Session 2 Agenda

Session 2: Digital Self-Determination- An Approximation

Thursday March 25

8am-10am (EDT/Boston Time)

This session introduces the concept of digital-self determination and explores its purpose and use in different contexts, highlighting examples from ongoing policy debates and initiatives. It will also discuss how digital self-determination relates to concepts such as digital autonomy, digital sovereignty, etc. The session seeks to create a working definition of concept and it’s dimensions or facets.

Pre-session Materials

If you have time, please read at least one of these and skim the other or at least read the abstract to get a sense of the piece.

  • Susser, D. & Roessler, B. & Nissenbaum, H. (2019). Technology, autonomy, and manipulation. Internet Policy Review, 8(2). https://doi.org/10.14763/2019.2.1410

  • Weinberg L., (2017) “Rethinking Privacy: A Feminist Approach to Privacy Rights after Snowden”, Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 12(3). p.5-20. doi: https://doi.org/10.16997/wpcc.258

Agenda

8am: Welcome: Lis Sylvan

  • Overview

  • Participant Videos

8:10am: Digital Self-Determination: An Overview: Wolfgang Schulz

8:30am: Topic Dives

  • Beyond autonomy and agency, repositioning digital self determination: Mark Findlay & Nydia Remolina

  • Ethics and Autonomy enabled by community: Sabelo Mhlambi,

  • Data sovereignty: Lorrayne Porciuncula & Bertrand De La Chapelle

9:00am: 5 minute break

9:05am: Participant Videos, Speakers, & Questions

9:25am: Breakout with Speakers

9:50am: Summary Perspective: Malavika Jayaram

9:55am: Wrap up and next steps: Lis Sylvan


Resources for Further Consideration

  • Nussbaum (Nussbaum M (2011) Creating Capabilities. The Human Development Approach. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. )

Assignment

For this week, we will be building out an annotated bibliography that will help us assess what research is out there and what we might want to use for developing a robust entry on Wikipedia on Digital Self-Determination. For more information and details, check out this collaborative document.

You should add your contributions by 12pm (EDT/Boston time) on Tuesday, March 30th.

Speaker Bios

Malavika Jayaram

Malavika is the inaugural Executive Director of Digital Asia Hub, a Hong Kong-based independent research think-tank incubated by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, where she is also a Faculty Associate. A technology lawyer for over 15 years, she practised law at Allen & Overy, London, and was Vice President and Technology Counsel at Citigroup. She was featured in the International Who’s Who of Internet e-Commerce & Data Protection Lawyers, and voted one of India’s leading lawyers.


Sabelo Mhlambi

Sabelo Mhlambi is the founder of Bantucracy a public interest organization that focuses on ubuntu ethics and technology, a Technology & Human Rights Fellow at Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, and a Fellow at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society. Mhlambi's work is at the intersection of human rights, ethics, culture, and technology and emphasizes global south perspectives in AI policy.


In particular, Mr Mhlambi's research examines the human rights implications of algorithmic technology on marginalized communities and proposes a new ethical framework for governing the creation and use of Artificial Intelligence in ways that maximize social progress and harmony. Mhlambi's work broadens the conversation on Ethics and AI by introducing non-western frameworks for examining the effects automated decision making technology and has been used to advise African governments on Ethical AI policy. Mr Mhlambi's work is also supplemented by more than a decade building large scale software systems, which include Natural Language Processing for African languages, open-source anti-censorship software, and content recommendation systems.


Lorrayne Porciuncula

Lorrayne Porciuncula is the Director of the Data & Jurisdiction Program of the Internet & Jurisdiction Policy Network. Her professional and academic experience has been focused on issues around data, Internet governance, infrastructure regulation, and communication policy. Prior to joining the Internet & Jurisdiction Policy Network, she worked at the OECD (2014-2020) as the Strategic Advisor for Digital Economy Policy, coordinating issues related to data governance, artificial intelligence, and blockchain, and leading the production of several reports and country studies related to connectivity, infrastructure regulation, technology convergence, and inclusion.


Lorrayne has acted as the OECD focal point and speaker at high-level international meetings and fora such as the IGF, UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development (UN-BBCom), APT, UN-ESCAP, ECLAC, and EQUALS. Prior to the OECD, Lorrayne worked as an economist at the ITU, in the Secretariat of the UN-BBCom (2012-2014). Lorrayne is an affiliate to the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, conducting research on data for development. She holds a Master's degree in Development Economics from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID), Switzerland, and an International Relations bachelor's degree from the University of Brasilia (UnB), Brazil.


Wolfgang Schulz

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz is director of the Hans-Bredow-Institut for Media Research and has the university professorship "Media Law and Public Law including Theoretical Foundations” at the Faculty of Law at Universität Hamburg. In February 2012, he was also appointed director at Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society in Berlin.


Wolfgang Schulz is a member of the Committee of Experts on Internet Intermediaries (MSI-NET) of the European Council and has been elected chairman thereof. He is also chairman of the expert committee “Information and Communication” and, thus, board member of the German Commission for UNESCO. Furthermore, he will serve on the advisory board of the Law & Technology Centre of Hong Kong University.


His work emphasises the freedom of communication, problems of legal regulation with regard to media contents, questions of law in new media, above all in digital television, and the legal bases of journalism, but also the jurisprudential bases of freedom of communication and the implications of the changing public sphere on law.


Nydia Remolina

Nydia Remolina is a Research Associate at the SMU Centre for AI and Data Governance and Adjunct Faculty at Singapore Management University. Her main areas of work and academic research include financial regulation, capital markets, banking law, fintech, digital ethics, AI governance, and the intersection of law and technology. She has taught or delivered lectures at several institutions in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Nydia has been an instructor for the Global Certificate Program jointly organized by Harvard Law School and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and has been invited to speak about fintech and financial regulation at various international organizations and regulators, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Nydia has also acted as a Senior Advisor to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and she worked at Sullivan & Cromwell’s New York Office. Nydia has a Master in the Science of Law (JSM) from Stanford University and has graduate studies in Economics, Finance and Computer Science from the International University of Andalusia.


Elisabeth Sylvan

Elisabeth Sylvan is the Managing Director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Most recently Lis ran her own consulting practice through which she created programs for learning in makerspaces, digital citizenship, and data literacy. Her clients included Stanford Graduate School of Education, the Bay Area Discovery Museum, the Computer History Museum, The Lynch School at Boston College, and the Silicon Valley Education Foundation. Before she was a full-time consultant, Lis was the Vice President of Education at The Tech Museum in Silicon Valley (now The Tech Interactive), a Fellow and Director of Learning and Community at the opensource science tools nonprofit, Manylabs, and a Research Scientist at the education R&D firm, TERC.


Lis has a Master's and PhD from the MIT Media Lab, where her work addressed how sociotechnical systems support shared knowledge and group action, and a BS in Psychology from Carnegie Mellon University.