October Update: Message from Mei Lin
Dear Internauts,
I have some exciting news to share this month, but first, I want to take a trip back in time: Just over 50 years ago in 1969, the first two nodes of the Internet were connected. This would begin a long series of innovations, like the TCP/IP specification developed by our PCI co-founder, Vint Cerf and the vision of Douglas Engelbart’s “Mother of all Demos.” People-Centered Internet was founded in 2015 in the same spirit of “participation by all” to ensure the Internet continues to be “a force for good in the world.”
Last year’s Internet Governance Forum in Berlin catalyzed a new area of focus for PCI on “Digital Cooperation and Diplomacy,” supporting the recommendations of the United Nations’ High Level Panel. Fabrizio Hochschild, Doreen Bogdan, Vint Cerf, Hinrich Thoelken, and I envisioned an informal network of those working to augment traditional diplomacy with the connections that technology enables and building on the spirit that energized the original spread of the Internet in the 1980s and ’90s.
PCI to Co-produce [email protected] Conference
Palo Alto, CA, Sept. 23, 2020 — People-Centered Internet, a California-based 501(c)3 organization with a mission to “put humanity at the center of the Internet,” is co-hosting [email protected], and Mei Lin Fung is Chairing the Opening Day. Our Founding Chair, Vint Cerf will be part of the event from 8 to 10 a.m. and make closing remarks at 9:45 am Eastern.
The event is free to attend and kicks off with Digital Cooperation and Diplomacy Day on Thursday, Sept. 24 and closes on Oct. 2. As part of the celebration of the United Nations’ 75th Anniversary, speakers from across the globe will usher in a new era for a personal commitment to acting on science, technology, and art in an interconnected and interdependent way.
The goal of the dialogues is to shift the culture of science to be more human, and to share our hopes and inspiration so that each of our actions on the micro scale will lead to a macro effect.
The Digital Cooperation and Diplomacy Day session is divided into three acts: The Art of Learning, The Art of Health, and The Science of Thriving. Dozens of leaders from across the public and private sector will present their perspectives on how to bring art and humanity to the center of progress. Their expertise and priorities will help guide forward the vision and priorities for executing on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
People-Centered Internet is uniquely positioned to co-host this event by leveraging changemakers and resources from across sectors and nations — all while keeping our people-centered vision at the heart of the conversation.
The culmination of the event is a call to action for volunteers to “Connect to Thrive” and bring expertise and resources to this momentous effort. PCI encourages attendees to use the hashtag #Connect2Thrive to tune into updates and conversation.
Examining the 2020 U.S. Election with David Becker
Becker’s message for Americans headed into the 2020 election is threefold: voter fraud is low and election security is improving, but the real threat — a growing mistrust in U.S. election outcomes — remains.
“It’s highly unlikely the Russians and others are trying to infiltrate our systems in an undetected way to change election results,” Becker said. “What we know they’re trying to do is to delegitimize our elections and to reduce our confidence in our elections.”
“It’s highly unlikely the Russians and others are trying to infiltrate our systems in an undetected way to change election results,” Becker said. “What we know they’re trying to do is to delegitimize our elections and to reduce our confidence in our elections.” “The Russians and others aren’t trying to infiltrate our systems in an undetected way to change election results,” Becker said. “What they’re trying to do is to delegitimize our elections and to reduce our confidence in our elections.”
Connecting Kenya: A Conversation with Bitange Ndemo
Ndemo is known as a pioneer for Internet access in Kenya. He led the establishment of TEAMS, the fiber optic cable system from Mombasa to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, linking Kenya to the rest of the world. The history of the effort to create TEAMS, it turns out, relied on government investment and trust for Ndemo’s vision.
Matthew Rantanen Honored with Public Knowledge IP3 Award
“The recognition is an honor, and this time more so, because I share it with my good friend, Geoffrey Blackwell,” Rantanen said. “The greatest benefit is bringing more focus to the work we do in Indian Country.”
Mei Lin Gives Remarks at WSIS Forum 2020
Today digital technology brings perils as well as promise. Connecting the schools safely means regulators have to assure that technologies Do No Harm. I commend the ITU for #Reg4Covid and in 2019 WSIS, Regulators on the digital frontier spoke about the importance of “share and learn” together in Regional (cross border) networks. National implementations can be improved by sharing breakthroughs and building on lessons learned by neighbors. Regulatory learning networks are needed to keep up with rapid change and the constant cyber attacks. Regional networks are also key to designing regional infrastructure built on common digital building blocks (Appendix 1) This can decrease by ten-fold the cost of health, education, social support systems. I know because I am from Singapore where this strategy has been underway for 2 decades with huge cost savings. Singapore is also the home of the DQ Institute – Digital Quotient – recognized by OECD, IEEE and others for assessing child and adult digital literacy.
August Update: Message from Mei Lin
As we come to understand that our interactions with each other will continue to be primarily “virtual” for many months ahead, I find myself returning to the idea that friendship and empathy fueled the start and the success of the early Internet. I recently had the privilege of addressing the World Summit on the Information Society, where I emphasized that the future of the Internet must follow a similar path, with leaders prioritizing equity and “do no harm” policies in their shaping and design of new and old systems.
July Update: Message from Mei Lin
Some have called this time of COVID-19 our “World Wide Pause.” For some of us — especially in the United States, Russia, India, and Brazil, where cases continue to rise — the pause is lasting longer than we could have imagined, while our friends in New Zealand, China, and many in the European Union cautiously reopen.
In the midst of these unique circumstances, we joined the world in marking the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, which was signed in San Francisco on June 26th, 1945. The preamble to the UN charter establishes what can still, to this day, be rightly called one of the most ambitious visions for the world on behalf of “We the Peoples of the United Nations.” Of course, the signatories could hardly have imagined a time when half the world would be digitally connected with the ability to instantly share experiences and information, or the challenges that would bring.
PCI Celebrates the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations
Watch as PCI celebrates the 75th birthday of the UN. We asked, in a time of plague, poverty and protest, can people and the UN join together to Connect, Protect, Respect?
Building a resilience ecosystem in Puerto Rico
In 2018, following the devastation of hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico, People-Centered Internet fielded a team of experts, working with the RAND Corporation, to offer recommendations for leveraging the Internet for the archipelago’s recovery plan. This initiative followed extensive disaster response work by PCI community member, Melvin Cordova, through his “Project Coqui.” PCI team members — including Marci Harris, Mei Lin Fung, and Lin Wells — traveled multiple times to Puerto Rico to engage with local business leaders, innovators, academics, and policymakers. They also participated in a knowledge-exchange trip, organized by Mei Lin Fung, for leaders from Puerto Rico to visit Singapore and engage with their counterparts in business, government, and academia to learn from Singapore’s post-colonial transformation. PCI’s work culminated in 11 recommendations (courses of action or “COAs”) for leveraging federal programs and private resources for Puerto Rico’s recovery and were included in the plan submitted to Congress.
Towards a people-centred Internet in Africa
This is the first article in which PCI appeared, written in 2015 by Bitange Ndemo in Business Daily Africa.
PCI launches new Digital Cooperation and Diplomacy Initiative
As PCI’s leaders remind us every day, the Internet was created by people, to connect people. This people-centered, cooperative essence permeates its history and at PCI, we want it to guide its future. Today, with the launch of our new Digital Cooperation and Diplomacy Initiative, PCI is committing to continuing on that path. By creating worldwide connections, facilitating critical conversations to solve today’s problems, and designing and imagining a people-centered future of the Internet, PCI’s new DCD Initiative seeks to follow in the footsteps of the originators of the Internet and harness their spirit of cooperation for a new age of connectedness.