Four Internets: Data, Geopolitics, & the Governance of Cyberspace

There is no doubt that the world is very dependent on the Internet these days. If it wasn’t obvious before, we certainly realised our dependency during the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, when the whole world piled onto the Internet in order to do anything during the lockdowns, it stayed up and running which is a huge testament to the foresight of the Internet pioneers in terms of its design and in built resilience and scalability. But the Internet has never been under such threat and it’s whole future as a globally interconnected system is in much doubt for many different reasons. In this talk, Dame Wendy HALL, will explore the future of the Internet through the perspective of geopolitics and data governance. She will argue that through this lens we see at least four internets, maybe more, rather than just one interconnected ecosystem. She will explore what aspects of the governance of cyberspace we must protect the most in order for us to continue to use the technical infrastructure of the Internet that we all rely on to support cloud and data services.

The talk will be followed by a short dialogue session, with Dame Wendy Hall.  The session will be moderated by NISTH Fellow, Assoc Prof YeeFen LIM, Hannah. Prof Lim is an internationally recognised legal expert in Technology & Internet law including the policy and regulation of AI and blockchain, Intellectual Property Law, Data Protection and Privacy Law and E-commerce law.

Links to the Book:

Speaker Biography

Dame Wendy Hall, DBE, FRS, FREng is Regius Professor of Computer Science, Associate Vice President (International Engagement) and is an Executive Director of the Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton. She became a Dame Commander of the British Empire in the 2009 UK New Year’s Honours list and is a Fellow of the Royal Society. Dame Wendy was co-Chair of the UK government’s AI Review, which was published in October 2017, and is the first Skills Champion for AI in the UK. In May 2020, she was appointed as Chair of the Ada Lovelace Institute and joined the BT Technology Advisory board in January 2021.

Moderator:

Hannah YeeFen Lim, trained in computer science and law, is an internationally recognised legal expert in Technology & Internet law including the policy and regulation of AI and blockchain, Intellectual Property Law, Data Protection and Privacy Law and E-commerce law. Hannah is an Advocate and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore. She was also a member of an International Working Group (IWG) on Big Data Ethics in Biomedicine which produced Ethics Framework for Decision-Making for Big Data in Health and Research and which has been adopted and used in Singapore and internationally by clinicians and medical researchers. Hannah has also been assisting the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law as well as Unidroit (International Institute for the Unification of Private Law) on the reform of treaties and international Model Laws.

Event Details
Date and Time
31 Oct 2022 (Mon)
3:30 PM – 5:00 PM
Refreshments will be served after the event at 5:00 PM.
Venue
Lecture Theatre 13,
50 Nanyang Ave,
Level 04, North Spine,
Singapore 639798
(View map)
Event Format
Lecture
Series
NISTH Distinguished Series