Thursday, June 21, 2001
Of possible interest to some Unicoders. While Unicode will not solve all
"digital divide" issues it can contribute to solution of some of them
IMHO.
Regards,
Jim Agenbroad ( jage@LOC.gov )
The above are purely personal opinions, not necessarily the official
views of any government or any agency of any.
Phone: 202 707-9612; Fax: 202 707-0955; US mail: I.T.S. Dev.Gp.4, Library
of Congress, 101 Independence Ave. SE, Washington, D.C. 20540-9334 U.S.A.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2001 02:31:40 +0500
From: Irfan Khan <khania@super.net.pk>
To: s-asia-it@apnic.net
Subject: UN Digital Divide conf planned for 2003 and 2005
------- Forwarded message follows -------
From: "Michael Gurstein" <mgurst@vcn.bc.ca>
To: "cpi-ua" <cpi-ua@vcn.bc.ca>,
"community informatics" <communityinformatics@vcn.bc.ca>
Date sent: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 09:14:48 -0700
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Benjamin" <peter@sn.apc.org>
To: <communitysa@lists.sn.apc.org>
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2001 12:43 PM
Subject: [Communitysa] UN Digital Divide conf planned for 2003 and
2005
Dear all,
The UN has announced it will hold a 'World Summit on the Information
Society' in Geneva in December 2003, followed up in Tunis in 2005.
Cheers,
Peter
=========
Framework and venue of the World Summit on the Information Society
announced Geneva, 8 June 2001
After extensive consultations with United Nations agencies and with
the two countries having submitted candidatures to host the World
Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the Secretary-General of
the ITU, Yoshio Utsumi, is pleased to announce the arrangements and
framework for WSIS. The Summit is being organized by the United
Nations system under the high patronage of Kofi Annan, UN
Secretary-General, with the International Telecommunication Union
taking thelead role, in cooperation with other interested UN
agencies.
The first phase of the World Summit will take place in Geneva hosted
by the Government of Switzerland in December 2003. It will address
the broad range of themes concerning the Information Society and
adopt a Declaration of Principles and Action Plan, addressing the
whole range of issues related to the Information Society.
The second phase of the World Summit will take place in Tunis hosted
by the Government of Tunisia, in 2005. Development themes will be a
key focus in this meeting and it will assess progress that has been
made and adopt any further Action Plan to be taken.
The modern world is undergoing a fundamental transformation, as the
Industrial Society of the past is rapidly evolving into the
Information Society of the 21st century. The Information Society
promises a fundamental change in all aspects of human existence,
including knowledge dissemination, social interaction, economic and
business practices, political engagement, media, education and
health, leisure and entertainment. But the inherently global nature
of this new environment, and the uneven pace of its development -
often referred to as the Digital Divide, make it vital that
international dialogue take place and that worldwide approaches be
considered to facilitate the successful adaptation to this new
reality.
The aim of the World Summit is to develop a common vision and
understanding of the Information Society and to draw up a strategic
plan of action for concerted development towards realizing this
vision. The Summit will also provide a unique opportunity to gather
the world community to assemble at a high level and to develop a
better understanding of this revolution and its impact. It aims to
bring together Heads of State, Executive Heads of United Nations
Agencies, industry leaders, non-governmental organizations, media
representatives and civil society.
The proposed themes address the central issues raised by the
Information Society and will likely include:
Building the infrastructure
Opening the gates: universal and equitable access to the information
society
Services and applications
The needs of the User
Developing a Framework
ICT and Education
Under each of these broad themes, consideration will be given to the
relevant developmental, economic, policy, social, cultural and
technological aspects.
The initiative for the Summit originated at the 1998 Plenipotentiary
Conference of the ITU, the UN specialized agency responsible for
telecommunications. Since telecommunications will play a central
role in the emergence of the information society, the ITU will play
a lead role in the planning and organizing of the Summit, in close
cooperation with other interested UN organizations and with the
active participation of governments, the private sector and civil
society.
WSIS has already been discussed with the United Nations
Secretary-General and Executive Heads of other agencies where strong
support has been voiced in the Administrative Committee for
Coordination (ACC). A High Level Summit Organizing Committee (HLSOC)
composed of Executive Heads of UN agencies interested in the Summit
and led by the ITU Secretary-General has been set up, with a mandate
to launch the activities related to the preparation of the Summit
and in particular to define its themes and outcome.
A series of regional preparatory meetings are being planned for the
year 2002. It is also expected that other meetings and initiatives
on the Information Society, including actions by governments, the UN
system, private sector and civil society, will provide input to the
preparation of the Summit.
Additional information about the Summit can be found on the WSIS
website at www.itu.int/wsis/
For further media inquiries, please contact:
ITU Press Office
Tel: +41 22 730 6039
Fax: +41 22 730 5939
E-mail: pressinfo@itu.int
=====================
Peter Benjamin
LINK Centre, P&DM,
Wits University
Tel: +27 11 717 3583
Fax: +27 11 717 3910
Cell: +27 82 829 3353
Email: peter@sn.apc.org
_______________________________________________
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