Maura A. Imparato's Page

Great panel!

Scenario: Users Reign

Facilitators: Jonathan Godfrey, Dan O’Neill; Pablo Molina

Social networks and online applications ‘in the clouds are far advanced by 2020; and in many ways, innovation and users’ rights are drivers. The economic crisis and environmental concerns from the early days of the 2010-2012 years have been addressed in a way that has seemingly calmed and addressed concerns about privacy and security in the online worlds. Introduction of mandated digital citizenship training in preschools and primary schools has spread around the world. Advances in software and other technological advances have made it possible to rely on network [cloud] based language translation and young people, in particular are avid, and full users of the always switched on world of applications and services.

However, the advent of the always, switched on world has introduced a new form of digital divide – the divide between millineuls, and the ‘other users’ of the online world. The reliance on appliances and networks drives huge consumption of energy, and the search for solutions in energy and disposal of ‘e-waste’ continues.

Climate change and environmental pressures have continued to grow, and the formerly called developing countries have established strict prohibition rules against digital dumping, of both physical and ‘soft’ waste, but these are largely undertaken via voluntary efforts focused at consumer awareness and much easier to use mechanisms to deal with disposal and impact on the environment. However, the role of intellectual property protection is unclear, and in many ways, users are left on their own to find solutions to challenges they encounter ‘online’.