ICDE at WSIS

Article by Bernard Loing, ICDE Permanent Delegate at UNESCO

Phase one: Geneva 10-12 December 2003; Phase two: Tunis: 16-18 November 2005

The WSIS: an open, multi-stakeholder World Conference.

The original feature of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is that together with the usual actors of such summits, i.e. governments and intergovernmental organisations, it has been opened from the start – thus mirroring the open nature of the Information Society – to two other kinds of stakeholders:

  • The private sector;
  • The civil society and NGOs.

The inclusion and participation of all stakeholders was gradually organised during the preparatory period leading to the Geneva summit (December 2003), with the creation of a Committee of Business Interlocutors representing the private sector, and a Civil Society Bureau representing the civil society. Regular meetings were held between the Intergovernmental Bureau of the WSIS on the one hand, the Business Committee and the Civil Society Bureau on the other.

The Civil Society: its organisation and representation.

In the process of creating its Bureau, the civil society – being by nature a vast and complex body composed of many different groups mostly represented by NGOs – subdivided itself into several “families”, the Education family being one of the most important of all.
ICDE was active from the start in that family, especially through its representation at UNESCO.

ICDE involvement in the first phase of WSIS (Geneva 2003)

ICDE was present at all the meetings held at UNESCO to prepare the WSIS:

  • February 2002: initial meeting at UNESCO Paris with Secretary General Reidar Roll and a presentation by Rektor Helmut Hoyer.
  • April 2002: collective consultation of NGOs.
  • December 2002 &January 2003: online discussion forum on WSIS issues. Bernard Loing was one of the two moderators of that forum (see annex A).
    July 2003: Inter-sessional Preparatory meeting.

Moreover in its 4 sessions held in 2002 & 2003, the “Communication Committee” of NGOs, chaired by Bernard Loing, was actively engaged in the preparation of 4 different themes relevant to the WSIS programme:

  • October 2002: a presentation of “the digital archiving of multimedia documents”;
  • January 2003: a debate on “the freedom of speech” and a presentation of the USA Patriot Act;
  • April 2003: a debate on “educating children to medias”;
  • October 2003: “ICT for sustainable development and the promotion of Fair Trade”.

The Geneva Summit

At the Geneva Summit, in the UNESCO Round Table on Education (11 December 2003), a paper was presented by ICDE on “Teachers’ Training, central challenge for Knowledge Societies” (see annex B). This theme will again be a major issue for the Tunis session of WSIS in November 2005. In that perspective 3 major educational NGOs (ICDE, Education International, and the International Association of Universities ) have agreed to lead a joint study on the issue of “ICT for Teacher Education”.

The PrepComs for the second phase of WSIS (Tunis November 2005)

The Tunis WSIS, like the Geneva one, is being prepared in 3 successive high level meetings called PrepCom, in which representatives of the stakeholders meet.

The first one took place in Hammamet (Tunisia) from 23 to 27 June 2004. 272 participants were registered for the Civil Society, representing 113 NGOs. ICDE was represented by Bernard Loing. The civil society debates were mostly focussed on the issue of human rights. It also worked on the two major problems that remain to be solved after Geneva: 1) the Internet governance; 2) Financing the reduction of the “digital divide”.

The Education family met twice. It was decided to strengthen the composition of the family, to work on several themes for the summit, and to create its own website

The second PrepCom will take place from 17 to 25 February 2005 in Geneva ; and the third one in September, either in Geneva or in Tunis. ICDE will be present in both.

The upgrading and renewal of the Education family

The education family is now being reorganised under the name of “Education, Academia and research Family”. Its focus is Divina Frau-Meigs, vice-president of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). ICDE is representative for distance education and educational technology.

The main issues

The main educational issues that will be addressed at the Geneva PrepCom in February are:
 

  • open courseware;
  • free software;
  • teacher training with ICT and long-distance technology;
  • media education;
  • community informatics.

ICDE intends to be active on issues one and three, and has suggested that the theme of Quality Assurance and Accreditation should be added; it has proposed its expertise.
At the PrepCom of February, priorities should be set up for Tunis and beyond.

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