Jun 5, 2025: Keynote Speech by Philipp Budka at the IDSF 2025 Social-Science Track

InfraNorth researcher Philipp Budka will deliver the keynote address for the Social Science Track at the International Digital Security Forum (IDSF) 2025, held under the theme “Sovereignty and Solidarity in the Digital Age – a critical view.” Hosted by the Vienna Centre for Societal Security (VICESSE) and the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, it will take place at MuseumsQuartier (MQ) in Vienna.

Budka’s keynote, titled “Community-Led Digital Sovereignty: Insights and Lessons from an Indigenous Initiative in Remote Canada,” will take place on June 5, 2025, from 10:00 to 10:45 CEST. It will explore how KO-KNET, a community-led digital initiative by the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Tribal Council, secured government support and leveraged strategic partnerships to advance digital sovereignty and self-determined development in remote Indigenous communities in Northwestern Ontario. In doing so, it links to InfraNorth research and questions of infrastructural sovereignty by showing how infrastructure and governance shape each other through community control. The session will be chaired by Roger von Laufenberg, managing director of VICESSE.

This year’s IDSF, under the motto “Balancing Sovereignty and Solidarity in the Digital Age,” serves as a multi-stakeholder platform bringing together international and national stakeholders from industry, government, research and civil society with key European stakeholders from the political and policy-making arena, to promote secure digitalisation for the benefit of a networked society. The lead topic focuses on digital transformation, which challenges states to maintain their open strategic autonomy and sovereignty while fostering global solidarity in leveraging the benefits and addressing risks and cyber threats.

For more information, please visit the IDSF website.