IAB workshop on Barriers to Internet Access of Services (BIAS)
Webpage: https://datatracker.ietf.org/group/biasws/about/
The Internet as part of the critical infrastructure affects many
aspects of our society significantly, although it impacts different
parts of society differently. The Internet is an important tool to
reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)[1] and to globally support
human rights. Consequently, the lack of meaningful access to digital
infrastructure and services is also a form of disenfranchisement.
Solely having Internet access is not enough. At the same time as we
work to connect the next billion people and reduce the digital divide,
it is also important to understand persistent and novel inequalities in
the digital age when accessing content and services. There are more and
more barriers to meaningful access to the services and applications
that run on the Internet. Even if Internet connectivity is available,
information and services access may remain challenged and unequal.
This workshop aims to collect reports about barriers to access content
and services on the Internet, e.g based on filtering, blocking as well
as due to general inequality of technological capabilities, like device
or protocol limitations. The workshop aims to help the Internet
community get a better understanding of how the Internet functions in
different parts of the world and which technology or techniques need to
be used to gain access to content. Further this workshop aims to build
an understanding of what “being connected” to the Internet means: What
is the Internet to users? What is needed to be meaningfully connected?
What are the minimum requirements in order to be able to access certain
parts of the content and services provided over the Internet?
The IAB is looking for short position papers on the following topics;
however, this list is non-exhaustive and should be interpreted broadly:
• Discussion of minimal requirements for meaningful Internet access
that enable use of content and services provided over the Internet
• Discussion of current inequalities in Internet access in various
parts of the world
• Measurements of content blocking, Internet shutdowns, or other
events that impact Internet access
• Detailed analysis of filtering and blocking techniques
• Description and evaluation of circumvention techniques, including
VPNs and application-level traffic diversion
• Discussion and measurements of technologies that exacerbate the
digital divide beyond connectivity
• Threat modeling for when connectivity and circumvention are
misaligned with jurisdictions and authorities
Interested participants are invited to submit position papers on the
workshop topics. There are no restrictions on the format. Participants
can choose their preferred format, including Internet-Drafts, text- or
word-based documents, or papers formatted similar as used by academic
publication venues. Submission as PDF is preferred. Paper size is not
limited, but brevity is encouraged. Interested participants who have
published relevant academic papers may submit these as a position
paper, optionally with a short abstract explaining their interest and
the paper’s relevance to the workshop. The workshop itself will be
focused on discussions based on the position paper topics received.
All inputs submitted and considered relevant will be published on the
workshop website. The organizers will issue invitations based on the
submissions received. Sessions will be organized according to content,
and not every accepted submission or invited attendee will have an
opportunity to present; the intent is to foster an active discussion
and not simply to have a sequence of presentations. A workshop report
covering all submissions and the workshop discussion will be published
afterwards.
The workshop will be by invitation only. Those wishing to attend should
submit a position paper to address the above topics and questions.
Position papers from those not planning to attend the workshop
themselves are also encouraged.
Please indicate your interest by submitting a research proposal by
November 24, 2023 to [email protected]
The Program Committee members are Mallory Knodel (IAB, Center for
Democracy and Technology), Mirja Kühlewind (IAB, Ericsson), Tommy Pauly
(IAB, Apple), Chris Wood (IAB, Cloudflare), and Dhruv Dhody (IAB,
Huawei).
Feel free to contact the program committee with any further questions:
[email protected].
This workshop will be held online during the week of January 15, 2024,
likely supporting three 2-3h sessions spread over the week based on
submissions and the availability of the invited participants.
[1] https://sdgs.un.org/goals
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