WEBCAST OCT 24 – Digital Multilateralism After the UN Summit of the Future

On Thursday, October 24, 2024, at 11:00-12:30 EDT (15:00-16:30 UTC), the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information, as part of its Global Digital Governance series, presents a webinar ‘Digital Multilateralism After the UN Summit of the Future‘.

Governments assembled at the United Nations’ September 2024 Summit of the Future adopted a Pact for the Future that pledges “a new beginning in multilateralism” and to “transform global governance.” Annexed to the Pact is a Global Digital Compact intended to apply these general aspirations to global digital governance. The Pact and its digital annex have been described by the UN and some others as achieving desperately needed reforms that strengthens the UN’s ability to help manage both longstanding global challenges and new issues raised by the information revolution. In the digital sphere, this includes nods to the importance of multistakeholder input, the launch of new collaborations on artificial intelligence and other issues, and the creation of a New York office charged with leading UN system-wide coordination of digital cooperation.

The time is ripe to assess what was achieved by the Pact and its digital annex, how the agreement may be implemented, and what it could mean for the future. Does it point to a transformative new beginning for digital multilateralism? Can its institutional innovations overcome the geopolitical tensions and rivalries that have confounded so many previous digital governance efforts in the UN? How will the new arrangements mesh with the digital policy work underway in UN specialized agencies and other intergovernmental organizations? How might they impact key processes that have more multistakeholder support, like the upcoming reviews of the World Summit on the Information Society agreements and the Internet Governance Forum’s mandate? Will the UN New York begin to accommodate meaningful multistakeholder participation in its efforts?

This webinar will facilitate open dialogue on these and related questions. A panel of expert participants in global digital governance processes will lead off. The rest of the session will be devoted to a conversation among all interested attendees.

The session is simulcast live under the auspices of the Internet Society New York Chapter (ISOC-NY).

INTRODUCTION
Eli Noam, Director, Columbia Institute for Tele-Information, Columbia Business School.

PANEL
Fiona M. Alexander – Distinguished Policy Strategist in Residence,School of International Service / Distinguished Fellow, Internet Governance Lab, American University
Anriette Esterhuysen – Senior Advisor for Internet Governance, Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
Wolfgang Kleinwächter – Professor Emeritus of International Communication Policy and Regulation, University of Aarhus.

MODERATOR
William J. Drake, Director of International Studies, Columbia Institute for Tele-Information

LIVESTREAM http://livestream.com/internetsociety/citi-multilateralism

PARTICIPATE VIA ZOOM https://bit.ly/48aJJQt

REAL TIME TEXT (See ISOC.LIVE)

TWITTER #digitalmultilateralism @wjdrake @Elinoam Wolfgang Kleinwächter @fionamalexander Anriette Esterhuysen @Columbia_Biz #internetgovernance #gdc

MASTODON  #digitalmultilateralism

SIMULCASTS
https://www.twitter.com/ISOC_Live/
https://www.twitch.tv/isoclive
https://www.facebook.com/liveisoc/ (AI Captions)

ARCHIVE
https://archive.org/details/citi-multilateralism