WSIS
E-FLASH N°25, 31 March 2006 |
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WSIS
Action Line Facilitators/Moderators
consultation meeting, 24 February 2006, Geneva
A
consultation meeting of potential WSIS Action Line
Facilitators/Moderators was held in Geneva, at the Palais
des Nations, on 24 February. The meeting was convened and
co-chaired by ITU, UNESCO and UNDP as leading facilitating
agencies for the multi-stakeholder implementation of the
WSIS Plan of Action, as outlined in paragraphs 108-110 of
the
Tunis Agenda for the Information Society. The
consultation meeting was open to all WSIS stakeholders and
attended by around 130 representatives from governments,
international organizations, business entities and civil
society. The meeting decided on a
provisional
list of focal points
for each Action line of
the Tunis Agenda, as well as on Terms of Reference
for the facilitators and for the leading facilitating
agencies (ITU, UNESCO and UNDP). The summary and the
discussed documents as well as the list of participants are
published on the
WSIS website.
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Consultation on WSIS Action Line C2, 9 March 2006, Doha,
Qatar
In conjunction with the World Telecommunication Development
Conference (WTDC-06),
held in Doha, Qatar, the International Telecommunication
Union organized on 9 March 2006 a consultation meeting on
WSIS Action Line C2 (Information and Communication
Infrastructure). The purpose of the meeting was to exchange
information and to discuss the WSIS multi-stakeholder
implementation process in the field of information and
communication infrastructure. The meeting was open to all
WSIS stakeholders. The Summary record of the meeting is
available
here. For more information on implementation of WSIS
Action line C2 please go to the
WSIS website.
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Internet Governance Forum: consultation meeting, 16-17
February 2006, Geneva
A
consultation meeting on the convening of the Internet
Governance Forum (IGF) was held in Geneva 16 - 17 February
2006. About 300 participants representing all stakeholder
groups attended the meeting. The participants addressed a
wide variety of issues, such as IGF's scope of work and
substantive priorities as well as aspects related to its
structure and functioning. The aim of the consultations was
to develop a common understanding among all stakeholders on
the nature and character of the IGF. While there was an
emerging convergence of views on some aspects related to the
IGF including IGF’s scope of work and substantive
priorities, there were some open questions that needed
further discussion, as the need for a multi-stakeholder
group to prepare for the IGF meetings, as well as the
question of which public policy issues should be addresses
at these meetings. More information on the consultation
meeting can be found at the
IGF's
website. Greece, as host country of the first IGF
meeting, has set up a
portal.
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IGF Secretariat
in Geneva
On 2 March
2006, the UN Secretary-General announced his decision to
establish a small Secretariat in Geneva to assist in the
convening of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). For more
information, please see the
UN press release.
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Informal inter-agency meeting on the CSTD, 13 February 2006,
Geneva
An informal inter-agency meeting was held in Geneva on 13
February 2006 to brainstorm on the follow-up process to WSIS,
in particular that of the Commission on Science and
Technology for Development (CSTD). It was recalled that
paragraph 105 of the Tunis Agenda for the Information
Society requests the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to
oversee the system-wide follow-up of the Geneva and Tunis
outcomes of WSIS and to review, at its substantive session
of 2006, the mandate, agenda and composition of the CSTD,
including considering the strengthening of the Commission,
taking into account the multi-stakeholder approach.
The purpose of the informal meeting on 13 February 2006 was
therefore to initiate preliminary discussions among United
Nations agencies on the follow-up process to WSIS. Another
more consultation with all stakeholders is planned to be
held on 16 May in Geneva.
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WSIS
Stocktaking
The Summit
noted with appreciation the importance of the WSIS
Stocktaking exercise during the Tunis Phase and encouraged
ITU to continue its activities in this field. ITU is
maintaining and improving the web-based Stocktaking
Database, encouraging all WSIS stakeholders to submit
descriptions of projects and establishing the necessary
links with Action Line moderators/facilitators to share and
exchange information efficiently. Since the Tunis Summit,
the database has received several new entries with more than
three thousand project descriptions available in the
Stocktaking system as of 20 March 2006. Further information
is available on the
WSIS website.
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WSIS
Golden Book officially released
The WSIS
Golden Book
was officially launched on 24 February 2006 during the
consultation meeting of WSIS Action Lines
Facilitators/Moderators in Geneva.
Following the Swiss initiative announced at WSIS PrepCom-3,
the book was
published by ITU as a permanent record of the new
commitments pledged by stakeholders during the Tunis Phase
of the World Summit on the Information Society. All WSIS
stakeholders at the Summit were invited to respond to an
online questionnaire with details of their activities
announced during the Tunis Phase. These activities had been
planned or were already being undertaken to implement the
WSIS Plan of Action. The Golden Book also serves as a tool
in helping to coordinate implementation of the 11 Action
lines and to avoid duplicating efforts. The
online version of the book is available on the
WSIS website,
as well as more
information.
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UNESCO
opens online platform for planning multi-stakeholder
implementation of WSIS Plan of Action
UNESCO has opened an
online platform to facilitate initial contacts among stakeholders and to
launch activities under the Action Lines of the Geneva Plan
of Action that are in the area of competence of the
organization. This includes the following action lines: C3:
Access to information and knowledge; C7: E-learning and
e-science; C8: Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic
diversity and local content; C9: Media; C10: Ethical
dimensions of the Information Society.
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Upcoming WSIS events :
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31 March
2006, launching of new portal “ICT Success
Stories” On 31 March 2006, ITU will launch its
new portal, “ICT
Success Stories”, with a “hands-on” demonstration at
its Headquarters in Geneva, as part of its post-Summit work.
The portal serves to exchange fresh ideas and learning
experiences about creative uses of ICTs in different
cultural contexts to improve health, education, governance
and incomes, while empowering communities and promoting
peace and human values and freedoms. The key message is that
there is no “one size fits all” approach to using new
technologies to promote people-centred development; rather,
in the trial-and-error process of learning to use ICTs
effectively, the insights of projects and development
activities gained from experience can be extremely valuable.
The portal allows users to search ITU’s extensive database
of ICT success stories and experiences by theme, criteria,
country or stakeholder to exchange ideas, insights and
contact information. This should enrich the work being
undertaken to integrate ICTs into development approaches,
overcoming some of the difficulties project leaders face in
implementation, and helping to catalyze fresh thinking and
new projects.
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9-11 May 2006,
Geneva, Global Symposium on Promoting the Multilingual
Internet
ITU and UNESCO are convening a global symposium on promoting
the multilingual internet as a follow-up of the Tunis phase
of WSIS, highlighting the importance of multilingualism for
bridging the digital divide (WSIS Tunis Agenda Action line
C8). The symposium will examine issues highlighted in
paragraph 53 of the WSIS Tunis agenda, including: a) options
for advancing the process for the introduction of
multilingualism in a number of areas including domain names,
e-mail addresses and keyword look-up; b) options for
implementing programmes, also in cooperation with other
appropriate organizations, that allow for the presence of
multilingual domain names and content on the internet and
the use of various software modes in order to fight against
the linguistic digital divide and ensure the participation
of all in the emerging new society; c) options for
strengthening cooperation between relevant bodies for the
further development of technical standards and to foster
their global deployment. More information is available on
the
ITU website.
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12 May
2006, Geneva, consultation meeting on WSIS Action line C8 On 12 May 2006, UNESCO will organize in Geneva a
moderators/facilitators meeting on WSIS Action line C8
(Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and
local content). The meeting will take place in the Palais
des Nations, room XX, from, 10h00 - 18h00 hours, and is open to
all WSIS stakeholders. More information will be available soon at
the
UNESCO website.
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15-16
May 2006, Geneva, consultation meeting on WSIS Action line
C5
ITU will organize a consultation
meeting on WSIS Action Line C5 (Building Confidence
and Security in the use of ICTs).
The
purpose of the meeting, which
will take place 15-16 May 2006 at ITU Headquarters in
Geneva, is to
discuss the WSIS multi-stakeholder implementation process
for this action line.
The consultation is open to all WSIS stakeholders.
Further information is available on the
WSIS
website.
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STOP
PRESS:
New general WSIS contact e-mail address
Please note that due to spam overflow, we had to change the
general e-mail address of the WSIS Executive Secretariat. The
new general contact address is available on the
WSIS
website. Please avoid copying this address on your websites,
to prevent spammers from harvesting the address.
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INFORMATION LINKS |
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With best regards,
WSIS EXECUTIVE SECRETARIAT
https://www.itu.int/net/wsis/
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