World Summit On The Information Society Research Articles

The Early Ground Offensives in Internet Governance

The second stage of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunisia in November 2005 saw the long-standing debate over who should govern the Internet reach an apparent culmination. The vast majority of parties involved (over 10,000 people from over 170 countries) announced their acquiescence to the final agreement, which allowed ICANN to maintain responsibility for domain name allocation, while introducing a non-binding multi-stakeholder Internet Governance Forum (IGF) to be set up alongside.1 However, this current paper will show that the agreement provides limited assistance to the ongoing discussion and resolution on Internet Governance, and furthermore that unless the key players—particularly the USA—alter their stance, the Internet is in danger of fragmentation and gridlock, which is a genuine possibility unless the governance of the Internet moves to an International level away from exclusive US control. The conclusions made in Tunisia are not fully representative and the perception of US control has not been removed. Until this is revisited and altered, the Internet remains in considerable threat of break-up and potential gridlock.

Whois WSIS; Whois IGF: The New Consensus-Based Internet Governance

The first meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was held in Athens from Oct 30-Nov 2, 2006. This meeting capped off nearly a decade of preparations and planning, organized through the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The ultimate result, the IGF, is a discussion body with no decision-making power and a mandate to do little more than publish its results. This article argues that despite this thin mandate - and perhaps because of it - the IGF and the process leading up to it mark a fundamental shift in Internet governance. For the first time, we are entering an era of truly International Internet governance.This Article comprises four parts. The first three parts present the development of Internet governance. In broad strokes, it is drawn in three stages: pre-governance, modern US governance, and post-modern International governance. Pre-governance, the subject of the first part of this Article, spanned the birth of the Internet through the birth of ISOC, the Internet Society - during which the Internet went from having no centralized point of control, to the development in 1983 of a centralized Domain Name System, and from there to the initiation of the modern governance debate by ISOC. The modern era, the second part of this article, starts with this shift in discussion, continues through the creation of ICANN, and runs up through the present implementation of the WSIS outcome. The third part of this article looks at the ongoing shift in the governance discussion - the WSIS- and IGF-induced shift away from control of the DNS. Pending the success of this shift, we are witnessing the creation of a post-modern Internet governance. Early indications suggest the success of the new discussion, and thus the birth of a third era of Internet governance. The last part of this Article puts this evolution of Internet governance into a theoretical framework.

Challenges of the Approaching Knowledge Society: Major International Issues Facing LIS Professionals

In the context of the follow-up work arising from the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), this paper attempts to answer the questions: Why should librarians and information workers be involved in international advocacy? And what are the international issues with which librarians should concern themselves? Special attention is paid to the role of IFLA, as the main international body representing the interests of librarians, and to the eleven WSIS action lines set out in the 2003 Geneva Plan of action, along which much of the current follow-up work is aligned. The concept of the Knowledge Society, and more specifically four criteria for a Knowledge Society -- ICT infrastructure, information content, human intellectual capacity, and physical delivery infrastructure - are used as a framework for the answers we give to these questions. A brief discussion of these areas and some comments on the WSIS process precede a broad outline of the international issues facing library and information professionals.

Internet governance: A personal perspective

Internet governance is one of the hot issues that emerged during the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis November 2005. The discussions did not start then but much earlier. This...

WSIS, IFLA, UNESCO and GATS: networking for libraries on an international level

PurposeThe World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) shows the political dimension of the global information society. The purpose of this article is to consider the state of WSIS after the second phase and show possibilities for libraries to participate in the WSIS implementation. Furthermore, relations between WSIS, GATS and the “UNESCO convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions” are explained. IFLA, as leading library organization, as well as national associations, is taking up the challenge of advocating libraries as agencies of information societies.Design/methodology/approachProvides a report and analysis of WSIS Summit 2003‐2005 and WSIS Stocktaking for Libraries.FindingsRelevance of WSIS Summit 2003‐2005 and WSIS Stocktaking for Libraries.Originality/valueThe paper offers first‐hand information on the WSIS process. It outlines proposals for networking between libraries and advocacy for libraries on global political level.

Transforming India into a knowledge economy through information communication technologies—Current developments

The paper elaborates upon the current developments in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector in India and their implications in transforming the country into knowledge economy. It analyses the ICT infrastructure, policies, present status within the framework of India Vision 2020; Digital opportunity Task Force of G8 (DOT Force), World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Geneva 2003 and Tunis 2005. It dwells upon the challenges which must be overcome to attain the status of knowledge economy of the country.

Transforming India into a knowledge economy through information communication technologies—Current developments

The paper elaborates upon the current developments in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector in India and their implications in transforming the country into knowledge economy. It analyses the ICT infrastructure, policies, present status within the framework of India Vision 2020; Digital opportunity Task Force of G8 (DOT Force), World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Geneva 2003 and Tunis 2005. It dwells upon the challenges which must be overcome to attain the status of knowledge economy of the country.

World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Pre‐conference “Libraries: The Information Society in Action”

PurposeAims to provide a brief conference report of the Pre‐conference held in Alexandria, Egypt prior to the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis.Design/methodology/approachA brief report of the hightlights of the conference.FindingsPresentations treated a number of topics from different countries. This included discussions on Internet governance, social inclusion, proactive assistance, cultural diversity, health information, and the development of the IFLA success stories databaseOriginality/valeProvides information to educate readers about the social issues raised by the Summit and the role of libraries globally to insure access to information among the world’s diverse populations.

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS): A Global Challenge in the New Millennium

A World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was first proposed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a United Nations (UN) body, in 1998. The summit was formally endorsed by the UN General Assembly in December 2001. A series of regional planning meetings were held in 2002 and 2003 in several countries around the world. A Preparatory Committee process (PrepCom) began in July 2002 with an inaugural meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. Unlike many other UN summit processes, WSIS was planned in two phases. The first phase was held in Geneva 10-12 December 2003 and the second phase held in Tunis 16-18 November 2005. The perspectives of the global library, museum and archive communities are discussed along with summit purposes, outcomes, unresolved issues (Internet governance and funding mechanisms) and a look at the implementation of the Plan of Action by governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector in the coming years.

Life after WSIS: Lessons learnt and implications for the information professions

In November 2005, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) “concluded” with the second phase meeting in Tunis. The goal of WSIS was to garner global attention, devise effective policies, and identify promising applications and business models for capturing the promise of ICTs for all. The International Telecommunication Union paved the way, along with a vast number of players and stakeholders, for the two-phase summit (the first phase was held in Geneva in 2003). Countless numbers of preparatory meetings and submissions from a diverse set of stakeholders have gone into the making of the WSIS. The outcomes of the two WSIS phases were more limited than one would have expected or hoped for. Nevertheless a number of important developments are in the works, such as the Internet Governance Forum, the Digital Equity Fund, the global alliance on IT4Dev to name a few. Thus increased attention to and involvement in these developments are still, if not more, necessary. The aim of this session is to gather leading individuals who have been actively engaged in the WSIS discussions and can shed light on the lessons learnt from the Summit, as well as what the implications might be for the information science community. Indeed, the Summit did not really engender the expected buzz within the information science community: why is that so? This session aims to generate a broad discussion about the opportunities and challenges afforded by having a World Summit on information-related issues. What has been achieved or not at the two rounds of WSIS The major issues addressed and the issues of contention The participation of and implications for information professionals. Fostering a debate on the WSIS issue is essential in order to assess why WSIS was not more successful, but even more important to explore what can be done with what was achieved, and where the future of information societies seem to lie. WSIS needs not be “dead” and gone already. Rather it seems to be more essential than ever to reflect on the lessons we can learn from it. The aim of this session is to enable discussion around WSIS and the after-WSIS landscape to take place within the ASIST community.

‘Twenty years mean nothing’

What happened after the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) and the report prepared by the MacBride Commission: is it the case, in the words of the popular tango Volverby Carlos Gardel, that 20 years mean nothing? This article analyses the global discussions around the flow of information and communication from the NWICO to the WSIS. The aim of this article is to look at the movements, breaks and continuities which relate not only to the relationship between governments, but also to the main economic, technological, political and social trends in both historical moments. Additionally, the article notes the changes in the agents involved and conceptual shifts in the various stages of the discussion. The article reconstructs the evolution of the proposals aimed at democratizing the communication structures, to enable an analysis of their relevance to the current debate about the ‘Information Society’, a term which, though repeatedly used in recent years, gained momentum in the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held in December 2003 in Geneva. Our hypothesis is that the frustration resulting from the NWICO debates at UNESCO in the 1970s is a key motivation for the new players at the WSIS summits in Geneva and Tunis – they do not want to repeat past mistakes. However, we consider that the struggle is still political; it is based on a dispute over economic and symbolic resources. It has become increasingly important to re-state the need to democratize the communicational resources of society.

Debating communication imbalances from the MacBride Report to the World Summit on the Information Society: an analysis of a changing discourse

This article argues that it is important to position the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in a historical perspective to understand the roots of the current debate and how they relate to changes that are affecting the world today. A lexical content analysis of the words and phrases of three key documents – final Recommendations of the MacBride Report and WSIS final Declarations from the Geneva Summit (official and alternative) – enable us to identify continuity and change in international policy discourses on communication imbalances, the role of information technologies for development and their implications for human and communication rights. The discussion of the findings points out similarities and differences between the narratives of yesterday and today and how these relate to developments in the social and political environment.

The U.S. role in global internet governance

Who should control the Internet? A dozen years after the Internet became a mass medium, this issue has continued to grow in urgency, becoming white hot in fall 2005. At the September 2005 preparatory meeting for the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), a coalition of countries criticized the United States' unilateral control of the Internet's domain name system (DNS) and proposed the establishment of a multinational Council to supervise it. This proposal emerged from the Final Report of the UN Working Group on Internet Governance. Researchers from the Internet Governance Project, a university-based consortium for policy analysis, have concluded that the United States should internationalize governance of the Internet, but in a way that avoids intrusive, centralized control.

Science and the Digital Divide

A t the launch of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva in December 2003, the world community strongly affirmed the central role of science in developing an information society and affirmed the principle of “universal access with equal opportunities for all scientific knowledge and the creation and dissemination of scientific and technical information.” The WSIS Declaration of Principles recognized the essential role of the public domain and public institutions such as libraries, archives, and museums in supporting the growth of the Information Society and providing free and equitable access to information.[*][1] The WSIS Plan of Action suggested numerous approaches to implement these principles, including “e-science” as a key application of information and communication technologies in support of sustainable development.[†][2] The international scientific community succeeded in raising these issues at WSIS and securing widespread support from participating governments. Now, with the second phase of WSIS taking place in Tunis in November 2005, the scientific community needs to take the lead in demonstrating how science—and universal access to scientific data, information, and knowledge—can make a critical difference in sustainable development and overcoming the “digital divide.” The deadly South Asian tsunami in December 2004 and what many have called the “silent tsunamis” of millions of unnecessary deaths and untold suffering from malnutrition, disease, and poverty remind us that science has far to go. Scientists must work not only to predict future hazards and develop new medicines and vaccines, but also to make scientific data and information much more accessible and useful for real-world decision-making. These disasters underscore the need to better understand how societies can best organize themselves to address pressing problems posed by limited resources, conflict, poor infrastructure, and inadequate skills and knowledge. Scientists, the original developers of information and communication technologies, often take for granted their ready access to data and information, software and hardware, and networks of colleagues. But for billions of people, even the most rudimentary access to life-saving scientific expertise and knowledge, such as an early warning or a new cropping method, is a major challenge. ![Figure][3] CREDIT: STEVEN HUNT/GETTY IMAGES How can the international scientific community help reduce the digital divide? Already, many scientists and scientific institutions are working to improve the reach and effectiveness of science through information and communication technologies. The International Council for Science (ICSU) and its Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) are collaborating with WSIS to collect and document such efforts ([www.wsis-online.net/science/home_EN/][4]). But more needs to be done. Scientists can support distance education and training; improve the accessibility of information and communication technologies to disadvantaged, marginalized, and vulnerable groups; communicate technical knowledge to the general public; and establish digital libraries, data archives, and other mechanisms to increase access to scientific information. We urge the scientific community to come up with more creative ideas and outcomes. Noteworthy examples on this front include the efforts by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to provide electronic access to its course materials ( ) and by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility to make primary scientific biodiversity data openly available ( ). The scientific community should also consider new approaches to open electronic access, such as the Science Commons ( ), that, among other things, address the complex issue of licensing structures. Immediately after the South Asian tsunami, critical data on elevation, population location, administrative boundaries, and damage could not be shared because of intellectual property and national security constraints. Even now, the 30-meter-resolution data from the Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) flown by NASA in the year 2000 is not publicly available, although it could potentially provide the best available elevation information regarding most of the world's coasts. The pending decision by the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to prohibit public access to various aeronautical products would be another step in the wrong direction. The scientific community needs to press governments not only to release specific data sets that are vital to disaster management and planning, but also to establish a “good Samaritan” principle for the use of data and information in humanitarian emergencies. Science helped to create the Information Society—it can now help extend that society to all. [1]: #fn-1 [2]: #fn-2 [3]: pending:yes [4]: http://www.wsis-online.net/science/home_EN/

Network Recovery, Protection and Restoration of Optical, SONET-SDH, IP, and MPLS [Book Review

Who should control the Internet? A dozen years after the Internet became a mass medium, this issue has continued to grow in urgency, becoming white hot in fall 2005. At the September 2005 preparatory meeting for the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), a coalition of countries criticized the United States' unilateral control of the Internet's domain name system (DNS) and proposed the establishment of a multinational Council to supervise it. This proposal emerged from the Final Report of the UN Working Group on Internet Governance. Researchers from the Internet Governance Project, a university-based consortium for policy analysis, have concluded that the United States should internationalize governance of the Internet, but in a way that avoids intrusive, centralized control.

Partners or pawns?: The impact of elite decision-making and epistemic communities in global information policy on developing countries and transnational civil society

This paper explores the complex institutional processes that comprise the global governance of cyberinfrastructure and examines the impact of these elite regime formation processes on developing countries and transnational civil society organizations. Based on a concurrent, mixed-methods study of the United Nations-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), we find that policy-actors from developing countries and civil society organizations have been less effective than other actors in influencing these processes. Finally, we recommend future research on the use of ICTs to strengthen the effective participation of developing countries and transnational civil society organizations in these processes.

WSIS: Whose vision of an information society?

The United Nations (UN) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in their development of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), are contributing to the on–going discourse of the "Information Society." This study analyzes how WSIS contributes to the on–going Information Society discourse, especially how it frames a vision of an Information Society and the global "digital divide." The methodology of this study is a broad, comprehensive, and critical content analysis of the two main documents of WSIS, its Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action. The content analysis utilizes discourse analysis and ideology critique, and quantitative and qualitative methods. The results of the analysis show that WSIS paints a wholly utopian, technologically deterministic picture of an "Information Society" that oversimplifies and generalizes a complex issue and phenomenon, about which no clear consensus exists.

BRAVE NEW DIGITAL WORLD? REFLECTIONS ON THE WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is organized in two parts: the first part in Geneva in December 2003, the second part in Tunis in November 2005. The WSIS is an initiative of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a technical organization in which corporate interests carry considerable weight. This inevitably has an influence on the orientation of the Summit. The texts adopted by the first phase of the WSIS project a naïve belief in technology and in a brave new digital world in which Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) will solve all problems. In reality, they cover up fundamental disagreements and diametrically opposed world views. The digital divide is no more than a symptom of the unequal distribution of wealth among and within countries. Any serious policy of ICT development must be part and parcel of a global policy of human and sustainable development. The main contentious issues of the first part of the WSIS were human rights, Internet governance, free software, intellectual property rights and the financial means of bridging the digital divide. This first phase of the WSIS gives rise to a number of critical reflections on the present state of the international community. The first part of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 10 to 12 December 2003. Its second part is to be held in Tunis, Tunisia, from 16 to 18 November 2005. The purposes of this article are (I) to give a brief account of the preparation and organization of the Summit, (II) to present the main results of its first phase, (III) to deliver a critical analysis of these results, and (IV) to show that the WSIS gives rise to some critical reflections on the present state of the international community.

SETTING A POSITIVE AGENDA FOR INTERNET GOVERNANCE AT THE WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY (WSIS): OF TECHNOLOGY AND HUMANKIND

Internet Governance emerged as a contentious and key issue at the 2003 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva. Against the backdrop of digital solidarity – the benefits of the Information Society should be shared amongst citizens of both developed and developing countries to ensure fair and equitable development for all – the author advocates the need for Civil Society to work together to develop a unified voice and a consolidated list of critical issues. The author provides an overview of some of the contentious issues leading up to the Geneva Phase of WSIS. The author also looks at some of the issues addressed in two critical meetings following the Geneva Summit: The International Telecommunication Union Workshop on Internet Governance (ITU Workshop) and the United Nations Information and Communications Technologies Task Force Global Forum on Internet Governance (UN Global Forum). This is followed by an analysis and discussion of what the author perceives to be the most important issues on Internet Governance from the perspective of enhancing human rights and promoting human dignity in the Information Society. The author identifies three prominent issues: appropriate and effective capacity building, language and cultural rights in the domain name system, and a cautionary approach to model laws which could impact on human rights. The author concludes by offering a strategy on how civil society can be most effective in its contribution to Internet Governance issues for the upcoming WSIS meeting in Tunis.

Pan Asia ICT R&D Grants Programme and ICT4D in Asia

abstractThe vision of an information-enabled globally connected knowledge-based society is driven in large part by the smooth integration of new media (information and communication technologies or digital ICTs) with traditional media, coupled with technical skill sets, forward-looking government policies, an attitude of lifelong learning, and a desire to improve efficiencies and harness innovation in a humanely and environmentally sustainable manner. This introductory article sets the stage for this special issue of Media Asia, focusing on the ICT4D projects of the Pan Asia ICT R&D Grants Programme. It provides an overview of new media and development in Asia, particularly with the backdrop of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), hosted by the United Nations. The chapter reviews existing literature on ICTs in Asia, highlights the key findings by the contributors to this issue and discusses key implications of these findings.