Session
Organizer 1: Vasily Zudin, Chamber of Tax Consultants
Organizer 2: David Otujor Okpatuma, 🔒
Organizer 3: J Amado Espinosa L, Medisist
Speaker 1: Othman Almoamar , Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 2: Yamil Quispe , Intergovernmental Organization, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 3: Olga Makarova, Private Sector, Eastern European Group
Speaker 4: Milos Jovanovic, Private Sector, Eastern European Group
Speaker 5: Saba Tiku Beyene, Intergovernmental Organization, African Group
J Amado Espinosa L, Private Sector, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
David Otujor Okpatuma, Intergovernmental Organization, African Group
Vasily Zudin, Private Sector, Eastern European Group
Theater
Duration (minutes): 90
Format description: Selected layout will allow for a larger space to house more participants and give attendees more space during the brainstorm session. 90-minute duration is selected due to the scope of the discussion as it aims not only to “discuss' ' issues at hand but also spark a live exchange of ideas and even impromptu debate between stakeholders. The workshop is designed to be participant-centric, incorporating two segments and an interim brainstorm session. The first 40 minutes, including Q&A will explore the potential impact of the GDC on the broader digital industry. The interim 10 minutes session is supposed to act as a catalyst for idea generation and further complement the discussions by critical engagement of the audience with the themes discussed priorly. The second 40 minutes will be centered around the discussion of specific suggestions and inputs selected by the moderator during the brainstorm from attendees.
1. What does the adoption of the GDC mean for the international community, are there risks of minimizing the role of the technical community in the digital decision maker paradigm? How will the GDC be updated and who will have the final word? 2. How to keep the Tech Giants at bay and help the Global South to create fair regulatory frameworks in terms of data management and users rights? 3. Should digital governance remain a domain of multistakeholder engagement or is it in the interest of the world to increase government participation and implementation of hard law practices?
What will participants gain from attending this session? Despite the fact that the session's target audience are the members of the IT private sector, the discussion will facilitate members of civil society and technical, academic community, who will share their visions concerning the global digital governance. Participants will critically analyze the current state of the GDC, exploring its strengths and limitations in addressing key issues such as technological sovereignty for the Global South. Building upon the discussions and insights from the session, it would also be possible to create Post forum materials, analytics, and press statements that encapsulate the key takeaways and proposed solutions. These materials would serve as a roadmap for integrating the discussion outcomes into existing narratives.
Description:
Increasingly unpredictable technological changes require greater flexibility of the multistakeholder community, including not only international formats such as IGF, but also the very “rules of the game”. It has already been 3 years since the Secretary-General introduced the idea of the Global Digital Compact (GDC) to the international community. GDC aims to become a soft law set of guiding principles for actors involved in the process of digital development and governance. However many believe that GDC is an insipid document that does not cover a lot of debatable issues such as accountability of the digital platforms which is crucial for the developing countries. In particular, the session offers to elaborate on the future of the Global South and how the international community can help in their quest for obtaining technological sovereignty. Digital technologies based entrepreneurship is at the core of this issue, as nowadays promarly small and medium businesses comprise functioning economies of the majority of G77 countries. Nonetheless, Tech Giants, mainly originate in the Western Hemisphere or such developed powerhouses as China. Will the final draft of the GDC ultimately address the issue of this disparity and offer possible ways of how the world community can improve the situation and contain further monopolization and oligopolization of the global digital market? Another considerable reference point of the workshop is the question of Multistackeholderism and how it can persist despite the ever growing involvement of governments in matters of IG, that some would characterized as interference. How to strike balance and meet everyone’s needs in the times when the Internet is a vital part of civilization?
The shared experience of all attendees can be used as the foundation to creating a joint ‘roadmap’ on what actions should the IG community take to ensure voices of the Global South are heard. Also, after the workshop the organizers will interview the speakers and most active participants for a video about the perspective of the GDC prospects that will be later uploaded to the YouTube for everyone to see and share. Moreover, a press release will be made and promoted so that the outcomes of this workshop do not plunge into the abyss of forum outputs.
Hybrid Format: As organizers of the session we plan to provide engagement opportunities that allow for comfortable forum experience both for onsite and online participants. Both moderators will guide the discussion by alternating onsite and online participation. In this way, we ensure that all participants, regardless of how they participate, play an equal role in the session. When it comes to the rather new for us format of interim brainstorm we plan to use a myriad of digital tools to facilitate the session. Throughout the session we intend to use the real-time feedback collection from our audience by means of specialized applications, which will be accessible via a link or QR-code during the session. Main tool used during the brainstorm session will be an online flipchart application such as Kahoot! or AhaSlides, which will help moderators to select valuable inputs to the discussion from the listeners.