Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province [Chinanews.com]

Beautiful Wuzhen in east China is once again hosting the three-day World Internet Conference from Dec 3-5, attracting some 1,500 representatives from around the world from business, government, technology, and academia, as well as pioneers showcasing emerging technologies, models and platforms for further connectivity. 

Among the most important topics is internet security, of great concern to every country, business, and individual who uses the medium. The world media has frequently reported on incidents of cyber terrorism, hacking, stolen identity, fraud, political interference, drugs, human trafficking and the activities of organized crime.  

The future of the internet depends upon people having sufficient trust that such abuses will be minimized. This involves close governmental cooperation, given the reality that cyber-crime is not confined to the jurisdiction of one country.  

Police and security experts around the world need to work together, exchanging intelligence, gathering evidence, sharing experiences and ensuring that law enforcement receives the necessary training. 

A related topic at the conference is Internet communication and social responsibility. New technology, such as social media platforms like Facebook with a billion users and WeChat in China yield great power and influence.  

Thus, in the last American presidential election there was significant alarm about the use of Facebook to create false news stories coupled with the reality that social media is increasingly a major source of 'news' for many people. With great power comes social responsibility to use this technology to benefit and not harm society, and governments everywhere must demand greater social responsibility from global tech companies.

Another important topic is artificial intelligence (AI). The world is rapidly moving to a new age in which traditional manufacturing is disappearing as robotics and AI applications are disrupting and transforming business, government and private life.

IROOTECH, for example, is one of the Chinese companies using products like ‘Hyperledger’ to connect digitally-dispersed technologies and entities, finding affordable ways to connect physical and virtual worlds. Another Chinese company at the conference, Tuya Intelligence, is a world leader in using technology to link millions of devices so as to make the smart homes, smart restaurant and smart organization a reality.

Growing the digital economy is yet another theme. The huge growth potential of the digital economy was again demonstrated recently with China's Double 11 Shopping Festival and in the U.S. with the sales event known as 'Black Friday,' creating records each year for e-commerce.

Not only do individual countries, like China, want to develop their domestic economy, but international trade between and among countries can be greatly facilitated by technology.  Thus, another conference theme is how technology can help promote international cooperation, for example, to create a "Digital Silk Road."

Underlying all of these themes is a conference focus on innovation. All societies are experiencing rapid change that is challenging our fundamental institutions. We need new models that better fit these new realities. One example of such models is the emergence around the world of the 'sharing economy.'

Whether talking about public or private development, the reality is that all of this requires significant resources from both the private and public sectors, and so the conference is discussing the role of venture capital in Internet industry development.

Given December 3 is International Day of Persons with Disabilities, it's important to note that this includes the use of technology to improve the lives of those one out of every seven citizens, with some form of disability, and many of them are children.

There is also growing concern about the potential harm of technology to other vulnerable groups in society.  For example, evidence is emerging that young people can be harmed by internet addiction. Early exposure to porn and violence can negatively impact their social development. Internet regulators are understandably desirous that this new technology be used to benefit people and not harm them.

The topic that has garnered the most attention from much of the Western press has been internet governance. From its earliest days, debate has always raged between those who favor top-down government regulation and those at the other extreme who call for the internet to be a government-free zone.  

In my view, it's inevitable that as the internet grows in importance and impact on every aspect of society and almost every individual, governments will see the need to be involved.  

There have always been significant philosophical differences among and within countries about how the internet is best regulated. Within this debate are sub-issues such as how to protect consumers, how to avoid a digital divide, how to protect small business, how to tax internet commerce, what to do about peer-to-peer lending, how to regulate new developments like bitcoin, how to protect privacy, and so on.  

Thus, the EU favors a greater government role than does the U.S., which has tended to favor a lighter regulatory touch and private industry engaging in self-regulation. With more people connected to the internet than any country in the world and a rapidly growing digital economy, China is understandably very concerned that this new technology be used wisely and responsibly.  

It is important that events like the World Internet Conference provide a vehicle for dialogue so that regulators from different countries can better understand each other's concerns and work to find a way forward to better cooperation. Just as countries have diplomatic relations, conferences such as this one can, in addition to advancing technological development and digital economies, help explore new models of 'cyber relations' and 'cyber governance.'

Eugene Clark is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/eugeneclark.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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