Digital technologies are rapidly evolving and becoming ever more ubiquitous,  creating unprecedented challenges, particularly in the Asia Pacific region. As technology becomes more deeply embedded in our social structures and daily lives, its impacts on human rights and democratic processes often become entrenched before their full implications can be understood or addressed. This challenge is amplified by the concentration of technological power in the hands of a few dominant corporations and state actors.

This situation creates two critical needs: 

• first, to anticipate, assess and counter the impacts of current and emerging technologies on our lives and our communities before they become difficult to change, and 
• second, to actively imagine and develop alternative and independent technology approaches that respect and enhance humanity and the world we live in.