Geneva Digital Atlas

​The Geneva Digital Atlas represents the most comprehensive mapping of digital policy actors and internet governance scene in Geneva. The Atlas provides in-depth coverage of the activities of over 40 actors, including analysing policy processes and cataloguing core instruments and featured events.

Read more on a Panel discussion (10 July 2024) on the future role of Geneva as an AI and digital hub and EspriTech de Geneve (origins and principles)

Explore Geneva Digital Atlas 2.0

WHY does technology meet humanity in Geneva?
WHERE does technology meet humanity in Geneva?
WHEN did this interplay between technology and humanity begin?
WHAT are the main technologies and digital policies addressed in Geneva?
HOW do legal and policy instruments facilitate digital governance?
WHO are the main digital actors in Geneva?

Read the Geneva Digital Atlas

WHY does technology meet humanity in Geneva?

EspriTech de Geneve

(Tech spirit of Geneva)

Over the centuries, Geneva has been a meeting place between technology and humanity. Today, once again, in Geneva and worldwide, we find ourselves at a turning point facing both changes and challenges triggered by fast technological growth. As humanity steps out of its comfort zone into the new unknown, certainty ends, opportunity begins, and risks increase.

This text takes us on a historical tour to explore Geneva’s contribution towards a social contract that addresses technological development’s benefits and risks. As we seek social contracts for the future, we invite you to examine how your countries and communities’ cultures and intellectual histories have dealt with the interaction between technology and society.

Read more on EspriTech de Geneve, including its’ historical, philosophical, and theological origins.

WHERE does technology meet humanity?

WHEN did this interplay between technology and humanity begin?

A timeline of tech-humanity interplay in Geneva

A timeline of the Geneva Digital Atlas

The Geneva Digital Atlas builds on 20 years of research, training, and policy-shaping work by DiploFoundation and the Geneva Internet Platform (GIP), including:

• 2000: Establishment of the first comprehensive taxonomy of Internet governance and digital policy
• 2003: Publishing of An Introduction to Internet Governance, the first reference work on Internet governance policy, now in its seventh edition and available online in 10 languages
• 2012: The study of the Geneva Internet Initiative (GII) (commissioned by EDA); the Study outlined the basic mapping of Internet governance actors and processes in Geneva, it made recommendations, and set the methodology for covering Internet governance in International Geneva
• 2014: The Geneva Internet Conference, which addressed critical issues, gaps, and future developments in Internet governance and digital politics. The Conference set in motion the Geneva Internet Platform (GIP)
• June 2020:  The conference Navigating Geneva Digital Landscape which revisited the Geneva digital governance scene
• November 2020: The Launch of the Geneva Digital Atlas
• November 2022: The Launch of the Geneva Digital Atlas 2.0

Other relevant research:

• ‘Internet Governance in International Geneva‘ by M. Kende, Fondation pour Genève, September 2020

WHAT are the main technologies and digital policies addressed in Geneva?

Taxonomy 

The digital policy issues and processes included in the Atlas are analysed according to the Geneva Internet Platform’s Digital Watch observatory featuring over 40 digital policy areas, classified under 7 broad clusters (baskets).

This taxonomy was first developed in 1997 by Jovan Kurbalija, Executive Director of DiploFoundation and Head of the Geneva Internet Platform (GIP) and then introduced in the book An Introduction to Internet Governance, now in its 7th edition. It was later adopted in DiploFoundation’s Internet governance courses.

The taxonomy is under regular development to account for emerging trends and new developments in this vibrant process.

The information included in the Geneva Digital Atlas is updated as of February 2023. To add further resources regarding your organisation, update the existing information, or include additional digital actors, please email us at atlas@diplomacy.edu.

Read more on digital technologies and policy issues addressed in Geneva.

HOW do legal and policy instruments facilitate digital governance?

Different instruments are used to implement regulations, policies, and programmes. In the digital realm, there is a mix of traditional instruments applied to digital issues (conventions and standards) and new approaches developed specifically for digital issues (e.g. online dispute resolution mechanisms).

Read more about legal and policy instruments that facilitate digital governance.

WHO are the main digital policy actors in Geneva?

As the WHO section of this publication shows, more and more digital issues are being addressed by international organisations. In the coming years, multilateral diplomacy will be dominated by this trend
of digitalising traditional policy issues, such as health, trade, and the protection of people in need.

Read more about the main digital policy actors in Geneva and detailed info on the digital activities of each 46 actors – events, instruments, and initiatives – organised by digital policy issues (e.g. e-commerce, cybersecurity, privacy).

X-Ray of interlinkages in International Geneva

We observed where the links on the websites of the actors of this publication lead to. The more links on a website lead to other actors, the more collegial it is considered to be.

Read more about the interlinkages among digital policy actors in International Geneva.