At this year’s International Grand Committee (IGC) on Big Data, Privacy and Democracy meetings in Ottawa and Dublin, politicians and experts raised important questions about how social media platforms and other technology companies that operate in the data-driven economy should be governed.
Fears of rapidly expanding disinformation online, election interference, inequality and the rise of new monopolies, among other issues, brought new levels of scrutiny as governments scramble to fill policy and regulatory gaps in today’s economy.
As a think tank created to develop ideas for international governance, CIGI is demonstrating leadership in fora such as the IGC as well as the Association of Professional Executives of the Public Service of Canada (APEX), IMPACT AI and RightsCon. Supporting policy makers and others in domestic and international fora has put CIGI at the centre of governance debates. More impact is sure to come as these topics continue to rise to the forefront of public consciousness.
Opportunities abound for important new research and focus in areas such as intellectual property (IP), artificial intelligence (AI) — including its geopolitics, ethics, global governance and impacts on labour markets — global privacy regimes, how firms value data, cyber security and the use of technical standards as a governance tool.
Today’s data-driven economy poses serious issues for our governance systems as well as our industrial and social policies, which remain largely based on models built well before data became the driving economic force. I’m confident that CIGI’s contributions are well positioned to help policy makers, academics, industry and non-governmental organizations design and implement viable paths forward.
CIGI’s next strategic plan is for 2020–2025, and the board is looking forward to supporting a work plan that seizes on these challenges and opportunities.
Jim Balsillie
Chair, CIGI Board of Directors