IGF 2017 – Dynamic coalition on internet of things

Event report

[Read more session reports and live updates from the 12th Internet Governance Forum]

The session organiser, Mr Maarten Botterman, Board Director, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), unveiled the agenda of the session and gave a brief overview of the Dynamic Coalition, stating that it was set up in 2008 by a group of people including Professor Wolfgang Kleinwachter.
Maarten then proceeded to invite Mr Alex Wong Lead,Digital Protocol Networks) to kick-start the discussions. 
Wong mentioned that they had come up with a draft protocol that focused on three main areas:

• that IoT safeguards itself;
• that the organisation’s internal governance has risk management processes; and
• that there are data record keeping metrics.

Wong believes that these are actionable solutions that could be pushed forward with the right people, whether they are manufacturers of IoT devices or buyers of IoT solutions. This he felt could start to create a bottom-up movement that could be a way to address a governance gap.

Ms Daniela Bronstrup, Deputy Director-General for Digital Policy, Postal Policy, International Affairs, and Media in the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), explained the linkages between IoT and artificial intelligence (AI). She added that AI was part of our daily life and that of a lot of machines use it. Bronstrup emphasised the importance of standards, stating that they are crucial for solving security and interoperability issues.
Further, she reiterated that it was important for organisations working on standards to collaborate closely so as to come up with more harmonised approaches.
Bronstrup deliberated on the Group of Seven (G7) September 2017 Torino Declaration She pointed out two aspects of the Declaration, the first being the G7 view that we should focus on a human centric AI approach as it would drive innovation and growth.

The second aspect, she said, was that stakeholders should play the clear role in this process.

Mr Sebastian Bellagamba, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) Regional Director, Internet Society, highlighted the work of the Internet Society (ISOC) He added that ISOC believed in the transformational power of the Internet, and that the Internet would make lives better. Sebastian pointed out that 50% of the human population was already connected to the Internet. This 50% already connected was however now lacking the trust they used to have in the Internet, he added.

Bellagamba opined that the key to the trust issue was IoT, and the security issues related to IoT.
He felt that the IoT will obviously bring a lot of benefits to everyone. Sebastian revealed that ISOC was embarking on four campaigns in January 2018, and one of those campaigns is related to IoT and security.
He also mentioned that ISOC was previously working with the Online Trust Alliance (OTA), but has since acquired the organisation.

Mr Marco Hogewoning, Technical Advisor, RIPE NCC, stated that he had had a conversation with his community on why the IoT is so different and why it needs so much attention.Hogewoning mentioned that they had set up a Working Group to try to bridge the gap in the IoT spectre.

Mr Eric Loeb, AT&T Senior Vice President International External and Legislative Affairs,, stated that the most pervasive and most effective use of IoT did not involve any personal information at all. Eric gave an example of a shipping line tracking cargo containers, to get them to the port exactly on time without waiting.  He opined that there needed to be a distinction of how we think of the IoT.

Mr Arthur van der Wees, Legal expert in IoT, stated that IoT was about hyper connectivity. van der Wees felt that the IoT application together with its technical aspect is a very important factor that needed attention .

By Bonface Witaba