The academic conference on Digital Equality and Connectivity in the Context of Emerging Technologies was successfully held on November 10 in Hangzhou, organized by the International Consortium on Global Digital Equality at the College of Media and International Culture, Zhejiang University. The conference brought together global experts, scholars, and practitioners to collaboratively shape a more inclusive digital future.
Six distinguished keynote speakers shared their insights, focusing on the potential risks of technological development and discussing how to promote digital fairness to ensure the benefits of digital transformation reach society as a whole.
Professor Mark Graham presented the Fairwork Action Research Project, a global initiative aimed at improving working conditions in platform and gig economies through research, advocacy, and standard-setting. The project engages four key stakeholders—companies, policymakers, consumers, and workers/unions—and is structured around five core principles: fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management, and fair representation. Each principle is tied to two specific standards that platforms must meet to earn corresponding scores, assessed through rigorous evaluation processes to ensure fairness and consistency.
Graham highlighted critical issues facing platform workers, such as low wages, high costs, economic burdens, job insecurity, long hours, lack of flexibility, safety risks, discrimination, and unfair management. These challenges adversely affect workers' health and diminish their bargaining and organizing capabilities. The project publishes country-specific platform rankings, revealing disparities in labor standards across nations. Graham expressed hope for collaborations with universities and research centers worldwide to tailor strategies that advance fair labor practices in diverse cultural and legal contexts.
Professor C.J. Lee explored how social inequality impacts online health activities, particularly the barriers faced by low socioeconomic status (SES) groups in accessing and utilizing health information. Drawing on health disparities and communication inequalities, Lee explained that low-SES individuals face challenges in accessing, using, and processing health information, and noted that imbalances in internet access and health app usage exacerbate health disparities.
Lee shared his team’s findings from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS), which examined how education and income influence online health participation. Using diffusion of innovation theory and the integrated behavioral prediction model, he analyzed the causes of the digital divide and proposed practical recommendations to promote the adoption of health apps. Lee cautioned that while ICT advancements can improve health outcomes, they risk widening health disparities if the digital divide remains unaddressed.
Professor Ahmed Mansoori’s keynote, From Connection to Equality: The Arab World’s Journey Toward Digital Equality, highlighted the rapid adoption of digital technologies in the Arab region, particularly the UAE’s advances in mobile broadband networks. Despite this progress, digital equality faces challenges arising from socioeconomic disparities, infrastructure gaps, political factors, and regulatory issues.
Mansoori outlined regional strategies: the UAE's focus on bridging the digital divide, Saudi Arabia's tech-driven economic growth, and Qatar's emphasis on digital literacy education. He also discussed initiatives like Egypt’s Youth Media program, which enhances digital skills among young people. While globalization and AI pose risks like cultural marginalization, they also offer opportunities, such as advancements in language translation. Mansoori stressed the need for investments in rural connectivity, education reform, and cross-sector collaboration to achieve the vision of digital equality and drive socioeconomic development.
Professor Mona Mwakalinga delved into Tanzania’s journey toward digital inclusion and the opportunities and challenges faced by its film industry. She traced the growth of internet users in Tanzania and emphasized the ongoing urban-rural divide in internet access despite nationwide efforts to expand connectivity. Mwakalinga urged the Tanzanian government to increase infrastructure investments to promote nationwide digital inclusion.
Shifting focus to the film industry, she analyzed the evolution of audience viewing habits in Tanzania and discussed how digitalization impacts content production and distribution. Mwakalinga concluded with a vision for Tanzania’s digital future, emphasizing that robust infrastructure is crucial for the nation’s progress and the flourishing of its film industry. Her presentation offered valuable data and perspectives on Africa’s digital strategies, particularly in the context of globalization and digital interconnectedness.
Professor Mark Williams introduced the Media Ecology Project (MEP) and its role in visual culture research. MEP addresses gaps in digital tools for visual arts by fostering a collaborative network that respects diversity and promotes digital equality. Williams highlighted MEP's use of the Library of Congress’s print archives to study early cinema, particularly silent films, focusing on performance and visual expression. Modern machine vision tools, such as OpenPose, have further enriched gesture analysis by automatically recognizing and analyzing character movements.
Williams also emphasized MEP’s international collaborations with Chinese universities, including comparative studies of Chinese and American film histories and transnational approaches to film narratives. He noted that updates to the 2024 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) exemptions will open new opportunities for digital humanities research, enabling broader sharing and analysis of datasets across institutions. MEP plans to expand its research platform to foster more international cooperation and innovation in the visual culture domain.
Professor Wei Lu, founding chair of the International Consortium on Digital Equality, expressed gratitude to global attendees and reiterated the consortium’s mission to establish a balanced and equitable global information society. Wei analyzed three dimensions of the digital divide: access, usage, and utility, with a focus on the utility gap. He argued that the core issue lies in the relationship between humans and technology, specifically how individuals assert agency in their interactions with technology.
Wei introduced the concept of the taming gap, which reflects disparities between those who effectively adapt technology to their needs and those who do not. Unlike the usage gap, which emphasizes external use of technology, the taming gap highlights the configurability of technology and the ability of individuals to adjust it for harmonious interactions. Drawing on domestication theory, Wei provided a nuanced understanding of the complexities of the digital divide and the human agency involved in technological adaptation.
The keynote speeches provided a comprehensive exploration of the challenges and opportunities in achieving digital equality. By addressing issues ranging from labor standards and health inequalities to digital inclusion and the taming gap, the conference advanced critical conversations on shaping a more equitable digital future.