Future of the Connected World

Co-chaired by Consumers International and Carnegie Mellon University, this Coalition brings together industry, consumer organisations, academia and the public sector to increase public understanding and awareness of connected devices and build a more transparent and trustworthy system.

In raising awareness about security risks associated with IoT products, “Stay Smart. Stay Safely Connected” aims to bring consumers and manufacturers closer together, recognizing that both have critical and distinct roles to play in protecting IoT products from cyber threats.

Digital Trust for Places and Routines is an emerging open-source communication standard for digital technologies that enables agency for people.

This initiative is currently being incubated and is open for pilots.

The PETRAS National Centre of Excellence for IoT Systems Cybersecurity's 'Little Book' series aims to communicate sometimes complex and abstract ideas relating to the Internet of Things (IoT) in an accessible and easy to digest format.

This initiative brings together businesses, government entities and IOs through international dialogues and theme-based collaborations to enhance the cyber resilience of the global Aviation industry through a benchmarking pilot to amplify best practices and accelerate their adoption sector-wide.

A framework to evaluate how technologies respect consumers’ interests and needs used by independent testing organizations, researchers and product teams.

A community-built assessment tool to help IoT startups and product owners improve their decision-making across sustainability security opensource issues, Better IoT was developed between 2007-2019 by a community of practitioners around the world.

The Cyber Risk and Corporate Governance Initiative focuses on continual improvement to the state of cybersecurity risk governance based on the Forum’s work in this area since 2012, especially our 2017 guidance for boards.

The Internet Society’s IoT Trust Framework identifies the core requirements manufacturers, service providers, distributors/purchasers and policymakers need to understand, assess and embrace for effective security and privacy as part of the Internet of Things.

Consumer Reports rating of wireless routers so consumers know which offer the strongest signal and security

The Centre for Cybersecurity is examining a standard approach for investors to assess, monitor, and improve the cybersecurity of their target or portfolio investment companies.

This initiative brings together industry and academia across Australia, including global innovator Quintessence Labs, to develop measures to broaden access to quantum safe cybersecurity.

This initiative promotes the adoption of a model policy that defines accountability for cybersecurity which is applicable for all cities worldwide, thereby protecting the informational and operational assets owned by the city and its citizens. These measures provide a structure that cities can follow to prioritize their operational execution of cybersecurity. This is an aspirational policy that aims to create clearer lines of accountability within a city context, despite differing examples of city governance structures.

This newly formed Taskforce brings together key players across the real estate industry to increase education of the opportunities and challenges of using digital technologies such as IoT in the planning of new developments, building operations and the renovation of older properties.

The C4All Knowledge Hub will serve as a catalyst to develop, disseminate and scale up data collection, research, knowledge exchange and training, in the themes of Inclusion and Accessibility for the built environment and cities.

This project puts forward a framework for evaluating the impact of IoT projects across sustainable development areas, in order to encourage the use of IoT to accelerate progress on the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

As cities digitally transform, it is fundamental they ensure the accessibility of all products and services or risk widening the digital divide and excluding a significant percentage of the population. This initiative promotes a model policy that aims to provide all persons with disabilities and older people with accessibility on an equal basis with all other citizens to government programmes, products, services and information.

The objective of this policy is to provide an enabling framework to support the public procurement / development of accessible ICTs.

City governments are responding to their continued growth in part by deploying technologies and “smart city” solutions that enable more citizen-centred services and progress to more sustainable, inclusive, and open cities. In order to achieve these goals, cities and communities of all sizes must ensure that data generated by these technologies about individuals and their communities is appropriately protected and secured.

This initiative promotes a model policy that establishes a consistent method for identifying, evaluating, and addressing privacy risks. Drafting a model PIA policy is a complicated process, as wide variation exists in cultural and legal approaches to privacy and data protection around the world. In this policy, we hope that by prescribing the process that should be followed and the issues that must be considered, we increase the likelihood that cities will more confidently consider and address privacy risks in a manner consistent with community expectations.

A global network of pilots in Brazil, Colombia, Turkey and South Africa that aims to decrease the digital divide by enabling SMEs to access the benefits of IoT and emerging technologies

The Contract for the Web is a global plan of action to make our online world safe and empowering for everyone. The Contract for the Web lists the high-level principles and the concrete commitments needed by governments, companies and all of us as citizens, to get us to the web we want.

Led by Huawei, TECH4ALL centers on developing digital inclusion and empowerment initiatives with measureable outcomes. One of its many purposes is to help accelerate the UN’s SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).

Qualcomm Wireless Reach brings advanced wireless technologies to underserved communities globally. Since 2006, Wireless Reach has impacted more than 20 million people.

Led by World Economic Forum India, this project is leveraging emerging technologies like IoT and AI for improving the livelihood for under resourced communities. It is testing deployment of smart sensors to collect data to help farmers increase profitability and productivity.

HOME is a digital banking platform which partners with established institutions to create financial products designed to tackle the urban affordable housing crisis. They leverage data from the connected homes to aggregate social, economic and environmental benefits, and generate insight for new financial models which de-risk investments and incentivize the building of smart and sustainable housing.

Digital connectivity – or ‘smart infrastructure’ or ‘digital infrastructure’ – is the utility of the twenty-first century. It underpins every aspect of the modern economy and all aspects of smart cities.

This initiative promotes a model policy that provide cities with a comprehensive foundation to drive or accelerate digital infrastructure provision, by embedding planning, coordination and installation of capacity for connectivity in the permitting and construction process. In so doing, this policy greatly reduces the cost of covering previously underserved communities with digital infrastructure.

The G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance aims to strengthen global collaboration on smart city policies. This year the Alliance have produced a global policy roadmap with five foundational policies, and have recruited 20 pilot cities across the world to test these policies.

The Connectivity Standards Alliance is a global alliance which develops open, global standards for IoT, certifies products and promotes the use of standards.

In support of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) for the Ocean, Norway, has embarked on a suite of projects to find technical and governance solutions to improve the cross-border flow of critical ocean data.

Creating a new flexible data governance model that allows for the combination of data from personal, commercial, and government sources, while still respecting rights. Still positively empower a variety of stakeholders while removing unintended barriers.

What Works Cities helps local governments improve residents' lives by using data and evidence effectively to tackle pressing challenges.

Designed to connect cities, municipalities, government agencies, and enterprises with an ecosystem of providers to help deliver greater efficiencies, cost savings, safety, and sustainability.

Synchronicity is an EU-funded programme which has developed a universal approach to developing, procuring and deploying IoT- and AI-enabled services

The City Standards Network, led by Connected Places Catapult, is helping to build a more unified, collaborative approach to creating, refining, and implementing global standards to help cities become smarter and more citizen-friendly.

Led by Fudan University, the “China Open Data Index” is the first professional evaluation index in China aiming at the data opening level of governments, which includes four dimensions: readiness, platform, data and use.

Led by the World Economic Forum Centre in Japan, this governance model is designed to maximize the socially beneficial potential of data while protecting individual rights such as privacy and the legitimate interests of data holders.

Smart City Mission, India, governs the 100 smart cities program which visualizes emerging technologies improving the efficacy of urban infrastructure, quality of services to the citizen and liveability of a city. The mission’s vision is to make data key to decision-making in smart city governance.

The Belt and Road Cities Connectivity Index, is designed to evaluate flows of key elements among key cities along the B&R, help cities strengthen collaboration, and ultimately build a highly intensive and connective regional B&R city network of collaboration.

This initiative is seeking partners to help cities ensure that their open data programs meet global norms, by aligning them with a model policy developed by some of the world’s leading smart cities. Making city data available in open, interoperable formats to the wider stakeholder ecosystem can enable new services that increase the quality of life, improve economic, social, and environmental outcomes, and create more resilient communities.