UNESCO Thematic Meetings for the World Summit on the Information Society (November 2004 – May 2005): Summary of results

General results

• UNESCO’s key principles for knowledge societies endorsed
  (Freedom of Expression, Cultural and linguistic diversity, Access to quality education, Universal access);
• Link between knowledge and development highlighted;
• Role of UNESCO as a facilitator of WSIS implementation mechanisms stressed;
• Potential role of UNESCO as a neutral platform in resolution processes recognized;
• Multi stakeholder approach to WSIS implementation activities fostered;
• Potential of ICTs to contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals stressed;
• Proposals for concrete actions in the areas of UNESCO’s competence formulated;
• WSIS Action Plan items prioritized;
• Need to scale-up and focus on sustainability of ICT projects confirmed;
• Necessity of capacity-building in the use of ICTs in all areas highlighted;
• Need of enabling (legal) environments confirmed;
• Importance of localized approaches including community ownership highlighted.

Specific Conclusions

Freedom of Expression in Cyberspace
(3-4 February 2005, UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France)

• Principle of Freedom of Expression must apply not only to traditional media but also to the new media, including those distributed via the Internet.
• With the rise of the Internet, the fundamental right to freedom of expression is challenged ion new ways.
• The Internet should be based upon full human rights.
• States must respect the full human rights in their application in cyberspace.
• International legal systems to minimize spam should be established under the condition that they do not infringe on freedom of expression.
• Guidelines that ensure legal underpinning of commercial Internet enterprises, in particular Internet Services providers, should be developed.
• Whereas UNESCO has a clear position regarding freedom of expression on the media, more work needs to be done related to the challenges facing individual regarding freedom of expression in cyberspace (for example privacy rights, IPRs, etc).

Role of Media in the Information Society in Africa and the Arab States
(22-24 November 2004, Marrakech, Morocco)

• Freedom of expression and press freedom are at the core of construction of the Information Society in Africa, the Arab region, and throughout the world.
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• Everyone, everywhere should have the opportunity to participate in the Information Society and to take advantage of its benefits.
• The Internet and other new media forms should be afforded the same freedom of expression protections as traditional media.
• The international debate on “Internet Governance” should allow better cooperation on Internet management. It should not be a pretext to regulate Internet content
• Domestic legislation must guarantee the independence and pluralism of the media.
• The media’s function in producing, gathering, checking and distributing diverse news and content, including at the local community level, is vital.
• State-controlled broadcasting outlets must be transformed into public service entities with editorial independence and autonomous professional status for journalists.
• The Information Society should enable women’s empowerment and their full and equal access to and use of media and ICTs.
• Cultural diversity should not only be preserved. It must be fostered.
• Public and private organizations, should stress freedom of expression and press freedom when they fund programmes and projects to overcome the digital divide.
• All journalists must enjoy the core labor rights, including of freedom of association, as set forth in the conventions of the International Labor Organization.
• A professional approach to journalistic practices is the most effective way to promote press freedom and ethics, so as to safeguard against government restrictions and pressures by interest groups. The creation of ethical norms is the sole responsibility of media professionals themselves.
• Disputes involving the media and/or the media professionals in the exercise of their duties should be settled by an independent judicial system. Such disputes, including those involving defamation, should be tried by civil courts not penal or military ones.

ICT and Capacity Building: Critical Success Factors
(11-13 May 2005, UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France)

• Projects must have a clear vision including a humanistic approach, focusing on people rather than on technology.
• Projects should be aligned with national and regional policy objectives to optimize benefits.
• Projects should take economic advantages of scaling-up to lower the costs of services and technology.
• Projects must involve local communities, build local entrepreneurship and enhance local know-how.
• Projects must create a dynamism among all actors involved to develop imagination, motivation and the desire to be productive, and to build a “culture of innovation”.
• Governments must think innovatively (e.g. broadband models, solar energy, wireless), and give priority to the development of basic infrastructure requirements.
• Multi stakeholder partnerships based on trust and a shared vision are essential to create impact and to build scale.
• Innovative solutions need flexibility in the choice of technology and privilege an open regulatory environment (e.g. open standards software and mixed technology approaches).
• Technology solutions should be easy to deploy and maintain, and be upgraded continuously to develop skills to make use of more sophisticated technologies.
• Project must be adapted to local communities and contextualized taking account of local competencies (e.g. in term of language), curricula and content.
• Project methodology and approach should be geared towards building capacity, specifically with the partner organizations aimed at promoting local knowledge and skills transfer.
• The involvement of women is essential for building trust in projects. Educating a woman is also educating a family and the families to come.
• Projects must become integrated in the life of community to be sustainable.
• Projects should include monitoring and evaluation mechanisms by identifying intermediary and final outcomes that can be measured.

Cultural Diversity for Knowledge Societies
(17-19 May 2005, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation)

• Encourage the emergence of a strong cultural paradigm in cyberspace through:

• making efforts at national levels to identify cultures and languages at risk and to use technology to revive and repatriate community memories and legacy of cultural knowledge;
• creating culturally-oriented top-level domains (names) and the applicability of corresponding domains to other major cultural heritage repositories such as archives and libraries;
• revisiting the notion of digital libraries and seeing these as dynamic universal knowledge environments;
• developing standards and structuring content to facilitate sharing of and access to cultural heritage.

• Encouraging cooperative efforts for digitization programmes linking preservation and universal, user-centered access to multilingual cultural knowledge.

• develop partnerships for action of cultural professionals, societal and political actors engaged in promoting cultural diversity in order to
• establish prioritised common objectives and methodologies;
• encourage research and monitoring tools centered in users needs;
• promote the development of virtual communities and networks that contribute to the generation of new knowledge through interactive dialogue;
• develop national measures to implement the E-charter on preservation of digital heritage to address the inherent instability of “born digital” content; and
• encourage the development of sustainable business plans for e-creative industries in developing countries.

Multilingualism for Cultural Diversity and Participation of All in Cyberspace
(6-7 May 2005, Bamako, Mali)

• Written national language policies including plans for implementing concrete actions must be established.
• Standards are crucial to create, access, disseminate and preserve multilingual content in cyberspace, particularly in endangered and lesser-spoken languages.
• Local content is crucial to foster a multilingual cyberspace and to ensure that members of all communities can share in the benefits of cyberspace.
• The role of libraries and archives to sustain linguistic diversity should be fostered.
• The role of the media, particularly local and community radios and emerging web media, should be strengthened to foster language diversity.
• International cooperation is crucial to create a multilingual cyberspace.
• Measuring and monitoring multilingualism in cyberspace are crucial for the development of language policies and analyzing their impacts.
• Processes and platforms to bring stakeholders together to resolve the scripts, language, technological and policy issues inherent in implementing a multilingual cyberspace need to be established.

Preparatory events in Russia

All-Russia seminar "Public Library and Cultural heritage", 28 March – 1 April, 2005, Moscow. The event was organized under the aegis of the UNESCO "Information for all Programme" and European Commission MINERVA PLUS project as a preparatory event to the International Conference "UNESCO between two Phases of the World Summit on the Information Society" on the thematic line "Cultural Heritage in Cyberspace".

The seminar participants adopted Recommendations for the public libraries to widely use traditional methods and new information and communication technologies for preservation, research and promotion of the cultural heritage of their villages, cities, regions and all Russia.

Round-table discussion Third Sector in the Internet Governance Policy was held in the Turgenev Library – Reading Room (Moscow) 28 March 2005. The event was organized under the aegis of the UNESCO "Information for all Programme" as a Russian input into the activities of the WGIG. It is a preparatory event to the International Conference "UNESCO between two Phases of the World Summit on the Information Society".

International Workshop "Printed and Digital resources. Corporate use in art libraries" was organized in the Russian State Art Library (Moscow). The event was organized under the aegis of the European Commission MINERVA PLUS project as a preparatory event to the International Conference "UNESCO between two Phases of the World Summit on the Information Society" on the thematic line ”Integration of the Information Resources and Access to Cultural heritage”.

The seminar participants adopted Recommendations to strengthen international co-operation for cultural heritage digitization and preservation, to formulate and Russian national policy in this area, to co-ordinate library digitization activities, to solve legal issues of digital resources exchange and access.

Round-table discussion «Internet Governance: The Sight From the Russia» was held in Moscow, April 12, 2005.

The event was organized under the aegis of the UNESCO Information for all Programme as a Russian input into the activities of the WGIG. It is a preparatory event to the International Conference UNESCO Between Two Phases of the World Summit on the Information Society.