Over one hundred years of sci-fi books, magazines, TV programmes, and films have made it easier (as Dr Who fans will testify) to believe that aliens from outer space are intent on taking over Earth. In 1938, courtesy of a notorious radio broadcast of “The...
Seán Ó Siochrú and Anita Gurumurthy At the turn of this century, many in civil society believed we were witnessing the dawn of a new era for the public sphere, one where the internet could realise the promise of a communication space where all voices could...
Anita Gurumurthy and Nandini Chami Long ago, and when we were still tentative in our vocabulary, Dalit women’s collectives in Mysuru – with very little material wherewithal, but the immense largeness of being – taught us how small is made beautiful. They ran a community radio...
IT for Change 2023 While AI is not new to the field of computational science, the release of ChatGPT by Open AI in November 2022 marked a watershed moment. In a short time, the tech sector has rolled out Large Language Models (LLMs) and other Generative...
Jim McDonnell In the development and deployment of technologies based on AI, how can the voices of civil society organisations be raised against their potential risks and harms, but also for values such as equity, ethics, digital rights, control, choice, and transparency? In 1847, the poet Ralph...
Vassilis Chryssos In the wake of a swiftly changing post-COVID landscape, there is a notable surge in digitization and datafication within economies and societies, raising concerns. Advocacy efforts for digital inclusion and internet rights face fragmentation, with diverse actors addressing overlapping issues. This article presents five...
Carlos F. Baca-Feldman Data on connectivity to telecommunications services in the world show very significant growth in the last five years. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) report Measuring digital development. Facts and Figures (2023),1 the number of internet users increased to 5.3 billion, or...
Kathleen Diga Civil society engagement around communication rights has become more important and relevant than ever, particularly at this moment where we observe shrinking civic digital spaces1 for free expression without harassment or discrimination. Specifically, we see existent social platforms and, in some cases, governments flawed...
Oscar Felipe Tellez D. Los escenarios internacionales, que reúnen a grandes gobiernos, son envueltos por la cobertura periodística que realizan los medios masivos de comunicación. Eso sí, la construcción del discurso crítico realizado por diferentes sectores académicos y sociales califica esta labor como una acción sesgada...
Philip Lee Reflections on digital technologies and artificial intelligence, their potential to change the nature of being human, and the unintended consequences of a Promethean quest for scientific knowledge. In his book Irish Nocturnes, philosopher and poet Chris Arthur observes the unease with which human beings contemplate...
