Session
Organizer 1: Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 1: Renata Avila, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 2: Poncelet Ileleji, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 3: Omar Mohsine, Intergovernmental Organization, African Group
Speaker 2: Poncelet Ileleji, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 3: Omar Mohsine, Intergovernmental Organization, African Group
Format
Roundtable
Duration (minutes): 60
Format description: The 60-minute workshop will adopt a roundtable layout to create an intimate, interactive setting that will enhance engagement for onsite and online participants. Onsite, a circular table will host key stakeholders—technologists, policymakers, and advocates—promoting equal participation and lively discussion. This arrangement will dismantle hierarchical barriers, reflecting the collaborative spirit of open technologies. Microphones and a central screen will ensure online attendees, linked via IGF’s hybrid tools, have clear visibility and audio, with their contributions displayed for all. The concise 60-minute duration will support a focused agenda: a 10-minute keynote will introduce key themes, a 30-minute roundtable will share best practices, and a 20-minute Q&A will incorporate diverse viewpoints. This streamlined schedule will maintain momentum, deliver actionable insights, and accommodate global online participation across time zones, ensuring an inclusive, practical session on advancing sustainable innovation through open technologies.
Duration (minutes): 60
Format description: The 60-minute workshop will adopt a roundtable layout to create an intimate, interactive setting that will enhance engagement for onsite and online participants. Onsite, a circular table will host key stakeholders—technologists, policymakers, and advocates—promoting equal participation and lively discussion. This arrangement will dismantle hierarchical barriers, reflecting the collaborative spirit of open technologies. Microphones and a central screen will ensure online attendees, linked via IGF’s hybrid tools, have clear visibility and audio, with their contributions displayed for all. The concise 60-minute duration will support a focused agenda: a 10-minute keynote will introduce key themes, a 30-minute roundtable will share best practices, and a 20-minute Q&A will incorporate diverse viewpoints. This streamlined schedule will maintain momentum, deliver actionable insights, and accommodate global online participation across time zones, ensuring an inclusive, practical session on advancing sustainable innovation through open technologies.
Policy Question(s)
How can open technologies enhance sustainability and transparency in public procurement?
What mechanisms can governments use to strengthen digital governance with open technologies?
How can collaboration balance economic innovation and environmental sustainability using open tech?
What will participants gain from attending this session? Participants in this one-hour hybrid workshop will gain practical insights into how open technologies—software, hardware, standards, digital public goods, and infrastructure—enhance sustainability, governance, and equity across sectors. They’ll explore best practices that improve transparency, reduce costs, and increase efficiency, offering replicable models for procurement and capacity building. Attendees will acquire new knowledge on leveraging open solutions for economic and environmental benefits, guided by the UN’s ECOSOC Resolution and Open Source Principles. Diverse perspectives—from UN policymakers to grassroots advocates—will deepen understanding of global vs. local approaches, sparking innovative thinking on digital governance and scalability. Participants will leave with actionable tools and a network to advance responsible tech innovation, aligned with WSIS C7 and SDG 9, fostering collaboration across disciplines and regions.
SDGs
Description:
This one-hour hybrid workshop, aligned with the subtheme "[Building] Sustainable and Responsible Innovation," explores how open technologies—software, hardware, standards, digital public goods (DPGs), and digital public infrastructure (DPI)—drive sustainability, governance, and equitable development across all technological domains. Guided by the UN’s ECOSOC Resolution E/RES/2021/30 on "Open Source Technologies for Sustainable Development" and the UN Open Source Principles, it addresses data governance, privacy and accountability, environmental sustainability, economic impacts and inequality risks, and geopolitical influence. A diverse multistakeholder panel includes technologists, policymakers (e.g., UN representatives), open technology advocates (e.g., Free Software Foundation, Open Hardware Association), and sector experts. Participants will examine sector-based examples: CKAN, an open-source data platform, boosts transparency by 30% in data management; Moodle in education cuts licensing costs by 30%, enhancing access; Arduino, an open hardware platform, reduces prototyping costs by 25% in agriculture; and FarmOS in agriculture increases yields by 15%. These showcase concrete economic and environmental impacts, offering replicable models for procurement and governance. Diverse perspectives—from a UN policymaker on interoperability to an advocate challenging proprietary limits—will enrich dialogue and provoke critical thinking on scalability and adaptation. The session fosters collaboration to advance responsible tech innovation (WSIS C7, SDG 9), sharing best practices with tangible outcomes: improved sustainability, efficient procurement, and enhanced capacity.
This one-hour hybrid workshop, aligned with the subtheme "[Building] Sustainable and Responsible Innovation," explores how open technologies—software, hardware, standards, digital public goods (DPGs), and digital public infrastructure (DPI)—drive sustainability, governance, and equitable development across all technological domains. Guided by the UN’s ECOSOC Resolution E/RES/2021/30 on "Open Source Technologies for Sustainable Development" and the UN Open Source Principles, it addresses data governance, privacy and accountability, environmental sustainability, economic impacts and inequality risks, and geopolitical influence. A diverse multistakeholder panel includes technologists, policymakers (e.g., UN representatives), open technology advocates (e.g., Free Software Foundation, Open Hardware Association), and sector experts. Participants will examine sector-based examples: CKAN, an open-source data platform, boosts transparency by 30% in data management; Moodle in education cuts licensing costs by 30%, enhancing access; Arduino, an open hardware platform, reduces prototyping costs by 25% in agriculture; and FarmOS in agriculture increases yields by 15%. These showcase concrete economic and environmental impacts, offering replicable models for procurement and governance. Diverse perspectives—from a UN policymaker on interoperability to an advocate challenging proprietary limits—will enrich dialogue and provoke critical thinking on scalability and adaptation. The session fosters collaboration to advance responsible tech innovation (WSIS C7, SDG 9), sharing best practices with tangible outcomes: improved sustainability, efficient procurement, and enhanced capacity.
Expected Outcomes
This workshop will enable participants to share local examples and best practices for leveraging open technologies—software, hardware, standards, digital public goods, and infrastructure—to enhance sustainability, procurement, human capacity, and digital governance. Attendees will identify actionable strategies that balance economic development with environmental goals, informed by diverse multistakeholder insights.
A key output will be a concise report summarising these best practices and policy recommendations, aligned with WSIS C7 and SDG 9, to be disseminated via the IGF platform. The session will also foster a global network of technologists, policymakers, and advocates, encouraging follow-up collaboration through online forums or future IGF events. Inspired by the UN’s ECOSOC Resolution E/RES/2021/30 and Open Source Principles, this will amplify the adoption of open technologies for responsible innovation, feeding into broader sustainable development processes.
Hybrid Format: To deliver an engaging hybrid experience, this 60-minute workshop will leverage IGF’s virtual link and technical tools for seamless onsite-online integration. Interaction will be facilitated by a moderator balancing inputs: onsite speakers will use microphones, while online speakers will join via video, with questions from both queued in real-time via chat. The roundtable design will encourage dynamic dialogue, with a screen displaying online contributions for onsite visibility. The session—10-minute keynote, 30-minute discussion, 20-minute Q&A—will ensure focused engagement, with captions enhancing accessibility. Open-source, free tools like LimeSurvey will enable live polls (e.g., prioritizing sustainability strategies), visible to all, while Etherpad will collect real-time ideas on best practices, fostering inclusivity. A timekeeper will ensure equitable participation across time zones, and pre-session tech checks with the IGF Secretariat will guarantee smooth delivery. This approach will create a rich, interactive experience, uniting diverse perspectives on open technologies for sustainable innovation.