Internet Governance
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
The United Nations convened the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) to develop a "common vision and understanding of the information society and the adoption of a declaration and plan of action for implementation by Governments, international institutions and all sectors of civil society".
WSIS was held in two phases: the first in Geneva, hosted by the Government of Switzerland from 10 to 12 December 2003, and the second in Tunis hosted by the Government of Tunisia, from 16 to 18 November 2005.
ISOC Survey on the Final WGIG Report
The Internet Society has been participating in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) http://www.itu.int/wsis and will participate in the next meeting in Tunis this coming November.
An important part of the discussions at the summit will be focused on Internet Governance. The way that some are seeking to govern the Internet has direct impacts on all Internet users and your voice needs to be heard.
A working group on this subject (WGIG) has just published its final report to the summit. See http://www.wgig.org/ for the report, a background report and transcripts of the formal presentation of the report on Monday July 18th at the UN in Geneva. The WGIG has requested comments on these reports (by August 15th, 2005) and a consolidated set of reports and comments will then be sent to the WSIS in support of their official deliberations.
The Summit has a PrepCom coming up in September and ISOC intends to continue its efforts to inform WSIS and related efforts and so will participate in the coming PrepCom. To do so most effectively, we encourage all members to make their views on this subject known. You can do this here at: http://geneva.isoc.org/surveys/index.php?sid=3 and through your other member and chapter activities.
ISOC plans to submit comments based on our principles and in line with our mission: To assure the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people throughout the world." Previous ISOC interventions are posted at http://www.isoc.org/isoc/conferences/wsis/ and also see http://www.isoc.org/briefings/ for various ISOC Member Briefings on these topics. In addition, we have Bulletins on this topic which also contain comprehensive additional insights that you can see at http://www.isoc.org/news/.
In order to better prepare our comments we seek your feedback on the recommendations and proposals made in the report.
Please spend a few minutes to respond to the questions at our survey at http://geneva.isoc.org/surveys/index.php?sid=3 Your input is important especially as we enter this new phase of WSIS.
Survey results: http://geneva.isoc.org/surveys/results/18/
Thank you in advance for your time and help in this very important endeavor.
