IGF 2018 WS #227 BLOCKCHAIN FOR SOCIAL AND HUMANITARIAN APPLICATIONS

Room
Salle VII

Organizer 1: Private Sector, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Organizer 2: Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Organizer 3: Civil Society, Eastern European Group
Organizer 4: Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)

Speaker 1: Mónica María Trochez Arboleda, Private Sector, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 2: Garcia Van Hoogstraten Catherine , Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 3: Walid Al-Saqaf, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 4: Satish Babu, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 5: Olga Cavalli, Government, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 6: Andrea Romaoli Garcia, Intergovernmental Organization, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 7: Sam Goundar, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 8: Glenn McKnight, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Format

Round Table - 90 Min

Interventions

The moderator begins the assignment by presenting and introducing the discussion. Then he gives the floor to the speakers who will present their point of view according to the sector they represent (academia, civil society, private sector, technical, government), they will have 5 minutes for their presentation; then the question and answer session opens, and finally the conclusion.

Diversity

Speakers are from all sectors and different parts of the world. This is a global issue and each stakeholder has a very unique way of approaching to it, so it is crucial because of it multi-stakeholder nature that a multi-stakeholder governance with relevant levels of diversity is achieved. Diversity is at the core of this proposal and their organizers, both in sector, region, gender and point of view.

Blockchain is considered one of the most important emerging technologies by MIT, it has emerged in recent years as a solution that will have a high social impact; due to its characteristics of distributed information, easy access and collaborative participation, experts consider that it can become a technological tool that eradicates social differences and helps the greatest number of people to get for financial services and donations; benefits that have attracted the attention of different non-profit organizations, states and private companies. Blockchain could help solve the problems of the most vulnerable people in the world: refugees; migrants; children, women and men victims of human trafficking. It would also speed up processes in favor of humanitarian activity such as the diversion of funds collected to mitigate the humanitarian crisis; the delivery of benefits, avoiding duplicity; Internet access, among others. Our Speakers will develop the following topics: - Cases of use of active projects developed with Blockchain technology. - Definition of criteria to define the relevance of the use of Blockchain technology in the development of a solution. - Viability and sustainability of the projects developed with Blockchain technology for social and humanitarian application. - Examples of synergies that have developed between governments, non-profit organizations and private companies to solve social and humanitarian problems with Blockchain technology. - Identification of social and humanistic problems that can be mitigated with the development of applications with Blockchain technology and there are no use cases so far. This workshop aims to provide a framework for that debate, establish the state of maturity of the tool and propose appropriate interpretations; besides identifying the challenges to face through a debate with the approach of multiple interested parties on the subject.

We are planning to have a round table of at least 8 active speakers, of which at least they will present 5 topics for a later debate. The order will be: opening of the moderator - Presentation of the workshop - TEAM 1, Debate - Theme 2 ... [...] - Last open comment - Final remarks by the moderator. As mentioned before, remote participation and a particularly skilled moderator will ensure that the debate is as rich, diverse and balanced as possible. And an effort will be made before and after the workshop to ensure that people make the most of this experience.

Emerging technologies, including blockchain, are prepared to play an important role in the development of solutions to humanitarian challenges. The application of blockchain to solve these problems is increasing, but there is still a lot of work to be done; it is necessary to make known all that this technology can do to achieve the synergies that allow us to advance in the development of solutions that have a great impact for the benefit of humanity.

Online Participation

Remote Participation bring necessary voices to our debate, so is part of our strategy. Remote participation will be promoted with the communication and outreach efforts of the workshop so in advanced people can schedule and have the information on how to engage. Online Moderator will engage with remote participants to in the moment coordinate with the main moderator to include the comments, questions and answers. We expect active and engaged remote participation and will do efforts to make that happen. To increase the exposure, both twitter, facebook and instagram platforms will be used, among dedicated email list, to facilitate coordination and communication, but the official participation will be channel through specific platforms. Moderator will try to equally distribute remote and local participation of the speakers and audience. We believe that queuing is the right approach as long as the comments remain in the same topic being discussed, and a correct moderation between topics so that more issues can be addressed and no single topic or speaker or group of speakers monopolize the debate. Understanding that language and cultural barrier, as well as infrastructure problems, have to be taken into account. Our online moderator has collaborated as a remote moderator in the net neutrality session in the IGF 8 Bali 2013, The south internet governance school 2017 and the CIBERSIG 2018.

Agenda

The agenda of the Session Will develop as follows:

The moderator begins the assignment by presenting and introducing the discussion (2 minutes). Then he gives the floor to the speakers who will present their point of view according to the sector they represent (academia, civil society, private sector, technical, government), they will have 8 minutes for their presentation; then the question and answer session opens (20 minutes), and finally the conclusion (3 minutes).

Our Speakers will develop the following topics:

  • Cases of use of active projects developed with Blockchain technology.

  • Definition of criteria to define the relevance of the use of Blockchain technology in the development of a solution.

  • Viability and sustainability of the projects developed with Blockchain technology for social and humanitarian application.

  • Examples of synergies that have developed between governments, non-profit organizations and private companies to solve social and humanitarian problems with Blockchain technology.

  • Identification of social and humanistic problems that can be mitigated with the development of applications with Blockchain technology and there are no use cases so far.

Session Time