion. You need a public-private partnership, or a key stakeholder that actually is going to be representative, or present somewhat of a unified opinion, or a unified viewpoint. So after you’ve had a kind of a national position, then you’re able to sort of communicate. And the other thing is, communication has to happen between government to government, industry to industry, and then at the research level, between academics and researchers. Obviously, at the government level, it is very sensitive, joint ministerial statements, et cetera, different politics that are at play. So the idea is, at least at this formative stage, when the next generation is still about 8, 10 years down the line, you do want industry academia to jump ahead. And we are already seeing that in the marketplace. So in the US, you already have the NextG Alliance, where a large number of major vendors and operators are at play. We have lots of different alliances, including here in Japan, the Beyond 5G Promotion Consortia, which is mobile network operators and vendors that have gotten together. Same in Korea, Bharat 6G in India, South America sort of catching up, Singapore, et cetera. So we’re seeing that as kind of the first piece. But then at the real collaboration level, unless we have mobility, and unless we have the ability to sort of get a peek into where the core competencies lie for each region, and we have our strengths, right? So everybody plays to their strengths. But the idea is, how do you do this in a complementary fashion, so that you have the ability to sort of learn from the best, and the sum is greater than the sum of its parts, right? So one plus one is greater than two. And that’s sort of why we are even talking

Moderator:
about collaboration in the first place. Thank you very much. Any other comments? So I agree with Gautam, so at the national level, there’s always this initiative at top and bottom spot.

Tony Quek:
So our approach is actually there’s two way. There’s of course the academia, the professors and universities, which want to do a research which is a very long term strategy. At the same time, we are trying to also focus on short terms in a sense that we have targets like Plugfest, like MWC, like key events that we can actually show impact together to showcase some capability, and this is something we are trying to do together with partners. What we worry, especially if we focus too much on the research part, sometimes the translation takes a bit long, and some government stakeholders may be quite impatient, so we try to have a balance between them, but at the end, I think it goes back to the partners need to have a common goal that can complement three. It’s all about collaboration so that one plus one is equal to three. If you have this mindset, then I think it’s always good because it’s more sustainable than to work alone. As was mentioned, this collaboration is very different depending on the level of collaboration of the stakeholders, so the government’s collaboration is different from the researcher level collaboration.

Marja Anneli Matinmikko-Blue:
The key thing that is first needed is the funding for the research, and the research is done both in the academic side, but also in the industry, and now I think we’re in a pretty good situation in that sense that many countries have programs for this. The European Union has a program for this, and many, many countries have their own ones, and then there are these like-minded countries are already making joint statements about this, like the EU and the US Trade and Technology Council has made this 6G outlook in Luleå in May this year. It defines the key principles, and now that they are out there, it’s then the role of the researchers and the industry to take those principles, and I’ve seen very little discussion on how these are then adopted into the work that we actually do, and this is the missing link. There was no such thing in 5G. That was not there. It is there in 6G, so now the community needs to take these principles, like sustainability, like inclusiveness, and trust. They have to be translated into the work that we do now. It’s a new thing, and it requires a change of mindset from the community to really respect what the higher-level governments agree on, and then do that in the research, and that’s a challenge that I want to bring up. Thank you very much.

Moderator:
Any further comments, or any questions from the floor? No? OK. Looks like, gradually, we need to close the session. OK. So we’d like to have a short message from you, the final message, actually, from each of the panelists, so who would like to give first the last message from you regarding this topic, the open service platform in beyond the 5G, 6G era? OK. Yes? OK, I can go first.

Tony Quek:
I think I thank you for the organizer, NICT, for inviting us. I think we have personally attended a lot of these panels and all this workshop, but I hope that there is outcome after this. We hope that eventually, through this, we can have different stakeholders on the continent and have some eventual outcome down the road that because of this event today, we achieved something. This is what I hope that we can do, then that something can bring back good memories. I hope this is my last message.

Marja Anneli Matinmikko-Blue:
Thank you. Thank you. Maria-san? Then I’ll continue with these roles of the stakeholders, understanding what we are here for. I come from the academic research community. I’m here to help the people. So who are the users of the 6G networks? What do they really want? We have to ask. We can’t ask them directly what they want because it’s not the way it goes, but we have to be honest and take their perspectives into account. We saw in Europe, in 5G, that consumers were disappointed in terms of what they were promised, like oversized promises were made. Then what they were offered by the operators was pretty much similar things as in 4G. Contracts were the same. Data rates were not higher than in 4G when it was launched. So we cannot do this again. Social scientists say that this has already changed the end users’ perspectives. We can’t do this again because they expect. So we cannot make oversized promises anymore. We can’t do them for 5G. We cannot do them for 6G. So we have to stop talking about it’ll be a huge data rate or so, and if we can’t deliver that. So we have to now come back to this. The time for this oversized promises is over, but now we have to seriously think what the future would look like and what is the desired future that the people really want. I’ll continue with the theme, just put it in my own words.

Abhimanyu Gosain:
So the mentality of build it and they’ll come is not something that has served us well. As you see, we’re still searching for the killer app for 5G to sort of make it or to justify it, but we’re still already on the journey to 6G. But I guess the key piece is, again, the platform model, what that allows you is to connect two disparate groups who otherwise would not engage. That’s sort of what, if you really look at, that’s what the platform model is planning to do, and that’s what we sort of believe in. That’s why we’re here. That’s why sort of NICT is also trying to play a role in that piece is connecting these disparate stakeholders who haven’t been at the forefront. So my sort of key takeaway is two C words, co-development and collaboration. And I think co-development, again, a little bit more technical, not just cross-layer optimization, for example, that’s a very technical concept, but essentially we’re looking at different layers and different stakeholders, and then sort of bringing them all to the table at the formative stage, and not necessarily when the decisions have been made, when the standards have been made, but the spectrum’s been allocated, we’re not gonna serve anybody well. And again, we have to think as citizens as well.

Thabisa Zimbini Faye-Mwangi:
Thank you very much. I think without repeating what has already been said, I think my parting words would really be about not forgetting the developing South, bring them along on the journey. One of the biggest things that, if you ever hear the resistance from the developing South about 6G, it’s mainly around the energy impact. I think if we are moving into 6G without solving for the energy, without solving for the energy sustainability and the energy demands that come with it, then for us, it really is 5G plus. There really is no difference. So let’s solve for the sustainability, let’s bring the developing South along because they unlock great, great potential. When they participate, it elevates the whole notion of what we’re trying to do. So we cannot leave behind that many people. And the other thing is around collaboration. It’s so important that we allow the developing South to leverage the progress that’s been made by other countries. So having more sessions like this, having visiting tours, having benchmarking tours and so on, that is what shapes the policy and the regulation of these developing nations. Then the catching up is very little. It becomes just the fundamentals of infrastructure. But when you have the right mindset, you’re then able to have the people to influence the policy and drive the regulatory direction. Thanks.

Moderator:
Okay, thank you very much. Okay, I need to conclude. Okay, thank you very much for your information and opinion and answer. Actually, I personally believe this topic is very, very important for the future. So I’m really happy to share this opinion today. Okay, so fortunately we have actually some years until 2030s, but already we have only six years. So we have to seriously think about this. So I would like to continue this discussion with other stakeholders. So let’s keep in touch. Thank you very much. Okay, now it’s time to return my microphone to Hosako-san. Okay, thank you very much for the fruitful discussion. I think that already Shizu-san summarized our discussion today, but I personally would like to thank to all the panelists come to here and have a very interesting presentations. And after that, they are talking very interesting opinions. But there are many, many different kind of perspectives from the different nations and the different areas and the different positions. But it is quite useful to recognize we have such kind of differences each other. But as already everyone mentioned that we have a chance to recognize and chance to have a collaborative research together for the future network. And also we would like to continue to collaborating each other. So this is the starting point for the future cooperation today. And we would like to keep in touch with in the future. Thank you very much for your attendance and the presentations and also our collaborations together. Thank you very much. Thank you for this session and thank you everyone. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you all.

Nils Brock

The creation and development of substantial and impactful internet connectivity, digital content, and inclusive technologies necessitate robust collaboration and collective efforts. Exemplary of such endeavours are community networks operating worldwide. These networks have made significant strides in delivering crucial internet access and digital content to areas often overlooked or underserviced. This effort is particularly commendable in regions where traditional profit-oriented access models aren’t viable, providing an innovative and necessary solution to the digital divide.

Furthermore, the role of community media in this collective movement is worth acknowledging. These entities have shown an active dedication to innovating digital formats. Such innovation is specifically aimed at fostering increased participation and stronger integration with local communities. The function of digital formats in these endeavours thus spotlights the potential for technological advancements to foster bonds within local communities, challenging the stereotypical view of digitisation leading to disconnection.

Joining the discussion around augmented connectivity and digital content, thought leader Nils Brock expresses support for the work of community networks, media outlets, social enterprises and cooperatives. His endorsement puts these entities at the vanguard of innovation in this domain, shifting the focus from large corporations as the sole contributors to technological advancement. He underscores the need for community-focused initiatives, highlighting their contributions to connectivity and digital content at a panel discussion.

This collective narrative is deeply aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG 9 and SDG 17, that pertain to ‘Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure’ and ‘Partnership for the Goals’ respectively. The progression of these SDGs is intricately linked with the support and development of community networks, media outlets, social enterprises and cooperatives, projecting their impact towards wider, global targets aimed at enhancing lives worldwide.

In conclusion, the burgeoning global narrative around connectivity, digital content, and inclusive technologies underscores the importance of collective efforts. Progress at a community level is spearheading industry innovation and widening the reach of vital technologies instrumental in global development.

Amudhan Manivasagam

Vakoma is a significant company substantially improving connectivity, particularly in the global south. Their principal strategy involves the use of open hardware, software and portable network equipment. Aiming to empower local communities, they scrupulously adhere to the principle of universal access by creating open tools that cater for the construction of tailored networks. This unique approach aids in the creation of a more connected world, supporting SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, and SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities distinctly.

Their innovative endeavour is prominently manifested in their groundbreaking product – the Nimble device. This apparatus integrates open-source hardware, firmware and software, and is designed to be modular and portable. Pairing seamlessly with open firmware projects, including OpenWRT, the Nimble device enables communities to utilise any available hardware to build and deploy networks, reinforcing the wider goal of promoting an open-source ecosystem and supporting SDG 9.

Supplementing Vakoma’s suite of solutions is ‘Local’, a software platform intended to augment the value of the network post-construction. It amalgamates a variety of open-source applications which can be deployed offline. Notably, ‘Local’ can be implemented on practically any hardware and, can incorporate specific hardware for targeted applications. This flexibility aligns closely with SDG 9 and SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals.

Customisation sits at the heart of Vakoma’s products and strategies, fostering adaptability. The Nimble device can be adapted according to specific designs, with these modifications readily available for download, print, modification and sharing. Moreover, one can run ‘Local’ on almost any hardware, enabling users to handpick applications that best suit their needs. Such flexibility is instrumental in community networks and is an integral part of SDG 9.

Vakoma expands its impact via forming alliances with other ecosystem projects; their collaboration with Colmina is a testament to that. This alliance led to the Nimble device’s customisation, adding an audio interface, consequently enabling in-field content creation, particularly handy in volatile situations. This successful collaboration aligns perfectly with SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals.

In summary, Vakoma’s endeavours are positively received owing to their commitment towards enhancing connectivity via open hardware and software, fostering an open-source ecosystem, and enabling customisation. Their collaborations are undoubtedly praiseworthy. Their efforts strongly support several sustainable development goals, propelling innovation, fostering sustainable communities and partnerships, thereby indicating their broad impact and a strong potential for continued positive transformation.

Erick Huerta

The emergence of larger operators within the telecommunications sector poses a significant risk to the sustainability of smaller, community-run mobile networks. This harm manifests as these community networks are compelled to shift to less populated communities to maintain their existence. This disruptive shift is largely due to the aggressive entry of larger operators into previously untapped markets, thus displacing these smaller networks. As a result, this inflicts a negative impact on the sustainability of these community networks, as their once secure areas become saturated with larger competitors.

To counteract this undesirable encroachment by major operators, local communities have sought to pivot their operations towards becoming mobile virtual network operators. This innovative approach allows these communities not only to continue providing necessary and valued services but also contributes to broader community objectives of local content creation and locally focussed product exchange. Furthermore, adopting the mobile virtual operator model equips these communities with the opportunity to partake in an array of innovative projects. Notably, it leads to the establishment of local information centres which delivers access to education and promotes local product exchange, thus reinforcing their local economies in a sustainable manner.

In the realm of network-based discussions, it’s essential to understand that the complexity of a network is directly related to the number of layers it must address. More layers equate to enhanced network sophistication but also increased management and administrative challenges. Additionally, small or subsistence economies demonstrate resilience and effectiveness attributable to their collective effort. This insight underlines the fact that the strength of a network or economy can often be found in its unity and collective response to changes.

Yet, it is crucial to acknowledge the limitations that networks face. No single network can cater to every demand or challenge that arises. Recognising this, the key to efficient network operations lies in the delegation of responsibilities according to individual specialisations. Each member or element within the network holds different skillsets and experience levels, and leveraging this diversity effectively plays a crucial role in ensuring its smooth operation. This principle of efficient delegation and utilisation of specialisations allows for a balanced and effective network ecosystem, one that can withstand disruptions and foster growth.

James Gondwe

James Gondwe and his organisation, the Centre for Youth and Development, have significantly contributed to the sectors of education and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) connectivity within Malawi. A key focus of their work involves the implementation of community networks. These networks are viewed as pivotal solutions to enhance connectivity within society, aligning with the ambitions of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 4 regarding Quality Education and SDG 9 concerning Industry Innovation, and Infrastructure.

Under Gondwe’s insightful leadership, the organisation has embarked on strategic policy engagement and advocacy initiatives. These are directed towards regulators and prominent figures, such as the Minister of Information in Malawi. Gondwe’s team has fruitfully leveraged partnerships with international organisations, which include the Association for Progressive Communications and the World Association for Christian Communications. These alliances exemplify the ethos of SDG 17, emphasising the significance of partnerships in achieving global goals.

A noteworthy achievement has been the firm establishment of a policy and regulatory framework specifically designed to facilitate the growth and sustainability of community networks. This framework was not solely a product of theoretical projection but moreover, supported by real-world and successful implementations of such schemes from various regions, including Zenzeleni, PamojaNet, and Kenya. This point highlights the efficacy of community networks in action, reinforcing the argument for their adoption in Malawi while aligning with SDGs 9 and 11 pertaining to Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure and Sustainable Cities and Communities, respectively.

Furthermore, the analysis underscores the invaluable role of advocacy and policy engagement in creating a conducive environment for the development and expansion of community networks. Successful advocacy efforts were realised through strategic collaborations with esteemed institutions such as Mizzou University, the University of Malawi, and the ICT Association of Malawi. Engagements with regulators and government officials were accomplished by leveraging various platforms like ICT expos and national Internet Governance Forum (IGF) events.

In conclusion, the report encapsulates the irrefutable importance of a collaborative approach in facilitating digital inclusion. It exemplifies how grassroots initiatives, policy changes, visionary leadership, strategic alliances, and advocacy can collectively enable the fruition of community networks, thereby advancing ICT connectivity and education in regions such as Malawi.

Sarbani Banerjee Belur

This session offers a holistic discussion that covers an extensive range of topics within the context of sustainability, digital innovation, and infrastructure development. A crucial theme is the adoption of a hybrid model for the session, facilitating participants’ interaction in both online and on-site venues. This strategy endeavours to create maximum exchange of ideas and perspectives, thereby promoting an inclusive environment regardless of physical attendance. Not only does this resonate with the increasing trend towards remote connectivity, but it also aligns with SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure.

A fascinating aspect of this session is the planned series of compact lightning talks lasting five to seven minutes each, succeeded by Q&A sessions. These are thoughtfully devised to balance expert insights and public contributions. They permit a diverse set of perspectives, women empowerment, indigenous knowledge protection, and literacy programmes. All these elements foster collaboration and partnership, key to SDG 4: Quality Education and SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals.

One of the esteemed speakers is Elisa Heppner. With an array of experience in project and programme management across the private, government, and non-profit sectors, Elisa’s contribution is set to bring substantial insight to the session. Her background in facilitating education and literacy programmes using advanced EdTech in Asia and the Pacific further enriches her input. This seamlessly links to SDG 4: Quality Education.

The session will also delve into varied connectivity initiatives within the Asia-Pacific region, with a particular focus on the financial mechanisms required for ensuring connectivity diversity, crucial for a fully digitised future.

The session intrigue is enhanced by the promotion of a podcast through keychains, demonstrating a blending of traditional and digital marketing strategies. These keychains can be collected from the APC booth or an in-room contact, providing all attendees with direct access to the podcast.

Additionally, the discussion highlights the sociocultural benefits of community networks, with a particular focus on those initiated and maintained by women. These grassroots initiatives empower women within their community, encouraging an environment of inclusivity and equality that aligns with SDG 5: Gender Equality.

Moreover, local-led offline networks, like community radios, are lauded as significant platforms preserving and circulating indigenous knowledge. This is especially beneficial in protecting enriching cultural art forms and endangered languages within tribal communities, linking to SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.

Furthermore, such community-led offline radios offer women a platform for self-expression. They epitomise the potential for such initiatives to contribute substantially towards gender equality, underscoring SDG 5: Gender Equality.

In essence, this interconnected and multi-dimensional session robustly explores various aspects of digital infrastructure, participation, socioeconomic initiatives, education, and gender equality, weaving together multiple SDGs into coherent and comprehensive discourse.

Ellisha Heppner

The APNIC Foundation, renowned for its commitment to fostering an open, secure, and accessible internet, is making a positive impact on digital inclusion through an array of projects. The foundation is currently overseeing 68 unique initiatives, with 21 targeted at infrastructure development, 23 focusing on knowledge enhancement, and 24 being explicitly inclusion-oriented. Highlighting this broad-based impact, these efforts are taking shape in 56 diverse economies across the Asia Pacific region.

Elisa Heppner, the grants management lead for the APNIC Foundation, is instrumental in driving these ventures. She emphasises the importance of context-specific solutions for sustained connectivity. In line with this, the Foundation supports innovative schemes such as MeSoul’s peer-to-peer solar microgrids, SatSoul’s transportable towers, and Palau National Communication’s hybrid energy solutions. These ingenious initiatives not only underscore the vital role of connectivity in remote locations, but also highlight the necessity of clean, affordable energy sources in preserving these critical connections. These initiatives, thus, lend support to both SDG 7 and SDG 9.

Furthermore, the Foundation recognises the profound potential of Internet connectivity to catalyse social impact and environmental protection positively. APNIC backs projects including Simile, centred on mitigating climate change and promoting effective water management, aligning with SDG 13 and SDG 6. The endeavour to safeguard linguistic heritage and enhance education is seen through the support extended to the Myanmar Book Aid, thereby aligning with SDG 4. Similarly, aid for the Devao Medical School facilitates connecting healthcare facilities, contributing towards SDG 3, centred on good health and wellbeing.

In totality, this evidence underscores the APNIC Foundation’s positive stance in striving towards sustainable and inclusive internet connectivity. The broad implications of these initiatives carry the potential to fuel social, economic, and environmental advancement across the Asia Pacific region. Their partnerships with numerous projects stress the importance of multifaceted solutions to magnify the impact of each SDG, demonstrating a comprehensive approach to holistic development.

Michelle Nogales

Michelle Nogales, the co-founder of Muy Hueso, is spearheading a media revolution in Bolivia. Muy Hueso, established in 2018, proudly stands as Bolivia’s first feminist digital native media. It disrupts traditional media narratives and pioneers a fresh, progressive approach towards Bolivian media. Nogales and her team strive for social equality through a resolute emphasis on feminism, digital media, and diversity.

Emphasising the power and value of co-creation, Nogales’ revolutionary approach to content production invites community engagement and participation. This approach has given birth to diverse digital media formats that genuinely represent and resonate with their community. An exemplar of this approach’s impact is the community collaboration on a special article tackling gynaecological violence, which reached around 300 community members. Another notable outcome is a co-created book combining traditional Bolivian mythological narratives with the creative contributions of young artists and illustrators.

Nogales places immense importance on promoting media literacy and making information accessible. Determined to provide data in a simple and understandable format, she insists on verifying and qualifying information for greater insight and understanding. Her initiatives, such as creating gamified training experiences, further highlight her commitment to enhancing media literacy.

Nogales actively challenges Bolivia’s significant and escalating digital divide. Muy Hueso intends to bridge this gap, pushing for a more inclusive and accessible digital landscape. Nogales strongly supports democratising online access and endorses independent journalism. She has initiated sharing digital tool knowledge with rural and remote communities, enabling them to express their needs and problems.

Nogales’ mission extends to reducing the inequality in technology usage across the genders in South America. She seeks to empower women and ensure gender diversity by improving their access to technology. Coupled with her commitment to fostering a robust and gender-inclusive Bolivian media ecosystem, her work greatly contributes towards achieving gender equality.

In conclusion, Nogales’ vision of diversifying the internet resonates powerfully through her work. She strives for inclusivity through Muy Hueso, highlighting the significance of reflecting diverse community needs in online content. Endeavours like the ‘Colmena’ project, which delivers experiences from diverse communities in audio formats, demonstrate her commitment to enhancing internet diversity. Ultimately, Nogales’ multifaceted approach sustains her aim of creating an equitable and relevant digital sphere.

Debora Prado

Debora Prado, an active contributor to the Local Networks Initiative, is making strides in the field of community connectivity and digital communication through her recent launch of a new podcast titled ‘Routing for Communities.’ This innovative podcast, aimed at tracing and promoting community connectivity worldwide, is a pioneering project spearheaded by influential entities such as the Association for Progressive Communications and Rizomatica.

The primary focus of the podcast is to highlight community-centric connectivity initiatives that have emerged from grassroots movements. These narratives underline the potential power and influence that localised networks can hold, essential in cultivating sustainable innovation and infrastructural development (SDG 9), while fostering partnerships for these goals (SDG 17).

Moreover, the podcast adopts a comprehensive approach to social and environmental justice, examining it through the prism of evolving digital communication and connectivity. As part of this multi-layered conversation, Debora Prado underscores the elements of inequality that permeate society, showcasing issues of race, gender, and class inequalities that demand global attention for reduced disparities (SDG 10) and gender equality (SDG 5).

The podcast stands out for its captivating insights on the deployment of digital tools by indigenous communities for the safeguarding of their indigenous languages and cultures. This inventive use of technology enables a vibrant conduit for the global community to engage in their lush cultural heritage, thereby promoting climate action (SDG 13).

In conclusion, ‘Routing for Communities’ emerges as a hopeful advocate for positive change and transformation in communication, manifesting the principles enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals. The podcast represents a substantial leap in elevating awareness of and addressing issues at the core of justice, equality, and sustainable development.

Kemly Camacho

In her advocacy for female empowerment and gender equality, Kemli Camacho has highlighted the crucial role of tailored communication strategies in bolstering women-led organisations, particularly within indigenous communities. These strategies have achieved significant success within the Association of Cabecar Women, where she has been instrumental in developing communication strategies for six years. Embracing modern technology, she has identified the innovative use of walkie-talkie networks as pivotal in enhancing interactions, not only empowering the women of the community but also providing a reliable avenue to manage crisis situations and facilitate decision-making.

Further noting the considerable transformation fostered by the integration of social technology, the essential use of these tools for addressing vital community matters and decision making have positioned women as central figures within their communities.

Additionally, Kemli’s commendable work extends to the realm of education and cultural preservation. She has facilitated the creation of the Quebec Women University, a significant platform for imparting the wisdom of the indigenous Cabecar women across areas including agriculture, construction, health practices, spirituality, and handicraft. This valuable knowledge is diligently collected in varied formats such as audio, videos, and drawings, with younger women and boys engaging in meaningful interactions with older women.

Motivated by the initial success in Halabata, plans are in place for further expansion of the project to additional Cabecar communities. Children, recognised as vital for fostering ongoing growth and development, are being integrated into the project’s new phase.

Turning to the communication techniques of the Cabecar, or Kavekar, community, it’s evident that they depend heavily on audio and visual methodologies rather than written forms. The platform Okama Sway, based entirely on audio and visuals, has effectively been integrated to supplement their communication. Drawing, a vital aspect of their interaction, remains a central focus.

A key conclusion drawn from Camacho’s observations is the paramount importance of respecting and integrating the unique cultural practices of indigenous communities. Platforms like Okama Sway, by accepting these diverse communication methods, exemplify how honouring such cultural practices can promote community engagement and foster a more inclusive society. Therefore, in a world increasingly championing diversity and inclusion, embracing these unique communication techniques and preserving indigenous wisdom represents an essential stride towards achieving sustainable, equitable communities.

Elektra Wagenrad

Elektra Wagenrad, a renowned innovator, environmentalist, and application engineer, has made significant contributions to sustainable technology through her work on wireless mesh technology and solar-powered systems for community networks. Wagenrad, with her experience in a multitude of regions including Germany, Bangladesh, India, Chile, Tanzania, and South Africa, has globally recognised influence and reach.

Wagenrad’s remarkable achievement revolves around the improvement and development of the Freifunk open MPPT; this open-source software and hardware solar controller embraces a user-friendly approach, enabling users to build and programme them. Over three generations, this technology has evolved, gaining potency and adaptability. The latest version can deliver an impressive peak of up to 400 watts from the solar power system. Such advancements in energy efficiency position these solar controllers as an apt choice to power mesh networks. They have been utilised effectively for projects like India’s Nimble project.

Moreover, Wagenrad expanded the applicability of her solar controllers beyond their conventional use. New prototype controllers have been created for irrigation and environmental monitoring purposes, demonstrating the multipurpose nature of this technology.

Wagenrad’s commitment to devising adaptable, practical solutions, matched with her extensive on-field work, sets a powerful precedent for others to follow. Importantly, this cutting-edge technology aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals 7 and 9, advocating Affordable and Clean Energy and Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure respectively. Wagenrad’s endeavours provide an invaluable example of harnessing renewable energy and tech innovation to meet critical community needs, encouraging sustainable living and steering us towards an environmentally responsible future.

Audience

The dialogue encompassed critical topics like network regulation, content moderation, and the spread of disinformation. These themes shed light on the multifaceted dimensions associated with network use and demonstrated the potential for network misuse. The conversation delineated an understood layered structure, incorporating network, technical, administration and regulatory components, each with its specific responsibility.

Concerns were raised regarding the potential misuse of networks as the user base grows. This worry represents an emerging problem in the digital sphere, given the ease of network usage and access. Although it highlighted potential issues, the discussion also proposed possible solutions, particularly in relation to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16, which encourages peace, justice, and strong institutions.

The conversation also underscored the digital literacy issue. There’s an ongoing concern about the exclusion of certain demographics, especially those lacking basic literacy skills. This digital divide continues to proliferate substantial disparities in network engagement, aligning with SDGs 4 and 10, promoting quality education and reduced inequalities, respectively.

The discourse raised questions about the quality and cost-effectiveness of internet provision within community networks. An in-depth exploration into this topic could provide a more comprehensive understanding of internet availability and accessibility to target communities, potentially providing practical solutions to the digital divide. This subject aligns with the principles of SDGs 1 and 9, which advocate for poverty eradication and the promotion of industry, innovation, and infrastructure.

In summary, the conversation gave a well-rounded overview of the challenges and potential solutions tied to network use. Each of these issues is interlinked with the overarching objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals, lending a sense of urgency and wider importance to the discourse.

Risper Arose

Tandanet is deploying digital technology to confront and eradicate digital inequalities prevalent in marginalised communities. As a potent catalyst for change, it offers a host of resources, including affordable internet access, essential in today’s digitally interconnected world for socio-economic progress. In addition, Tandanet underpins the enhancement of digital literacy, providing the necessary skills and knowledge for communities to navigate the digital world effectively.

A crucial element of this is the development of digital platforms, all of which are designed and created with close communal collaboration. This not only tailors the service to the specific needs of the community but also encourages community investment and participation in the endeavour.

Their impact has been felt across Kibera, with Tandanet connecting 60 centres in nine out of thirteen Kibera’s villages, casting a broad net of digital sustainability. With future plans to include all villages, Tandanet displays a commitment to extensive digital inclusivity. Additionally, it provides network training, necessary for community members to optimise their engagement with the digital space. Alongside this is the provision of affordable internet services, integral to ensuring accessibility for all community members.

Similarly, Colmena serves as a valuable hub through which locally relevant content is created and shared post-connectivity. It lends a voice to communities, enriching the digital experience with local relevance. By promoting uninterrupted, safe, and secure access to information, Colmena reinforces local collective ownership at a ‘last mile’ level – a crucial facet in encouraging communal digital stewardship.

Colmena also contributes at a macro level by espousing the concept of a resilient, decentralised infrastructure, an important aspect in a world threatened by digital breakdowns and cyber-attacks.

Collectively, Tandanet and Colmena not only create individual impacts, but also align their efforts with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goals 9 and 11: building inclusive, sustainable industrialisation, fostering innovation, and making human settlements safe and resilient. Their efforts underscore the importance of digital opportunities in marginalised communities, laying a foundation for a more digitally inclusive and equitable future.

Carlos Baca

In an exhaustive discussion, Carlos Baca emphasised the critical importance of cultivating an atmosphere of respect, active listening, and constructive disagreement during meetings. These principles have a direct correlation with SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, illustrating their pivotal role in shaping a peaceful, equitable, and stable environment conducive to substantial discourse.

Baca delved into several related topics, including respect, collaboration, diversity, consent, photography protocol, awareness of language diversity, and the skill of managing disagreements constructively. These elements are indispensable as they create the foundation for a meeting which values each participant’s opinion, thus fostering a sense of unity and cooperation.

Baca proactively broached the topic of consent when taking photographs or making audiovisual recordings, thereby upholding the principles of respect and privacy. He encouraged consideration of language diversity, highlighting its significance in a multicultural framework and endorsing inclusivity.

Furthermore, he passionately advocated for collaboration among participants. Showing respect and a positive approach towards their colleagues, he referenced the need for constructive disagreement – the capability to express varying views in a manner that can lead to innovative solutions and a deeper understanding, rather than animosity or conflict. The sentiment behind these actions was overwhelmingly positive, exemplifying Baca’s commitment to creating a supportive and harmonious environment.

By constructing these guidelines, Baca has not only provided a roadmap for conducting effective meetings but has also subtly embedded a culture of mutual respect, positive collaboration, and openness to diversity. These principles, while implemented in meetings, have broader implications for general human interaction and embody the principles behind SDG 16.

Mwendwa Kivuva

In the sphere of Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, Kenya’s Community Networks are significantly benefitting from a cost-effective licensing framework, thanks to a unique collaboration with various organisations. This positive development involves a modest licensing fee of only $50, an initiative driven by the Kenyan ICT Action Network and supported by the Kenyan regulator’s innovative enforcement of licensing for wireless service providers. This practicable approach to licensing provides a robust foundation for innovative infrastructural platforms, contributing strategically to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9.

However, community networks within Kenya face palpable challenges, particularly evident in the Madari Valley, where a stable power supply is scarce. Most of this locale lacks an established power grid, making power fluctuations common due to the pressing issue of illegal connections. Another significant barrier is the surge in equipment vandalism, with numerous cases of rampant theft adversely affecting the functionality and sustainability of infrastructural facilities.

Financially, these networks also grapple with the hefty costs of backhaul, a challenge that could potentially impede their growth and viability. With securing a 100 Mbps backhaul cost amounting to about $1000 per month, a proactive proposal suggesting that these costs should be borne by the government has emerged, as they have access to free backhaul. This effective model of cooperation resonates with SDG 9, presenting a more economically viable method for strengthening community networks.

Despite these impediments, community networks have shown resilience through strategic lobbying efforts. A potent association comprising approximately 15 members has formed in Kenya, and through proactive lobbying, is making strides in influencing government decisions. This testifies to the effectiveness of partnerships and collaborative efforts, contributing directly to SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals. These concerted actions underscore the community networks’ dedication towards overcoming challenges, helping to foster a progressive future within the sphere of Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure.

Nils Brock:
And those who are sitting very much in the back, please join us also here on the table. That will be a nicer way for discussion, so don’t be shy. Please also sit closer if you want. Thank you. Okay. Konnichiwa, good morning, good afternoon, good evening and welcome to our session Agents of Inclusion. We are happy to see so many familiar faces here that found their way to Kyoto and also so many familiar faces online. Also curious to know more about the new faces that we can see here and yeah, happy to have you here for our exciting session. And all those people together here, some of them who, yeah, suspended Saturday night activities to come to the sessions, others that got up really early. And yeah, soon we will hear more about the work and the proposals of community center digital networks and media. But before this, just some quick words on housekeeping. Carlos.

Carlos Baca:
So, hi, everyone. So some of the common rules that we want to implement are, well, the basic ones, be respectful, we need to listen actively, be respectful for others’ participation, even if you disagree, be collaborative, recognize diversity, respect privacy of participants, ask for consent for photography, audiovisual recordings or quotes, be aware of language diversity, and handle disagreement constructively. So welcome, everyone.

Nils Brock:
Thank you, Carlos. This is with our third facilitator, Shobani, who will also start to present the team quickly. Shobani, are you there online with us? I saw you earlier in the chat, so hello. Can you hear us? Can you? We cannot hear you. Shobani? Hello. Yeah, we cannot hear you. Seems to be an audio problem. So please try to work on the microphone. I will continue meanwhile with the presentation. Yeah, now we can hear you. No, again, not. There’s something happening. Maybe changing the device. There’s Elektra. No, that’s not Shobani. Maybe raise your arm. Maybe you have to be… That’s the person who should be able to talk. No. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay, I will just continue for a second and hopefully you can collect later with us. So the Session Agents of Inclusion will be facilitated by three persons, two of them in the room, the third one mute now, but maybe she will talk to us soon. So our common interest was to shed light on the great work of community-centered initiatives from different regions and different continents. And together we have done our best to bring together an amazing lineup of speakers. And so, first of all, let me introduce you to Carlos Baca, sitting over there. Carlos coordinates the training program of TechU Comunitario. And hello. You can hear me now? Yes, we can hear you. Oh, great.

Sarbani Banerjee Belur:
So I did already the first part of your introduction, but you can still introduce Carlos. You can do better than I, I guess. Hello, everyone. Yeah, so this is Shabani from India. And nice to meet all of you all there. So I’m here and I would like to introduce Niels first. So Niels is a journalist and media developer with focus on community media and community networks. And he has an experience as a freelance journalist and a media activist in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. Niels works as a consultant for special projects for Isomatica.org, especially LockNet, member of the Global Innovation Gathering Network and coordinator of the open source digital newsroom Colmena, developed by DW Academy, and partners together with CSOs in the Global South. Yeah. And we welcome all of you all to this to this session. of ours and we look for quite an interactive session with all of y’all. We have other speakers who are also online and I’ll introduce them one by one as the session flows over to you.

Nils Brock:
Thank you Shobani and so Shobani Belur holds a PhD in Democracy and an MA in Sociology. She has learned and teached on many universities, too many to mention them all. Her work involves increasing digital outreach to remote and rural areas of India, women and their usage of connectivity, development of sustainable business models, seeding the growth of community networks, developing community technologies, meaningful usage and utilization of connectivity and many other exciting things. And Carlos, so could you please introduce yourself because there was a mix

Carlos Baca:
up. So hi, I am Carlos Baca. I come from Mexico. I work in Resomatica and in Redes Asseto organizations that work with indigenous communities in topics related with connectivity and right now I am a coordinator of two training programs, one for ICT network coordinators that we’ve developed in a joint effort with ITU for Latin America and also the National Schools of Community Networks, a project that is inside of the local access network initiatives initiative led by Resomatica and APC. Thank you Carlos and to get the session started, so what is the session about here? So in

Nils Brock:
many places of the world the creation of meaningful connectivity, digital content and also inclusive technologies for internet heavily rely on sometimes invisible collective efforts and we want to make those collective efforts visible today because worldwide hundreds of community networks deliver access and content to underserved areas. especially in places where profit-oriented access models are not sustainable. In addition, we have community media, from which we will also know some of them today, media outlets that actively work on innovative digital formats to create more participation and integration with local communities, and finally we have social enterprises and cooperatives that share the vision of community-owned open technologies. And so our panel will highlight such great contributions and we will hear again from Shobani how this meetup is going to happen.

Sarbani Banerjee Belur:
So this is a hybrid session and participation might be a bit different for those online and on-site. We, however, will try to switch always between the two perspectives to create a maximum of exchange that can take place. Since we have a long lineup of speakers and also want to give space to interaction with the public contributions, we’ll be rather short lightning talks of five to seven minutes each and in Q&A sessions and in the chat here in the Zoom link, there will be opportunities to further explore each topic. So please feel free to ask questions. Put it up on the chat window of the Zoom link. After our final Q&A session, we will also make time for a short planning exchange for all of you who would like to participate in the experience to organize a participatory coverage of the IGF using one of the community-centered technologies called Colmena that we will learn more about in our presentations. Yeah, so thanks.

Nils Brock:
Thank you, Sharbani. And now we’ll come to our first speaker who has stayed up until late in Bolivia today or is postponing dancing. She will tell us. And please welcome online Michelle Nogales. Michelle is one of the founders of Bolivia’s first feminist online magazine called Muy Hueso. And Michelle is a social communicator and journalist with a diploma in digital media for education and women’s rights and journalism. And she was part of the first generation of Sembra Media’s Metis Mentorship and Google News Initiative. With Muy Hueso, she’s exploring many digital media formats and let’s see what she has brought us today. Michelle, are you there?

Michelle Nogales:
Hi, Nils. Hi, everyone. Do you listen to me? Yes, we can hear you. We cannot see you, but we can hear you. How about now? Great. Thanks, Nils. I can start speaking now, yes? Yes, the floor is yours. Thank you so much. Good evening, everyone. I’m really happy to be here with you. Well, right now I’m speaking from a small town in Bolivia in the heart of South America. So thank you so much for this opportunity. You know, it means a lot to me, to my team. So as I was introduced by Nils, I’m the CEO and co-founder of Muy Hueso, the first feminist digital native media in Bolivia. We were born in 2018 with a quest to break the old hegemonic narratives of traditional media and tell what was not being told. And we were born in this digital world because in this space we found an opportunity to talk about the problems, the solutions and the needs of many women in Bolivia. Working women, indigenous women and people of sexual and gender diversity who work every day, but whose those stories were not told, you know, whose those stories are not heard. So at Muy Hueso, we work to make women the protagonists of their own stories. Not only through this journalism that tells these stories. but also to a journalism that is able to co-create with our communities, with our readers, you know. And this year we were able to produce a special article on gynecological violence that talks about some different experiences of women, where we had the participation of almost 300 people, you know, that are part of our digital community. And these people shared their information with us on a topic which there’s no open data available in Bolivia. So we made a co-creation of this article together with all these people, you know. And also at Muy Huaso, we seek to make this journalism and information very accessible to all, you know. We try to use language that is close to our communities, that is simple, but it’s not simplistic or incomplete, you know. And we have this as an unbreakable rule. On the contrary also, we seek to bring full, verified and qualified information in data that is understandable and attractive to our communities and has really interesting formats. In this matter, you know, we also published our third book this year. Well, actually, beginning of this year, which is called 31 Myths and Legends of Bolivia, you know. And this experience is really interesting because this book seeks to compile the mythological oral tradition of our country. And it’s a co-construction with people from the community who narrated these traditional stories. And young artists and illustrators made drawings, more than 1,000 drawings, during October 2022 and spread this oral tradition in their social media. So it was the stories from some people who other artists draw. And we just made an article about each story. And then we published a book. And this book went back again to the community. So it’s a whole. collaborative production together, you know. And in this project also we saw this great great impact that can be achieved through organized collective action, you know. And also this process helped us to maintain a close relationship with our audiences to identify their needs and how they generally generate an impact in our environments. And also in addition to using the internet as a tool, we try to encourage free feminist and independent journalists, you know. We try to share this learning and knowledge that we have gained during this time with members of our communities that live in rural or remote areas, you know. Actually right now I’m really really far from my hometown because today I just came to to do a workshop with some workers with some harvesters really far from my hometown, you know. And we shared about how to use digital media, how to use digital tools to share their own needs and problems, you know. And in that matter we’re actually this year working on creating games or gamified, you know, training experience about media literacy to curb misinformation and the hate speech in the run-up to the 2005 elections that are here in Bolivia, you know, presidential elections. So we want to reduce the internet access and usage gap which in Bolivia is very significant and widening every day. And we want with this Bolivia’s digital media ecosystem to grow and strengthen every day. We want the gap in smaller…

Nils Brock:
Sorry, you’re breaking up a bit. I think we lost Michelle, but the message came through. I’m sorry, my internet just got crazy. Am I back? Yeah, you’re back now.

Michelle Nogales:
Thank you. I’m really sorry. Can you hear me okay? Yes. Yes. Okay. Sorry. Just I’m really in a really small town. So I was telling you that we want the Bolivian media ecosystem to grow, you know, and be like more strong. And we also want to reduce this gap in access and use of technologies, you know. And we want many more women and sexual and gender diversities to be able to occupy the internet and fill it with their needs, with their initiatives, and also with this diversity of languages and actions, you know, and for there to be diverse ideas and voices that reflect the real demands of the communities themselves, you know. And in this project, I was also working in Colmena, where Niels was coordinating a lot of things and other people who is here in the talk. And we were trying also to gather a lot of different people who is working from their communities and sharing their own experiences through radio or through other audio formats that could get together this idea of communities and to take the internet and to be able to have more diversity of voices and cutting up this gap that we have in South America to access and to use the internet. So that’s for my intervention. Thank you so much. I don’t know if you have any questions, and we can keep on talking on the chat. Thank you.

Nils Brock:
Thanks a lot, Michelle. So our next speaker is James Gondwe. He is Executive Director of the Center for Youth and Development in Malawi. And that organization is an organization that works with youth and children and related with digital inclusion matters. So welcome, James.

James Gondwe:
Thank you so much for the opportunity to be part and parcel of this panel. As rightly introduced, my name is James Gondwey, and I’m the director of Center for Youth and Development. Our organization focuses on education, but we leverage on ICT and connectivity as well, and we’ve been exploring ways of how best we can increase access to connectivity and ensure that children, students have access to connectivity and then are able to effectively learn. And one area that we recognize is quite a potential solution in addressing this challenge is community networks, and early on we did recognize that for us to be able to do that in Malawi, we needed to have a conducive policy environment that would ensure that we are able to set up community networks or people are able to set up community networks. And so all along, Malawi has never recognized community networks as a solution, but also they never had a framework or a licensing framework, a greater framework that would actually ensure that community networks are developed. So with the support of our partners, Association for Progressive Communications, but also World Association for Christian Communications, we did work on advocacy, policy engagement with the regulator, but also Minister of Information to make sure that Malawi as a country should be able to develop a conducive policy and a greater environment for establishment of community networks. And despite the fact that what we have at the moment, we would not say it is what we really wanted to see, but I think there is some success because there is a framework that has been created, though not entirely to the way we would have desired it to be created, but there is a framework that has been created. And that would ensure that community networks, community initiatives can actually be established in Malawi. and that people can actually be connected. So, my presentation is mostly focusing on sharing best practices around policy engagement. What did we do to make sure that we are able to get the regulator, but also get the Minister of Information interested and get them listening, and eventually leading to the successful establishment of this policy and regulatory framework. For us, a lot of people think that it is very obvious that the regulators are aware that community networks are a solution. But it’s not. We need to raise awareness. And for us as a country, as an organization, together with our partners, we started with raising awareness. So, you start with the basics. Raise awareness about community networks. Get people to know what community networks are. And you can do that by sharing examples of where this has been successful. And for us, we did have examples from within the region. So, Zenzeleni came in as an example from South Africa. We also had PamojaNet coming in as an example. And later on, Kenya came in as a very good example around policy, because Kenya had developed a licensing framework. So, we’re able to say, look at Kenya. This is what they’ve developed. And for us as a country, we can also do something similar. So, that was a starting point. And so, as we are sharing these experiences around best practices, it is important for us to make sure that we’re also providing evidence. So, the evidence is available. Within the country, we know we’ve got rural communities that are not connected. And we know that ISPs are not going there, because it’s not profitable for them. They would rather stay in the very same communities. So, the conventional method of connecting is not working. And we need to provide that as an example. And then, another very important element. And that really worked for us is an element around collaboration, leverage on others. So throughout our policy engagement, we leveraged on other institutions within the country. So we leveraged on Mizzou University, University of Malawi, as organizations, as academic institutions that supported us with the academic research, you know, and we also did leverage on the ICT Association of Malawi. So the ICT Association of Malawi has got a huge membership of people in ICT, and we were able to leverage on their numbers, to be able to convince the regulator, to be able to convince the Minister of Information to say this is a solution. So leveraging on others is another important strategy that we are able to use. And then another element is in advocacy, it’s difficult for you to organize the events on your own. You know, policymakers, regulators, it’s difficult for you to find them. Even booking a meeting with a regulator is difficult. But try to engage them through other events. So we targeted the events that were happening within the country, and then we would be able to reach them, contact them while they were at those particular events. So a good example is we’ve participated in a number of ICT expos that have been organized within Malawi. And we know for sure that the Minister of Information, but also others from the regulator And that is the point of engaging, you know, with those regulators. Malawi hosted the IGF last year, and that was a great opportunity for us to be able to engage with these duty bearers. And even the National IGF is also another opportunity. So try to leverage on what is already happening in your country, and then build from there. Another very important element is to try to build a network of allies. Try to see who else is interested, you know, in this topic. So smaller ISPs is another very good example, so much as we may not be fully aligned with community networks. But I think those So, we started building a database of allies from around 2019, and now we are even happy that that particular database has actually developed into a community network alliance. So, Malawi has got a community network alliance, and that particular alliance is now going to be looking at how best can we sustain the effort, the momentum that has already been created. So, we started building a database of allies from around 2019, and now we are even happy that that particular alliance is now going to be looking at how best can we sustain the effort, the momentum that has already been created. So, it is the one that is actually now engaging with the regulator, engaging with the government, and getting them to talk, but also to see the successful implementation of the framework that has been created. So, my presentation focuses on sharing those best practices. Thank you so much.

Nils Brock:
Thank you, and our next guest from India will be presented by Shobhani.

Sarbani Banerjee Belur:
So, our next speaker is Amodan. Amodan is an engineer, an entrepreneur, proving how system administration and development can solve real-world problems. He currently works with the social enterprise Vakoma, developing a technology part for local communities and their needs. Amodan, let’s hear from you now. Thanks.

Nils Brock:
Hello. Can you all hear me? Yes. Okay.

Amudhan Manivasagam:
Thank you, Shobhani, for the introduction. Good afternoon. Good evening. You know, have a good day, everyone. And it’s nice to be here. I’m glad to be sharing all of our work with you today. At Vakoma, we’re working towards kind of implementing technology for local communities and their needs. and building solutions to connect the global south. Our efforts involve the deployment of open hardware and software, and we create open tools that enable anybody to build a network and adapt it and purpose fit them to their own needs. A lot of our work involves a portable, rapidly deployable networking equipment and hardware, but also software and firmware. To that end, I would like to share with you today a project that we call the Nimble. It’s a device that encapsulates all of our efforts in these various different areas. The Nimble is an integration of open source hardware, software, and firmware, and it’s designed to be modular, customizable, and portable. So let’s start with the Nimble. The Nimble is essentially a series of 3D printed mounts, and it houses hardware that is chosen to fit within a Pelican case, and what this allows is for it to be taken anywhere and be rapidly deployable, and it’s extremely portable. And the designs of these shelves and these mounts are all open, and anybody can download and print them for use, and they can modify them to fit their needs. Users can also design and share their own pieces, so if they have something that they want to put in the Nimble that we don’t already have a mount for, they can design and share it back to the community. In addition to this, to make this hardware more accessible, to everybody else. We’re working on creating parametric designs that change the models dynamically based on the specific hardware that you’ve chosen. So you can much more easily customize it and it makes it way more accessible for people to get started with. And as part of this, it’s also important to mention as we integrate open hardware, software, and firmware and educational resources into this, it’s also important to talk about other ecosystem projects that enable us. And we’re also, the Nimble, when it’s deployed, we also work with open firmware projects. We leverage OpenWRT and what it enables for us is that as part of when you build your own network, communities are able to take any commodity hardware they have on hand and use that to build and deploy the network. And at the end of the day, we want to make building networks more accessible. So the idea is you bring your own hardware, software, your own networking, whatever you have on hand, whatever is available to you locally, and you put it together as the Nimble and it helps you build a community network. And once the network is up, we work on a software platform that we call Local to add value to the network. So once you have the network, what do you do with it? You need to, there is no point in just having a bunch of nodes connected, it has to serve a function. And to that end, we have Local. Local is a software platform that aggregates and enables, again, the rapid deployment of a suite of open source applications. that can fit your needs. So this is a short basket of the applications that you can run on local. And the nice thing about it is you can handpick any combination of these applications that best suit your needs and deploy them rapidly to one or many nodes all at once. And all of these applications can be run offline first. So you can make calls, you can get educational resources, you can run a community forum, you can create content and share it back to the community, all completely offline. And local can be deployed on almost any commodity hardware. You can pick any computing resources that are available to you. It could be an old computer, it could be a Raspberry Pi, it could be a little box. If your community has a lot of users, you can scale it up and down as needed. And it can be deployed on most hardware. And you can select the applications that best suit your needs. And you can also include specialty hardware to serve your specific application. And we’re always working on adding and integrating newer and more open source projects into local. And so if you have an application that you don’t see in this list or on our website, chances are that we can probably integrate it and get it working in a short period of time. And much like the rest of the Nimble and the open firmware ecosystem, local is also designed to be platform agnostic. So it can be run independently of the Nimble. The Nimble is independent of local, but they all connect to create this ecosystem that enables rapid deployment of networks along with the local content and services. And this type of thing really shines. in an offline first environment because it makes building networks for communities that much more accessible, right? When these components and the ability to deploy software, it kind of democratizes the thing. So people can just come and get started much more quickly. And a great example of this would be the collaboration with Colmina. And Colmina I think has been mentioned a few times already in the series of talks. It’s an offline first decentralized platform that can be used to create and disseminate content in a community. The people can just create, edit, mix, add text. They can create content right in Colmina and then disseminate it out to the community. And as part of our collaboration with them, we made a customized Nimble unit which has an audio interface. So you can create and you can take it out in the field. It’s less than a hundred Watts. You can plug in a microphone and create content right there and disseminate it in a volatile situation. And so this is a great example of Nimble being customized along with local integration for a specific use case. And this would really enable offline first volatile situation. You know, it’s a great way to get out news media, for example. And yeah, so this is a nice overview of I think everything we’re working on. We’re always open to collaborating and we actually have a demo of this Colmina Nimble with Neil. So for those of you that are on site. please check it out. You should be able to see from Niels. You can look for the local.network wifi name. You can connect to it. You can explore the content and services, the platform, you can explore the software. And if you have any ideas and you’d like to collaborate with us, you can reach out to us. You can learn more about all of our various projects on the website. And yeah, thank you for your time and your attention. It’s a pleasure chatting.

Nils Brock:
Thank you. Thank you, Amudjan. And yes, as he said, the Nimble is set up at the APC booth in the Global Village. So if you want to check it out the next days, it’s already set up and yeah, happy to meet you there also to show you some more of the facilities. But now let’s jump to Latin America. And we have someone invited here from Costa Rica, Kemli Camacho. Thanks for having made the long way to Japan. And with the permission of the Indigenous Women Association from Alto Pacuare de Cabecar, Kemli will tell us a little more about social technology designed and maintained by indigenous women. Just a few words, or would you like to present yourself, Kemli, as you wish?

Kemly Camacho:
Yes, very fast, because I prefer to take my time for the presentation. My name is Kemli Camacho. I’m from Costa Rica and I’m the coordinator of Zulabatzu Cooperativa, a 20 years old self-managed enterprise from the social economy. And we have been working during now six years with the Association of Cabecar Women to develop communication strategies and with technologies, but in a process of appropriation of the technology. The slide that you are going to see is just for you to illustrate the work that we do in this place, because what I’m going to do is to tell you a story. I would like today to talk more about the transformation that a local communication strategy can make in women organizations. This is what I wanted to address more than talk about the technology. This time I would like to talk about the transformation produced by this technology. I want you to imagine that you are entering in a big, big mountain with no connection at all, no mobiles, no electricity. It takes myself 12 hours walking to arrive to Calabasas, this place where we meet all together women from the Quebecer community. I want also you to imagine this community. Each home is between eight hours to two days walking distance. We don’t have a center in this mountain where you have the home, where you have the houses. They are totally dispersed in the mountain. You have to walk, and if suddenly something happens, you have to walk eight hours. In general, they send one of the kids to one house, to the other, to let them know that something is happening. What is happening, for instance, a woman is having a hard birth, for instance, or there is a bridge that was fell down because of the river or any other thing, but they needed hours to two days to communicate one home to the other. We began to work with them about, at the beginning it was about creating a community network based in internet protocols, but I’m not going to tell you all the story, but their decision were not, not. We don’t want that. What we want is to really have a technology to strengthen the communication inside the territory and to strengthen the communication between women, because we want to strengthen the women’s organization. This is a matrilineal community. Women are the leaders and they heritage the land. Then for them to be organized is very important. I want to tell you the last story. This is an authorized story by them. I cannot tell this story without authorization, but two months ago, a leader drowned in the river. Drowning is a good word, yes, and the body was lost in the river. In other occasion, local authorities will come and look themselves, Red Cross and police, look themselves for the body. In this occasion, women using the walkie-talkie networks organized themselves, and when the local authority came, they said, we don’t want you to look for the body because that is very important for us, and that ceremony is very important for us. We are going to organize ourselves using the walkie-talkie networks to go alone and organize the community to go alone and look for the body of our leader. They do that, yes, they do that and they use all along the river, they organized the way to try to find the body. When they found the body, also, because the authorities asked them, they have to take the body for the morgue, they also said, and organized themselves, all together, talking around the mountains with the walkie-talkie network, walking around the mountains, one to each other, how they are going to define what to do with the body, what to do with the morgue, what to do with local authorities, and how they can and want to do their dead ceremony as they want. Then, I wanted to tell you this simple story, maybe, because it is really the result. On another occasion, if we didn’t have this strategy, communication strategy, based in the walkie-talkie network, the only possibility is the local authorities came and took the body and did the occidental process instead of the cabeca process and ceremony for death. Then, this is only one example about how we, for us, the most important is how we are strengthening, we together, the association, Cabeca Women’s Association, and us, together, we are developing and strengthening the community organizations, leaded by women. Other thing that we have done, and it’s related with communication, is about building infrastructure together. You can see there, this is Hutsini, and we have just finished to build a huaraki. Those are spaces that we are building together. or they are building together, using all the building practices, yes, and they are organizing themselves for having, for the first time, spaces to meet safe and for women to meet in safe conditions. And that is also a result of having a communication strategy. Finally, I wanted to let you know that they are, they began to develop what they call the Kaweka Women University, which is a place in this Huaraki and Hutsini. They are creating this university, Kaweka Women University, where they are teaching agriculture, construction, health practices, or health career, spirituality, and handicraft. These five programs they have created using the second part of our project, which is Okama, which is a platform that contains, this is a bad word, I don’t know how to say in English, but a platform where we are collecting all the wisdom of women in Kaweka language, about this different wisdom in agriculture, construction, et cetera, and by the way of audio, videos, and drawing that young women and boys are doing, using interviews to the older women. Then we have this platform and we are using them to collect all this wisdom and to use in this training for the University of Quebec women. Also, I wanted to let you know, they only speak Quebec, then we are using a lot the drawing for agreements or for presenting ideas and for making decisions. We are, of course, interpreters, young women interpreters, but we are using all this drawing as a communication ways of work also. Finally, let you know that we begin in Halabata. You see, this is our decision-making process. We begin in Halabata, now we are expanding the process to other communities, other Quebec communities, and also in this next part of the project, we are integrating children to the process also. Then, for now, this is what I wanted to share. Thank you.

Carlos Baca:
Thank you, Kemly, and thank you also for this trip that you make us go to Costa Rica and feel some of the feelings to be there. The next speaker is Deborah. Deborah is a journalist and activist, and she is the communication associated in the LockNet initiative led by IPC and Rizomatica. She is in Brazil and is very late there, so she preferred to send us a video, and she has some great news about… a gift for you.

Debora Prado:
Hello, everyone. I’m Deborah. I’m joining from Sao Paulo, Brazil today. I want to start by saying thank you to everyone that’s here on site or online to make this conversation happening and also for the organizers, the facilitators and IGF to make this space happen. And I’m here today to talk about the podcast that we just launched this year. The podcast is named Routing for Communities and we have a motto that says this is an audio journey tracing community connectivity around the world. So this podcast bring live stories of people that are connecting themselves while defending the fundamental rights and the well-being of the communities. This is a podcast produced by the local networks initiative. This is an initiative led by the Association for Progressive Communications, APC and Rizomatica in partnership with people with support organizations with grassroots communities in different parts of the world, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean and working on the local networks initiatives through the years. We have witnessed a lot of inspiring stories of community-centered connectivity, of community networks, of this kind of initiatives that started bottom up and we thought about the podcast as a way, as a channel, as a strategic communication tool to share these voices and these stories and to bring the reflections to this dialogue, to the dialogue about the future of connectivity and the future of digital technology that we want. So more than anything, we believe this podcast is just an entry point to these voices and these stories that are really, really inspiring. I want to share a brief teaser of this podcast, of the teaser that we made, actually, to launch the first season now with you, just for us to listen to a few of those voices as an example and as, of course, an invitation for you to access our landing page, routingforcommunists.apc.org, to listen to these stories. They will bring different perspectives as the involvement of women, how access inequalities can be related to other inequalities, gender, race, and class inequalities, how can connectivity and digital technology, digital communication be mobilized to promote social and environmental justice, how indigenous people, indigenous communities have been using them to preserve the language, the culture. So a lot of different inspiring examples from different countries, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Indonesia, Thailand, Kenya, South Africa, and more. So I will just play a bit and with this make an invitation for you to listen to these stories and also to share them with people that are interested in this topic. Routing for Communities, an audio journey tracing community connectivity around the world. Hi, my name is Renata Porto and I will follow you along this 12-episode season where we are going to travel to different places, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina, Kenya, Brazil, Indonesia, Nigeria, India, UK, Colombia. I am originally from Philadelphia in the United States, and then I’ve been in Mexico since about 2010. We will meet stories and voices that are intertwined, connected by a common thread, building internet and communication community networks. I will stop here just to be mindful of the time, but this is an invitation, please. We have also a Telegram channel if you want to join or visit our landing page, we’re also in the main audio podcast platforms. I also want to thank the people that made this season happen. This was a collective work made by many hands, of course, by those that were generous enough to bring their voices and their stories, but also the work behind the scenes. So here are some credits, and I want to thank you all for being here, listening, and for creating this space, and I’m looking forward to engage with you more. Thank you.

Nils Brock:
Thank you, Deborah. I don’t know if you made it to the chat, and now Shabani will announce our next speaker. Thank you, Nils.

Sarbani Banerjee Belur:
Thanks, Deborah, for that nice presentation. We would like to mention that we have keychains present in the room where you are there, as well as in the APC booth with the scan. You can scan the keychain and you can go directly into the podcast that Deborah mentioned about. So please feel free to collect the keychains from the table. Carlos Baca has it with him there in the room. and you can also collect it from the APC booth. Yeah, so over to the next speaker for today. The next speaker for today is Elisa Heppner and she has joined the foundation in March, APNIC Foundation in March, 2023. She has more than 15 years of professional experience in program or project management and the design and delivery of complex projects after working in the private sector, government and not-for-profit sectors. She came to the foundation from the NGO sector where she was responsible in driving the implementation of local, national and international programs in relation to improving education outcomes and literacy using EdTech within a variety of international locations, including Asia and the Pacific. So over to you, Elisa. And the topic of her presentation is Funding Diverse Connectivity Initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region. Over to you.

Ellisha Heppner:
Hi, thank you for having me, everyone, this evening. Hopefully my presentation will come up on the screen. There we go, wonderful. Appreciate the time that you’re giving to me today. My previous project role, I was doing closing the digital literacy divide with solutions which was for primary school children doing digital library solutions to rural and remote areas. So I’m really interested in hearing some of the connectivity and discussions that everyone’s bringing to the table today. But I’m here as the grants management lead for the APNIC Foundation. And I wanted to just share some of the great work. that we see that we’re also funding through our foundation and share some of those stories and thoughts that come with that. So how the foundation works, the APNIC Foundation looks to fund predominantly through infrastructure inclusion and knowledge with a goal to have an open, secure and accessible internet for all. And we do that through technical training assistance, community development, grants and awards, internet infrastructure and research and collaboration. So we have a vision to have a global open, stable and secure internet that’s affordable and accessible to the entire Asia Pacific community. We are predominantly focused in the 56 economies through the Asia Pacific region. And the foundation is made up of a variety of different initiatives, from foundation led projects specifically to ISF-Asia grants, ISF-Asia awards and foundation community assistance. I predominantly look after the portfolio of the ISF-Asia grants and the foundation community assistance programs. I just wanted to share with you just a brief snapshot of some of those initiatives that are in play at the moment. We’ve got around 21 different infrastructure projects, 23 knowledge projects and 24 inclusion projects underway at the moment. And over this period, there’s over about 200 different initiatives that have been put through our 32 different economies. Some things to dive down on, these projects, we’ve got at least six that are. focused on internet and specifically the environment. We’ve got a couple that are focused specifically on disability and inclusion. We’ve got eight that are looking to fill the connectivity gaps. And when I say remote, we’re talking those really remote last, you know, areas. Sorry, remote providing those ones is, we’ve got some internet providers that are supporting through that. We’ve got four projects really looking at alternative infrastructure solutions to make that kind of connectivity affordable. A couple of health projects. We’ve got some at the moment focused on forest fires and what that looks like for climate change. We’ve got many focused on social impact. We’ve got IPV6, which is infrastructure. And then yes, 10 on last mile connectivity and 13 around cyber and security. I don’t want to speak specifically about the projects. We’ve got, you know, I’ve got Dinesh here who is one of our recipients, who is CEO of Zervalots and he’s presenting on his organization there. But I wanted to try and highlight the fact that we do fund and support collective efforts around community networks and what that looks like. And that can be really, really diverse. So these are projects and project solutions that have been put forward to us for funding and support that range from this year we’ve got Pacific Broadband who are connecting 100 educational or health facilities across 10 countries through their solution to, you know, Agility is working in really rural and remote hard to reach areas of India. CVSNET Foundation are looking at how to do small, stable broadband across those islands. We have a company with DistantCurve who is servicing remote rural Australia that can cover vast distances, but we have a very, very small population across those large distances. I think what I’d like to share and highlight is that there are a variety of different opportunity solutions based on context and that we really support that kind of diversity of spectrum and we love to support initiatives, whatever they are, that are servicing the community and the community in need. I think the other thing that I’ve seen come through with projects that we like and that we look to support and some of the conversation that I hear from our recipients is that power is also essential for community networks and connecting communities. As part of that, we do support as well initiatives that are looking at alternative power solutions to support that connectivity, ability to be able to provide effective connectivity for services. So an example there is we’ve got a project called MeSoul who is doing peer-to-peer solar microgrids in Rohingya refugee camps. SatSoul is in our Solomon Islands, which is a transportable tower that can be moved from site to site. Common Room, who also do community networks, they are understanding and support and look at alternative power solutions, knowing how important that is to maintain that connectivity. We’ve got Palau National Communications. corporation who are introducing and looking at hybrid solutions to ensure that there’s sustainability through power and backup so that that connectivity can continue to occur. And lastly, I just wanted to share a few selections of our initiatives that are focused on environment and social impact. So this is our inclusion and grants specifically. So we have one of our grantees is here, but not in the room. It’s an organization called Simile, and they’re looking at how the internet and communications and connectivity can be used for climate change and water management. We’ve got the International Research and Exchange Board there. We funded a Myanmar book aid and looked at language and preservation and what libraries meant in that location to be able to support community hubs. We’ve helped to support ICEA and how building models and community networks and looking at those kind of sustainable models through research and funding. And then Devao Medical School, connecting healthcare locations. So that’s essentially the diverse range of solutions that are coming to the table. And I just wanted to highlight how that has happened and how we support that through those kind of public locations, looking at power supply, context-specific solutions, leveraging for impact, and just really reflecting on that many projects are ill-equipped with connectivity and how do we make sure that we’ve got that before we do projects. Thank you.

Nils Brock:
Thank you, Ellisha. And, yeah, nice to see this from a funder perspective and if there are other… Funders in the room thinking about how they can support bottom-up connectivity and content production I think you already gave some nice examples and you also touched an important topic that is Solar energy and photovoltaic systems and our next speaker from Germany has yeah A long history of having worked on such and similar technologies some of you might have heard of from her already Elektra Wagenrath will be here with us. She’s been developing wireless mesh technology for community networks and solar power systems in Germany, Bangladesh, India, Chile, Tanzania, South Africa, so she has been around the world. Wireless networking, she has published several books and articles on this. She has also worked on the Freifunk community and has developed now already the third generation of the Freifunk open MPPT, an open software hardware solar controller and she will tell us more about it now. Welcome Elektra.

Elektra Wagenrad:
Hello, I hope you can hear me. Yes, we can. Excellent. Well, unfortunately, I cannot share the slides with you on the laptop, so I will try with the smartphone. It’s fine, but we can see you and hear you clearly. Oh dear. How do I get out of here. It’s the first time I’m trying to do this on a smartphone. I hope you see my slides now. No, unfortunately not. We can only see you, which is nice. Okay, so I just have to go. Unfortunately, I can’t show you the slides. So, I’m a community member of the Freifunk Community Networking Initiative, and in 2017, I started to work for Freifunk on powering mesh networks from solar. So, I started to engineer and develop devices, solar controllers that you can build yourself and that you can program yourself, because they’re open hardware and open software. So, it’s open source hardware through and through. And the first devices were like small devices with like 50 watts of power for mobile mesh nodes or independent mesh nodes. And from then on, people kept on asking me if they could have more power. So, I increased the power and I increased the versatility of the devices. And so, there’s now three generations of these devices. Two generations are based on the ESP32 microcontroller, and they support telemetry. They support extending it with other software. For example, I’ve made a prototype for APC that is for irrigation purposes. I have a prototype that is monitoring the environment, because the solar controller cannot just provide power for your infrastructure. It can also be used for other purposes as well. So, it’s extendable for these purposes. Yeah, it’s a bummer that I don’t have my slides to show you. And one of the devices, an early prototype of the third generation. has been used in Antil in India and it can also be used to serve power to the Nimble project for example. So the latest device has a power of up to 400 watts peak from the solar system and it’s designed to work with 12 volt batteries but I’m also extending it probably to 24 volt batteries. So far I’m using AGM led batteries but I’m also testing now with Li-Ion iron phosphate batteries. Elektor we have found the slides do you want us to show them we can show them now. Oh that would be awesome. I can’t see them. Can you see them? We can see them. The first one is the Freifunk open MPPT. Yeah yeah so I have my slides here locally so yes. That graphic is just illustrating the purpose that we like two villages and in the middle of nowhere there is a opportunity to overcome an obstacle and then you the idea is to autonomously power a wireless relay in a mesh network so the villages can be connected. Can you go to slide number two? That’s the one on the picture on the left side you see one of the first uses. It’s a mobile pole with solar power and battery. So, which is integrating a mashed potato used back then, and the solar panel and the solar charge controller. And on the right hand, you see the app that can be used to monitor the device. It will also give you hints if something is wrong. Please go to slide number three. Here you see the modules that basically such a system is consisting of. Just step over to slide number four. Just a schematic, a block diagram showing the use in India in Ant Hill. Here the device was used to power a think center. The 400-watt device and the 100-watt device from the open MPPT was powering the TP link that was connected to the cow mesh. Slide number five, please. So this is a current prototype of the 400-watt version, and I’m going to start production this year. Slide number six, please. Yeah, some pictures from the field, from the deployment in Ant Hill. The left picture is when they prepared it, and the right hand picture shows the installation. I have to mention that this installation gave problems because the batteries and the device were overheating because they were exposed in a metal box to the blazing sun, which was not how I intended it to be used. Slide number seven, please. Next one. Yeah, I started to print housings for it. And this is a device that you can use in an environment where it’s not on a remote place. For example, if you use it locally, it’s a printed housing. And I added the display, slide number eight. And here you can see the OSPIT, Open Solar Powered Irrigation Tool, the prototype that I’ve built based on the device. And I have the idea to make a PCB for that as well, because I have the feeling that many people will be looking for such a solution. And last slide, it’s just a thanks to the contributors, the people that helped me with the funding. Thank you very much.

Carlos Baca:
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Carlos. Our next speaker is Nwendoa Kiibuba from Kenya. And he is one of the board members of the KIKTA-NET, that is the Kenyan ICT Action Network. And he’s also one of the developers of the Angaza Community Networks in Matare slums in Nairobi.

Mwendwa Kivuva:
Okay, thank you so much for the introduction. So my name is Nwendoa Kiibuba from KIKTA-NET. And I have some slides to share, so probably I can be enabled to do that. So probably I can give a small brief of the Kenyan situation, is that host disabled screen sharing, probably you can enable that. Is that Kenya has a licensing framework and to get a license for community network. You pay around $50. So it’s a very affordable license that we have. And this was made possible through some collaboration through APC, Rizomatika, Communication Authority of Kenya, and UKAID. And this license is the one Malawi is referring to that many other African countries are looking to adopt. And recently, the regulator in Kenya started cracking the whip on unlicensed wireless service providers. So they are being shut down by the regulator. So many of them are now starting to get these licenses. OK. Thank you. Thank you. OK, I’ve shared the screen. And also, Kenya has formed an association for community networks with around 15 members belonging to that association. And they are able to lobby government and other players effectively because now the association has more members and they have numbers to be able to talk to the regulator. Some of the many challenges, of course, we are facing within our situation, power is a big challenge. We have had some speakers speak about power. Like for example, this is Angaza Community Network that we are running in Madari Valley. And this is a situation on the ground. Very many tiny shack, tin roofs, houses. And most of the location is not covered by a power grid. And the power grid that is there within the location, most of them is actually illegally tapped. So the power is usually. So, we have a lot of access points, and we have a lot of access points that usually fluctuate, the spikes, and the spikes burn most of the adapters for the access points that we have within the value. So, unreliable power is one of the big challenges that we are facing as a network. Within the network, we have four access points, and we have a lot of access points, and we have a lot of access points which communicate to the access points that are on the ground. And one challenge, like, this network faced is that some of the vandalism of equipments, so if you don’t secure your site very well, probably have tight security, razor wires and all that, you find the equipments get stolen. So, we have a lot of challenges, and we have a lot of challenges, like, some is competitors vandalizing, and some is just people looking to sell the equipments for money. Another challenge we have seen many community network phase is backhaul, because, like, for a situation, 100 Mbps backhaul cost around $1,000 per month, and how, as we are trying to cover the cost of backhaul is to talk to government, because government have access backhaul, like, Kenya, there’s a city authority of Kenya which provides Internet to government sites, and they are free backhaul, actually, just lying around. So, one of the things we are doing is telling them if there’s a fiber pipe passing through Kenya, if on the other side of Kenya, so neighbour hubs, if there’s a fiber pipe going from government house to a house, and also to a telephone, because they are forgetting precisely withEsco export or phone order and Why don’t you give them that back also so that they can be able to serve the members of the community with that Internet? And in Kenya, there is an initiative to serve, to provide, to have 25,000 access points within the country. And that’s a government initiative. So with collaboration with community networks, they can be able to achieve that target if the government provides back home. Community networks provide the access points and the community people to manage it. They can be able actually to achieve that number at a very lower cost. So that’s something we are really advocating, and we are talking to the ministry and the relevant government agencies to be able to support that. And within our network, we have several trained engineers who have been going through the schools of community networks so that they can be able to manage this network from the site. And one challenge, of course, is when we train these engineers and they are very good, they get poached or they go to larger, bigger organizations. So they go to the bigger ISPs because probably there is better salaries. So we actually say that we are building capacity for the nation, because you build capacity so people are able to manage these networks, then they go to work for the bigger ISPs. But of course, we have already built the community and also built human resource for the nation. So we don’t mind that so much when it happens. So one of the wins on our POPs, you can see like this solar panels within our POPs. And these solar panels are the ones which are powering the masks. But now at the village level, we have access points. that we have mounted on top of a residence, a residence house, and we are not able to power all these devices with solar. These are, we have around 250 devices, so that they can be able to supply Wi-Fi across the village. And these are the devices that we have problem with power because they get burnt out all. So probably the solutions that we have seen discussed here, probably some of them we can try to adapt and apply within our network. Some of the quick wins we have had with this project is support from APC and World Association for Christian Communicators. They have been able to provide a small funding to pay community people who are managing the network for us and maybe even support part of a backhaul and this small administrative cost. And of course, one of the other quick wins is collaboration with government and ministry and communications authority. So our regulator in Kenya is very engaging and very available. So it’s actually possible to have the regulator be part of your team. Actually, most of our equipment that we have not yet deployed the regulator is the one who is storing the equipments for us. And we hope that this program can be able to support the government agenda for providing 25,000 hotspots across the country. We have seen people, we know that free citywide or slam internet is actually possible. Even here in Kyoto, you go on the streets, there is free Wi-Fi with collaboration with the local municipality. And even if you go to New York, there is free internet provided by New York City, New York City Wi-Fi. So these models actually work and they can also. We have a network for informal settlement, who we can actually help to give Internet. We are targeting to have 20,000 unique monthly users by mid-2024 with this network. Thank you so much.

Nils Brock:
. Thank you very much. We see that solar energy is very important for the development of community networks, and I think we can also see the link which is between the policy work that James mentioned before and how it can create conditions to make those networks grow. And now let’s go back to India to hear a bit more about the work of community networks there and also community media, especially community radios, and someone who can tell us more about it .

Sarbani Banerjee Belur:
Thank you, everyone. I’ll just present my slides. Yeah, hope you all can see my slides. Yes, we can. Okay. Yeah, so I’m going to speak about the varied users of community media by women in community networks. So I’m a member of the community media association for progress of communication. I’m a fellow of ICR, that is institute for social entrepreneurship in Asia, and I am also the Asia regional coordinator of the LockNet project at the association for progress of communication. So all of you all must be knowing about what is community networks or the community-centered connectivity where in regions where there is no connectivity there is now, there are lots of coordination happening and so I’m going to share a guess a little bit about what is community networks and what we are in. Yeah, thank you, Kim. Yes, so community networks are seated by the community, for the community. And in these networks, women’s role play, it plays an important role. Women play an important role. Women play an important role in setting up these networks. One of the things that is very important to understand is that in these networks, women actually play a role of decision-making, of setting up the network. Like for example, they will think whether it has to be, they contribute to the decision process of making the network an online network or an offline network, based on various other criteria, which I’ll tell you a little bit later. And I think women’s role also is that they contribute to a better and equitable network because women try to put up the access points in locations where women usually visit, like the schools or the well, where they draw water, unlike the others. So it’s more equitable network. And it is an understanding of women’s capability to use the network. So here they use quite a lot of frugal technologies that are technologies that are like just a smartphone without any connectivity, but with using the audio recording session, audio recording feature of the smartphone. And it is towards developing enterprises and social entrepreneurs. So in India, we do have quite a lot of community radio in Asia. And I’ll tell you examples. That’s Servalots, Dinesh is there in the room. Servalots is one of the organizations and APC member who has set up a community radio, an offline community radio for the community. And they have actually set an example, and we have followed it for various other community networks. and this is an offline radio that is that is set up in the community for sharing information within the community. Then Asorkom in Myanmar that used to be there but has been as no more there had a Haisha FM that is a community radio that was set up specifically for the community and related to all it related to all the information that the community had and and it is closed down now because of the political coup there. Then the Pathardi community network is also has used community radio and it collects information on biodiversity and it is also an offline network offline radio. So what happens is that in these in these in these networks that by community radio is used is that it brings the community together and it if you look at the illustration on the left hand side it actually suggests that it brings the community together this type of media it brings the community together and the user is always a usage of Google technologies that are used like just a recording a mic that is used or or a mobile phone with the audio recording facility. So it is a very very very simple type of technology that is used and it also brings a platform for the people in the community to discuss various issues which is not there in which internet can you can just plug on to the internet and you can be connected to the outside world but the knowledge that is there within the community it really requires some of the knowledge can be recirculated within the community sometimes the community doesn’t know it and this indigenous knowledge sharing is is sort of used quite a lot through the use of the community radio and we have examples of indigenous knowledge like art and craft forms which the community doesn’t want to go into the internet and it should remain within the community and get enhanced by the contribution from the people in the community and this happens within the community radio space, the platform that it provides. So I just give you an example of a network offline network diagram, a mesh network diagram which is here and you can see that how the radio is used, how the information, various types of information is collected by the community in an offline setting and it attributes the community knowledge. What happens to the women is that women have find self-expressions for community radio, otherwise they don’t have, their voices are never heard in the online medium and it sort of gets diluted but in the community radio space women find self-expression, they can speak, they can speak for themselves and of course the community support is also there, the local community linking up the local community to the outside world and as you can see preserving indigenous knowledge in one of the networks that we are going to set up very soon now. We are going to use a combination of Nimble and Colmena for setting up a network for preserving languages in a tribe in a remote part of India where the language is totally getting eroded, it’s not there anymore, they don’t have a repository also of its own so we are setting it up over there and the community contribution to the knowledge repository is only is going to be only through this community radio, which is, again, going to be an offline network that we are going to set up. And what happens is that, through this type of community media, what happens is that women who are perceived to be not having digital literacy or not having devices, so they can adapt themselves to technologies that are very frugal and simple to use. That’s all. Thank you.

Nils Brock:
Thank you, Shobani. And now to our next speaker. I already wrote in the chat if you have questions. We will get your questions answered on quickly. It has been many presentations, but yeah, I think very interesting insights and two more coming. So now we will have Eric Huerta from Redis Mexico and also from Rizomatica. And he will tell us a bit about the work, interesting work doing in Mexico.

Erick Huerta:
Hello. Hello, well, thanks a lot for all the experiences that have been presented. It’s such inspiring and interesting. Well, it’s good to hear that we share sometimes common problems when we talk about electricity, when we talk about access. And well, I love all the presentations, but especially I like the one from the Quebecer woman because it reminds us a lot of the context that we also work with indigenous communities. Well, I’m going to tell you the story, our own story about what is happening now. 12 years ago, more or less. So, 10 years ago, we started a mobile network, a community mobile network with indigenous communities. So, that moment was a hit, because it was the first time a community, indigenous community got access to Spectrum for mobile services. And then, well, we started 2G services in indigenous communities from Mexico and the area of Oaxaca. But well, it has been 10 years since that, and well, things have changed a lot, and also technology has changed a lot, and we have new challenges and also new opportunities with this. So, especially after the pandemic, we have seen an increase of the expansion of big operators in Mexico. So, in some of the communities that we used to provide, well, the communities used to provide service for themselves, some big operators started coming in, too. And that, well, it’s difficult to compete with them, because these local networks have a specific type of numbering, so they don’t use the same numbering like the other communities, and some people switch them, because they’re not a national network. So, one of the things for us was to see, how shall we do? Are we going to continue with this project, or we don’t? So, the first thing that we did was to, as every year, all the communities met together and we explained the situation, how it was going, and they decided to continue. They say, we’re going. to continue with the networks, but each time we have to move the local networks to the smallest communities. So that affects the sustainability of the network, because the big communities sustain the small communities. But if all of them are small, well, that’s a problem. And the other option was also to create a mobile virtual operator, so that the communities don’t lose what they already have, a share within the calls that were done in the community. So we create this mobile virtual operator, and we continue with building infrastructure within the small communities. But this thing of the mobile virtual operator also brings us new opportunities as well. When we started these networks, we were so excited because we think that we could do a lot of side projects regarding to content creation or local economy development and that. But the real thing was that most of the time and energy was kept in sustaining the networks, in attending the services and ensuring that the network was more reliable and so on. So we have less time to work on these side projects. So the mobile virtual operator brings us these opportunities. And also, this mobile virtual operator is not just about providing service, but also to support content creation for the communities and also local product exchange. I would just quickly tell about two of these. experiences that are there. One is from a community, and this community says, well, we have our mobile non-virtual operator now, we provide service to the community, but we would like to have a local information centre for our community. And that’s why I was, I refer to these local networks and the ones like the Quebec has, because, for instance, this community has run a long history fighting against the mining in their communities, no? So they want to share these experiences, this experience to the new generation so that they continue to remain strong against the invasion of the lands and so on. And so we are working with them, creating this, well, we started this project creating this facility so that they can have their local maps, their local information centre to provide this in a local network. So this has been an important change, no? It’s not just about now that we don’t have to sustain the infrastructure, we can engage in different projects that can develop local content using the resources that come from the virtual operator. And the other is the strength in local economies, no? So the model that we use within the mobile virtual operator is kind of a service, it’s kind of a local savings group, no? Like a local savings group. So this is the, this other story is… a local university, a community university, and it’s mainly a peace and university. So they have a special area for communications. They are about six to seven students, they’re small students, and they decided to create this group to become a mobile reseller, from the mobile operator. So it was interesting because they have saved some money for some production that they did, and then from there, they restarted their MVNO. And with that money, well, it was very successful because at that place, it was the only operator, is that, we don’t, okay. Well, it was very successful because it was the only operator there, so a lot of money get started into the income, and now they are become a self, and they have, they are now founding themselves to support the acquisition of their computers, or their own mobiles, and so on. So, I mean, that’s what I wanted to share, this change from the local network to a virtual operator that moves into some different areas of the self-sustainability of the community, so that was all, thank you.

Nils Brock:
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Eric, and sorry, we had to watch the time a bit because we have still one speaker, Whisper Rose, waiting online, and Whisper is from CBO from Kenya called Tandanet, some of them might know you, and she will tell you. quickly about a project that we heard mentioned already a couple of times, Colmena, where several organizations that presented here today are involved. It’s like a common effort for an open-source software and yes, RISPR will tell us more about it. And thank you for patience, RISPR, the floor is yours now.

Risper Arose:
Thank you. Thank you so much, Niels. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, everyone. I’m glad to be part of this conversation and just to commend the great presentation that I’ve heard from the different speakers. A lot I could resonate because we also have a community network and also we’ve worked with Colmena, so a lot of synergy also from the conversation from the different speakers that I’ve presented. So I’ll just share my screen. I hope you can see my screen. It’s still loading, yes, now we can see it. Yes, so briefly I’ll talk about our work, what we do in Kenya, and mostly it’s just an addition to what the previous speaker, Kivuva Mwendwa, has spoken about, painting a picture on the landscape of community networks in Kenya. And now I will talk about a community network based in the informal settlements of Nairobi, that is Kibera called Tandanet, where I work. Yeah, so Tandanet is a… is a community network that is dedicated to creating a digital ecosystem that combat digital inequalities within marginalized grassroots communities. And we also do this through a multi-faceted approach where we provide affordable internet access, enhance digital literacy, develop digital platforms, and also collaboratively create locally relevant content with the community. From the picture that you can see, that’s how the landscape is. Something very similar to also what was shared with the previous speaker. The Kibera has 13 villages, and the exact number of residents is not determined, but ranges between 170,000 to 1 million people. And with the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a lot that was highlighted, especially around the ongoing problem where the many low income communities lack reliable or affordable access to connectivity. And hence they were being left further behind since most of the services were moving online. And the most internet providers that offer affordable data packages in the community, the problem is just that it’s not very reliable or very feasible. And also the quality of the mobile internet can be poor sometimes because of poor infrastructure. Yeah. So what you can see also is a mast. The mast is located actually in our offices, and our offices is at one of the communities. schools, that is where we are located. So our programs, our work revolve in two folds. So as I mentioned, we have the beat around access, providing affordable access. And here we currently, we have connected 60 centers in nine villages out of the 13 villages in Kibera and our goal is in the near future to reach, to connect the 13 villages in Kibera. And also we provide internet connectivity to community schools, CBOs, NGOs, community hospitals, community business, youth and women groups. So initially it was more around organized groups that we were engaging with. But starting this year, we have started connecting homes and individuals. Our path to sustainability, we have paying clients where the first is we offer public hotspot internet access for communities for as low as $0.5 a day. Also we provide fixed internet services to the community centers that I had mentioned at the rate of $15 a month. And with this, they get unlimited internet speed of up to 40 Mbps per month. And out of the 60 connected centers, 41 are making regular payments and the rest are not. But the beauty about community networks is the co-creation process. So figuring out with the community who cannot be able to pay for the internet, what avenues would make sense for them so that they keep connected. connecting regardless of that state. So really looking at also the idea around anchor clients who can pay for the internet in terms of the standard rate, then that can support our clients or the community who are not able to make regular payments. Also, we offer network trainings to the communities and these things are designed to educate the centers with basic skills around networking concepts, networking management, troubleshooting and security practices. So that in case the internet is down and there is a troubleshoot that needs to happen at the center level, then the community that you connected are able to do that. Yes, so beyond Kibera, our work also look at, sorry, beyond Kibera, our work also look at, sorry, just give me a minute. Our work also look at mentorship, training and mentorship program where we have trained over 200 individuals from 11 community networks in Kenya. Those are organizations that either emerging community networks or already established community networks on what it takes to design, deploy, operate and sustain a community network. And this is a project also that was supported by APC called Supporting Community-Led Approaches under the LockNet Initiative. And then after, so beyond the access, beyond the internet access, we also do a lot of activities around capacity building the community. So, we engage the community through human-centered design to focus on what their needs assessment is, and then through that, design trainings that will then support them in meaningful access of this technology. We also look at diversity, so looking at, from these centers that we have connected, how women are relating to the technology, and how men are relating to the technology, and if there’s any extra efforts that needs to be made for a certain group to be able to meaningfully access the technology, then we create and we co-create with them some of these capacity-building efforts. Also with this, just promoting ownership and control by the community, and this we do through local content creations and platforms, where we encourage the community to not just be creators of digital content, but also to be, not just to be consumers, but also to be creators of this content. So, we do, after the trainings, we think through what sort of podcast we can create so that it can be accessed by the general community beyond the connected centers that we engage in this training. We’ve also created comic strips, videos, just to showcase some of the work and amplify the voices of these community centers that we are connecting, and also the role of internet in amplifying their work. Also, we have created knowledge management platforms, which comprises e-learning platforms and also school management platforms. And in 2021, we introduced Colmena to the community network as a tool for local content. creating and sharing. So here I’ll just talk briefly about Colmena. So after connectivity, community members need locally relevant content. And that is where Colmena come in, where we have worked in three phases. In the first phase was when we first interacted with the platform. And we did user experience and user interface testing with the community medias, just to understand what are some of the gaps that they are facing as community media, and how is Colmena a tool that can be able to address those gaps. And from that, the platform was, we got really good feedback that went ahead to contextualize the platform. And also done workshops on creating awareness of Colmena, where we’ve invited the community medias and even community networks that we’ve worked with in Kenya to just understand what Colmena is and see how it plugs best to their work. And currently we are on the third phase, and we are looking into localizing and contextualizing the tool by creating an instance of the tool that will be locally hosted in Tandanet that is based in Kenya. So looking at that, seeing how the tool can then be, can serve with its feature that is online or offline, and be able to really contextualize on top of this engagement that will be ongoing at the community level. So those are what we are doing with. platform, Colmena, and of course, just benefiting from the cost efficient and affordable solutions that it has to the grassroots community. Also, the fact that it addresses the need for more urgency on the community level to ensure uninterrupted, safe and secure access for the information, and also improve the local collective ownership at the last mile level. And lastly, just to build or contribute to the resilient, decentralized infrastructure through the ownership of the community. So, I don’t know how I’m doing with time. I don’t think I’ll have time to go through my last slide. Niels? Yes, very quickly. We have five minutes left on the session, and then we have to wrap up. Yes. Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Just key areas that from our reflections, we thought that needs a lot of attention is number one, co-creation, especially with the community needs time, especially when you’re introducing platforms, when you’re introducing local content, when you’re introducing decolonization of this content, it needs time and it needs patience with the community. Also, there’s need to join forces with like-minded individuals and organizations and aligning capabilities and sharing resources in order to promote digital inclusion. And lastly, we need to actively participate in evaluating some of this digital inclusion efforts, considering the gender, different race, and control at the grassroots level, and also to participate in such spaces to strengthen the resilient digital infrastructure and community. participation. So thank you so much even to our supporters and yeah looking forward to you.

Nils Brock:
Thank you Risper and yes it was a big lineup of speakers so we did took almost all the two hours but interesting insights and I think this room there won’t be much time now for for questions. I don’t know if there’s anyone who who has one oh okay over there and then I would say also let’s take the time later at the gala or at the booth in the in the village to continue our

Audience:
dialogues. Yes thank you so it was really interesting but I have one question I don’t know who wants to answer it. So we have more layers than the network layer, the technical layer, we have also the regulation layer, we have the content layer, the administration and and the whole conference is talking about disinformation and how do you distinguish between these layers and how do you make sure that that your networks that you are building not in the end being misused when the number of users and active users are growing. So what what measures do you have in place for that? I mean I’ll add one more layer which is who are left out when we say participating you know the community is participating but who are left out. So I’m coming from the point of like low literacy and how do they engage and how do they become part of the content creation process or content engagement you know. Okay this was a question to Mwendua and probably RISPA. We are talking about network in the informal settlements and how do you make sure that the network is not in the informal settlements? And, I wanted to know the level of the quality of the Internet provided by these communities, but also in terms of connectivity, I wanted to understand, like, once an installation has been done to a house or a unit, what is the consistency in terms of paying the subscription done by the specific houses, so that we get to understand, is it affordable to them? What is your feeling about them paying, or what is your feeling about the consistency of using the Internet provided to this household? And that will also inform, when you’re talking about accessible and affordable and available Internet, what does that mean, looking at the context of the communities we are targeting. And the question on the quality of the Internet, we’ve had experience where Internet quality works in the middle of the night. What is the experience with that? Thank you.

Nils Brock:
Okay. Any takers for the questions? We can maybe start over there, and then everyone has a quick final say.

Erick Huerta:
Just, maybe I could talk a bit about the layers of the… The more sophisticated is the network, the more layers it has to attend, you know? And I think that we have to think about the small economies, or the economies for subsistence economies, how they work, and they subsist because they work collectively. You won’t make it if you think just in oneself, or in just one person. So the first thing that we did when we started was to look around who were working on these different areas and then discover who was better for doing what or was better for doing things. And I think that’s the case of Loch Ness. That’s how Loch Ness was born. After meeting together and thinking about all these different layers and how we attend, there were there were people that were more experienced in regulation, were more experienced in technology and that. And so with that we have been organizing as a network to help us and prevent and subsist within these small different networks. Because trying to attend everything one network would be impossible.

Kemly Camacho:
And Danish, the Kavekar culture is not a written culture at all. They don’t have written, only in the university they have tried to write, to create a written for the Kavekar culture, but their culture is not written at all. Then what we use, the platform, Okama Sway, the platform that we use is only audio and image. Okay, we don’t use writing at all because it’s not part of the culture. And also, we use a lot of drawing. Drawing is something very crucial for this interaction, especially because I don’t speak Kavekar and they don’t speak Spanish. Yes, and we have the interpreter, which is the younger women, yes, that speak both, but we communicate a lot using drawing. Then those are the strategies that we have used, but we use a lot of recording, video, images, drawing, photos, yes. And with that we have created the platform. of wisdom of the women, the Quebecois women.

Nils Brock:
Thank you. I’m really sorry, but I was just informed that we run out of time, so the last question, we will have to take it outside, if we can do. Would you help to answer it later, James and Kivuva? Okay, thank you. And for all of those who are still around and who want to know more about Colmena, about the content creation software that we saw, we will test it here during the events. Anyone who wants to have an account and also to help for participatory coverage, you will find me at the APC booth, and then, yeah, let’s talk about it and create some content together. And thank you all, all who were there online, on-site, who contributed to this session. I think it was a really nice insight into all the interesting work done. And yeah, let’s take advantage of the next four days here to inform more about the work done by and for communities, networks, and media, and engage in the discussions and make this our IGF. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Have a great day and go, North Carolina. Go, North Carolina. I don’t know what to call you. I don’t mind saying it. I’ll go, Chicago. I don’t mind saying it. I’ll go, Chicago. All right. All right.

Speaker 1

Ida, a Ghanaian activist, is passionately investing her efforts towards an initiative that concentrates on online safety for children. She is deeply vested in the endeavour to enhance digital literacy amongst children in Ghana through the execution of innovative workshops and engaging webinars. Her commitment to this sphere of child protection is commendable, supporting the 4th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of Quality Education and the 9th SDG of Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure.

She utilised this platform to convey her openness for collaboration and has made significant progress in this direction. Notably, she has established valuable connections with like-minded individuals including Marisha, Turi, and Umut during discussions. These developments advance the 17th SDG of Partnerships for the Goals, underlining the significance of global teamwork to achieve shared objectives.

Ida’s advocacy for the ‘Global Encryption Day’ is a testament to her belief in the role of encryption in heightening online safety for children. This vital conversation concerning digital security was initiated by Marisha, resonating with Ida as it aligns with her initiative’s goals and the 9th SDG of Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.

Furthermore, she champions the efficacious use of available resources, a strategy she intends to embed within her project execution. Her association with Umut has provided her with access to strategic resources indispensable for her projects, further aligning with the 4th SDG of Quality Education.

The significance of online safety and digital etiquette, particularly for youth, underpins Ida’s initiative. In the current digital age, navigating the virtual world poses both tremendous challenges and excitement. Hence, her project is designed to equip young minds with the crucial skills required to responsibly traverse this digital landscape. This commitment bolsters the correlation with SDG 4 for Quality Education and SDG 16 for Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.

In addition, Ida endorses the creation of additional resources such as webinars, workshops, and educational materials to enhance youth awareness about online safety and etiquette. This fortifies her commitment to the aims of SDG 4 for Quality Education and SDG 11 for Sustainable Cities and Communities. The objective is to enrich young people with necessary knowledge while ensuring their online experiences remain enjoyable, secure and respectful. Notably, the project plans to harness the potential of burgeoning technologies, such as virtual reality, to optimise the delivery and engagement of its educational resources. In summary, Ida’s initiative is a progressive compilation of ideas aimed to improve digital safety and literacy for children and young body in Ghana.

Speaker 5

The conversation is predominantly concerned with the worldwide issue of internet fragmentation and shutdowns, emphasising the pivotal role that governments and parliamentarians can play in addressing these challenges. It is posited that parliamentarians, by virtue of their power within governmental structures, are well-placed to raise awareness and effectively implement best practices. This could put due pressure on regulatory bodies to tackle the issues arising from internet shutdowns.

Internet shutdowns invite a wide spectrum of adverse consequences spanning economic, health, and societal aspects. To bring governments’ attention to these negative impacts, the strategic use of case studies and toolkits is profoundly endorsed by participants. These tools can clearly illustrate the potential losses and hardships resulting from these shutdowns, prompting governments to adopt preventative measures rather than resorting to reactionary practices.

The discourse rallies for extensive research into alternative solutions that can curb internet shutdowns. This call for action underlines presenting feasible solutions to the government, aiming to prevent such shutdowns and drive notable societal advancements.

Conspicuously, the discourse identifies political issues, particularly during electoral periods, as substantial triggers for government-led internet shutdowns. Consequently, a thorough assessment of the economic and societal repercussions of these shutdowns is stressed. These findings could act as a catalyst for a governmental re-evaluation of their internet policies.

The summary encapsulates a blend of sentiments, balancing an understanding of the government’s reasons for shutdowns, whilst voicing significant apprehension concerning the knock-on effects of these measures. Notably, there’s a consensus on the need to address the clear disadvantages of internet shutdowns, fostering discussions on forging partnerships for more foolproof and robust internet services. Overall, the summary echoes a pressing call for innovative solutions and strong institutions to mitigate the challenges of internet fragmentation and shutdowns.

Daniel Turra

The corpus of discussions underscore the pivotal role that open source software plays in promoting digital sovereignty and driving innovation, aligning perfectly with SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure. The consensus sentiment is universally positive regarding the potential contributions of state actors, the Fediverse – a network of interoperable and independently run social media servers – and alternative social media platforms, provided they adopt open source software.

There’s wide agreement that state actors can play an influential role in bolstering the development of open source software. This speeds up the emergence of a digitally sovereign ecosystem where control over the internet is disseminated amongst individuals, enhancing their digital autonomy.

Analyses underline the benefits attained from adopting open source software in the context of the Fediverse and alternative social media platforms. Open source communities are recognised for their key contributions to digital sovereignty through their inventions and commitments. This innovative software provides an alternative to mainstream social media platforms that can be managed by proficient individuals or organisations for the public benefit.

Significant emphasis is given to the Fediverse, seen as an exemplar of the major impact open source software can have on social media. The Fediverse is proof of digitally sovereign social media platforms with its interoperable and independently-run servers.

Additionally, open source software is acclaimed for its capacity-building opportunities. By enabling self-hosting and internet experimentation, it not only reinforces digital sovereignty, but also fosters an environment conducive to understanding the inner workings of the internet.

Lastly, based on the discourse, the closing standpoint seems to be that open source software is indispensable in the current internet ecosystem. Its ability to enable digital sovereignty and power the Fediverse confirms its significance and potential to incite wider-scale innovation. This analysis portends a move towards a more inclusive, user-controlled digital space facilitated by open source software.

Yug Desai

The discussions stressed the quintessential importance of human-centred design in developing and enhancing industry, innovation, and infrastructure (Goal 9). It was unanimously agreed that end-users should not only be prioritised in the creation of regulation standards, but they should also be given increased access and understanding of these.

In answer to the commonly expressed need for comprehension, it was argued that standards documents ought to simplify their technical jargon. This takes aim at facilitating a more robust understanding for the end-users and fostering a higher level of familiarity and awareness of such regulations. The potential implementation of key messages, akin to those in legal regulations, was specifically broached in this context.

To augment understanding of standardisation further, suggestions were made for the use of awareness campaigns; predominantly focusing on easily digestible, visually appealing infographics and informative webinars. The objective of these handy tools is to empower average end users to engage more deeply with standardisation processes.

The conversation also delved into the practicalities of standard implementation, underlining the direct and significant impact of this on the end-user, particularly in the context of the application layer. Highlighting the practical impact of this notion, it was proposed that standardisation at this juncture should be a notable focus of attention.

Casting a light on the open-source community, a positive sentiment reverberated throughout the discussions. The community’s active involvement – which extends from developing to maintaining and propagating open standards – was extolled for its pivotal role in making end users understand and feel more familiar with these standards.

The ethical implications of standards creation in the rapidly developing sectors of artificial intelligence and the metaverse were also acknowledged. These considerations were presented as crucially important in adding another layer to the key aspects of industry, innovation, and infrastructure.

The wide-reaching effects of standardisation were a pronounced theme, with distinct emphasis on its implications for Internet Governance. Standardisation’s ability to significantly impact various aspects of life was discussed, with the assertion that it is a technical form of governance capable of shaping the way the internet is utilised, affecting society, economy, system interoperability, human rights, and internet access.

In conclusion, education was raised as a crucial instrument for helping end-users comprehend the importance of regulation standards and their direct impacts on daily life. By improving the general understanding of standardisation processes, it is anticipated that users will be better equipped to navigate both traditional and frontier avenues such as the metaverse.

Speaker 4

The analysis provides insightful solutions to the longstanding issue of underrepresentation of women in the field of coding, particularly within underserved communities. Two major solutions have been advanced, both eliciting positive sentiment and aligning with several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The first proposition centres upon the creation of a coding programme, specifically designed for girls aged between eight and fifteen. This initiative, led by an African woman, addresses principles encapsulated in both SDG 5: Gender Equality and SDG 4: Quality Education. The programme not only imparts coding skills to these girls but also provides opportunities for them to deploy their skills and code for governmental departments. This prospect could pave the way for these young women to revolutionise the digital sector whilst benefiting their communities through governmental endeavours.

The second suggested remedy, advocating public policies and laws in support of coding programmes for women, hinges on the crux of legislative education on technological literacy for women. The need for such measures was underscored in the context of Colombia, indicating the necessity to overcome hurdles women encounter in achieving technological literacy. Furthermore, the significance of promoting projects that mitigate these challenges was publicly commended. This advocacy for legislative alterations, at both public and private levels, mirrors aspirations for a more inclusive digital community, embodying principles related to SDGs 5: Gender Equality and SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities.

A neutral sentiment has been expressed towards the integration of human rights and human development perspectives in an attempt to bridge the pervasive digital divide. However, the analysis does not furnish supporting facts or arguments for this. Nonetheless, this approach aligns with SDGs 10: Reduced Inequalities and SDG 5: Gender Equality, signalling an underlying importance in addressing the digital divide and underrepresentation of women in coding concurrently.

In conclusion, the analysis underscores the necessity of implementing solutions that not merely propel the inclusion of women in coding, but align with global objectives such as the SDGs. By appreciating the pivotal role women can play in the tech world, these proposed initiatives could help reshape the digital landscape into a more gender-equal and inclusive sector.

Nicolas Fiumarelli

The comprehensive analysis consistently underlines the paramount role played by youths in surmounting internet governance challenges and sculpting its future. They are lauded for their aptitude to generate innovative strategies and provide unique viewpoints, thus offering promise for the identification of pragmatic solutions to current internet governance issues, including the impending problem of internet fragmentation.

A particularly noteworthy dialogue was carried out with Atanasia and Mark, illuminating the ongoing predicament — facilitating youth participation in nations where governments seem reluctant about such involvement. It was also ascertained that understanding the ideas of, and working in concert with the younger generation, especially in regions displaying restrained youth involvement, is vitally essential for the youth engagement process and within the broader framework of conflict resolution.

Discussions led by young individuals have been recognised as a fundamental aspect of this engagement process. These conversations cultivate fresh and resourceful ideas, making them vital in strategising the future course of the internet and paving the path towards resolution of affiliated issues.

Reiterating his support for the cause, a former youth ambassador underscored the transformative role that young people can play in internet governance. He attested that the youth present distinct perspectives and inventive ideas to the table in the dialogue on internet governance. Importantly, he highlighted the various initiatives of the Internet Society that empower young individuals and enable their active involvement in internet governance. He further exemplified this aim by mentioning his own involvement with youth-led bodies such as the Youth Coalition and the Youth Standing Group.

In addition, the importance of cultivating relationships and fostering networks amongst current and former youth ambassadors and other respective participants was endorsed. These efforts, undertaken as part of the Collaborative Leadership Exchange, promote the exchange of constructive ideas on pivotal internet governance challenges.

In conclusion, the broader consensus advocates the vital need to utilise platforms that empower youthful participants in this dialogue, furthering the SDG 17 goal of forming effective partnerships. The delineated discussions above align notably with SDGs 4, 5, 9 and 16 — advocating for the attainment of quality education, fostering gender equality, endorsing innovation and infrastructure, and the establishment of peaceful, just and solid institutions, respectively. Through the collective analysis, the encompassing role of youths in internet governance shines through as indisputably positive, thereby justifying their inclusion and active engagement.

Carolyne Tyrus

Carolyne Tyrus, a renowned lawyer and advocate of the high court, is making substantial strides in the realms of youth empowerment, cybersecurity, data privacy, and digital rights. She centres on providing young individuals with a simplified understanding of complex legal concepts pertaining to the cyber world, hoping to bridge the comprehension gap in the youth’s everyday digital experiences. This initiative has sprung from her understanding of the urgent requirement to keep young people abreast with digital rights in the rapidly progressing online world.

Harmonising with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically ‘SDG 4: Quality Education’ and ‘SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions’, Tyrus is also making immense contributions to these objectives. An advocate for quality education, she devises and implements forward-thinking methods to make these complicated concepts more accessible to the youth. Her dedication to justice and peace is demonstrated in her unwavering commitment to granting young people a meticulous comprehension of justice principles within the digital sphere.

Tyrus employs innovative teaching methodologies to accomplish her objectives. She conducts diverse workshops, generates video content, and uses other strategies to elucidate these sophisticated concepts in an uncomplicated, engaging, and user-friendly manner. Her efforts resonate with positivity, marking her success in fostering understanding and awareness.

Additionally, Tyrus values collaboration and knowledge sharing, continuously seeking insights to augment her initiative. Distinct evidence of this is her interaction with Umut Pajero, Thio Dor, and a commendable alumnus of the Internet Society Youth Ambassador, during a breakout session. This constructive discourse provided her with invaluable perspectives, enhancing her work further. This strategic alliance also signifies her adherence to ‘SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals’, as she aligns with the United Nations’ blueprint for a sustainable future.

To conclude, Carolyne Tyrus’ movement serves as a beacon of transformation in the digital rights landscape. By empowering young individuals with a comprehensive understanding of cybersecurity and data privacy, she is bolstering their digital literacy skills, shaping a more enlightened and secure digital world. Her interactions with fellow internet advocates continue to furnish useful insights, which she integrates into her work, demonstrating the potent impact of partnerships in attaining shared objectives.

Paola Corporan

Paola is currently making significant contributions as the head of Public Innovation within the Dominican Government – a role she uses to develop and reinforce public policies. Her laudable efforts to incorporate a collaborative perspective in strategy formation and execution are remarkable. This approach primarily emphasises industry, innovation, and infrastructure, aligning closely with the targets of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9. The fostering of this collaborative culture within public policies conveys a positive sentiment, given its potential to trigger extensive growth and sustainable development within various industries.

Additionally, Paola is actively promoting educational reforms, focusing particularly on encouraging coding education among girls. This initiative holds significant relevance to two key Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 4, advocating for quality education, and SDG 5, emphasizing gender equality. Paola’s project involves engaging girls in coding, recognising the importance of this skill in today’s technological world. The case study central to her project depicts girls gaining skills in coding, further enhancing their technological knowledge and capabilities.

These advancements in educational strategies not only promote gender equality but also equip the upcoming generation with vital skills required in an increasingly digital world. The public sentiment towards these transformative efforts led by Paola is overwhelmingly positive, indicating broad support for her innovative approach to public policies and her role in educational reform. Both these initiatives reflect strategic foresight; their successful implementation may have profound implications for the Dominican Government’s progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Speaker 3

The composite analysis perceptibly underlines a daunting issue christened the ‘gender digital divide’. This divide denotes a glaring disparity in digital access amidst men and women, an issue catalysed by fluctuations in socioeconomic standing and digital proficiency. The scarcity of opportunities, in tandem with affordability constraints, also exacerbates this predicament. These challenges marry with a few pivotal Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as gender equality, quality education, and reduced inequalities, generating an inherently negative sentiment.

In combatting these difficulties, several strategies come to the fore. Primarily, the promotion of digital literacy for women, realised either via training or educational programmes. Promoting literacy in this manner is a necessary step towards fostering digital inclusion, serving as a potent mechanism aiding gender equality. Correspondingly, this meshes well with SDGs focusing on gender equality and quality education, producing a positive sentiment.

Additionally, the delivery of affordable internet services and digital devices plays a pivotal role in abolishing the gender digital divide. Lowered costs in accessing digital technology can empower a larger number of women to reap the rewards of online resources, thereby helping to achieve SDG goals centred on gender equality, poverty alleviation, and diminished inequalities. Likewise, crafting feasible job opportunities for women can escalate their socioeconomic standing, thereby enabling them to afford vital digital resources and services. This concept draws forth a positive sentiment and supports SDGs championing gender equality and economic growth.

The United Nations (UN) lends further impetus to new internet governance initiatives. These involve setting digital guidelines for online government languages, a notable leap towards a more inclusive, safe, and trustworthy digital experience. This manoeuvre promotes the SDG focusing on the advancement of industry, innovation, infrastructure, eliciting a positive sentiment.

Promoting internet governance for a meaningful, inclusive, trustworthy, and safe online experience is another principal point of discussion. This approach embraces raising awareness of internet governance policies, particularly amongst young individuals via the ‘Next Generation Forum’ (NGF). This method assists the youth of NYAMA in shaping the online realm and actively participating in internet governance. Empowering the future generation in such a manner exudes a positive sentiment and aligns with innovation and industry-focused SDGs.

Lastly, nurturing an open, transparent, inclusive, and multi-stakeholder collaboration is integral. Collaboration based on these co-values can breed a robust, inclusive internet community, aligning with the SDG dedicated to advocating peace, justice, and strong organisations.

In summary, the presented analysis underscores crucial aspects for rectifying the gender digital divide, and aims to construct a more inclusive, secure, and globally connected world in line with the fundamental SDGs.

Edgar Brutyan

Edgar embarked on an enlightening discussion regarding the potent role of generative AI in disseminating disinformation, specifically considering the socio-political challenges faced by Georgia. He noted disinformation as a chief contributor to the divisive issue of separatism within Georgia, predominantly induced by the ongoing hybrid warfare with Russia. Moreover, Edgar emphasised the necessity for both short-term and long-term countermeasures to this predicament.

In the short term, Edgar suggested lesser-known platforms, such as ‘X’, as potential solutions to combat disinformation. Despite not being as well-known as other resources, they were considered valuable immediate defence mechanisms against false information spread. Nonetheless, Edgar contended that to attain a comprehensive and lasting resolution, an urgent reform within the media system is incumbent.

Broadening the perspective, Edgar’s discourse revealed a profound need for media regulation implementation in Georgia. He identified troubling trends of authoritarian tendencies within Georgia’s contemporary governance. These tendencies could lead to unwarranted censorship, thereby curtailing press freedom. Thus, the introduction of stringent media controls could serve as a deterrent to this potential threat to journalistic independence.

Furthermore, Edgar championed the exchange of best practices between Georgia and Eastern European nations. An optimistic view was embraced, pinpointing the numerous similarities between these regions and the enhancement they could effect upon each other through mutual learning and cooperation.

Edgar’s arguments were contextually aligned with the broader Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDGs 16 and 17. The issues discussed resonate profoundly with these SDGs’ objectives, encapsulating the shared goal of fostering peace, justice, robust institutions, and global partnerships.

Through a comprehensive evaluation of Edgar’s discussion, essential insights were gleaned, chiefly concerning the issue of disinformation propagated via generative AI. Further exploration of immediate and long-term solutions, international cooperation promotion, and media regulation reform emerged as key observations. The negative connotations associated with Georgia’s governmental tendencies underscore the urgent need for focused attention and strategic intervention in the realm of media control and disinformation.

Speaker 2

Addressing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 9 and 16 – Industry, Innovation, Infrastructure, and Peace, Justice, Strong Institutions respectively, the topic of Internet accessibility and net neutrality provokes considerable global attention. Focusing on the situation in Colombia, net neutrality is notably influenced by the adoption of civil rating measures.

A significant proportion of the Colombian populace, approximately 60%, benefits from Internet accessibility. However, enhanced and universal accessibility is obstructed primarily due to issues of affordability. The steep cost associated with Internet access emerges as a significant barrier, detrimentally impacting the nation’s digital connectivity.

The concern associated with civil rating measures pertains to their impact on the nature of Internet accessibility. These measures have inadvertently ushered in a two-tier system of internet access. On one side, users can access specific content without being charged; on the other, full-scale accessibility exists but is linked to a cost.

Given these circumstances, there persists an urgent need for a comprehensive understanding of the interpretation and application of civil rating within the Colombian legal system, and the ensuing implications. Illuminating insights can be derived from a thorough examination of judicial contexts regarding civil rating measures. It is noteworthy that the Colombian Constitutional Court is presently engrossed in deliberations on this crucial issue.

In summary, while progressing towards actualising the SDGs, particularly in terms of comprehensive digital growth, Colombia faces substantial challenges. The debate surrounding net neutrality, exacerbated by the extensive implementation of civil rating measures, deeply affects the affordability and accessibility of the Internet and triggers relevant legal queries. The ongoing legal exploration of these measures by the Colombian Constitutional Court underpins the gravity of the issue and signifies a critical step towards its resolution.

Moderator

Discussions covered a broad range of topics relating to technology, underlining the vital role education, innovation, and equitable internet governance play in addressing digital inequalities. The dialogues frequently focused on the general theme of empowering young people and women in the digital sector, especially in terms of cybersecurity, digital gender equality, and internet governance.

One of the primary conversations centred around Carolyne Tyrus’s forthcoming initiative. Tyrus, a US-based advocate and lawyer, aims to equip the youth with knowledge and skills on cybersecurity and data privacy in her endeavour to lessen the gap between intricate legal concepts and habitual digital experiences. This proposal not only correlates with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of Quality Education and Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, but also resonated positively in discussions.

Digital gender equality was another significant subject, emphasised by the “Dabbed Empower Here” initiative by Nana Ama-Yabuado. This project targets rural women and girls, aiming to substitute barriers with bridges and offering them a platform to contribute to the digital revolution. It underscores the critical intersection of gender equality, quality education, and innovation in driving deserving societal change, reflecting the UN’s SDGs.

Internet fragmentation led to fervent debates. Athnes, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, shed light on the societal and economic implications of governmental internet shutdowns. As co-chair of a project examining internet fragmentation in Galley, Athnes is exploring alternative solutions to tackle these issues.

Furthermore, the importance of standardisation in internet governance elicited a keen interest. The panel reinforced how standards, acting as a technical form of governance, can impact society, the economy, and supply chains multifariously. They urged end-users to be more cognizant of how standards mould their everyday internet use and essentially be a medium to impart values and ethics into technology.

The topic of coding as a professional development tool for women was also broached. Paola, Head of Public Innovation of the Dominican Government, reinforced the significance of female involvement in coding, highlighting the need to recognise it as an empowerment tool.

Daniel Turra’s endorsement for open source software usage and solutions like Fediverse hinted at a way forward in offering accessible and appropriately-managed social media platforms as a part of the broader movement towards digital sovereignty.

Lastly, the integral role of young people in digital governance matters was emphasised. Through Jeremy of Myanmar’s representation, the novelty and innovation of the younger generation were deemed crucial for the future of internet governance. His association with the UN in raising awareness of internet governance policies among youngsters underscores the significance of fostering youth participation in this field.

To sum up, the discourse identified the requirement for digital policies and practices that are globally inclusive, accessible and respectful. The conversations offered diverse viewpoints on digital inequalities, digital sovereignty, internet governance, and the importance of education and gender equality in the digital era.

Nana Ama-Yabuado

The conversations held over the recent period highlighted the intrinsic power and potential of collective efforts in driving change. This change centres around the complex issue of the digital divide in rural Ghana and places particular emphasis on women’s empowerment and participation. These collective actions strongly align with Sustainable Development Goal 17, which underscores the significant role of partnerships in reaching global goals.

Nana Ama-Yabuado, a youth ambassador with the Internet Society and the influential co-founder of the Dabbed Empower Here initiative, is at the heart of this forward-thinking campaign. Nana’s project exemplifies the commitment to bridging the gap between digital disparity in rural Ghana. A noteworthy focus in this initiative is empowering women, aligning seamlessly with Sustainable Development Goals 4, 5, and 10 for quality education, gender equality, and reducing inequalities, respectively.

However, this initiative serves a purpose beyond merely imparting digital skills; it acts as a catalyst to nurture aspirations, foster independence, and fuel innovation amongst rural Ghanaian women. This comprehensive approach understands that empowering women involves fostering a sense of self-assuredness, creativity, and independence.

Imbued in Nana Ama-Yabuado’s vision is a profound belief in the transformative power of technology. Recognising the potential held by digital advancements, the initiative aims to provide each woman the opportunity to participate and shape the progression of the digital revolution, aligning with SDG 5 and emphasising the importance of gender equality.

Furthermore, Nana Ama-Yabuado’s commitment to digital gender equality compels her to encourage others to extend their assistance whenever feasible. This is fundamental for inclusive growth, as it calls for a collective effort from all sectors of society and seeks to create an ecosystem of change-makers influencing the digital revolution.

In conclusion, Nana Ama-Yabuado’s initiative embodies a comprehensive vision for a more equitable digital world. By drawing attention to the importance of fostering collective action and digital equality, she outlines a clear path for systemic change. By replacing barriers with bridges through digital empowerment, she aspires to create a brighter and more inclusive future. This insightful discussion demonstrates that focusing on inclusivity and helping others can make the world a better place, one digitally empowered woman at a time.

Moderator:
generation of internet leaders to collaborate and innovate for a better world. I’m happy to share that the applications for our 2024 cohort are also now open. Please do reach out to us if you have any questions about the program or the application process. Now I will invite the youth ambassadors to share the outcome of the discussion. And I will first request Tori to facilitate the outcome sharing by ambassadors who joined online. Over to you, Tori. Yes, thank you so much, Pranav. Really great conversations going on here online. So with that, I will bring it over to Nana, if you could share first your closing remarks, how the conversations went, share a little more about your topic and your initiative with us. Nana, can you hear us? All right, I think she might be having some technical difficulties. So I will bring it over to Caroline. Caroline, can you hear us? Hi, can you hear me? Yes, now we got both of you. Okay, Carolyne, you can take the stage.

Carolyne Tyrus:
Okay, good morning. Once again, this is Carolyne Tyrus from Kenya, a lawyer and advocate of the high court, currently based in the US. Like I said, my initiative is about empowering the youth with knowledge and skills on cybersecurity and data privacy. Since I have a legal background, my initiative is to empower individuals with comprehensive knowledge of digital rights and legal principles within the context of the online world. And the main purpose is to bridge the gap between the complex legal concepts and everyday digital experiences and fostering awareness and understanding. This is because the youth out here are afraid of reading the law and regulations because of the complex legal jargon. So my aim is to break it down to them and also give them the information in a plain, easy way through videos, conducting workshops, and all that. So I had a fruitful discussion during the breakout where I met Umut Pajero and also Thio Dor. Yeah, so I shared my initiative with them. They gave me insights on how I can also improve on my initiative. I spoke with one of the alumni of the Internet Society, Youth Ambassador, and she was really helpful in giving me the insights on how I can improve the initiative. So it was such an honor to speak with these people on my initiative, yeah. Thank you.

Moderator:
Thank you, Caroline. Over to Nana. If you can unmute now.

Nana Ama-Yabuado:
Hi, finally. Thank you, Tori. So basically, I just want to say that based on the conversations that have been had over the past two hours, it’s just like reinstated the fact that the power of change lies in our collective efforts because I came in here with a very clear picture of what I knew my initiative to be. But based on the conversations that I’ve had, I’ve actually had so much insights and a clearer perspective of it that I’m very grateful. So I just want to highlight that my project, although it focuses on bridging the digital divide in rural Ghana, specifically targeting women, it’s not just about, you know, teaching digital skills. It’s also about nurturing dreams, fostering independence, and just like flowing the flames of innovation. Because when you give women the tools, when you give women the opportunities, it’s not just going to just bridge the divide, but it’s also going to build bridges to a brighter future. So I just want all of us to have this at the back of our minds and, you know, extend a helping hand wherever we can in, you know, taking people along on this journey to make it a more inclusive and better world. Thank you very much. It’s been an insightful discussion.

Moderator:
Thank you. So many amazing quotes there. I love that. Thank you so much for sharing. Lastly, we have Ida. What would you like to share from your discussions today? Ida, if you’re talking, I see two of you. You’ve multiplied yourself, but you’re muted. I see one of you is unmuted. Hi. There you are. I had to get a backup plan. That’s why there’s two of you. All right. So, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 1:
Yeah, so like I mentioned earlier, I’m Ida from Ghana, and my initiative is on online safety for young people and for kids. And I’m really excited that I was here, and I got to connect with other alumni and other resource persons here. In my breakout room, I connected with bureaus, and Marisha, Turi, and Umut, and through CROC’s discussion, I realized that she was working on a similar project, but hers was for kids, and she was working on an encryption coloring book and was really inspiring. And I also got more information about the Ghana ISOP team since I’m in Ghana, and I’m looking at ways in which I can collaborate with them in terms of the resources that I need to ensure that I’m able to execute my workshops and webinars here in Ghana. I also spoke with Marisha, who told me about the Global Encryption Day, which I hope to engage with and also learn a thing or two to inculcate on my project. And I spoke to Umut, who was connecting me to resources that I can also use in executing my projects. So it’s been very insightful, I’ve learned a lot. And if you’re still here and you have some resources that would benefit my project, I’m open to connect with you here, you collaborate with you, and even to my other youth ambassadors, if you’d like to collaborate, you can always hit me up, and we can work on projects together. So thank you, thank you, Tori.

Moderator:
Thank you so much. Sounds like great conversations all around. We really appreciate everyone online who was able to join and give input. This is really what it’s all about, everybody sharing their ideas and making the projects and the internet better. So really heartening to hear that. So thank you all so much. And with that, I’ll bring it back to Pranav. Thank you, Tori. And thanks to Caroline, Nana, and Ida for sharing their thoughts. It was so nice to understand how the discussions enriched their understanding and their work around the project initiatives. And now let’s reignite the discussion back in the workshop session. And I will first ask Harman to come up and share more about his project initiative and the discussions he’s had today. Over to you, Harman. Okay.

Speaker 2:
Well, thank you. Thank you very, very much. It’s really a pleasure. Ah, okay. Thank you very much, Pranav, Nicolas, and all my colleagues and friends from the Jude Ambassador Program. It’s really a pleasure to be here with you all after a very short trip of 30 hours to Japan. So yeah, just to be real quick and then give back the award to all of you, mainly I’ve been working on internet fragmentation and particularly the topic that I’m interested in is how net neutrality might be affected with some measures regarding civil rating in Colombia. What we’re seeing is a particularly, let’s say, ambiguous trade-off in some developing countries, such as Colombia, where we have to choose between net neutrality and civil rating in order to provide some sort of connectivity for our citizens. So the issue is that in Colombia, we have around 60% of the population connected to the internet, and one of the main barriers that we’re seeing is that connectivity is just too expensive for most of them. So a solution that has appeared is civil rating. That is, that some applications, some programs, some contents might be accessed at no charge to the consumer. Of course, that’s a reasonably good solution, but when we look around the implications of these kind of measures, we realize that we need to have a more wide understanding on what’s going on. Because in the end, what’s happening is that we end up having two levels of the internet. One level, that’s the internet that everyone can paste and that has access for all of its contents, and then we have a different level where only applications and contents under civil rating might be used by the users. So we have to face this challenge because in the end, the problem is not that civil rating exists because it’s solving an issue that it’s in the way that we use internet in Colombia, but rather how we can make connectivity more accessible and how we can make it more affordable for everyone. So the point of my investigation is dwelling into a conversation that is happening in the Colombian Constitutional Court regarding that issue and see what might be the impact that this decision might have on how civil rating is being understood in the Colombian legal system, as well as what the implications might be regarding the civil rating measures that are being studied by the Constitutional Court. And thank you very much.

Moderator:
Thank you, Herman. It was nice to hear about your project initiative. And with this, I would now like to invite Yug Desai, and he will be sharing more about his work on making standards relevant to end users.

Yug Desai:
Hi, everyone. Thanks for the insightful conversations that we had in the last hour. I got some very interesting ideas about how to take this forward. One of the discussions was about having a human-centered design and also prioritization of the end user in the process itself. There’s also the question of translating the technical language, and an interesting suggestion was to have these standards documents also create some key messages, as is done in the case of legal regulations. But perhaps we can also… also include that in these technical documentations so that the end user can understand the broad message application and impact that standards are having. Obviously, there is a need for awareness campaigns using infographics, webinars, so that your average end user can get involved in standardization. And also, it can be easily demystified for them. Design standards are also important. So standardization at the application layer is something that directly impacts the user. And therefore, issues such as deceptive patterns become important. So standards around design practices are also crucial for ensuring that the end user can interact with the applications properly. There is also the open source community at large and their participation in creating and maintaining and propagating open standards. So their role in ensuring that the end user understand what standards are about is quite critical. So that was also underscored in the discussions. So yeah, those are some of the thoughts. And also, the ethical implications of standards, especially in the context of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and metaverse, are crucial. So through these discussions around ethics, we can find a way to make sure that the technical standards that come out of various processes related to these emerging technologies are robust and can actually address the challenges and the needs of the end users. Thank you.

Moderator:
Thank you, Yug. You covered quite a few many bases, impact, ethical considerations, awareness, and deceptive practices within the standardization remit. It was a very nuanced discussion. Great. And with this, I’ll now call in Daniele. And he’ll be sharing on aspects of the Fediverse. Thank you so much.

Daniel Turra:
The conversations were so heated, I had to take off my jacket. Yeah, so our conversations mostly moved towards the idea of digital sovereignty and how open source can actually sustain it. And of course, we also talked about the relevance of open source communities in this specific context. So the idea is that also in the supply chain that is backing up the development of open source software, we have to consider all kind of actors involved in this and how this may actually relate to digital sovereignty. So state actors can have an important role in all of this. And therefore, they can actually be used and participate effectively to sustain the usage and the adoption of open source software, also regarding the Fediverse and alternative social media. So also, there are some still open questions we couldn’t really discuss, such as if the application layer in this specific context might be used for leveraging education on the lower layers of the internet. But also, if there are opportunities to teach people and introduce them to internet governance by talking about social media and moderation in general. So there are still other open points. So please feel free to reach out to me to the email we showed us before. Thank you.

Moderator:
Thank you, Daniele. The relevance of the open source community cannot be highlighted enough. And it’s so interesting that you’ve also left us with some open questions to engage with. And we’ll definitely be sharing the email IDs again. And we’ll reach out to you. And with this, I’d now like to call in Jeremy to share about his work on youth IGF in Myanmar.

Speaker 3:
Yeah. So now, actually, I’m not sharing about the youth IGF. Firstly, I want to be sharing about the discussion that was I just discussed with the graduate student from Osaka University. So her research topic is kind of like how the Japanese young people use the social media platform, especially the Twitter, in their daily life communication. So we have discussed a lot about this issue. So today, mainly, I would like to talk about the gender digital device. Previously, I just mentioned about the digital device and inclusion. So gender digital device is kind of like the different access to the technologies between the men and women. Of course. And also, there are a lot of reasons that cause the gender digital device, kind of like the differences in the socioeconomic status, kind of like the level of digital scale, and also like the opportunities for the women to get access to the digital devices, and also like the affordability of this kind of stuff. So now, while we were preparing for today’s session, we talked about having two ways. The first alternative solution is kind of like we can promote the digital electricity. literacy skills for the women through trainees or the education programs, and the second alternative way is to make sure connect the Internet by providing the affordable Internet services and digital device, and also like the last alternative is to create the job opportunities for the women to be able to purchase the digital devices and afford the Internet services, so through this action we can kind of like promote the role of participation of the women in kind of like the accessibility digital technical career. So, yes, that’s all for me.

Moderator:
Thanks Jeremy, thanks for sharing that, and thanks for sharing with us the solutions towards bridging the digital divide and the gender digital divide, and that’s a perfect segue to invite Paula, who’s been working on aspects of women in coding, and really looking forward to hearing.

Speaker 4:
Thank you so much. For you that didn’t hear my exposition this morning, my project is about women in coding, and it’s a program that was I first met this program with a woman of Africa. She has this program called Girls in Coding, where they teach women from underserved community, especially girls from 8 to 15 years old, how to code, and then the program was held in Dominican Republic. It has like one year where young women learn how to code, and we’re integrating this program, giving them the opportunity to code for the government, to use the perspective that they have from underserved communities, and putting the solutions in governmental problems, in governmental solutions that are needed. And the conversation were so interesting, because I got the perspective of your man, where he told me that in Colombia they needed to teach the parliamentarian people, the congress people, and also the people that work for the government, this concept, because they don’t always know those topics about fragmentation, about women in coding, and we need to create laws, we need to create public policies, in order to promote this kind of projects for them to conquer the women literacies in technology. So it was so interesting for me to hear that, and also to hear this perspective of other fellows about the digital divide, bridging the digital divide, and also integrating human rights and the human development perspective. So it was so interesting. Thank you.

Moderator:
Thank you Paula. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on bridging the digital divide and connecting the unconnected is a priority area for Ethnic Society as well, and thank you for sharing a deep dive into your interaction. And with this, I would now like to call Athanis to share more about his discussion on internet fragmentation.

Speaker 5:
Thank you so much, Pranav. I had a very good discussion actually with many of the colleagues and Marco just mentioned something very important to me, and I think that I have to implement in my project as working around internet fragmentation and alternative solution to internet shutdowns. And what he just mentioned is how we can use parliamentarians as our speakers to the government, as the people to whom we speak to the government, to actually raise more awareness at the government level, so that at least when the government knows what are the best practices, they can implement and they can also put pressure on the regulators. One other thing that was mentioned here is that we can have case studies and toolkits, at least with case studies and stories, we can showcase to governments how bad is these shutdowns and what we are losing from maybe a health perspective, from an economic perspective, and from a civil society perspective. So having case studies is really a very good way of expressing the idea to the government. So those are a few of the solutions I’ve got in the cloud, and my idea is to do more research and have implementable solutions, and I think that I can present that challenge to the government, saying that okay, to avoid these other alternatives we can use. And actually, we will be going forward and tackling these international doubts in the region. That is from me. Thank you.

Moderator:
Thank you, Athanis. And it’s definitely, working with parliamentarians is definitely a very effective way of furthering one’s advocacy on any policy or legal issue at hand, and building toolkits and case studies is another one. And as part of your training at the international study, you have also worked on certain internet impact briefs, which we often use for advocacy and research, and those serve as a very good briefing points for parliamentarians and other policy makers. And with this, I would now like to call in Edgar, who would share about his work on generative AI. Yes, I didn’t forget you this time.

Edgar Brutyan:
Well, we talked, actually, I was engaged in many conversations about internet fragmentation, sovereignty, et cetera, but I have to talk about my topic. I talked to former and current ambassadors and other colleagues here about generative AI media and disinformation. And we talked about short-term solutions and long-term solutions as well, like community nodes of X. X is not popular, like Twitter, Twitter doesn’t exist anymore, X, it’s not popular that much as Twitter, but it has a very good solution of short-term solution for disinformation that’s community nodes. But we also have to think about long-term solutions as well, that is like reform of media system in general. So it’s quite good if we learn best practice around the world to fit to Georgian reality, but also one very important thing is that since Georgia shares many things in common with Eastern European countries and with Caucasus region countries as well, so the work done in Georgia can serve as an example for Eastern European countries as well. Yeah, that’s very briefly about our conversation. Thank you. Thank you, Edgar. And I thank all the ambassadors for sharing their thoughts. And that was very insightful and this does call for a round of applause for all the ambassadors here. Thank you everyone for joining. And with this, I will now invite Tori for a closing remark for the online joinees. Thank you so much.

Moderator:
It was so great to hear a little bit about your conversations in person that we cannot be there. So thank you all so much for sharing and thank you to all the online participants. Really wonderful getting to jump into all the different conversations here. The breadth of your work is really astounding. A lot of work to be done in the internet as we can see, but with you guys on the case, I know we’re in good hands here. And so if any of the participants are interested in hearing more from our ambassadors, we will be having our end of program symposium on November 14th. So look out on the Internet Society social media channels for more information about that. So you’ll get to hear even more from our amazing ambassadors if you join us there. And with that, I will leave you with Nana’s words. I think they really encompass everything I learned today myself. The power of change lies in collective efforts. Really beautiful quote. So thank you so much. And back to you, Pranav. Thank you, Tori. And for the joinees in person, I would now like to invite Nicholas, who is our alum from the Youth Ambassador Program and the steering committee member of the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance. Over to you, Nicholas.

Nicolas Fiumarelli:
Thank you, Pranav. And thank you to all the youth ambassadors here for your contributions. Being in the room and hearing all your discussions were very important to showcase the importance of the youth engagement, right? I was hearing the discussions with Atanasia and Mark about internet fragmentation, and well, these alternatives, these solutions that you came up are the important part, because we are discussing here what are the different methods we can solve the challenges we have. Also when talking about Jeremy with the Youth IGF Myanmar, how to deal with countries that sometimes the governments are very reluctant on discussing the important things or having the conversations with the younger generation, but it’s very important to maintain this youth engagement, right? To have the youths there. So having the youth discussing is really important. These fresh ideas and ways of thinking is what we, this is a key for the future. And well, the idea is to listen and work with the younger generations, and thank you all for joining today. And well, this is, see you in the next time in the Collaborative Leadership Exchange. Thanks. Bye. Bye.

Moderator:

Nicolas Fiumarelli:
I am Nicolás Fiumarelli, 33 years old, and proud former youth ambassador. I was a youth ambassador as you in 2019, in the cohort of the Internet Societies Programme. Today, as we convene to this significant session, we are reminded of the cardinal role of youth play in shaping the digital world, right? Particularly in Internet governance. The youth’s presence in the realm of Internet governance is not just pivotal. It’s transformative, right? With your unique perspectives and innovative ideas, and your inherent ability to passion and adaptability, to inject into these IG processes, ensure that this evolving framework that we are seeing is not only technical, but also socially relevant, right? Inclusive and forward-looking. The Internet Society recognises the immense potential, has been tireless in its efforts to uplift, mentor and champion the young voices. The Youth Ambassador Programme is just a facet of these endeavours. Beyond this, there are a myriad of initiatives, collaborations and projects that are tailored to cultivate this harness of the power of the youth, as we say. The Society’s commitment extends to the creation of platforms that are actively involved in dialogues, decision-making, and also in leadership roles, as we have seen. The Youth Coalition, that I am part of, and the Youth Standing Group, that is this ISOC special interest group that now is with a standing status, are shining examples of this that I am saying. These platforms are for youth, but are led by them, right? Creating this synergy of ideas, aspirations and actions in the Internet Society, exploring and underlining the Internet Society’s mission and ambition, right? To have this global, open and interconnected network. The youth voice isn’t just an addition, it’s essential for this future. The Internet Society’s mission, as you know, at its core, is about inclusivity and empowerment. So, fostering these youth-centric platforms and initiatives, and the collaboration between these initiatives, is investing in a future where the Internet governance is diverse. So, let’s focus on today’s session. We are here at the Collaborative Leadership Exchange. This session has been taking place several years at the ICF, and the main objective is, as you know, networking, creating and fostering relationships between the ambassadors and also the alumnus, right? Because there are people that are former youth ambassadors as well, and keep continuing participating, exchanging these revolutionary ideas about community networks. We have projects related with Internet fragmentation, a lot of topics addressing these crucial Internet governance issues, right? So, designed with these presentations and the collaborative discussions we will have, and now Prana will mention a little, we are committed to translating these conversations into tangible actions, right? So, many of the insights today will emanate from the new cohort of the youth ambassadors, as I said. There are 15 people, so I am very glad to be here with you. And, well, with these interactions we ensure this global perspective, right? The idea is to forge ahead and remember us that the collective mission is to shape an Internet that remains open, trustworthy and beneficial for everyone. So, you, the youth, are not just participants, make sure of that, because you are the driving force of the Internet governance. So, with this I take the floor to Pranav. Thank you. And, well, thank you for being part of this transformative journey together. Hello everyone joining online and in person. I’m Pranav, I’m an empowerment advisor at the Internet Society. And, more importantly, I was myself an early career fellow of the Internet Society.

Moderator:
I’m so happy to be hosting the youth ambassador program and the collaborative leadership exchange of the Internet Society, where we have 15 of our youth ambassadors joining us. Some of them are joining online. It’s important for them to be empowered. Thank you. Thank you so much, Caroline. The next one to introduce their topic is Ida. Ida, can you talk? Okay. Hi, Tori. So, I was struggling a bit to unmute. Can you hear me?

Speaker 1:
Yes, we can hear you. Awesome. So, hello, everyone. My name is Ida. And I’m from Ghana. And I’m excited to join you all today. So, my topic is on online safety and etiquette for young people and for kids. As a youth ambassador with the Internet Society and with other organizations, I’m really passionate about young people. So, I’m going to start by introducing myself. My name is Ida. And I’m from Ghana. And I’m excited to join you all today. So, my topic is on online safety and etiquette for young people and for kids. As a youth ambassador with the Internet Society and with other organizations, I’m really passionate about young people. So, my topic is on online safety and etiquette for young people and for kids. and about the work that you are doing and their impact on the society. And that is why I chose this topic. So to start with, in today’s digital era, navigating the online world can be both exciting and challenging, especially for us as young people and for kids as well. As technology enthusiasts and as a generation that breeds the internet, we often find ourselves exploring the vast internet landscape, connecting with friends, sharing data, and learning new things. However, amidst the fun, it’s crucial to prioritize our safety and practice proper online etiquette. So this project aims to discover the do’s and don’ts of online interactions, from safeguarding personal information to fostering a respectful online community. This project also aims to equip young people with essential skills to thrive in the virtual realm responsibly. So in simple terms, my project is supposed to help young people gain knowledge and ensure their online experiences are not only enjoyable, but also secure and respectful. And I’m hoping to achieve this by having workshops and webinars and educational materials that I’m going to share amongst young people and also use to educate young people. I also want to take advantage of emerging technologies such as virtual reality to provide educational resources for young people and make sure that they are safe online. Thank you.

Moderator:
Thank you so much, Aida. Lastly, that I see is Nana Ama. Nana, can you share your topic idea, please? All right. Hi, good morning, evening, afternoon, wherever you may be. It’s currently dawn in Ghana, so my voice may sound a little bit hoarse, pardon me.

Nana Ama-Yabuado:
So my name is Nana Ama-Yabuado, and I’m Ghana and the current youth ambassador with the Internet Society. My initiative is Dabbed Empower Here, which is a groundbreaking initiative at the forefront of driving digital gender equality. Given the rapidly evolving digital landscape, and of late, there is also increasing awareness that standardization goes beyond this. It also has human rights implications. It has implications on how people are able to connect to the internet. So, I’m Nana Ama-Yabuado, and I’m the co-founder of Dabbed Empower Here, which is a global initiative that is focused on gender equality. Given the rapidly evolving digital landscape, which is abundant, but barriers persist, I believe it’s important that I set up an initiative that is focused on gender equity and gender change. So, with this initiative, the aim is to have a path to a more equitable and inclusive digital world. And I believe this starts with empowering women. My initiative is not just focused at addressing the gender gap but sharing it, you know, especially starting from Ghana, where I currently reside. So I’m passionate about making a community of change-makers and advocates who are dedicated to unlocking the full potential of the average Ghanaian woman. The mission of this initiative is to provide rural women with skills, knowledge, and supports to help them thrive in the digital realm. So I would encourage everyone to join me on this journey. Technology has become a tool for empowerment and my initiative is solely focused on replacing the barriers with bridges where every woman or girl has the opportunity to not only participate in the digital revolution but also to shape it. So collectively we can change the story as it stands now and have a more gender-equal and digitally inclusive world. Thank you.

Moderator:
Thank you so much. All these topics sound fascinating. So for our online participants, you can join our breakout rooms to pick one of our amazing ambassadors and get to talk more about their idea. And with that, I will send it back over to Pranav and the ambassadors there in person in Japan. Thank you, Dori. And with this, we now come to the ambassadors who are joining us in person. And first I would like to call upon Yugdesai, and he’s working on a project initiative titled Making Standards Relevant to End Users. Over to you, Yug.

Yug Desai:
Hi, everyone. Welcome to today’s session. So my topic is making standards relevant to end users. And by this, I don’t mean that we need to create standards that end users can use. What I’m trying to do here is to make sure that end users understand the importance of standards and they educate themselves about standards and standardization processes. Standardization prima facie is a very boring topic. And as a non-technical person, you would probably run away from it. But it impacts all aspects of your life. And especially in the context of the internet, it impacts how you use the internet and how internet goes on to shape your life. So standardization of late has multidimensional impact on the society as a whole, on the economy, the supply chains, on how things interoperate. And of late, there is also increasing awareness that standardization goes beyond this. It also has human rights implications. It has implications on how people are able to connect to the internet, how they are able to access the internet. And standardization is also seen as a technical form of governance. So at the Internet Governance Forum, we’re obviously talking about regulation. But it is also possible to govern the internet through technical standards. So it is very important that we realize how standards, how values are being embedded in standards or how ethics are being embedded into standards. And so these are some of the ideas that I’m beginning with. And what I want to do today through our exchange is to get your point of view on how standards are relevant to people. Why should end users concern themselves with standards and whether they should do this in the first place or should it be left to the people who know the technical integrities of the technology? And second question is, of course, how do we do this? How do we do this together? How do we ensure that we can make an average end user aware of standards and how it is impacting their everyday life? Thank you.

Moderator:
Thank you, Yug. Thank you so much. Now I’d like to give the floor to Daniel Turra from Italy. Please share with us your experiences and perspectives. Thank you. Hello there, everyone.

Daniel Turra:
My name is Daniel Turra. And I would like to talk today about open source software in social media, also known as the Fediverse. And I would like to tease you with a couple of questions. For example, what if we had multiple different social media platforms based on open source software and what if those could be managed and moderated by any skilled organization or individuals for the benefit of everyone? So the Fediverse is a collection of interoperable and independently run social media servers that are able to communicate with each other. So the underlying protocol makes this possible, just like the same concepts underlined for emails, but also for social media. So this free and open source software promises to give users back some control of the Internet by allowing self-hosting and experimentation. This also makes possible learning about the inner workings of the Internet, not only at the application layer. So can we achieve digital sovereignty and learning in the meanwhile? So in this session, I would like to discuss together open points regarding the use of open source software for digital sovereignty, opportunities for capacity building, and what can every one of us do in this context regarding open source software. So if you’re interested, just join the session.

Moderator:
Thank you, Daniel. I would now like to call upon Jeremy and share about his work around youth IGF Myanmar. .

Speaker 3:
I’m Jeremy. I’m from Myanmar. Today I just would like to point out the digital guidelines about the online government whole��는 languages which cannot be transnected because of the internet. So the UN just like the one of the new internet governance initiatives like the other nations we are just trying to organise the specific for us that are particularly to the internet from the international community. So the first mission is to advocate internet governance for a meaningful inclusive trustworthy and safe internet through YMG and NYAMA. So we have like the four missions to raise awareness of internet governance policies and issues among young people to create the internet governance community and NYAMA youth from shaping the future of the internet. So the second mission is to promote the use of the NGF to discuss and raise internet issues and the last one is to empower future generation to organise the NYAMA youth internet governance forum in NYAMA, with our co-values, open, transparent, inclusive, and multistakeholder collaboration, so that is the preintroduction of NYAMA. So the third mission is to promote the use of the NGF to raise awareness of internet governance policies and issues among young people to create the internet governance community and NYAMA youth from shaping the future of the internet. So the third mission is to promote the use of the NGF to raise awareness of internet governance policies and issues among young people, so that is the third mission. So the third mission is to promote the use of the NGF to raise awareness of internet governance policies and issues among young people, so that is the third mission. So the fourth mission is to promote the use of the NGF to raise awareness of internet governance policies and issues among young people, so that is the fourth mission. So the fifth mission is to promote the use of the NGF to raise awareness of internet governance policies and issues among young people, so that is the fifth mission. So the fifth mission is to promote the use of the NGF to raise awareness of internet governance policies and issues among young people, so that is the fifth mission. So the last mission is to promote the use of the NGF to raise awareness of internet governance policies and issues among young people, so that is the fifth mission. So the last mission is to promote the use of the NGF to raise awareness of internet governance policies and issues among young people, so that is the fifth mission.

Moderator:
Thank you so much, Jeremy, it’s really great to hear about your youth NGF initiative, so now we’ll hear from

Paola Corporan:
Paola Corporan from the Dominican Republic, so Paola, the floor is yours. Thank you, Jeremy, and thank you for inviting me to be part of this initiative. I learned something in Nigeria that you need to make an impact, and I would like to say that by five years from now, I’m maybe going to be the next ministry of public innovation of the Dominican Republic, so nice to meet you. I’m Paola Corporan, and I’m the head of public innovation of the Dominican government, and working in public innovation, I’ve seen that it’s important the collaborative perspective in building strategies, building public policies, and I’m in charge of promoting the culture of public innovation, and my project is about engaging girls in coding, girls in the public initiative, and I will be using a case study of a group of girls that are now learning how to code, and that’s the purpose is to massificate that initiative in all the Dominican government, using, and then analyzing how it’s engaging girls in coding, and how it’s engaging girls in building the public innovation of the Dominican government. So I will be glad to be talking about this topic, and nice to meet you all.

Moderator:
Thank you, Paola, we look forward to hearing more about your project initiative.

Speaker 5:
And now I call in Athnes, he’s from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and will be co-chairing the project, and he will be presenting the project to the commissioners about how they will co-chair the project, and a certificate for him as commissioner, which he will be presenting the project to the next houses in state and country, and to tell us a little about the program and its use, and we are covering the internet fragmentation in Galley, and having him on the panel about covering internet fragmentation. Thank you. I’m going to talk about internet fragmentation. I’m going to talk about internet fragmentation in Galley. I’m going to talk about the impact of internet fragmentation in the form of internet shutdowns. At some point, the internet is just being shut down by the government just because of some political issues or in election periods. So, what I’m trying to do is to assess the economic and societal impact of internet shutdowns and what are the solutions that we can have to tackle these issues without having to shut down the whole internet. So, the idea is to have alternative solutions that we can present to the government, showing them how much we are losing when we are having shutdowns, and what are the solutions we can use to prevent these shutdowns. So, I will be very happy to discuss with you all if you have some tactics, or some cases you have gone through, or what we can do to make sure this is no longer a problem. So, I will be very happy to discuss this with you all.

Moderator:
Thank you. Thank you, Atniz, and it was so nice to hear from all the fellows. Let’s energise this room with a round of applause. Thank you. Awesome. So, now that we’ve heard from Edgar is here. All right. Hi, Edgar. Would you please come up and share about your project initiative on generative AI? Please, my apologies.

Edgar Brutyan:
So, hi, I’m Edgar from Georgia, country, not state. So, the problem in my country is generative AI and disinformation, actually, which comes mostly from Russia. As you might know, my country is occupied by Russia, as now Ukraine, so we are in hybrid warfare with this country, and in my country, there are many ethnic minorities. I’m also a representative of ethnic minority in my country, and Russia always use generative AI. Especially to pit people against each other, and to cause separatism in Georgia. That’s why I decided to work on, I have, like, desk research to work on initiatives, how we can regulate, for instance, media in Georgia to ensure that there is no disinformation, but at the same time, there is no disinformation. So, I’m working on this, and I’m also working on, like, initiatives, how we can regulate, for instance, media in Georgia to ensure that there is no disinformation, but at the same time, since Georgia is hybrid democracy, and is very vulnerable to authoritarian tendencies, we also ensure democratic development of this country. So, it’s very tricky, I mean, so it’s very tricky, because, like, when you have censorship of media, you have censorship of the media, and you have censorship of the country, but on the other hand, there might be authoritarian tendencies in your country, and unfortunately, current government of Georgia has authoritarian tendencies, because it’s pro-Russian. I will speak broadly during roundtables. Yeah, that’s it. Thank you.

Moderator:
Thank you, Edgar. We’ve heard from the ambassadors, and they’ve been covering, as we said, we heard about generative AI, we heard about internet fragmentation, we heard about women who code, we have heard about youth IGFs. So, it is now the time when these ambassadors will be moving towards breakout sessions. The ambassadors joining us online will be having breakout sessions virtually, and those in person will be taking spots within this room, so whoever’s topic, whichever topic really interested you, please move towards those ambassadors, and have a discussion with them. And I will then remind you all in 15 minutes at 10. a.m. JST to then shift to another ambassador, and then we can have another round of discussion. So this is your moment to, again, take feedback, give recommendations, build networks, so over to you, folks. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.