Over 170 Civil Society Groups Worldwide Oppose Plans for a Big Tech Dominated Body for Global Digital Governance
Just Net Coalition, along with more than 170 civil society groups addressed an Open Letter to the UN Secretary General urging him to shelve plans for a High Level Multistakeholder Body which, if set up, can be expected to become the default apex global digital governance and policy body. This body is to be privately funded, with strong hints…
Call for Proposals: The First Annual Conference of a Platform Governance Research Network
In collaboration with the Data and Society Research Institute, the Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), and others, IT for Change is co-organizing the first Annual Conference of the Platform Governance Research Network, which will take place from March 24 to 26, 2021. The three-day online conference seeks to bring together an…
Tech Practice and Policy in a Post-Covid World – Developing Civil Society Agendas
IT for Change is excited to announce its new project, Tech Practice and Policy in a Post-Covid World – Developing Civil Society Agendas, funded by the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC).
Digital technology is proliferating with ever-increasing rapidity owing to the pandemic. As the extent to which it is poised to…
IT for Change's Response to the DoT Consultation Paper on the AI Stack
IT for Change responded to the Department of Telecom's (DoT) consultation paper on the Artificial Intelligence Stack released by its AI Standardization Committee in September 2020.
ITfC appreciates the DoT's initiative in taking steps in artificial intelligence (AI) governance by recognising the…
Future of Rights and Citizenship in the Digital Age
Future of Rights and Citizenship in the Digital Age seeks to identify and address challenges emerging from increased usage of data and algorithms in society. Supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada, this project will undertake systematic, evidence-based research and advocacy towards a citizen-oriented framework…
A Digital New Deal: Visions of Justice in a Post-Covid World
The Covid pandemic has starkly visibilized the underlying inequality and injustice of the global economic paradigm. It has not only exposed the cumulative failings of the neoliberal order, but also testified to the inevitability of crisis and catastrophe inherent to it. IT for Change participated in the project, 'A Digital New Deal: Visions of…
Treating Data as Commons
The Gopalakrishnan Committee set up by the government on developing a governance framework for non-personal data recently put out its draft report for public consultation. The report's main purpose is to ensure wide sharing and availability of data in society. To ensure that companies share the required data, it was found necessary to develop…
A Plan for Indian Self-Sufficiency in an AI-Driven World
Ensuring wide data availability may help India develop its AI industry and avoid external dependence.
Geo-political and economic power in the industrial age was determined by one's expertise in manufacturing. In a digital society, it's likely to be based on command over artificial intelligence (AI). As an information age takes over,…
Data is an Economic Resource. GK Committee Report Shows How Its Value Can Be Shared, Governed
Data is almost universally recognised as the most valuable economic resource today. Seven out of the top 10 companies globally by market capitalisation are data-centric. In these circumstances, it appears strange that there has hardly been any worthwhile attempt to look at who has economic rights to various kinds of data, and how these rights…
Breaking Up Big Tech: Separation of its Data, Cloud and Intelligence Layers
IT for Change's paper on 'Breaking Up Big Tech: Separation of its Data, Cloud and Intelligence Layers' for the Data Governance Network argues that traditional competition frameworks are inadequate to addressing the rapidly building digital power concentration. These need to be combined with perspectives from technology governance that focus on…