WSIS vignettets

International platform to showcase ICT applications
Two hundred organisations and businesses from 80 countries will participate in the ICT for Development Platform to be held concurrently with the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva. Digital Opportunity Channel will also be present at the event, which will show how ICTs – from simple transistor radios to high-tech computer systems – can be used innovatively to reduce poverty and promote development.

Covering an area of 16,000m2, the Platform, which runs from December 9 to 13, consists of an exhibition and a conference. It is jointly organised by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP).

For five days Hall 4 at Palexpo Geneva will be transformed into the largest multicultural information and communication village in the world. Governments, companies and national and international organisations will gather there for the biggest event ever held on the subject of ICT for development. Entitled “Connecting people for a better life” it will present a broad range of practically oriented projects, products and services from open-source software, to community radio, e-learning, agricultural information systems and Internet-supported networking. Visitors will find the most up-to-date information and the latest offers on almost every conceivable topic.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the ICT4D Forum will offer a top-class conference programme. Around 40 panel discussions, workshops and special events are planned. Government leaders, ministers, captains of industry, ICT practitioners and representatives of NGOs will engage in lively debate about trends, prospects and strategies in the area of ICT for development.

(ICT4D Platform)

Mbeki wants domain names discussed
The issue of administering Internet domain names should be discussed at WSIS in Geneva, “otherwise the world continues to be governed by California law”, says South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki addressed a media conference after a meeting of the President’s International Advisory Council (PIAC) that deals with IT issues relating to this country’s and Africa’s development.

“We need to discuss the possibility of putting in place a multilateral mechanism for Internet governance and the summit is a good place to do it,” Mbeki said. “It may be the current way it is governed through ICANN is the best way, but this has to be examined.”

The issue of Internet governance has been a major sticking point between government and NGOs in the run-up to the WSIS. Many of the poorer nations such as Brazil, SA, Saudi Arabia and China would like to see the administration of Internet domain name registrations moved from the public private company ICANN, which is incorporated under California law, to a multinational organisation such as the United Nations. However, the US and the European Union staunchly support the ICANN model.

(APC)

Equal accesibility and gender will be one of the key issue of WSIS
Broadcasters to discuss media role in information society
The World Media Electronic Forum (9-12 December 2003), a spectacular media event gathering the world’s media leaders in Geneva during the WSIS, will highlight the contribution of broadcasting and broadcasters to the information society. A historical first, all of the world’s broadcasting unions have agreed on a common platform to be submitted to the summit. You can provide your input on vital media issues of the 21st century through an online questionnaire available in nine languages.

http://www.wemfmedia.org/

Deepalaya, an NGO working in the social development sector, has introduced e-mail as an educational tool, promoting ICT with an applicative edge.
National consultation in Pakistan on WSIS
A national consultation on the WSIS was held in Pakistan from 17 to 19 November 2003 to prepare a national initiative to be implemented during the period between the two summits in 2003 and 2005.

The synthesis of the consultation, along with the proposed project, would be presented at the summit itself in December 2003.

http://wsis.sdnpk.org/

Programme of civil society events now available online
The programme for the Civil Society Side Events, produced by the Swiss Platform of Civil Society in cooperation with various groups in civil society is now online at www.communicationrights.org.

It is the ultimate guide to the three days of the WSIS for those who want to grapple with the real issues of the “Information Society”, with preview of the events on all the relevant Websites. This is a “must-have” for all who are interested in the alternative events of the Summit, inclusive of the WE Seize! events outside the official walls of the Summit.

(CRIS)

Zambia’s minister calls for information society in Africa
Information about goods and services is increasingly driving global markets, Zambia’s communications and transport minister Bates Namuyamba has observed. Opening the Zambia Postal Services Corporation and Pan African Postal Union workshop at the Taj Pamodzi Hotel, he said a lot needed to be done in Africa to build a sound information society.

Zambia has also seen considerable progress in terms of ISP's and mobile telephony providers. In a short time, either facility has developed a reasonable and sustainable subscriber base.

He implored the postal service in Africa to realise the importance of applying modern technology to improve the quality of their services and to expand their products and service delivery.

“The effective deployment of strategically important new technology holds the key to yet untapped potential in the infrastructure that the posts already own,” Namuyamba said. He said technology could enable postal administrations to become more efficient and to maximise revenue generation.

(APC)

Media to use blogs in bringing alternative views By John Plunkett The Guardian It sounds like a pitch for a reality TV show. Eight strangers thrown together in an exotic location with live updates of their progress available - where else? - on the internet. But forget Big Brother. Meet “Big Blogger”, an ambitious British Council initiative in which an unlikely combination of western and Middle Eastern journalists will join forces to report from the ground at the first World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The journalists - most of them twenty something and with no previous experience of web logging - will be responsible for a single news site, www.dailysummit.net, providing instant news and comment from the three-day event in Geneva in December. “What they produce will be a very important take on what is happening, and very different from the one you would expect from journalists covering the event officially,” says Robin Baker, deputy director general of the British Council. “We are committed to enriching and inspiring dialogue across different countries and cultures. It’s not about agreeing with each other, but understanding where each of us is coming from.” The team of eight journalists heading to Geneva includes representatives from the National Press Agency in Tunisia and newspapers in Egypt and Nigeria. UK representatives come from the Western Daily Press in Bristol, the Belfast Telegraph and the BBC World Service, and they met for the first time at the British Council’s headquarters in London last month. The web log will be printed in Arabic and English and will be supported by a professional IT team. “We did a blog at the World Summit on Sustainable Development but we wanted to do it differently, we wanted to involve young journalists,” explains Rachel Roberts, head of the British Council’s information society team. In true Big Brother-style, the web loggers will live together in Geneva and will have to decide between themselves how they operate the site and prioritise their news agenda. Unlike Big Brother, there will be no opportunity to vote each other out and the only daily tasks there’ll have to face will be journalistic ones. “But by working together you realise that human needs are basically the same, that human preoccupations are basically the same, regardless of language and so on, and that is much stronger than the differences. That is a very useful thing. But they won’t be in a position to influence public opinion just yet. This is a long-term project.”