Personal tools
You are here: Home → Proceedings → Committee Proceedings → Archive → International Affairs Committee → Current → Report on World Summit on the Information Society II – Tunis
Navigation
 

Report on World Summit on the Information Society II – Tunis

prepared by Don Hollander 22/11/05

2020 Communications Trust

This report focuses on the many activities at the Tunis World Summit on the Information Society meeting organised by the United Nations and the ITU.

Key Point Summary:

  • There were a number of new uses of technology identified that can be deployed in New Zealand with 2020 as a partner.
  • There are several new initiatives that 2020 can be involved in, both domestically and internationally. Specifically: A partnership with CompuMentor to use their facilities and models in New Zealand; a partnership with CSL in Samoa to deploy "Computers in Homes" model in Samoa; establishing a 2020 Trust in Samoa.

The political outcomes are well documented in mainstream media.

  1. The Internet Governance issues discussions resulted in a maintenance of the status quo augmented by a new global discussion forum on Internet Governance that is to involve governments, private sector, civil society, international organisations, academics and others.
  2. Funding for ICT4D in developing nations would continue through voluntary contributions to the Digital Solidarity fund.

There were, however, some other strong messages arising from the meetings:

  1. While connectivity is important, content that is local, relevant and safe is vital. While there were some murmurs of keeping content safe through more draconian measures, there were very strong and repeated calls to use education (Information literacy) as the best way of getting healthy information consumers.
  2. Calls for content in local languages were repeated and proud boasts of achievements in this were also heard. (2020 Trustees recently heard about the significant achievements of Maori in New Zealand). Indeed, one person said that 2/3 of the Internet content is NOT in English, though no authoritative source of this assertion was presented.
  3. No one is doing anything in the Pacific. Most people I spoke to were expecting New Zealand and Australia to service the region. Yet, neither country had any presence in the exhibition and little presence in the delegations. New Zealand' s delegation was headed by an Information Analyst of the National Library (Winston Roberts) and a Deputy Secretary of the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts headed Australia' s. Samoa had a significant presence (Minister, CEO of SamoaTel, CEO of CSL, Secretary of ICT Committee, CEO of Public Service Commission, CEO of NGO Umbrella Group, President of IT Society) but the rest of Polynesia was conspicuously absent and precious little other representation from Melanesian. Only Guam and Micronesia were also present from the Pacific
  4. There are some very good things happening in some developing countries. As an example Macedonia, with support from USAid, has deployed a near ubiquitous last-mile high-speed network using WiMax.
  5. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) spoke passionately of the Library as being the future hub of community based ICT.
  6. Microfinance was discussed in several sessions. Stuart Matheson of FDC in Australia (and a fellow member of GKP) lead a panel discussion focusing on using ICT in the Microfinance industry to be able to scale-up. Of the 3 Billion people earning less than US$2/day, Microfinance serves only 120 million.
  7. ICT based businesses in Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines were showcased in another sessions - and these businesses (all associated with GKP) - joined together to offer other developing country ICT entrepreneurs training and support. This offer was immediately taken up by representatives from Pakistan and Samoa!
  8. I was particularly impressed with an innovative use of 3G videophones that allowed deaf people to make use of Call Centre based sign-language interpreters. I' ve already had discussions with people in New Zealand about operating a similar model and will pursue that upon my return.
  9. It is clear that the 2020 Communications Trust has some special experiences and expertise to offer others, in both developing and developed countries. I am pursing a partnership with CSL in Samoa to deploy a 'Computers in Homes' model. I have also started discussions with CompuMentor of San Fransisco which is an NGO that focuses on ICT technical support and funds itself by providing distribution services for Microsoft. As an aside, though we travelled half-way around the world, we had very good discussions with former Trustee Paul Reynolds.
  10. The Global Knowledge Partners (GKP) provides a very exciting and energising environment. With members from all over the world, there is a wealth of energy and ideas and experiences.
  11. E-Rider concept was presented by a group from South Africa. This seems a very worthwhile project to help NGOs and very small businesses to make more effective use of ICT.
  12. Nichols Negroponte and Kofi Anan launched the US$100 computer. Prototypes and mockups were available. This was VERY impressive.
  13. Jimmy Wales from the Wikipedia foundation spoke very well about the Wiki movement. He would be an excellent speaker at a future NZ event.
  14. Spectrum management is clearly an issue in developing countries due to two key factors. The first is the natural first response of No by governments to new initiatives and second is the lack of technical spectrum policy people who can evaluate a constant stream of recommendations coming from the ITU. An easier solution would be for developing countries to simply adopt ITU recommendations. Related is the potential huge change to spectrum availability achieved through digital signals and excellent filtering abilities. The previous need to licence spectrum to prevent interference may be disappearing.
  15. UNESCO' s presence at the conference was strong and their exhibition space constantly packed with people. I did run into Liz Longworth, but we never found time to talk. UNESCO has come away with a number of specifically assigned tasks, though not nearly to the extent as the ITU.

Actions moving forward:

  1. Engage with CompuMentor about becoming their New Zealand agent.
  2. Engage with CSL about Computers in Homes in Samoa
  3. Engage with Samoans about local 2020 there.
  4. Find a similar organisation in Australia.
  5. Continue engagement with Digital Strategy Team in New Zealand.
  6. Pursue education of NZAid through Minister, Peter Adams and Marian Hobbs as well as Walter Fuchs of GKP.
  7. Extend involvement with GKP.

I would like to thank the 2020 Communications Trust, InterenetNZ, GKP and Book Haven for helping make this trip possible.

Don Hollander
Document Actions