UNESCO in the Spotlight: Science and Communications

"In May of this year, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and other UN organizations such as UNESCO, UNDP and UNCTAD, are scheduled to convene in Geneva to talk about regulation of the growth and development of the Internet......

"The fight over ICANN (the Corporation for Assigned Names and Number) -- a southern California corporation operating with a license from the U.S. Department of Commerce, which began in a conference in Tunis, Tunisia in the Mediterranean, sponsored by the UN and its sister agencies -- was only the opening salvo. It is not surprising that the idea of forming a special international agency to regulate ICANN failed at Tunis as the agenda and impetus for change was too narrow. This may change as nations around the world awaken to the importance of creating a robust communications infrastructure. They will likely be less dependent and less willing to accept what has been considered a one-way flow of information and communications goods and services from the United States.

"National regulators and policy makers worldwide are looking for some way to harness Internet growth and development, and of course, control the flow of communications in the world. Not surprisingly, concerns with the U.S.'s dominance of media flow do not extend to the developing nations alone. Europe and other developed nations have expressed frustrations too.

"So what will be the U.S. position? Indeed, what if anything is the U.S. doing to meet the challenges and concerns of the rest of the world? It isn't clear."

This report reviews UNESCO’s work in implementing its responsibilities deriving from the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) since 2005. It highlights some of what has been achieved to date and reflects upon the challenges that have arisen during the period.

The report looks in turn at UNESCO’s three main roles in WSIS implementation:

• as a coordinator/lead facilitator, with ITU, UNDP and UNCTAD, of the overall implementation process, including UNGIS and the WSIS Forum;
• as a facilitator of six Action Lines to facilitate the implementation of the WSIS outcomes in specific areas of work; and
• as an implementer of programmes and initiatives that seek to build inclusive Knowledge Societies and thereby contribute to the achievement of WSIS goals.

The year of 2010 marks a turning point for assessing the progress made towards WSIS implementation during the past five years and for proposing new strategies to ensure the achievement of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) goals by 2015.

The brochure, entitled Fostering Information and Communication for Development, is a short introduction to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and its follow-up. It presents different aspects and outcomes of WSIS. Read more!

Critical knowledge societies issues will be addressed in six high-level panels and 35 sessions with the participation of experts, practitioners, representatives of governments, civil society and the private sector during the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum 09.

More than 850 participants have already registered for next-weeks event, which will be jointly organized by ITU, UNESCO and others in Geneva, Switzerland, from 18 to22 May 2009.

On the occasion of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), UNESCO publishes a series of titles summarizing some of the most essential issues related to the development of the information society. Titles in the series are:

Status of Research on the Information Society

	UNESCO's Basic Texts on the Information Society

	Science in the Information Society

	Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in the Information Society

	Media development in the Information Society

Measuring Linguistic Diversity on the Internet

Measuring & monitoring information & knowledge societies

	Education in the Information Society

	Social Transformations in the Information Society

	Memory of the Information Society

Gender in the Information Society: Towards Equity?

UNESCO, the ITU, UNCTAD and the UNDP are cosponsoring the WSIS Forum 2009 to be held from 18 to 22 May 2009, at the ITU Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland.

The Forum will offer participants a series of highest level panels addressing critical issues to the WSIS implementation and follow-up in multi-stakeholder set-ups.

Last year Seán Ó Siochrú published a chapter on UNESCO in the Global Information Society Watch 2007 Report. The report provides an overview of UNESCO's programs and activities related computers and information technology, with some discussion of UNESCO's role in the World Summit on the Information Society.

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was an international landmark event setting targets, developing new approaches towards harnessing the potential of information and communication for development and mobilizing multistakeholder approaches and new networks “to build a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society” (WSIS Declaration of Principles). WSIS was held in two phases. The first phase culminated in the first Summit meeting in Geneva from 10 to 12 December 2003, and the second phase culminated in the second Summit meeting in Tunis hosted by the Government of Tunisia, from 16 to 18 November 2005.

The Summit adopted the following documents:

• Geneva Declaration of Principles


• Geneva Plan of Action


• Tunis Commitment


• Tunis Agenda for the Information Society

UNESCO believed the notion of a single global information society does not capture the full potential of the information and communication revolution for human development. It promoted instead, the concept of “knowledge societies” stressing plurality and inclusiveness and puting emphasis on what technology can do to improve people’s lives rather than on technology itself.

For UNESCO, the Summit resulted in a considerable increase of the Organization’s visibility and importance as a significant actor in the area of communication and information for development. The increased importance on the Organization in the process is illustrated by the fact that it was assigned one of the leading roles in the implementation process including:

• implementation of concrete activities contained in the Geneva Plan of Action within the framework of its own programs so as to operationalize its concept of knowledge societies;
• facilitation of the coherent implementation of the six action lines in its areas of competence; and
• cooperation, together with ITU and UNDP, in the overall multistakeholder coordination of the facilitators of all 11 action lines.

In May 2006, UNESCO was designated as the facilitator for the multistakeholder implementation of the following six WSIS action lines included in the Geneva Plan of Action:

• access to information and knowledge (C3);
• e-learning (C7);
• e-science (C7);
• media (C9);
• cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content (C8);
• ethical dimensions of the Information Society (C10).

All sectors of UNESCO are concerned with the implementation of The WSIS decisions. The aims of WSIS require UNESCO to operationalize the concept of knowledge societies throughout its action in education, sciences, culture and communication. Intersectoral mechanisms need to be strengthened to provide adequate and coherent responses to this challenge.

Therefore, the Director-General has set up a “Task Force on Knowledge Societies” whose main mandate is to ensure coherence of UNESCO’s own action to operationalize the concept of building knowledge societies. This includes:

• coordinating the activities of the various sectors involved in the facilitation of the implementation of the six action lines in its areas of competence;
• providing the strategic and consistent focus of UNESCO’s efforts and its added value in relation to new mechanisms emerging with the development of the information society;
• advising the Director-General on key issues of relevance to UNESCO emerging from the rapid development of ICTs and their societal, cultural and ethical implications and proposing adequate institutional response.

UNESCO works with all stakeholders towards the implementation of the outcomes of WSIS.

UNESCO’s role in the implementation process is three-fold:

* UNESCO implements concrete activities included in the Geneva Plan of Action within the framework of its regular programme and budget.

* UNESCO helps facilitating the coherent implementation of the Action Lines in its areas of competence.

* UNESCO, together with ITU and UNDP, is engaged in shaping the overall multi-stakeholder coordination of the Facilitators of all Action Lines

The fall meeting of the National Academies' Computer Science and Telecommunications Board will feature two speakers exploring the Internet and foreign affairs:

• Jarret M. Brachman, Director of Research, Combating Terrorism Center, U.S. Military Academy and
  
• Ambassador David A. Gross, U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy, U.S. Department of State.

The talks will start at 3 pm with coffee available at 2:30. A reception will follow the speakers at 5 pm.

October 2, 2007

The organizers request that those planning to attend register in advance.

Knowledge acquisition and sharing will increasingly be technology mediated, and traditional educational processes will be revolutionized, said experts at a UNESCO organized event in Kronberg, Germany, recently.

Adopting the “Kronberg Declaration on the Future of Knowledge Acquisition and Sharing” the high-level experts also said that leaders in the public and private sectors must embrace change in organizations and people by providing opportunities and incentives to facilitate and motivate, as well as to overcome typical barriers in knowledge acquisition and sharing.

They anticipated that in the coming decades, the importance of acquiring factual knowledge will decrease, whereas the ability to find one’s way in complex systems and to find, judge, organize and creatively use relevant information, as well as the capability to learn, will become crucially important.

The “Kronberg Declaration” that UNESCO and the German Commission for UNESCO have just released summarizes the discussions at the meeting of a UNESCO High Level Group that took place from 22 to 23 June 2007 in Kronberg, Germany. The event was jointly organised by UNESCO and the German Commission for UNESCO, and was sponsored by BASF.

A European regional meeting on the ethical dimensions of the information society is being organized by the French Commission for UNESCO in cooperation with UNESCO and the Council of Europe. It will be the third of a cycle of regional UNESCO conferences on the ethical dimensions of the information society, and a contribution to the implementation of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and to the Internet Governance Forum.

The purpose of this meeting will be to discuss and identify the issues considered to be priorities for the European region and to raise stakeholders’ awareness of the ethical issues of information and communication technologies and usages. It will also aim at making a contribution to the UNESCO code of ethics project that was elaborated and discussed during the two previous regional conferences and also in reaching conclusions and operational recommendations intended for all stakeholders.

UNESCO is the lead agency in the United Nations system for a number of aspects of the follow-up of the World Conference on the Information Society. A multi-stakeholders meeting on the follow-up efforts was held on 24 May 2007 in Geneva at the ITU Headquarters.


As Action Line C8 facilitator (Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content), UNESCO is looking for Moderators for the following C8 sub-themes:

• Memory and heritage
• Local content and contemporary cultural expressions
• Linguistic diversity
• Traditional knowledge
• Indigenous peoples
• Gender
• Disabled persons

If interested, contact: m.rosi@unesco.org

U.S. citizens interested in serving as a moderator should also contact the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO or the U.S. Permanent Delegation to UNESCO.