On 6-8 June 2023, the V International Conference “Tangible and Intangible Impact of Information and Communication in the Digital Age” was held in Khanty-Mansiysk within the framework of the UNESCO Information for All Programme (IFAP) and the XIV International IT Forum. The conference was organized by the Russian Committee of the UNESCO Information for All Programme, the Interregional Library Cooperation Center and the Government of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra, under the support of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO, Permanent Delegation of the Russian Federation to UNESCO and the Intergovernmental Council of the UNESCO Information for All Programme.
The event brought together about 150 experts from 48 countries – representatives of intergovernmental, international, regional and national non-governmental organizations, public authorities, prominent experts in the field of communication, information technologies, information security, creative industries, management, international relations, sociology, political science, psychology, linguistics, pedagogy.
Within the framework of the V Anniversary Conference, the discussion of the most pressing and significant issues related to rapid and continuous changes in the field of information and communication was continued in a hybrid face-to-face and online formats. The experts focused on the most significant and relevant topics related to the development of the information society in the digital era:
- the impact of disruptive information technologies on society, decision-making and everyday life;
- ensuring cybersecurity and the use of information technologies for social good;
- features of public administration in the digital universe;
- security issues of using generative neural networks;
- ethical basis of actions and decisions of artificial intelligence systems;
- copyright protection and intellectual property management in the context of digital transformation;
- new challenges caused by the creation of works using artificial intelligence;
- the use of information technology in intellectual creative products;
- regional experience in the development of creative industries, existing and potential supporting measures;
- global experience in the development of digital language resources and other ways of using information technologies to preserve and promote languages in the digital world.
At the opening of the event at the State Art Museum, participants were welcomed by Ms. Natalia Komarova, Governor of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra; Ms. Dorothy Gordon, Chair of the Intergovernmental Council of the UNESCO Information for All Programme, Head of the UNESCO Information for All Programme Working Group on Information Literacy, and member of UNESCO IITE Governing Board (Ghana); Ms. Tatiana Dovgalenko, Secretary General of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO; Mr. Adama Samassekou, Founder and Secretary General of the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN), President of the Worldwide Network in Support of Linguistic Diversity MAAYA, former Minister of Education of Mali (Mali). Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Mr. Sergey Vershinin and Permanent Delegate of the Russian Federation to UNESCO Mr. Rinat Alyautdinov also sent their greetings to the participants.
On behalf of the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education, Ms. Tatiana Murovana took part in the preparation of the conference programme and acted as co-moderator of the first plenary session “Digital Universe: Challenges and Ways of Development”.
Currently, an international working group is preparing a final document on the results of the conference.
Video recording of the conference