It was great to return to Geneva between 6th and 9th July, to participate in the WSIS Annual Forum for yet another year (in the ITU Headquarters and Palexpo), but also to explore a little bit of the AIforGood exhibition in Palexpo where I participated in a couple of sessions in the Leaders’ Lounge (as a guest without having to pay the CHF 4900, c.£4,500 pass fee!). It’s amazing to think that we gathered here 23 years ago for the first WSIS Summit! I wonder how many of us who were originally at Geneva and Tunis were here again this year?
Overall, this year’s event was much better than many previous ones, and I thoroughly enjoyed being back in Geneva again – primarily because it is always an opportunity to meet with good friends of many years, and also to meet exciting new people working in the field! Importantly, WSIS this year seemed less like a Cindarella to the glitz and glamour of AIfor…? (but see the images below). Congratulations are due especially to Gitanjali Sah and her team (particularly Ruth Sidabutar and Sarah El Omari) for all their hard work in making it such a success. Having a booth at WSIS (Booth 39) this year, for only the second time, made a huge difference, not least because it provided a focus for talking about our work in the ICT4D Collective, and also for promoting my new book, Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World: An Emancipatory Manifesto (Routledge, 2026). It also meant that I had a seat to rest in! The queues in the hot sun for the badging process reminded me of even longer queues at the Tunis part of the original WSIS Summit in 2005!
I hope the selection of pictures below conveys a sense of the fun and energy we enjoyed last week (thanks to the Official ITU photographer and other friends for some of these) – it was so good meeting up with these friends – old and new!
The above pictures are all about friendship and being human. For a very different perspective, the images below convey something of the technical interests in AIforGood (largely driven by scientism, digital determinism and technological instrumentalism)
During this year’s WSIS programme, I contributed to the following sessions (where recordings and further documentation are available these can be accessed through the highlighted links below):
- Session 347: Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Moderator)
- Session 541: The future of education and research in the AI era: equipping young people for tomorrow (Speaker)
- Session 188: AI Empowerment for Older People from a Gender Mainstreaming Perspective (Speaker)
- Session 372: Connecting the Unconnected in the field of Education Excellence, Cyber Security & Rural Solutions and Women Empowerment in ICT (Speaker)
- Session 399: Foresight for FAIR Cities – Exploring AI Risks and Mitigation Strategies (Speaker) – it was really sad that this session run by UNU-EGOV was cut very short because the previous Regulators Roundtable overran by 30 minutes, and the organisers of the session after us (High-Level Dialogues on LLDCs) came in to disturb us and set up their own “stall” after we had been going for less than 15 minutes.
- Partner2Connect session at AI for Good (Moderator of Unit 1)
Thanks again to all those who worked so hard in the ITU to make this such an enjoyable few days.
And after a long hot day’s work, it is always good to return to Les Brasseurs for beers and flammenkueches!
