In conjunction with the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-10), the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau is organizing a series of side events for Member States and Sector Members to address various ICT development themes.

Members/Sector Members wishing to organize events of their own are kindly asked to contact the ITU Protocol Service (protocol@itu.int) to determine a slot in the event calendar.

Connect a School, Connect a Community

Seminar and Ministerial Roundtable

-      Seminar on Sunday 23 May 2010, from 13:00 to 16:00, for WTDC Heads of Delegation and Experts.

-      Ministerial Roundtable on Tuesday 25 May 2010, from 17:30 to 19:00.

At the time of the Connect a School, Connect a Community launch, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged world leaders to support the effort of connecting all schools by 2015. These WTDC side events aim to build awareness and momentum towards this goal.

ITU has identified and compiled best practices on policies, regulation, low cost computing devices and practical experiences in connecting schools, including establishing school-based community ICT centres. These best practices, which will be discussed during the Seminar, are available on the Connect a School, Connect a Community online Toolkit of Best Practices and Policy Advice at: www.connectaschool.org.  The Ministerial Roundtable will consider outcomes of the expert meeting and highlight innovative measures to connect schools and communities.

For more information about these side events, contact: connectaschool@itu.int, or visit the Connect a School, Connect a Community website at: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/sis/Connect_a_school/index.html.

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Thematic Information Sessions

Measuring the Information Society

Tuesday, 25 May: 13:00 -14:00

Telecommunication/ICT policy makers and regulators need to be well informed about ICT uptake in their countries, along with comparisons to other countries. This event will highlight recent global and regional ICT developments based on ITU statistics and present the results of the latest ICT Development Index and ICT Price Basket.  It will also feature the outcomes of the World Telecommunication/ICT Development Report 2010, which reviews progress towards the achievement of the WSIS targets. The session will provide the Membership with an opportunity to learn more about ITU’s work on ICT measurement, discuss challenges related to the data collection and dissemination and provide suggestions on how Members can contribute to improving the availability and quality of the data.

For more information about this side event, contact: Indicators@itu.int.

ITU Academy

Wednesday, 26 May: 13:00-14:00

In this session, ITU will provide a demonstration of the new ITU Academy Portal. The overall vision of ITU Academy is to strengthen the human, institutional and organizational capacity of developing countries by making available ICT learning and development opportunities at the highest possible levels of quality. The longer term goal is to promote ITU Academy as a web-based platform that allows for a single access point to all ITU training interventions, whether delivered face-to-face or through instructor-led or self-paced distance learning in areas such as business and management; policy and regulation; and technologies and services.

ITU Academy’s growing network of partners encompasses currently more than 100 training/education institutions globally. This includes more than 60 Internet Training Centres, which help developing countries meet their human resource requirements for skilled Internet and "new economy" professionals through Internet and IP-related training programmes. It also includes a rapidly growing global network of more than 50 Centres of Excellence, made up of institutions sharing expertise, resources and capacity-building know-how in telecommunications and ICTs training/education. 

For more information about this side event, contact: ituacademy@itu.int, or visit the ITU Academy site at: http://academy.itu.int.

Trends in Policy and Regulatory Reform

Thursday, 27 May: 13:00-14:00

This session will include an interactive presentation on the latest regulatory trends and innovative approaches in a converging ICT sector. A live demo on ITU's unique regulatory online tools will follow. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about the regulatory issues to be discussed at the next Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR-10), the focus of the next edition of Trends in Telecommunication Reform, new regulatory and economic studies to be launched and get familiar with the newest enhancements made to the ITU's ICT EYE portal, the ITU-infoDev ICT Regulation Toolkit (including new content added to reflect changes taking place in the sector), the  ICT Regulatory Decisions Clearinghouse (ICTDEC) as well as G-REX, the ITU's online discussion forum for regulators and policy makers.

For more information about this side event, contact: bdt-rme@itu.int.

Spectrum Management and Digital Broadcasting

Thursday, 27 May: 17:30 – 18:30

This session will include a presentation of SMS4DC (Spectrum Management System for Developing Countries). This computer program provides assistance in the technical and regulatory procedures for managing the spectrum allocated to the Land Mobile, Fixed and Broadcasting services, in full compliance with the relevant ITU recommendations. During the side event, presentations will be delivered on the main features of the software combined with demonstration of its functions and on the links to the monitoring systems.

This session will also address the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting. ITU is assisting member countries to smoothly shift to digital broadcasting by providing guidelines on how to make a national plan for the transition including technical, policy, legal, regulatory, social, economic and customer related aspects, consultation to develop roadmaps and  training on digital broadcasting technologies and policies including assistance for the relevant spectrum issues for the transition. A presentation will be delivered on the main points of the guidelines.

For more information about this side event, contact: tnd@itu.int.

http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/tech/spectrum-management/indexPastEvents.html

e-Health

Friday, 28 May: 13:00-14:00

The session will update Member States and invite them to actively engage in important future e-Health activities lead by ITU. Activities are aimed at enhancing countries' capacity to develop or update National e-Health Strategic Plans to help shape an effective regulatory, governance and policy context for further e-Health development and investment. Other activities are tailored to guide countries in planning appropriate ICT infrastructure for e-Health to reach desirable outcomes or to introduce cost-effective and large scale national e-Health services with minimal resources.

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