Taking on the Tech Titans: Reclaiming our data commons - webinar recording

COVID-19

11 June 2020

Big Tech has emerged as one of the bigger winners of the global pandemic. A global panel of activists and researchers gathered to analyse the nature and source of Big Tech's power and how communities, movements and cities might reclaim ownership and control of our data.

Panellists:

Anita Gurumurthy, Founding member and director of IT for Change, India, where she leads research collaborations and projects with a focus on governance, democracy and gender justice
Nanjira Sambuli, Researcher, writer, policy analyst, advocacy strategist on tech and governance, Kenya
Ben Tarnoff, Tech worker, writer and founding editor of technology magazine Logic and author of the forthcoming Voices from the Valley: Tech Workers Talk About What They Do—And How They Do It (Sept 2020), US
Caroline Nevejan, Chief Science Officer, City of Amsterdam & Chair of Designing Urban Experience at the University of Amsterdam
Vahini Naidu, Trade negotiator, Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, South Africa

Moderated by Ben Hayes, TNI Associate, Founding director of AWO, a new data rights agency. Researcher and consultant on security policies, counter-terrorism, border control and data protection.

Resources

Ben Tarnoff
bentarnoff.substack.com/
Logic Magazine
Ben’s thinking is captured well in this piece ‘From Manchester to Barcelona’
Ben’s contribution to Progressive International on COVID-19 and the Cloud

Vahini Naidu
Trade and Development Report, UNCTAD, 2018 – Power, Platforms, and the Free Trade Delusion
Trade and Development Report, UNCTAD, 2019 – Financing a Global Green New Deal
Digital Economy Report, UNCTAD, 2019
Rising Product Digitalisation and Losing Trade Competitiveness, UNCTAD, 2017
South-South Cooperation at the time of COVID-19: Building Solidarity Among Developing Countries, UNCTAD, 2020
Some preliminary implications of WTO source code proposal, Third World Network, 2017
Growing Trade in Electronic Transmissions: Implications for the South, UNCTAD, 2019
K nowledge production in international trade negotiations is a high stakes game
Anti-development Impacts of Tax-Related Provisions in Proposed Rules on Digital Trade in the WTO, Deborah James
Rwanda’s National Data Revolution Policy

Anita Gurumurthy
Anita’s bio
Read Anita’s piece on ‘The Intelligent Corporation’ in TNI’s State of Power report

Caroline Nevejan
http://www.nevejan.org
Cahier 1 Values for Survival (online)
Separate chapters (How you can order a hard copy of the Cahier will soon be explained on this page)
City Rhythm (available for download)
International Exploratorium for 21st Century Values for Survival (Cahier 2)

Important networks and knowledge base:

Waag Society
Institute for Network Cultures, including Money Labs
Flying Money 2018: Investigating Illicit Financial Flows in the City [MO1]
Major player in technology and investigative journalism, including a great summerschool and conference to attend to learn to use crypto and work with data to unveil truth.
Centre for Investigative Journalism: [MO2]
4 Logan Symposia on secrecy, surveillance and censorship:
On Law and information: Lawrence Lessig [MO3]
Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam
City of Amsterdam Openresearch platform
City Science Initiative (EU)
Tada (for a responsible digital city)
City of Amsterdam Innovation (CTO)