IGF 2018 WS #284
Empowering citizens to participate in the governance process

Organizer 1: Jörn Erbguth, University of Geneva
Organizer 2: Kamberi Arvin, DiploFoundation
Organizer 3: Olga Duka, Zeus

Speaker 1: Olga Duka, Private Sector, Eastern European Group
Speaker 2: Walid Al-Saqaf, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 3: Kamberi Arvin, Civil Society, Eastern European Group
Speaker 4: Alpha 汪东艳, Private Sector, Asia-Pacific Group

Moderator

Jörn Erbguth

Online Moderator

Arvin Kamberi

Rapporteur

Olga Duka

Format

Round Table - 60 Min

Interventions

In a round table discussion different stakeholders will present their view on tools to empower citizens to self determine their governance, to participate in governance processes and desired regulation in order to preserve the power with traditional stake holders. Special emphasis is given to the question whether these DLT tools will permit an inclusive and equal access and participation of all citizens.

Diversity

The proposed speakers represent telecom and fintech industry, academia, civil society and private sector. 50% of the speakers are female. Speakers are from China, Yemen, Russia and Serbia

Participants in the session will be discussing how DLTs can support citizens and democratic participation in the governance process with a focus on balancing expertise needed for decision-making and enhancing the ability to participate in governance. The session aims at exploring how blockchain technology could offer means to support citizens and bypass traditional centralized systems of governance by moving from relying on third parties agency representation to a new form of governance where peers are empowered more directly.
A critical look into the areas that support citizens directly would be explored such as as: self-sovereign identity, economy for the unbanked, transparent supply chains, effective governmental fund tracking and coordination, quadratic voting and liquid democracy, Peer-to-Peer marketplaces, and alternate sources of funding (e.g., ICOs). This shall include alternatives for data verification for the population that is excluded from governance processes for different reasons. Application of transparency and blockchain immutability are limited by the need to preserve privacy.

Speaker will start with a 3 minutes introductory statement (15 min.). This is followed by a short first round of discussion (7 min.). After that 1-2 questions onsite and 1-2 questions online will be collected and discussed in a second round (15 min.). This will be repeated (15 min.). The session will resume with a final statement of participants (8 min.)

Citizen control of their data, digital identies and governance. Change of privacy paradigm. Distributed Ledger Technology Governance - Regtec. Financial inclusion to reach SDGs.

Online Participation

Online attendees will have a seperate queue and microphone. The online moderator will share responsability with the onsite moderator on an equal basis.