Keynote title: Freedom, enslavement and the digital barons: A thought experiment

Biography and profile

Tim Unwin CMG is Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D and Emeritus Professor of Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London.  He was Secretary General of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation from 2011-2015, was Chair of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission from 2009-2014, and over the last decade has worked closely with UN agencies such as the ITU, UNESCO and UNICEF. His influential edited book Information and Communication Technologies for Development, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2009, and his latest book Reclaiming ICT4D was published by Oxford University Press in 2017.  His research focuses on the inequalities caused by the use of digital technologies and how the poorest and most marginalised can be empowered through them.  In 2021 he launched the Digital-Environment System Coalition (DESC) to change global understanding of the impact of digital technologies on the global environment.  He is an inspirational speaker, highly effective leader, and internationally respected author, with 16 books and more than 250 other publications to his credit, and in 2016 was appointed a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St George (CMG) in the Queen’s 90^th Birthday Honours list for his services to the Commonwealth.