Dear GKD readers,
This week we see the leaders of the world's richest countries, the G-8
meeting in Genoa, Italy, and we may wonder if the Okinawa Charter from last
year's summit designed to bridge the digital divide is ever going to amount
to more than just talk.
A few weeks ago we saw Kofi Annan soliciting $8 billion for an AIDS
program, and getting only $200 million from the US -- not a very
encouraging precedent for leaders' acknowledgement of their responsibility
to guard the public interest, not a very good start down the road towards
sustainable development.
What will a broader-based summit devoted to the development of the
Information Society accomplish in 2003? Pessimism has been expressed on
this mailing list. But nonetheless, the World Summit of the Information
Society WSIS, will take place in 2003 in Geneva, Switzerland, and continue
in 2005 in Tunisia, as recently announced by the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU), http://www.itu.int/wsis/
Why doesn't the public interest have a better lobby at such events? Why
don't citizen groups and NGOs organize themselves better, as some did at
the Millennium Summit at the UN in NY last year? What will be the place for
NGOs in the budding "Information Society"? Will they be dominated by
commercial interests that many of us feel have helped to marginalize social
and national groups such as the poor at home and the masses in developing
countries?
With government aid programs to the developing world being cut back ever
further, isn't the overarching objective of sustainable development being
jeopardized?
GKD is a multistakeholder initiative consisting of NGOs, government
agencies, multilateral institutions and companies. GKD, no doubt, applauds
the generosity of its private-sector members such as Dell and Cisco, but
their altruism is limited by competitiveness considerations. Still, the
public interest is not served by an adequate lobby to bridge the digital
divide or reach for sustainable development.
A group of civil society representatives from all around the world engaged
in a Global Society Dialogue in October 2000. Other similar citizens'
groups are becoming increasingly active, but we want to be sure that our
message is made clear during the WSIS in 2003. Of course, the wording of
the message remains to be decided upon by reaching a consensus on it
democratically. It might, however, read something like this: "The further
development of the Information Society should not be driven solely by
commercial motives, but must also take into account the public interest and
sustainable development."
Also this week, when the G-8 meet in Italy, NGO representatives from all
around the world will be meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, to plan for a
Civil Society Forum next year, http://www.mandint.org/forum
A work group that I will attend at that event headed "Digital Inclusion"
could be used to prepare a better lobby for noncommercial interests to make
a statement at the WSIS in 2003. Some individual groups will wish to come
to Geneva for the WSIS themselves and others won't. Both kinds of groups
could be coordinated better if in advance they formed a Coalition of
Noncommercial initiatives working on Sustainable Information Society
Technologies, or CONSIST, and perhaps even INSIST.
Please let me hear from you if you know of or belong to such a group.
Weblinks of two other groups besides GKP member groups that appear likely
to have interest in CONSIST:
Global Society Dialogue GSD, Ulm, Germany,
<http://www.global-society-dialogue.org>
Internet Society, Developing Country SIG, ISOC-DevSIG, Geneva, Switzerland,
<http://www.isocgva.ch/cgi-bin/bahia09/bahia09.exe?navigate+bythestars+ISOCG
VA-39+0>
Regards,
Thomas Ruddy
******************************************************
Thomas Ruddy
organizing conference, http://www.hsw.fhso.ch/ruddy/Workshop_2.htm
Solothurn University of Applied Sciences NWS,
Switzerland
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