Opening keynote: 9:10 a.m. – 9:55 a.m.
The world’s greatest problems are global in nature: peace and security, climate change, and dwindling fisheries to name a few. These issues can’t be solved using national frames. The Internet facilitates both global collaboration and local engagement. The distributed, multistakeholder approach to governing the Internet serves as a model for addressing global issues in a flattened world, but it also represents a major departure from multilateral relations. How should Canadians conceptualize of our role on a post-national stage?
Under Elliot, Tucows challenged how software was distributed in the 1990s and how domain names were offered and managed in the 2000s and is challenging how mobile phone service and fixed internet are provided today.
For over twenty years, Elliot has loved and championed the internet as the greatest agent of positive change the world has ever seen. Through his role at Tucows, his involvement in ICANN and his personal efforts, he has lobbied, agitated and educated to promote this vision and protect an Open Internet around the world.