Addressing new information challenges

Dunia was first created as an electronic communication platform during the Rio+20 People’s Summit, held in Brazil in 2012. At that time, sustainability issues took on even greater importance than in previous decades. Geo-economic and geopolitical power relations had also taken on a new dimension with the creation of the BRICS countries and China’s entry into the WTO in 2001.

At the same time, communication and the electronic space had become a strategic dimension, beginning to permeate all human activities. From influence and data monetization to financial flows, electoral processes, and information warfare, information had established, whether we liked it or not, a new interdependent dimension that we had to learn to decipher, observe, regulate, and link to other local and global issues.

Sustaining networked action

With this in mind, one of the priorities was to manage the tools provided by the computerization of the world, with a view to consolidating the transparency and democratization of digital tools. This initial approach, often championed by civil society (New Information and Communication Order, Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace, etc.), consisted of developing a range of open and sovereign tools geared towards citizen use, but also economic and institutional use, in addition to advocacy campaigns in favor of a non-monopolistic vision of cyberspace. The trend towards monopolization has since become more pronounced.

A second priority was to develop synergies between collective action, organizations, and IT tools. Indeed, many issues lie less within the sectoral division between issues than at their intersection, between action in the field, knowledge, and strategic thinking. Dunia has thus participated in various methodological experiments.

Acting in the immaterial realm

After ten years of activity, Dunia noticed that broader and more aggressive dynamics were unfolding in the information sphere. Conflict had expanded considerably. The “immaterial” domain now encompasses new strategic maneuvers whose nature has been reconfigured by new information technologies, even though they predate the advent of computerization in 1975. A new art of combat has therefore emerged, calling for extensive reflection and a strategic upgrade.

Since then, Dunia has invested methodologically and intellectually in the field of informational, economic, and geopolitical conflict. Since 2019, the platform has redeployed itself across four types of activities:

  • IT services provided to organizations, networks, and companies.
  • Consulting and training in strategic, informational, and economic intelligence
  • Knowledge production, particularly through books and articles
  • Taking initiatives in these different areas (business, networks, etc.).