Identity for the next 1.5 Billion!!
Identity for the next 1.5 Billion
Wednesday 5I Convener: Mei Lin Fung
Notes-taker(s): Jason Wong
Tags for the session - technology discussed/ideas considered:
Discussion notes, key understandings, outstanding questions, observations, and, if appropriate to this discussion: action items, next steps:
Spirited and positive discussion. A big deal – it’s happening. Empowering individuals thru access to the Internet will equalize individuals with knowledge. There are multiple models – stakeholders, governments, financing organizations – identity will play a role in some and not in others. Doc Searls
Observation – there are 50 Identity shops here at IIW. The space is evolving. How identity plays with Internet Access is going to be interesting.
Question - How will this last past the current political administration?
MLF: IEEE-World Bank have committed to 10 meetings over the next five years on the sidelines of the IMF/World Bank Spring and Fall Meetings, to track getting 1.5 Billion on line so that an investment in the Internet is an investment in People. Civil servants are working with us to assure continuity through election period. I got to know most of them through 2009-2013 when I worked on the Federal Health Futures initiative under the US DoD UnderSecretary (Health Affairs)
Doc - Mei Lin is working on this with serious players like Vint Cerf, looks like it has an actual chance of succeeding.
Participants (these signed in)
Jason Wong jdwongmd@gmail.com
Bryan Pon, Caribou Digital bryan@cariboudigital.net
Timothy Ruff, Evernym timothy@evernym.com
Maria Vachino, JHU/APL Maria.Vachino@jhuapl.edu
Bill Jesswein bjesswein@me.com
George Sammau, Meeco.me George.sammau@gmail.com
Joyce and Doc Searls joyce@searls.com doc@searls.com
Kailya kaliya@mac.com
Peter Simpson IRespond.org peter@irespond.org
Gary Zimmerman Respect Network garyz@respect.network
Scott Shelton Scottshelton314@gmail.com
Jason Law (not present, wants notes) Jason@evernym.com
Jeffrey Schwartz (not present, wants notes) flack@flackhacker.com
Drummond Reed(not present, wants notes) drummond@respect.network
MLF shared People Centered Internet Principles – developed in October at Stanford with the World Bank co-author of the World Bank Develpoment Report (WDR 2016) on Digital Dividends with participation by representatives from Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, Colombia, Singapore, India, Costa Rica and local SV community. Principles were taken by Vint Cerf and Manu Bhardwaj of the State Dept to the Internet Governance Forum and these spurred more ideas, published by IGF.
At meetings organized by State Dept under the www.share.america.gov/globalconnect initiative, an agreement was announced to follow through on connecting the next 1.5 Billion by having 10 meetings convened by the IEEE and the World Bank. The first was held April 13 and attracted an over flow crowd of 160 +. IEEE has 425,000 members in 160 countries, their mission is Advancing Humanity and they have a volunteer organization IEEE Sight and members who can be involved in bringing the Internet to the next 1.5 Billion.
The People Centered Internet has been tapped by the State Dept and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to work with IEEE and the World Bank to move the initiative forward. There is broad support for the principles of PCI – and in this session, we did a rough poll of the people in the session to see what they were supportive of – in order to get a sense of where the audience was in terms of interest. (poll done early before rest of participants joined)
- Complete universal Internet coverage that enables functionality that is otherwise unreachable or ineffective 5 votes
- The Internet is affordable, open, available and accessible to all 3.5 votes
- Fosters digital literacy, local content in local language to achieve widespread usage and increased value to people, families, communities and countries 4 votes
- The system achieves a level of trust that meets the users’ expectations of affordability, privacy, safety 5 votes
- The quantity and quality of educational and information services is increasingly available to families and communities 4 votes
- Anyone can contribute to improvement of the utility of the global Internet. 3 votes
- Personal information in the digital environment is protected by law and controlled by the individual 6 votes
Ideas proposed by Mei Lin – Use the IMF/World Bank Forum and with the technical expertise of the World Bank and others, to drive new people centered measures to assure desired outcomes are achieved. The Principles above used to determine which projects People Centered Internet will get involved with and drive to get funded. ie People Centered internet acts as a broker to connect “good for people” projects to funding that is supposed to be “good for people”. This works alongside complementing and diverting existing funding (aid and investment) streams, with the support and encouragement: US government Roadmap and engagement of global players. Global Players commitments to immediately direct up to $20billion for this initiative, the US agencies who will be involved in directing lending and aid
Use the global initiative which will involve $450 billion in spending from now to 2020, to require capital investment in the Internet to use the Internet as a measurement instrument to demonstrate that lives are being improved.
People Centered Internet
Approach 1: Evidence based, data driven feedback and act to improve human lives
Approach 2: Project human outcomes (at population level and individual): Track to see if achieved, adjust and Iterate
Issues raised
- We are doubling down on technology –problems already – need socio/anthro arts and sciences not just tech
- Nigeria has 12 identity schemes, none of which have more than 25% coverage- Bryan Pon Caribou Digital
- India digital ID has 1 billion identities but not connected to legal credentials - Kaliya
- China – Social Credit Score by 2020 – Mei Lin
- You can have Identity without the Internet – Timothy Ruff – Evernym
- Smart Card
- SMS
- MPesa
- UN Sustainable Development Goals 16.9 require identity – too Constrained – George Sammau
- drown by bureaucratic rules – aim for pre set objectives – no room for course correction – eg World Bank and UN
- Global Connect is an end-run around existing development organizations, matching countries directly with funders (Multilateral banks and private financing) = real competition for World Bank, IMF, WHO to show results in improving people lives
Types of Identity that we discussed
- Legal
- Not Legal
- Squishy – evolving and changing, and different depending on who you are or when you ask them
- Bio metric ID – iRespond.org has a biometric default identity being used by global public health to track health records for immigrants in border situations – photo of eyes and you are identified.
- Province of British Colombia has a great system, combining drivers license with health care cards.
- Wifi Squares in Cuba are providing crowd access
Recommended Reading “After Access” by Jonathan Donner - MIT Press
Almost anyone with a $40 mobile phone and a nearby cell tower can get online with an ease unimaginable just twenty years ago. An optimistic narrative has proclaimed the mobile phone as the device that will finally close the digital divide. Yet access and effective use are not the same thing, and the digital world does not run on mobile handsets alone. In After Access, Jonathan Donner examines the implications of the shift to a more mobile, more available Internet for the global South, particularly as it relates to efforts to promote socioeconomic development and broad-based inclusion in the global information society.
Drawing on his own research in South Africa and India, as well as the burgeoning literature from the ICT4D (Internet and Communication Technologies for Development) and mobile communication communities, Donner introduces the “After Access Lens,” a conceptual framework for understanding effective use of the Internet by those whose “digital repertoires” contain exclusively mobile devices. Donner argues that both the potentialities and constraints of the shift to a more mobile Internet are important considerations for scholars and practitioners interested in Internet use in the global South.
Bottom Line:
We have an opportunity to Disrupt Identity by working with the “pre-enfranchised” the 3 out of 5 people who are not yet connected to the Internet
Credit - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_innovation
Contact Mei Lin Fung mlf@alum.mit.edu if you have a project in a country whose finance minister is willing to propose it. Currently many countries are up to their debt limits set by the IMF – it is possible that Internet projects under Global Connect could warrant special consideration.
Final note – Action Taken!
Pete of iRespond and Mei Lin will work on a project in Myanmar and go after funding under Global Connect for health access and treatment for border immigrants.
