THE DIN FORUM

Exploring NGI priorities and innovation approaches for a more human Internet

NOTE: All presentations and the Forum report are available online within the agenda below! 

Digital Innovation Networks are multi-disciplinary and multi-sector networks of people, technologies and enterprises aiming to advance Internet technology and innovation processes to address key socio-economic challenges and opportunities.

A major challenge for the Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative is to understand how progressive digitisation and the evolution of the Internet affect society – what existing and future opportunities there are to be exploited, and what threats need to be defended against. The EC has already identified some concerns regarding the current situation of the Internet, e.g. power is concentrated in a few large corporate organisations; citizens cannot control their own personal data in the Internet; and restrictions on Internet access to some groups of citizens because of geographical, economic or cultural reasons (European Commission Futurium, Next Generation Internet). These are valuable starting points, but to be sure that the NGI initiative is and continues to be effective, these concerns need to be explored alongside further emerging challenges and opportunities.

Experience has shown that the Internet evolves through widely adopted experimentation approaches that engage active users and communities rather than through purely technological advances invented in closed laboratories. The NGI initiative needs to understand how progressive digitisation and the evolution of the Internet influences these experimentation approaches as well as Digital Innovation Networks, how they all can combine to shape the process of innovation itself, and how successful products and services can emerge as a result.

The Digital Innovation Networks Forum 2017 aimed to create a strongly connected pan-European ecosystem that collectively understands what is needed to build digital innovation networks for the NGI, and how they can operate to address the major challenges for society as a result of progressive digitisation and the evolution of the Internet.

This was achieved by gathering leading Internet Researchers and Innovators to share their NGI vision, opportunities and concerns through presentations, debates and interactive round tables. Technical, socio-economic and innovation topics were covered leading to identification of the research challenges ahead and recommendations for digital innovation network structure and policies.

The Digital Innovation Networks Forum 2017 was part of wider consultation programmes from the FIRE STUDY and HUB4NGI support actions, whose results will inform the EC’s NGI initiative.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]