On 3 December 2021, EWA-BELT presented its results at the XXI Infopoverty World Conference, an annual UN Flagship Event organised by OCCAM, the Observatory on Digital Communication affiliated with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. Due to the pandemic, this year the Conference took place online and will be livestreamed on the UN Webcast.
The Heads of State and Government of the G20 countries just gathered in Rome and Glasgow to discuss on the importance of common actions to better address today's pressing challenges and ensure inclusive and sustainable growth for future generations. In this context, channeling the urgency of a transversal synergy of efforts, the XXI Infopoverty World Conference concretely address edall the emergencies and tensions that the transition presents by its nature while proposing a convergence of different disciplines and emphasizing the ability of the Digital Society to acquire a more accurate view on the current and future situations.
Where is the Digital Revolution leading us to? What kind of society will emerge from this process?
The theme of transition is now on the agenda of many. To define it, the latest generation of digital devices, new codes and languages that connect individuals at every level, canceling the space-time dimension are employed. As such, humanity is increasingly transitioning towards a parallel digital world where a new and still unknown digital habitat, whose paradigms must be codified and understood, is prevailing over the traditional one.
This process however comes with risks of neglecting the contemporary dimension, where threats of all kinds are present, first among others the environmental one. The climate emergency requires radical and substantial change to achieve a zero-impact society. Will it be possible to move from a vision of accumulating to a vision of doing? In this context, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Faircoin could be taken into consideration as, together with the growing data flows, they could open up new opportunities in international trade, weakening the physical and financial boundaries between countries and pushing for ever greater collaborations as long as the Big Tech industries feel generous enough to allow for a new form of multilateralism.
In these scenarios, appreciating the historicity of the event that has promoted the continuous progress of a Digital Revolution that is realizing its Entelechia, thus reaching its highest level of self-realization, the XXI Infopoverty World Conference was be The forum to discover and disseminate new solutions and best practices to solve the great challenges of the future. In the wake of past successes, OCCAM renewed its commitment to guarantee universal accessibility to basic e-services – telemedicine, e-learning, e-governance and digital participation – in view of an e-welfare for all. To demonstrate this responsibility, the discussion paid particular attention to food security, a sector in which OCCAM is active with several projects through the Infopoverty Programme in disadvantaged communities in Africa (including UN Millennium Village in Sambaina, Madagascar) and as a partner of the EWA-BELT project in the context of the EU Horizon2020 Programme.
A joint effort aimed at defining a more equitable and inclusive digital society is necessary and dutiful.
How do you contribute to building a fairer and more inclusive Digital Society? How to clean the Web and avoid injustice, data breaches and "Algocracy"? How to implement e-services for a WebFare for all? Is a "Weblateralism" possible?
Each of us is called upon to contribute and act to provide adequate answers and lay the foundations that will feed the telos of an imminent digital society.
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