The Digital Watch observatory is a comprehensive digital policy observatory, which provides a neutral one-stop shop for the latest developments, overviews, events, policy players, instruments, and other resources. The observatory is part of the Geneva Internet Platform, an initiative of the Swiss authorities, operated by DiploFoundation.
The observatory maintains a comprehensive live summary of the latest developments in digital policy; provides an overview of issues, actors and ongoing processes; maintains a live calendar of upcoming and past events, and public consultations, and provides just-in-time reporting from digital policy events; provides access to the latest research and data on internet policy; is enriched by quantitative research (e.g. data-mining of open data, topic profiling); and relies on a team of 30+ digital policy experts from around the world, for digital policy research and analysis.
The observatory features over 50 digital policy issues, classified under seven baskets: Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, Human rights, Legal, Economic, Development, and Sociocultural. This taxonomy was first developed in 1997 and has been adopted by various international bodies. The observatory complements two other pillars: the Geneva Digital Watch newsletter and monthly GIP briefings on internet governance.