IGF 2022 WS #332 Leapfrogging: Internet Technology Role in post-pandemic era

Organizer 1: Rilla Gusela Sumisra, Netmission.asia
Organizer 2: Phyo Thiri Lwin, yIGF Myanmar
Organizer 3: Jenna Man Hau Fung, DotAsia/ NetMission.Asia
Organizer 4: Jennifer Chung, DotAsia Organisation

Speaker 1: Edmon Chung, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Geline Fuko, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 3: PABLO HINOJOSA, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 4: Norman Schräpel, Government, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 5: Eden Tadesse, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization

Moderator

Jennifer Chung, Private Sector, Asia-Pacific Group

Online Moderator

Phyo Thiri Lwin, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group

Rapporteur

Rilla Gusela Sumisra, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group

Format

Round Table - Circle - 90 Min

Policy Question(s)

1. What are the challenges of innovating Internet technology and strategy or policy to leapfrog in the post-pandemic era? 2. What will be the role of multi-stakeholders for innovation of the Internet technology gap between developing and developed nations to produce the real value of leapfrogging? 3. How should the international community respond to fill the Internet technology gap, such as Digital Divide, to help the developing countries?

Connection with previous Messages: Our proposal is directly related to the IGF 2021 message: Economic and social inclusion and human rights. As we will discuss Internet technology's role in the post-pandemic era for considering the leapfrog, our session will contribute to delivering the specific message by foreseeing the strategies of different stakeholders for addressing the Internet technology gap. Thus, it will directly message those countries facing this issue as well. At the same time, it will also support the Universal access and meaningful connectivity message from IGF 2021 by providing some reflection on the challenges and issues of the Internet technology gap that we are facing these days. In addition, as our honourable guest speakers from different regions and various stakeholder groups, their perceptions, and foreseeable ideas will consolidate by sharing each other to prove the inclusive Internet governance ecosystems and digital cooperation.

SDGs

8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
10. Reduced Inequalities
11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
17. Partnerships for the Goals

Targets: This proposal relates to SDG 8, which promotes Internet technology and innovative works to improve people's digital skills for decent work and economic growth. It also relates to SDG 9 because it encourages policymakers to focus on countries to “build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation.” Additionally, by developing the framework for solving the issue of the Internet technology gap, it can create the balancing of technology access among the countries relating to SDG 10. If we can have a solution for solving this issue, we can move forward with innovating the cities and communities in their respective country. With regard to SDG 11, it can also improve communities’ quality of life because leapfrogging necessitates innovation policies to uphold the deployment of frontier technologies and their adaptation to meet their needs and promote sustainable development. Moreover, this session enhances SDG 17 for the policymaking process of technology development, which is important for developing effective and efficient policymaking by enhancing the partnerships with different stakeholders. Policymaking makes the progressive socio-technical voices of various stakeholders adopt a regime that will lead to socio-economic development.

Description:

The Internet’s rapid growth has also spawned technical crises, such as congestion and scarcity of network addresses, and social dilemmas, including malicious and illegal activities and persistent digital divides based on income, location, age, gender, and education. Such problems continue to demand creative solutions from scientists, policymakers, and citizens. African countries and other developing countries, as well as the private sector and development partners, must be willing to take chances and learn from setbacks, and leapfrogging must be considered a feasible growth strategy for their respective countries with the help of Internet technology. Thus, we need to provide an accessible, inclusive and affordable Internet to all to succeed in this leapfrogging strategy. This session focuses on insights, practices, experiences on digital infrastructure and strategies to handle Internet technology gaps in terms of policies and suggests the framework to develop the best approaches for leapfrogging digital technologies by collecting the inputs from different stakeholders. We hope this session can come up with a complete overview of the challenges of Internet technology faced by stakeholders to the identified issues together with all attendees.

Expected Outcomes

In order to achieve expected outcomes, organizers and speakers will work together in the months leading to the forum to set up a mutual understanding of the workshop topic and possible questions that will build the foundation of fruitful discussion. Before, during, and after this session, we will create publications on local and global Internet Governance Organisation news sites, both on social media platforms and official websites such as Internet Development Institute and Taman Digital (local), ISOC Chapters, NetMission.Asia or Youth4IG, APSIG, APrIGF, a network of Youth IGF and Youth Southeast ASEAN Leaders Initiatives (regional), ISOC Special Interest Groups (SIG) (Global). The primary outcome is to create a framework to contribute to the stakeholders, such as local initiatives, technical community, and government, to handle the internet technology gap by knowing a variety of perspectives from speakers and people working in the world of technology and society. It will provide best practices for technology leapfrog by understanding the policy gaps concept. This session aims to enhance the knowledge of the technology and policies from the diverse perspectives to handle future possible global technology gaps among countries as well as encourage other stakeholders such as the technical community to develop better policies and incentivize researchers to find the solution for balancing the technology gaps regarding ICT in the future. The session will also explore how the leapfrog technology gap is defined, identify the challenges and the role of multi-stakeholders and establish the resources that need to be used to handle the leapfrog gap.

Hybrid Format: The roundtable will be moderated along a set of questions and the organizers will develop and discuss with the speakers in the months leading up to the event. The moderator will ensure the active participation of the audience, who will be able to intervene and ask questions to the speakers. Sufficient time will be given to online participants to ask questions. The moderator and organizers will work with speakers in advance as to ensure the quality and the content of the discussion Online Participation: Usage of IGF Official Tool. Onsite or online moderator will encourage online participants to ask questions or comment before and throughout the workshop, a moderator will choose a few questions during the Q&A session. For complementary online tools, We will share google docs with everyone for collecting their questions to the speakers before the session. We will develop the google form for saving the feedback from online and onsite participants after the session. You may find the draft of the questionnaire at https://s.id/questionnaire_leapfrogging

Online Participation

 

Usage of IGF Official Tool.