[WSIS CS-Plenary] WSIS Briefing yesterday in New York

[Bahiyyih Chaffers]

Hi everybody,

The United Nations Association-USA had a briefing yesterday in New York on
the WSIS entitled "The WSIS: What happened and Where Do We Go From Here?"
Participants included UN staff, government reps and NGO reps.

It was interesting to hear the different views of whether WSIS was a
success.  Some put forward that the Summit was a success as it is the first
time that the use of information technology for development has been put on
the map and an agenda is now set to address the issues globally.  Others
expressed distress about the political wrangling that took place and
wondered whether it would be possible to turn things around for Tunis.

What was clear is that it is critical to spend more time reflecting on our
experience.  What would be constructive would be to assess what were the
achievements and challenges during the Summit process.  Once we have an
understanding of where there was success, we can focus on how to strengthen
those areas and how to adjust for the weak spots.

What is incredibly empowering about the experience is the realization that
it is just part of the learning process of learning to work together as a
global community.  The process needs to be challenging to force us to learn
from each other and find common ground.

Warm wishes for the New Year,

Bahiyyih Chaffers
--
Representative to the United Nations
Baha'i International Community
United Nations Office, New York


P.s  This new journal looks interesting!

Subject: Information Technologies and International Development
Quarterly - WSIS

After the first phase of the WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society,
Dec.10-12, 2003 in Geneva),  a new initiative has been launched :

Information Technologies and International Development will be the premier
journal in its field, focusing on the intersection of information and
communication technologies (ICT) with international development. It aims to
create a networked community of leading thinkers and strategists to discuss
the critical issues of ICT and development, an epistemic community that
crosses disciplines (especially technologists and social scientists),
national boundaries, and the North and South hemispheres. The audience for
Information Technologies and International Development will come from
academia, the private sector, NGOs, and government.

It will attract readers interested in the "other four billion" - the share
of the world population
whose countries are not yet widely connected to the Internet nor widely
considered in the design of new information technologies. The journal will
be informative, lively, and provocative. The MIT Press will publish this
exciting new quarterly periodical from Fall 2003.

For the Special Call for Papers on this  World Summit in Reflection, go to :
http://mitpress.mit.edu/ITID   or contact for add'l info:  Ernest Wilson :
ejw at itid.umd.edu