On April 4th at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, the Ranking Digital Rights project convened a day-long invitation-only workshop to inform the drafting of the project’s Phase 1 criteria for ranking Internet and telecommunications companies on their practices and policies related to free expression and privacy.
The meeting would also help to determine priorities, scope, and focus of research needed to refine and improve the ranking criteria and methodology. This research process will enable the team to produce a final draft of the Phase 1 methodology by the end of the year.
Invited participants included: University of Pennsylvania faculty advisors; graduate and undergraduate students involved in the research; international research partners from Brazil, China, India, Russia, the United Kingdom and elsewhere; human rights advocates; technologists; socially responsible investors; experts on best practices in corporate ranking and rating systems; experts in the field of business and human rights, business ethics, and corporate social responsibility. For a full account of the discussions and outcomes please click here.