The distant summit

Citation

Blackman, C. (2004), "The distant summit", info, Vol. 6 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/info.2004.27206aaa.001

The distant summit

The World Summit on the information Society (WSIS) held in Geneva last December was a significant achievement, increasing the attention paid to information and communication technologies (ICTs) and in particular their potential role in social and economic development. ICTs are no longer viewed as luxuries by developing country governments and development agencies but are seen as fundamental to social and economic progress. Taken together, the declaration of principles and the plan of action represent a strong statement in support ICTs, with targets for ICT deployment and application that could be implemented nationally and internationally complementing the UN’s millennium development goals to 2015.

But, as David Souter explains in his article in this issue of info, reaching agreement in Geneva required important omissions from the summit’s texts. Major disagreements have been papered over until the second phase of the summit, due to be held in Tunis in 2005.

In terms of omissions, the documents exhibit an extraordinary lack of clarity about the information society itself. While they describe how the information society must evolve, nowhere is there even a definition of ICTs. The documents also fail to mention any potential negative impacts of ICTs and avoid any doubts that some development specialists have about the effectiveness of ICTs in meeting mainstream development goals.

The major disagreement in leading up to the summit concerned the role of non-government actors (i.e. the private sector and civil society) in international ICT decision making, particularly during the WSIS preparatory process but also more generally. The plan of action, for instance, talks of governments playing a leading role in implementing e-strategies, with the private sector and civil society playing a consultative role. In contrast, the alternative end-of-WSIS “declaration”, Shaping information Societies for Human Needs, emphasises human rights and freedom of expression. This issue remains unresolved and is certain to re-emerge in the lead up to Tunis.

Two other issues of contention were not resolved but were defused by referring them to UN task forces due to report before the Tunis summit. The issue of Internet governance continues to concern many developing country governments who view ICANN as being both extra-governmental and also falling under American control. While that concern has some legitimacy, the idea that a body such as the International Telecommunication Union should govern the Internet seems fanciful. The second problematic area arose over the proposal for a digital solidarity fund, “to provide more financial resources to developing countries in harnessing ICTs for development”.

So, kicking these ideas sideways enabled the Geneva Summit to arrive at a worthy if unspectacular outcome, but it is difficult at this stage to see how these issues could be resolved satisfactorily before the final session in 2005. With the aim of helping to aid the debate on these and other aspects, a forthcoming special issue of info will focus on the role of ICTs and development after WSIS.

Colin Blackman