Skip to main content
The IGF is a global multistakeholder platform that facilitates the discussion of public policy issues pertaining to the Internet
العربية | 简体中文 | English | Français | Русский | Español
Welcome to the United Nations | Department of Economic and Social Affairs

- Login
- Register

# IGF 2018 WS #320 Data Governance in SMART CITIES: From Open Data to My Data

Format:

Round Table - 90 Min

Theme:

Cybersecurity, Trust and Privacy

Subtheme:

DATA PRIVACY & PROTECTION

Organizer 1: Luca Belli, Center for Technology & Society at FGV
Organizer 2: Jhessica Reia, Fundação Getuio Vargas (FGV)
Organizer 3: Luã Fergus Oliveira da Cruz, Youth Observatory
Organizer 4: Raoul Plommer, Electronic Frontier Finland

Speaker 1: Yasodara Cordova, Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 2: Jhessica Reia, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 3: Mathews Robert, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 4: Jean Philbert Nsengimana, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 5: Paris Municipal Government Representative of the , Government, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Additional Speakers:

Antti Poikola will present the MyData model, stressing its potential for individual empowerment with regard to the control of personal data Robert Mathews will scrutinise the security challenges and frequent failures of critical infrastructures and so-called “smart” systems

Nicholas Bramble, will discuss some of Google's thinking about smart cities and sustainable urban partnerships, and then will explore Google's plans for smart cities and IoT

Relevance:

The “Smart City” formula has gained traction in academia, business and government to describe cities that, on the one hand, are increasingly composed of and monitored by pervasive and ubiquitous computing and, on the other, are striving to restructure their economy and governance based on innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. This tendency has gained attention of those producing and utilising data to monitor, regulate, profit from, and make sense of the urbanisation process in both developed and developing countries. In such context, the hype and hope of big data analytics, open data and algorithmic governance is fostering a transformation in the knowledge and governance of cities through the exploitation of the “data deluge” that may provide much more sophisticated, wider-scale, finer-grained, real-time understanding and control of urbanity and city-dwellers. Given the role that such systems are likely to play in shaping urban governance and public policies and the impact that “Smart City” services will have - and are already having - on an incredible number of city dwellers, there is a pressing need to figure out how public managers and private companies are defining data governance in the context of smart cities policies. This includes the nature and production of urban big data, the composition and functioning of urban analytics and control centres related to smart cities, and the privacy and security implications of the adopted forms of governance for citizens on a global scale. As such, it is urgent to understand the regulatory and governance dimensions of Smart Cities, especially the ones related to personal data protection, and identify legal gaps that may allow social and economic discrimination, with particular regard to access to public services. Last but not least it is important to stress that, despite its incredible relevance, the smart city issue has never been explored before at the IGF.

Session Content:

The purpose of this session is to identify challenges, opportunities and new data governance models for the organization and provision of smart city services by private companies and public actors while ensuring the protection of citizens’ rights. The participants will analyse case studies illustrating both success-stories and flagrant failures in the organisation and provision of smart city services. Participants will analyse and compare a selection of existing models in order to identify of good practices and elaborate recommendations on data governance. We propose a discussion aimed at addressing the technical, legal and institutional complexities of existing data governance models in Smart Cities, with a particular focus on the tensions between the use of public data and the protection of personal data. The purpose of the workshop interactions will be to identify best practices in the area of privacy, security, transparency and democratic accountability in the context smart city services.

The workshop will be opened with a keynote by Dr Robert Mathews, University of Hawaii, exploring the risks and vulnerabilies of smart-city services. The first part of the workshop (around 45 minutes) will be dedicated to an interactive roundtable during which the panellists will provide provocative presentations of about 5 minutes each, exploring best as well as worst practices with regard to data privacy, data and infrastructure security and democratic accountability in the context of smart cities. After the round of presentations, the panellists will engage in an open and interactive debate with all workshop participants in a question and answer session that will last 35 to 40 minutes. Notably, this roundtable intends to be a space where participants can address concerns and share insights on alternative approaches and emerging initiatives, such as the MyData model, fostering innovative solutions for the development of sustainable data governance models worldwide.

Interventions:

Olga Cavalli, will explore the main benefits and challenges of smart cities and IoT in Latin America.

Nicholas Bramble, from Google, will debate Google's recent projects with regard to smart city services and will share his perspective on the future evolutions of this field.

Antti Poikola, from MyData.org, will present the MyData model, stressing its potential for individual empowerment with regard to the control of personal data

Robert Mathews will scrutinise the security challenges and frequent failures of critical infrastructures and so-called “smart” systems

Jean-Philbert Nsengimana, will analyse the potential of smart city services and open data utilisation for African countries in the context of the Smart Africa initiative

Jhessica Reia will discuss the main challenges related to smart city initiatives in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda over the next years.

Luca Belli will analyse some of the challenges related to personal data regulation in the context of Smart Cities, exploring the initial findings of the project “Discrimination vs. Data Control in Brazilian Smart Cities”, run by FGV and supported by the Open Society Foundations

Diversity:

The panel is gender-balanced and includes speakers from all UN Regional Groups and all stakeholder groups. Speakers have been chosen for their heterogeneous background and standpoints and for being IGF newcomers thus guaranteeing that fresh ideas and unexplored perspective will be analysed during the session.

Online Participation:

Online participation will be promoted via various social networks (notably Twitter, Facebook and YouTube) to allow remote interventions and interactions with participants. The remote moderator will encourage remote participation through various social networking platforms in addition to the platform provided by the IGF Secretariat

Discussion Facilitation:

The workshop will be opened with a keynote by Dr Robert Mathews.

Panellists will provide short and provocative presentations, illustrating case studies from different regions and different perspectives. Every panellist will have about 6 minutes to present his or her perspective in a provocative fashion, in order to trigger comments and reactions from the participants.

Onsite Moderator:

Luca Belli, Senior Researcher/Head of Internet Governance, Fundação Getulio Vargas

Online Moderator:

Raoul Plommer

Rapporteur:

Sille Sepp (MyData Projetc) and Luã Fergus (FGV)

Agenda:

To stimulate a dynamic format and facilitate interactions with the participants this workshop will feature two co-moderators, Luca Belli and Jhessica Reia, that will also act as speakers.

The workshop will follow the following agenda

First segment will be moderated by Luca Belli

Mr Robert Mathews, from University of Hawaii (and former White House senior official), will open the session exploring the security challenges and frequent failures of critical infrastructures and so-called “smart” systems.

Mr Nicholas Bramble, from Google, will debate Google's recent projects with regard to smart city services and will share his perspective on the future evolutions of this field

Ms Jhessica Reia, from FGV, will discuss the main challenges related to smart city initiatives in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda over the next years.

Brief pause: 3 questions from the participants

Second segment will be moderated by Jhessica Reia

Mr Jean-Philbert Nsengimana, from Smart Africa (and former ICT minister of Rwanda), will analyse the potential of smart city services and open data utilisation for African countries in the context of the Smart Africa initiative

Ms Olga Cavalli, from the South School of Internet Governance, will analyse the challenges of smart cities and IoT with regard to Latin America.

Mr Antti Poikola, from MyData.org and the University of Helsinki, will present the MyData model, stressing its potential for individual empowerment with regard to the control of personal data.

Mr Luca Belli, from FGV, will analyse some of the challenges related to personal data regulation in the context of Smart Cities, exploring the initial findings of the project “Discrimination vs. Data Control in Brazilian Smart Cities”, run by FGV and supported by the Open Society Foundations

Open debate

Wrap-up (1 min per participant)

The panelists will interrogate such questions as:

- How is the local population involved into the organization of smart city services?
- At which stage consultations are organized?
- What kind of information is shared (if any) prior to the local debates and by whom (i.e. the local government, NGOs, academics, smart city service providers)?
- How are procurement rules defined?
- How are procurements organised?
- What kind of control/governance is foreseen to manage public data and publicly owned digital infrastructure?
- What kind of measures are foreseen in order to keep the smart city infrastructures secure?
- Are personal data collected through smart city services shared with law enforcement? If so under what conditions?
- What kind of legal frameworks apply to personal as well as non-personal data collected in the context of smart city services ?
- What kind of control can individuals exert over their data?
- Are local residents’ data covered by any (intellectual) property right? If so who is the rightholder?
- What are the business models utilised to finance the development of smart city services? Are such business models clearly presented prior to the development of the services and described in openly accessible information? Can the local population express its preference for any proposed business models?

Session Time:
Tuesday, 13 November, 2018 - 09:00 to 10:30
Room:
Salle VI

## Archived Content

- 2017 IGF: Geneva
- 2016 IGF: Jalisco
- 2015 IGF: João Pessoa
- 2014 IGF: Istanbul
- 2013 IGF: Bali
- 2012 IGF: Baku
- 2011 IGF: Nairobi
- 2010 IGF: Vilnius
- 2009 IGF: Sharm El Sheikh
- 2008 IGF: Hyderabad
- 2007 IGF: Rio de Janeiro
- 2006 IGF: Athens

## Resources

Documents

Publications

Press

Glossary

## Additional Information

IGF Funding

IGF Donors

Participant Funding

Vacancies

## Contact Information

United Nations
Secretariat of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF)

Villa Le Bocage
Palais des Nations,
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland

igf [at] un [dot] org
+41 (0) 229 173 678