Executive Summary: Working Group on the Information Society

Chair

Rosa Delgado, Internet Society / DevSig (ISOC)

Co-Chair

Thomas Ruddy, Federal Swiss Labs (EMPA)

Assistance

Jeroen Van Hove (Mandat International)

Reporter

Yoshiko Kurisaki, Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC)

The Working Group focused on different aspects of the information society, as it is a theme related to many others, such as education and women’s rights. The first and last session inevitably addressed the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). This is a UN-Summit in two phases, the first phase to be held from 10 to 12 December 2003, in Geneva, Switzerland and the second in 2005 in Tunis (www.itu.int/wsis). It is actually going to define the Information Society as such.

The WSIS secretariat described how civil society will be involved in the preparation of the summit on an open and transparent basis. Our first session welcomed the executive secretariat of WSIS, and other speakers did not hesitate to point out the difficulties civil society encountered during WSIS’ first preparatory meeting held in Geneva just before the Forum (PrepCom I 1-6 July 2002). This first WSIS meeting focused on rules of procedure and was only partly open to NGOs that got accreditation.

The working group then addressed six main themes throughout the forum. It began with a discussion on the Access to information in developing countries led by Hamadoun Touré, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Bureau. This session stressed the importance of joint efforts between civil society and governments in order to bridge the digital divide and also emphasised that human resources and capacity building are the key to achieve this goal. Another session addressed Information society and global governance. Five speakers commented on the implication and opportunities of the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) on democracy.

On the one hand ICTs empower citizens to act beyond their national border, with new democratic decision-making systems needing to be developed (civil society examples were given) and on the other hand, major security problems can arise. The still problematic Convention on Cyber Crime was discussed along with the presentation of an Internet voting application from the city of Geneva. The use of ICTs for trade and health were illustrated in the session on E-commerce and tele-medicine with speakers from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the World Health Organization (WHO). By means of E-commerce small groups in remote areas can offer their products world-wide and the Internet also makes it possible for them to benefit from medical services (tele-medicine).

Discussing such issues, a session on Communication privacy is vital since civil society (especially in countries with human rights problems) is exposed to surveillance on the web. Whoever the surveillers are, they themselves are not systematically monitored. The role of watching the watchers was suggested for civil society.

This working group dealing with the digital divide also focused on the gender divide in ICTs use in the session The pioneering role of women in the Information Society. What the presentation of several projects and initiatives repeated was that women often lack computer literacy, along with general education. However they are in fact able to acquire and teach computer skills. A good example is ASAFE’s computer training centre in Cameroon, represented by Gisèle Yitamben. Our last thematic session on Creating an open and inclusive Information Society was more general. In order to create this democratic information society inadequate access to ICTs itself and the lack of content in native languages are the two main impediments.

A representative from the Internet Society France (ISOC) warned civil society about the societal implications of a certain development within the Internet, namely IPv6 (Next Generation Internet) that will replace the current internet protocol in the next decade.

During the wrap up session the speakers that were still present and the participants started drafting the recommendations that were further developed during a workshop the next day. These were then presented at the closing session and were also intended to provide input into PrepCom II^*

^*On 16^th September they were presented at the WSIS informal meeting on content and themes. (www.itu.int/wsis)

The participants voted a consensus elected working group representing the World Civil Society Forum Working Group on the Information Society.

Chair

Rosa Delgado (Internet Society - Geneva)

Co chair

Thomas Ruddy (EMPA)

Assistant

Jeroen Van Hove (Mandat International)

Members

Hendrik Bussiek – Global TV initiative

Eiji Hayashi – Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC)

Jose Aguilar – The North South Institute

Jonathan Robin – IPv6 Task Force, ISOC, ECC

Michel Loots – World Information Transfer, Human Info

Bianca Miglioretto – AMARC

They are responsible for the content and the follow up on the recommendations, which are structured in 10 clusters:

Civil Society Fundamentals

• Freedom of and access to information and communication is a fundamental human right (UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

Civil Society Representation

• Governments, international organizations and Civil Society should ensure equitable representation at the World Summit on the Information Society of women, youth, the elderly, the disabled, and Indigenous Peoples.
• Geographical representation must be ensured.

Civil Society Participation

• Ensure full participation of Civil Society at all levels within the World Summit on the Information Society process.
• Use communication technologies to allow distance participation (e.g. web conferencing, teleconferencing, etc).

Cooperation

• Encourage synergies, cooperation, networking and cross sector connections among all actors on an equal basis (e.g. education, health and environment).
• Increase local and regional cooperation among key actors.

Broadcasting

• Make sure that broadcasting is on the WSIS agenda.
• Support the development of the third broadcasting sector (community radio and TV).
• Support media initiatives that create space and services for global dialogue and information dissemination to bridge gaps between continents and cultures.
• Grow awareness among all stakeholders on the impact of MPeg 21 and other new standards in broadcasting environments.

Access to knowledge

• Focus on capacity building. E.g. access to computers should be facilitated as a tool to achieve this goal.
• Focus on education; the ability to think and be creative.
• Focus on content creation in local languages and broad scale systematic translation efforts.
• Universal access to Public Domain information should be proactively encouraged.
• Governments, Civil Society, private sector and international organizations should work to make progress in the building of infrastructure in developing countries. Information and Communication Technologies infrastructure is the basis of information flow.
• Access to ICT and information for citizens should be facilitated. Equal opportunities for women, youth, elderly people, disabled people and Indigenous Peoples should be ensured.

Networking

• The UN system and international donors should reinforce cooperation with Civil Society.
• Strengthen existing Civil Society networks to reach the furthest corners of the world.
• Promote the creation of new networks between communities.
• Civil Society should ensure evaluation of the social impact of IPv6 implementation on society, on the citizen and on private businesses.

Communication privacy & network security

• Governments, Civil Society and international organizations must raise awareness about the necessity of privacy protection through education of citizens.
• Governments must ensure Civil Society participation in privacy and policy making process
• The legal framework should reflect the interests of Civil Society organizations and citizens.
• Independence and accountability are important for an oversight body of the surveillance system.
• Governments and Civil Society should establish a joint working group to evaluate the social impacts of IPv6 and privacy implementation.

New technologies

• Technologies should not be a means of discrimination (info-rich, info-poor).
• Governments and Civil Society should ensure archive integrity so that cultural heritage will be maintained.

Concrete actions

• Develop and link databases of best practices of donor and Civil Society projects.
• Encourage the development of an interactive knowledge sharing platform on the WSIS.
• The UN system and governmental information should be made universally accessible.
• Active provision of UN content in developing countries.
• Civil Society should use low-cost means (CD-ROMs, radio etc) to deliver information widely.
• Civil Society must involve technical experts to protect against fraudulent monitoring of their private information.
• Civil Society should promote a collaborative network of open source technology tools.
• Promote large-scale translation.
• Large-scale provision of second-hand computers.

Individual sessions in this working group

1. Presentation of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
2. Access to the information society in developing countries
3. Information society and governance
4. E-Commerce and tele-medicine
5. The Pioneering Role of Women in the Information Society
6. Communication Privacy
7. Civil society organizations in promoting an open and inclusive information society
8. Wrap-up Session

See also

• Youth Forum recommendations on these issues

Bibliography

• Siochrù, S.O., Girard B., Global Media Governance: a Beginner’s Guide, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, 2002
• WSIS & informal meeting on content and themes: www.wsis.org
• InfoDev, including the World Bank: www.infodev.org/icsf
• Conference: The Digital Divide, Vienna 25-26/09/2001: www.global-society-dialogue.org; http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globalsocietydialogue
• Conference: Getting Beyond the Global Digital Divide, Zurich 12/10/2001: www.hsw.fhso.ch
• Internet Society (ISOC): www.isoc.org
• Conference: Mali Préparation africaine du Sommet mondial sur la société de l'information, Bamako, 25-30/05/2002: www.geneva2003.org/bamako2002
• Conference: First PrepCom to World Summit, New York, 17-18/06/2002, www.geneva2003.org
• Privaterra, specialising in issues concerning privacy initiatives to help NGOs both preserve and protect their data: www.privaterra.org
• World Health Organization (WHO) - telemedicine: www.who.int
• Indigenous media network: www.indigenousmedia.org