Inclusive Internet Governance Ecosystems and Digital Cooperation

10 November, 14:10-15:40 UTC

07:35 – 7:40 +00:              Zoom login / Networking

07:40 – 07:50 +00:            EMCEE / Moderator: Lily Edinam Botsyoe, Ghana Youth IGF Cordinator 

Welcome Message (3mins): Wisdom Donkor, Africa Open Data and Internet Research Foundation 

Opening Remark (5mins): Fuatai Gisa Purcell: - Chief Executive Officer, Office of the Regulator, Government of Samoa.

07:50 – 08:25 +00    Segment 1: Theme: Community Networks, Electricity and Digital Inclusion

Moderator: Kwaku Antwi, Africa Open Data and Internet Research Foundation 

Speakers:

1. Onica Nonhlanhla Makwakwa, A4AI Coordinator, Africa

2. Andre Laperriere, Executive Director, Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition                (GODAN), Montreal, Canada

3. Michuki Mwangi, Senior Director, Internet Technology and Development, Internet Society

4. Stanley Kwakye Dankyira, Co-Founder / Director, Maxim Nyansa (NGO)

08:25– 08:30+00       Memory Refresh: Musical Interlude by Wiyala

08:30 – 09:00 +00     Segment 2: Spectrum and the Regulatory Environment

Moderator: Kwaku Antwi, Africa Open Data and Internet Research Foundation

Speakers:

1.  Hon. Samuel Nartey George, Member of Parliament, Ghana
2. Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro, Legal Practitioner / Former UN IGF MAG Member
3. Stephanie Pariel, ICANN GNSO Council Member 
4. Moctar Yedaly, Head of Information Society Division, Africa Union (AU)

09:00 - 09:15 +00   Discussants: Segment 1 and 2:  
We do have some discussants in the room and they will share their own perspective, based on their experiences and the lessons they’ve learnt developing and implementing various policies and initiatives with regards to the topics been disscussed.

1. Carlos Rey-Moreno, Community Network Specialist, Association for Progressive Communications (APC), South Africa

09:15:  Closing remarks: Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro, Legal Practitioner / Former UN IGF MAG Membe

 The session is structured in four segments.

• First segment

  • 5 minutes - General Introduction about the topic under discussion and Workshop house rules (on site Moderator.)
• Second segment
  • 40 minutes - Debate - 10 minutes for each Policy Question (2 minutes for the remote audience to present their opinions on the policy question through a sli.do pool and 2 minutes for each panelist.) 
• Third segment
  • 10 minutes - open mic session, to engage the remote participants to discuss the subject. The Online Moderator will be in charged of reading the questions and the comments in the transmission, sent by the remote participants via the official chat.  
• Fourth segment
  • 5 minutes - Wrap up and conclusions (on site Moderator.) 

• Intro and framing of the issues (10 minutes)
• Assessing the state of play (40 minutes)
  1) What sort of standards have already been exported and by whom?
  2) What are the (potential) consequences of new standards and rules that are applied extraterritorially?
  3)  What is the role of GDPR-like constrictions and their impact in "standardization of standards"?
  4) What is the role of standards governance, and the impact on the process of deliberation and definition of standards?
  [Participants are invited to help answer these questions. Co-organizers collect findings and potential questions that arise from them.]
• Discussing the findings (30 minutes)
  The experts discuss findings and questions.
• Conclusion and wrap-up (10 minutes)

The session has been planned as a roundtable session. The speakers will make 3 short interventions to frame the discussion. The interventions have been phrased to elicit responses to the policy questions we seek to address. Each intervention will last 5-8 minutes, followed by 20 minutes for discussion in breakout groups. The discussions will be framed by the questions stated in the themes below.

Break out group 1: Access - The gender digital continues to prevail across most countries in the global South. While the cost of devices and data packs is one factor, social and cultural norms also contribute to the gap in internet use. As work is increasingly mediated by digital technologies, women are bound to lose out on economic opportunities. With increasing digital interventions in work, the skills needed to work and navigate the workplace are fast changing. How can we ensure that these developments are not exclusionary?

Break out group 2: Autonomy - Worker autonomy on digital platforms - both on-demand services and online work - is severely hindered because of the use of algorithmic monitoring systems. Platforms may use the language of micro-entrepreneurship and flexibility but these novel forms of monitoring control every aspect of work on the platforms - from setting wages to dictating hours and locations (for on-demand services) of work. Misclassifying workers as contractors while still exerting strong control over the terms of engagement has been a long standing issue which needs to be urgently addressed with regulations that strengthens worker protections. The ongoing pandemic has laid bare the vulnerabilities facing workers. How can we imagine social protection in the age of digital platform work? What kind of regulatory frameworks can we design to make platforms more accountable towards workers?

Break out group 3: Agency - A dispersed workforce is one of the characteristic features of digital work platforms. While geographic locations are no longer a limitation to accessing work opportunities, it has had an adverse impact on bargaining capacity and worker agency. However, workers have found ways to resist. Platform workers have staged protests to demand more protections for themselves during this pandemic, while others have found ways to organise and form solidarity within the confines of the socio-technical systems in which they operate. How can we re-imagine unions, worker agency, and bargaining rights on digital work platforms?

In terms of the virtual format, we have found in recent months of participating in many online events  that 2 or 3 rounds of short (3-4 minute) interventions by panellists in response to structured questions by the moderator can be more interesting and digestabe for online sessions.  We may also discourage PowerPoint presentations, except perhaps for one or two slides, if desired. The moderator would draw of the policy questions below as adapted through panellists over the coming months.   Hoping that the technology used woud allow written questions to be submitted by participants vie "chat", the moderator can ask these throughout the panel session, rather than wait for a dedicated period at the end.  Assuming that other participants can also request to take the floor virtually to share their views or experiences, this will be welcomed and also made possible at various appropriate points throughout the session, rather than in a dedicated Q&A at the end.  

In terms of timing,  the rounds of interventions would take no more tha 20 minutes each, meaning that the 3 rounds of panelists interventions would take abouit 60 minutes. Added to this the moderator's introductions and time cushion for participants questions and interventions throughout the session, the time frame requested remains 90 minutes.  

1. Brief Introduction to the Discussion - 4 minutes

2. Introduction of Speakers - 2 minutes

3. Discussion among Speakers - 20 minutes

4. Questions and Inputs from IGF participants - 30 minutes

5. Wrap Up - 4 minutes

1. Welcoming the participants and introduction of speakers

2. Introductory remarks: "Why Universal Design is a driving force for digital innovation"  by Dr. Bernd Schramm, GIZ Head of Global Project Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities.

3. Barriers to Digital Inclusion (Audience, Panelists)

4. ICT4Inclusion and Inclusion4ICT

5. Tech-start up support to drive inclusive digital innovations

6. Obstacles and Incentives for the private sector

7. Policies, Regulations and Responsibilities

8. Q & A

1. Introduction by speakers (20 minutes)

2. Collective discussion in 3 blocks (40 minutes)

3.  Drafting Online Campaign on Inclusion (20 minutes)

1. Session Overview (3 min) 

2. Intros and initial interventions (16 minutes)
* Short intro + Each panelist will answer the following questions: (a) Which challenges of a public interest internet does currently faces/works on? And (b) Examples of measures, proposals that can protect the public interest (actions)

• Ramon Roca  - 4 minutes
• Farzaneh Badii  - 4 minutes
• Mehwish  Ansari - 4 minutes
• Graeme Bunton - 4 minutes

3. Open Q&A (10 minutes)
4. Policy Questions (16 minutes) : (a) What does a Public Interest Internet mean to you ? Is the internet working on behalf of any 'public interest' concept? (b) What factors should be considered when seeking to promote a public interest internet, and in tackling challenges to it"? (c) How can the internet be governed today in the public interest"?

• Ramon Roca  - 4 minutes
• Farzaneh Badii  - 4 minutes
• Mehwish  Ansari - 4 minutes
• Graeme Bunton - 4 minutes

5. Voluntary Commitments (1 min each panelist) 

6. Wrap up (Short summary of the discussions and closing ) 

Introduction (10 mins)

Moderator will begin the session by introducing the agenda, speakers, and the background of the topics of the workshop, in order to build the ground for a discussion.

Panel Discussion (30 minutes)

A total of 3-4 speakers will be invited to present their practice of distance learning and experience in implementing the education model during the pandemic. This session serves as a platform for the speakers to exchange their experiences and opinions, in order to further develop a ground for the discussion during the open-floor session in this workshop. This enables a showcase of different cases in different economies when tackling the same challenges in a similar situation regarding Learn from Home during COVID-19.

Questions & Comment (10 minutes)

This session acts as a buffer of the workshop and enables speakers to quickly respond to the sharings or presentations of other speakers. We believe it will help form the ground for the discussion in the next agenda item. Attendees can also ask a few questions if the audience believes it is a critical point in shaping the direction of the open-floor discussion.

Open-floor Discussion (30 minutes)

Moderator will continue the session by opening the floor for questions and comments to spark up the discussion. The comments, responses or questions do not have to point to the speakers only but everyone in the workshop.

Q&A and Wrap-up (10 minutes)

Moderators to summarize the discussion and wrap up the session.

Andrea Saks -  ITU JCA-AHF - Opening remarks

Lidia Best – National Association of Deafened People "Hearing loss and the pandemic"

Fernando Botelho – f123.org " Failure is always an option"

Shadi Abou Zahra – W3C "Webs accessibility"

Masahito Kawamori – Keio University "The use of Video Remote Interpretation (VRI) during COVID-19".

Christopher Lee – G3ict  " Digital Accessibility Rights Evaluation Index (DARE)

Q&A session

Andrea Saks - Closing remarks

The proposed workshop is a 60-minute roundtable discussion. The agenda is as follows: 

1. Introduction in which each speaker will present their strategies, approaches and practical solutions to empower the voices of (young) women online (8-10 minutes per speaker) 

2. Plenary Q&A after the presentations (5 minutes) 

3. Recap of presentations by the moderator (5 minutes) 

4. Continued discussion between moderator and speakers (10 minutes) 

5. Synthesis of key take-aways and conclusions (5 minutes) 

• Introduction to the workshop (David Wright)
• Openning speech Prof. Mirosław Filiciak "Human - media practices in the digital age with the special focus on digital life in the shadows of pandemia 
• Anna Rywczyńska "The Digital Family - various models of interaction with the digital technology" 
• Janice Richardson "Digital practices in the time of Covid-19" 
• dr Anna Kalinowska "The technologies of self as identity adjustment tool in the dis (connected) reality" 
• Panel debate with speakers
• Philippine Balmadier - young expert comment on the debate outcomes 
• Q&A session with the online audience participation

Mediation (90 minutes) The mediation will begin with the moderator/mediator’s opening speech that will touch the challenges and possible solution models to the open and affordable access to academic databases posed by intellectual property rights of both database owners and authors. Then, the moderator will introduce the mediating parties (speakers in the list below). The presentation delivered by each speaker will focus on the interest in academic databases as a particular stakeholder group and their recommended solutions and will help the audience to better understand the expectations of mediating parties (speakers). The speakers will represent government, private sector, civil society and the youth’s approach to open academic databases. In particular, the session audience will have an opportunity to listen to the perspective of the private sector and state authority on copyright protection, Creative Commons organization, and the youth on open access to databases. The first two speeches will be followed by a Q&A session for 5 minutes from the online audience who will contribute to the mediation by their questions. The mediation will follow the same structure with the remaining two speakers. After the speeches, there will be another Q/A session for 5 minutes. Following the Q/A, the Moderator/Mediator will invite the mediating parties to the breakout discussion rooms (two in each room) to mediate. Group 1 will include Government and Civil Society, and Group 2 will include Youth and Private Sector. The breakout discussions will last 10 minutes, and the mediating groups will present their common points in 5 minutes each. During the breakout discussions, the moderator will invite the audience to the coffee break or discussion among themselves in the chat. After the presentations, finally, the moderator with the help of rapporteur will collect all common points and add them in a final document which will symbolically be called “A Resolution Agreement”. The session will continue with the symbolic signature ceremony of the agreement by parties which will reflect the agreed policy, and conclude with the moderator’s closing remarks.

Distinctively, this session will introduce a solution-oriented approach by not only listening to the speakers from different interests but trying to mediate them to reach a deal. The session is nurtured from the practical advantages of mediation methodology, which means that by mediation the session will reach its purpose of finding tangible outputs on open databases that will serve the interests of all stakeholder groups. The methodology will make the speakers think more practical and solution-oriented. The moderator will play a key role in facilitating discussions and bringing the parties closer.
The intended agenda of the session is as follows:

Opening speech by Moderator/Mediator - 10 minutes
The 1st Speaker (Private Sector) - 10 minutes
The 2nd Speaker (Civil Society) - 10 minutes
Q&A Session - 5 minutes
The 3rd Speaker (Youth) - 10 minutes
The 4th Speaker (Government) - 10 minutes
Q&A Session - 5 minutes
Breakout Discussion for Speakers (two in each room - two rooms) - 10 minutes
Presentation of the Group 1 (Private Sector and Civil Society) - 5 minutes
Presentation of Group 2 (Youth and Government) - 5 minutes
Closing speech and comments by Moderator/Mediator - 5 minutes
Symbolic Ceremony of Signature of Resolution Agreement - 5 minutes.