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<p>The UN Secretary General has issued an important report on the
SDGs process titled "<em><a
href="http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5527SR_advance%20unedited_final.pdf"
moz-do-not-send="true">The Road to Dignity for All: Ending
Poverty, Transforming </a><a
href="http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5527SR_advance%20unedited_final.pdf"
moz-do-not-send="true">All </a><a
href="http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5527SR_advance%20unedited_final.pdf"
moz-do-not-send="true">Lives and Protecting the Planet</a></em>"
. It is now open for <a
href="http://ngosbeyond2014.org/articles/2014/12/6/call-for-civil-society-responses-to-the-un-secretary-general.html">responses</a>.
<br>
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<p> <em><a
href="http://www.itforchange.net/Response_to_the_synthesis_report_of_the_UN_Secretary-General_on_the_Post-2015_Development_Agenda#comments">IT
for Change submitted these comments</a></em>, specifically on
ICTs and data issues. Here, we highlight the need to especially
recognise ICTs as a general purpose technology which is
transforming our societies today and the need to ensure their
universal availability as well as an open and equitable technical
architecture of all ICTs, including the Internet. We also comment
on some of the initiatives proposed by the Secretary General on
data for sustainable development, and suggest some additional
measures that will turn the face of the digital revolution towards
serving the public good from the currently dominant trend of
proprietisation of public data resources and use of data for mass
surveillance and social control .<br>
</p>
<p>In this context, please do read the very significant report of an
SG's advisory expert group on employing the data revolution for
sustainable development, "<a
href="http://www.undatarevolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/A-World-That-Counts.pdf"
target="_blank"><em>A World that Counts: Mobilizing the Data
Revolution for Sustainable Development </em></a>" .<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">I consider this report to be of
outstanding significance. First time a global report deals with
big data as a public resource, an issue entirely missed in the IG
related civil society discussions and reports on data issues. All
these discussions and reports have just seen big data from a
privacy angle. However, the role of data as a resource, and its
(mostly, mis-) appropriations as a private resource while the
basic nature of much of it could actually be determined as
'public', is as important an issue. This report for the first
time, at least at this level, frames the issue of big data as a
public resource. It also calls for "building of a global
consensus, applicable principles and standards for data". <font
face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3"> <br>
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<p> </p>
parminder <br>
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