WSIS Selected News and Views

World Summit on the Information Society

Phase 2: TUNIS, 16-18 NOVEMBER 2005.

Annan calls for digital bridges. BBC News. Online November 2005. The UN secretary general has called on the world to do more to narrow the technology gap between rich and poor. Opening the World Summit on the Information Society, Kofi Annan said nations had to show the political will to bridge the digital divide. …

UN net summit diary: Day one.Amit Jain. BBC News. Online November 2005. … This gathering has been described as a summit of solutions. ICT is an important part of the UN's Millennium Development Goals, which aim to halve global poverty by 2015. As it becomes clear that many countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, are likely to miss that target, governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and even businesses are pulling together, trying to work out solutions that may help equip the large numbers of people who are still outside the networked world. …

UN net summit diary: Day two. Amit Jain. BBC News. Online November 2005. … Information Communication and Technologies (ICTs) have now become the buzzword in development circles. Information Communication and Technologies (ICTs) have now become the buzzword in development circles. … The answers to bridging the digital divide are already here. The challenge is in their implementation. …

UN net summit diary: Day three. Amit Jain. BBC News. Online November 2005. This was billed as a Summit of Solutions. But I'm still struggling to understand what it has achieved. The two key issues - internet governance (UN speak for how the web should be run) and financing the digital divide (the funding that's required to bring everyone into the information age) - were controversial from the very beginning. …The success of the WSIS, however, does not lie in the official declaration that will be issued later today. Instead it's in the broad consensus that has now been achieved. …

UN debut for $100 laptop for poor. Jo Twist. BBC News. Online November 2005. ... A prototype of a cheap and robust laptop for pupils has been welcomed as an "expression of global solidarity" by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. …

Pics of $100 laptop prototype from WSIS 2005. Andy Carvin’s Flickr page. Online Novemeber 2005.

Controversy blights UN net summit. Jo Twist. BBC News. Online November 2005. A crucial UN summit on expanding net access around the world has ended in Tunis marred by controversy over censorship and who runs the internet. … Amidst exceedingly tight security, world leaders, civic groups, non-governmental groups, representatives from leading global technology companies, journalists and bloggers converged in what was the biggest global event to come to Tunis. … Much of the summit was dogged with controversy over the choice of Tunisia as the host nation. … A compromise solution for the future of net governance was reached in a late-night meeting. …