PLATFORM FUTURES 2022

Platform Futures convenes a network of academics and experts studying multiple aspects of platforms, to create a space for dialogue on opportunities, challenges, and governance best practices in the APAC context.

We focus on two themes critical to thinking about platforms:

Mobile Ecosystems: including aspects relating to market structure and competitive dynamics; consumer benefits; “open” vs. “closed” business models; ingredients of successful policy frameworks; challenges for policy makers.
Data Challenges and Opportunities: including aspects relating to accountability and transparency; user choice, safety and autonomy; innovation and collective/societal benefits; privacy and security; data flows and business models.

(i) the global nature of digital platforms, and the pros & cons of global consistency vs. localized rules

(ii) factors driving the growth and influence of platforms, and how greater competition both within and between platforms can be promoted

(iii) the benefits that platforms and data can enable, while mitigating against perceived risks

(iv) unique features of platforms and ecosystems in the region,

(v) the diversity of cultural and regulatory contexts

(vi) trends and emerging questions

Digital Asia Hub (DAH) provides a platform for the the generation of new ideas and scholarship, with a view to anticipating and getting ahead of emerging questions. DAH curates and facilitates communication of experts perspectives on these subjects to the policymaking community.

This project is conceived and facilitated by Digital Asia Hub with the support of Google.

INTERNET AND SOCIETY IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION

Digital Asia Hub

The Digital Asia Hub is an independent, non-profit Internet and society research think tank based in Hong Kong, led by an Executive Director, Management Board, and Steering Committee. Its funding is provided through individual, institutional and corporate donations.

Incubated by The Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and a diverse group of academic, civil society, and private sector partners, the Hub provides a non-partisan, open, and collaborative platform for research, knowledge sharing and capacity building related to Internet and Society issues with focus on digital Asia. The Hub also aims to strengthen effective multi-stakeholder discourse, with both local and regional activities, and will contribute to – and itself serve as a node of – a larger network of academic organizations: the Global Network of Internet & Society Centers (the “NoC”).