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<p>Dear All</p>
<p>Just Net Coalition (JNC) has been regularly doing half day
events at the UN Internet Governance Forum's annual meetings,
bringing some key contemporary issues in JNC's work and journey
to a public discussion. <br>
</p>
<p>At the last in-person meeting we did at the IGF, Berlin, in
Dec, 2019, we released the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://justnetcoalition.org/digital-justice-manifesto">JNC's
Manifesto for Digital Justice</a> and organized a panel around
it. In 2020, we had a virtual session at the IGF, because the
IGF itself was fully virtual.</p>
<p>This year, the IGF is to be held in Katowice, Poland, in a part
virtual part physical manner... Most of us would not be
attending in person. But we would have a few persons from JNC
there.</p>
<p>Just Net Coalition plans a two and half hour event on December
6th, from 930 to 1200 UTC, on what is emerging as <b>the key
way JNC would like to organize and work going forward</b>. Let
me explain. <br>
</p>
<p>We have been developing an umbrella project this year, which
has sub-projects co-led along with JNC by a top global
progressive group in a particular sector undergoing
digitalisation -- from trade, agro- diversity and labor to
health, gender, finance, media and welfare state. These specific
sector- oriented sub projects bring together 'sectoral' experts
and digital experts to (1) map the terrain of digitalisation in
that sector -- its challenges and opportunities, and (2) try to
come up with some early norms and principles that must guide how
digitalisation should be undertaken in that sector. <br>
</p>
<p>The JNC has always been a coalition that consisted not just of
'core' digital area activists, but also various organizations in
different sectors that have become increasingly interested in
issues of digital fairness and justice especially as it
intersects with their area of work. <br>
</p>
<p>Our new initiative has the objective of giving these '<b>sectoral'
(as against 'core' digital) organizations a greater role in
influencing and shaping digital policies that strongly impact
all of them</b>. This requires first of all to build their
'confidence' to step right up to directly address core digital
governance issues like 'who owns data', and 'what are the
appropriate rules of platform management', what is 'just and
fair AI' and so on. It of course calls for collective capacity
building of all actors in and with respect to a given sector.
Digital actors thus learn as much about the digital phenomenon
from 'sectoral' actors as vice versa, because it is the latter
who know what is the 'digital' actually 'doing'. The basic
premise of the project, and JNC's approach generally, is that
new paradigms of digital policy development should emerge from
these cross -sectoral spaces, even as the digital phenomenon
becomes one of the strongest determinants of our collective
futures. <br>
</p>
<p>To illustrate: Understanding the dynamics and the needs of
governance of health data needs health related expertise. What
does 'data governance', in any case, mean other than governance
of health data, education data, agriculture data, military data,
and so on? But, then there are also generic attributes of
'digital data' and processes around it, that requires generic
expertise of the 'digital area' . Digital policy and governance
must be based on an acknowlegement and understanding of this
complex and dynamic web of digital policy and governance
relevant facts, knowledge and expertise. <br>
</p>
<p>Going forward, the key strategic focus of JNC will be to work
most on developing and sustaining institutionalized interactions
among digital actors and actors from different 'impacted
sectors' as a principal need and basis of digital policy
development. ... JNC would also bring together actors from
different sectors in one 'place' to take a cross-sectoral view
of the digital phenomenon, so that best fit policies most
appropriate for the society can be developed. <br>
</p>
<p>Our JNC event on Dec 6th is titled<b> "Digital policy making
from below -- Ask the impacted sectors first"</b> . </p>
<p>The first panel will have organizations from different sectors
that are engaging with JNC in these efforts present their views
and their current work as a part of this JNC initiative. <br>
</p>
<p>A second panel will then take up a general discussion about the
thinking behind and the objectives of the new approach of JNC
(which actually is only the fine-tuning of and making explicit
its existing approach), how different impacted sectors can best
and continually be involved in digital policy making, and how to
structure standing cross-sectoral interactions in this regard. </p>
<p>The last section of this virtual event will be in the form of
an open session to discuss JNC's thinking and work plans for the
coming year. Some may have advice and suggestions, others may
have questions -- about this new approach of JNC, or about JNC
in general. All are welcome. <b><br>
</b></p>
<p>More details will follow soon.</p>
<p>Thanks, and best regards</p>
<p>parminder<br>
</p>
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