Today marks the start of the first World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva. The event is aimed at bridging the digital divide.
Government, business and civil society delegates from almost every country have been gathering in the Swiss city of Geneva for the past week or more trying to come to grips with a number of issues that affect the Information Society.
The result of their talks will be the presentation of the Draft Declaration of Principles and a Plan of Action to bridge the digital divide, which will be signed by the various heads of delegations on behalf of all people.
Organised by the International Telecommunications Union, a body of the United Nations, the WSIS will tackle a number of issues including the governance of Internet domain names, Internet security, the role of the media, the proposed establishment of a digital solidarity fund, the protection of intellectual property rights and human rights.
The preliminary round of discussions were held on 3 and 4 December, but these proved inconclusive. A number of emerging countries, that includes South Africa, Saudi Arabia and other want to challenge the current role that California company ICANN plays in governing domain names and would rather want this to be a function of the UN. The US and the European Union are in favour of maintaining the status quo.
Bridging the digital divide has also been a sticking point and a proposal by Senegal that richer countries contribute to a fund to help poorer countries climb onto the Internet has become unstuck due to squabbling about exactly who will administer it.
Key clauses in the Draft Declaration of Principles relating to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that the international management of the Internet should be based on principles of democracy with the full involvement of government, business and society, have also been the targets of heated discussion by a number of countries, including China.
South Africa`s position on these issues is still largely unclear. While the three delegations were supposed to have been sent, there has been no news about who is included and who leads them. All that is known is that the chairperson of the Presidential National Commission on Information Society and Development, Lyndall Shope-Mafole, and the Minister of Communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri are there.
Part of the WSIS agenda is the planning for the next information summit to be held in Tunisia in 2005.
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