Public Policy 

The overwhelming commitments of different developing countries and development partners in the WSIS 2003 held at Geneva, Switzerland during December 10-12, 2003 has began to fade within a very short span of time. As the 2nd round of WSIS also ended in this November 16-18 2005 at Tunis and also does not reflect any significant [...]

Contrary to the official story found in many texts about WSIS, the drive behind WSIS was not the will to bridge the digital divide. WSIS was initiated through the influence of Yoshio Utsumi, the Secretary General of the ITU, in order to wrestle control of the Internet from the existing organizations that manage it. Mr. [...]

H.E President Olusegun Obasanjo proposes Nigeria to host the African Regional Office of the Digital Solidarity Fund
At the high level segment (interactive session) on the Digital Solidarity Fund during the Tunis Phase of the World Summit of the Information Society on 16th November 2005, His Excellency Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR President of the Federal Republic [...]

“Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.” Plato.
On the end of next year, Athens will be hosting the first meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), the ultimate WSIS outcome. How this forum will be organized is still unknown. There are, however, some guidelines about the [...]

The most important direct outcome of WSIS is ideas. New ideas. WSIS is not where concrete actions take place. WSIS was a discussion. WSIS was, ironically, an Internet Governance Forum before its attendees even created the Forum. WSIS was a learning class for all who attended, all of whom needed the class, whether they had [...]

Lots of interesting parallel events are going on at the WSIS mostly regarding policy, laws and regulation. UNCITRAL had a presentation today on the Juridic aspects of Electronic Commerce.
UNCITRAL – Franca Musolino Legal Officer, Secreariat, UNCITRAL gave an Overview of her organisation . Harmonization is important so that legal environment is predictable for [...]

Yesterday night, resumed prepcom ended the negotiations about the final documents, and the most discussed issue about WSIS was finally settled. As the subcommittee A ended their negotiations about Internet Governance, a new space for dialogue has been created.
This forum will be just that: a space for dialogue. Luckily many ideas were discarded on the [...]

Tunez, Centro Kram, 11:12 am. 16 Noviembre 2005
La inauguración formal de la Cumbre esta realizandose en el momento en que escribo esta nota, con la Reunión Plenaria. Los trabajos de la prolongación del PrepCom3 terminaron ayer por la noche con un concenso sobre la Gobernanza de Internet y la aprobación de los párrafos mas controvertidos [...]

The final round of WSIS is on its way at Tunis but still few issues needed to be resolved, specially the IG issues. My fear as always that we are not concentrating on the core issues of ICT4D rather than the issues like IG which has no direct impact on the Internet users. Again I [...]

A few weeks ago, I wrote and article here, bringing to the table the potential perils of the latest WSIS possible outcome: The Forum.
Most of my comments were related to a new kind of organization, linked to the UN, without a clear agenda and no foreseeable mechanisms of participation. However, in the last days I’ve [...]