IGF 2018 WS #186 Local content: a unique opportunity for underserved regions

Information

Session

Thematic Track:

Topic(s):

Organizer 1: Intergovernmental Organization, African Group
Organizer 2: Civil Society, African Group

Speaker 1: BETTY FAUSTA, Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 2: Tijani BEN JEMAA, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 3: Mona Al Ashkar, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 4: Destiny Tchéhouali, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Format:

Birds of a Feather - 90 Min

Interventions:

This session format doesn’t require any presentation or speech preparation; it will be an open discussion moderated by the onsite moderator with the support of the online moderator for remote participation. But we invited discussants who have already addressed the topic of local content with different approaches and different experiences to participate in the debate providing their perspectives and lessens learned so far. Special attention will be given to remote participation. All participants (physical attendees, remote participants and discussants) will be treated equally. The onsite moderator introduces the topic at the beginning of the session, and summarize the debate at the end before closing.

Diversity:

• Organizers o The 2 organizers are from developing counties (Haiti & Tunisia) o Geographically diverse (GRULAC and Africa) o One of them is a young (29 years old) o One is from Civil Society, the other is from International Organizations o Gender balanced (a Woman & a Man) • Speakers/Discussants o 2 Women and 2 Men o from different geographic regions (Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America & Caribbean and North America) even if they are mostly from developing countries o From various stakeholder groups (Civil Society, Technical community, Private sector, Academia) • Moderators o Onsite moderator is a woman from Africa, Government o Online moderator is a young man (31 years old) from Europe, Academia • Rapporteur o A woman from Europe In total, 9 diverse persons will be involved as organizers, speakers, moderators and rapporteur. • Gender: (5) women & (4) Men • Regions: (3) Africa, (1) Asia Pacific, (2) Europe, (2) LAC region and (1) North America • Stakeholder: (1) Government, (1) Private Sector, (1) Civil Society, (2) International Organization, (3) Academia and (1) Technical community. • Youth: (2) young and (7) adults

Since the format of the session is a Birds of a feather (BoF), it will be a spontaneous debate among all attendees with no panelists or speakers. But to stimulate the discussion, we prepared 4 discussants (subject matter experts) who will intervene when needed, without any priority. The moderator will introduce the topic and open the floor. Remote participants will be treated equally with the physical participants. The discussion will be about Why and how local content in local languages would bring growth for developing countries, what kind of content, how it can affect the daily life of the grass-root population, etc. Each time the moderator finds the queue empty, he gives the floor to one of the discussants. The discussant can also ask for the floor, and they will put in the queue as any other participant. Draft Agenda: Introduction by the moderator (7 min) Open discussion by all (attendees, remote participants and discussants) (75 min) Discussion summary by the moderator (5 min) Closing by the moderator (3 min)

At the closure of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) November 2005, we were expecting that due to the vertiginous evolution of the technology, the digital divide between the global North and the global South will be narrowed if not eliminated through the usage of Internet, but today, we can observe that this evolution brought a real added value for the global North while it had a very small effect on the global south for several reasons (endogen and hexogen). The local content in local language is today a real opportunity for these underserved regions to have an identity on the net and more importantly to have an economic growth induced by the production of such content (literature, culture, Sciences, online applications, etc.). How these regions should take the opportunity? What are the barriers? Is there success stories?

Discussion Facilitation:

This session format doesn’t require any presentation or speech preparation; it will be an open discussion moderated by the onsite moderator with the support of the online moderator for remote participation. Discussants participate in the debate providing their perspectives and lessens learned so far. Special attention will be given to remote participation. All participants (physical attendees, remote participants and discussants) will be treated equally. The onsite moderator introduces the topic at the beginning of the session, and summarize the debate at the end before closing.

Online Participation:

Remote participants will be given all due attention. The trained remote moderator will take care of their interventions and advise the onsite moderator of any new remote intervention. There will be 2 mic queues: one for the in room attendees and another for the remote participants, and as long as there are people on both queues, the moderator will alternate between them.

Report:

IGF 2018 Report

“Local content: a unique opportunity for underserved regions”

- Session Title: Local content: a unique opportunity for underserved regions

- Date: 14 November 2018

- Time: 10:10 – 11:40

- Session Organizer:

Emmanuel ADJOVI , International Organization of La Francphonie

khouloud Dawahi, UN MYCG (Civil Society)

- Chair/Moderator:

In-person moderator: Christine Arida, NTRA, Egypt

Remote moderator: Komi Nuga, Academia

- Rapporteur/Notetaker: Rachida Fakhri, OIF

- List of Speakers and their institutional affiliations:

Since the session format was “ Birds of Feather ”, there weren’t “Speakers, but experts who contributed in the discussion giving their lightning and/or the result of their findings to frame the debate. They were:

Betty Fausta, CEO, IPEOS I-Solutions (Technical Community)
Tijani Ben Jemaa, Executive Director, Mediterranean Federation of Internet Associations (Civil Society)
Mona Al Ashkar, Professor, University of Beirut (Academia)
Destiny Tchehouali, Quebec University, Montreal (Academia)

- Key Issues raised (1 sentence per issue):

Underserved regions don’t produce local content in local languages for the use of the population at the grassroots’ level.
Lack of reliable and affordable connection in these regions is a barrier for the development and the use of local content.
Insufficient national public policy support to the production and the dissemination of the local content

- If there were presentations during the session, please provide a 1-paragraph summary for each presentation:

There were no presentations during the session (birds of feather format).

- Please describe the Discussions that took place during the workshop session (3 paragraphs):

The moderator made a short introduction and then open the discussion that highlighted 4 aspects of the local content in local language for underserved regions and communities:

The need for local content created by the recent evolution of the Internet such as IPV6, new gTLDs, IDNs, that represent a unique opportunity for the underserved regions to develop local content in local languages conceived for the need of the populations.
Success stories from Lebanon concerning the production of local content that improves the quality of life of the citizens such as:
- Beirut Electricity: Alerts for regular breaks in Beirut
- Zawarib: a mapping application that helps Lebanese find addresses
- The game « Birdy Nam Nam »
- Dermandar: a photographique application
- Ya Maalem: to find artisans
- Eyes of Lebanon: real-time traffic around the capital
- Sukleen: the application of the group Averda to arrange the garbage collection
- Applications of gastronomy and tourism
Open Source Software for the development of local content:
- How Open Source can help local technical communities access cutting-edge tools in tight markets to produce local content. Open source promotes local expertise and makes technologies available to local pro communities
- the constraints of the Caribbean small island regions in Digitally enclaved environments (Broad Band is a scarce commodity). The professionals of these zones must be ingenious and erase the differences with the big cities of the world
The role that global digital platforms (Netflix, Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, etc.) play
- Concentration and lack of diversity in the global cultural offer
- issues and challenges related to the regulation of digital platforms, their business models, the transparency of their algorithms but also to the consideration of international cooperation and national public policies to support production and distribution of local content.
- Adaptation and renewal of cultural policies in the digital age.
- financing the production and dissemination of local / national content (especially digital cultural products),
- Regulatory or legislative measures to impose local content quotas on international VoD or VoD subscription platforms whose catalogs are dominated by foreign content, etc.).
- Need for an Internet governance that favors the emergence and development of cultural and linguistic diversity).

Unfortunately, the remote participation didn’t work due to a technical failure.

- Please describe any Participant suggestions regarding the way forward/potential next steps /key takeaways (3 paragraphs):

A participant suggested that Governments and private sector support financially the development and dissemination / distribution of local content in local languages by local youth.
Another highlighted the need for national strategies for digital transformation providing an enabling environment for the production of local content that eases the daily life of the local populations
An expert noted that the the Open Source can help local technical communities access cutting-edge tools to produce local content, and that it promotes local expertise and makes technologies available to local pro communities. She suggested that a special effort of capacity building be made for these local communities on the use of open source software in the development of local content.
A participant proposed that regulatory or legislative measures be taken to impose local content quotas on international VoD or VoD subscription platforms.

Gender Reporting

- Estimate the overall number of the participants present at the session:

There were approximately 40 participants in the room and at least 20 in the corridor (Small number of seats in the room and UNESCO staff prevent people from entering and stand around by the walls).

- Estimate the overall number of women present at the session:

Approximately 15 participants in the room were women. The panel itself was gender balanced, with 2 women and 2 men.

- To what extent did the session discuss gender equality and/or women’s empowerment?

- If the session addressed issues related to gender equality and/or women’s empowerment, please provide a brief summary of the discussion:

The session did not directly address issues related to gender equality and/or women’s empowerment.

Session Time:

Wednesday, 14 November, 2018 - 10:10 to 11:40 CET

Room:

Salle VII