29 July 2020 – Claiming the data building block for the digital commons: RightsCon virtual session

29th July 2020, 12.30-1.30pm

There is a growing recognition today that the advent of platform capitalism poses a threat to the continued relevance of the idea of the internet as a digital commons. But this recognition is often decoupled from an acknowledgment of the fact that the building blocks of the digital – data is enclosed, concentrated and monopolized. Without structural reform that can free data from the organizational logic of mainstream platform capitalism, renewing a digital commons remains but a distant dream. This round-table will bring together participants to debate the frameworks around data and how it can better serve the idea of a digital commons.  Experts will define the problem statement around data concentration and its discontents, touching upon the role of data in capital markets, and the implications of data concentration for the rights of smaller economic actors. Lessons from successful alternative data models at the local/sub-national/city level as well as national efforts to establish models of data commons will be shared by resource persons. The proposed session will attempt to answer this question – How can data be ‘deconstructed’ as a commodity and ‘reconstructed’ as a resource for social value creation at national and local levels and for re-imagining the digital commons?

Speaker line up yet to be confirmed.