WSIS Forum 2010 open consultation: Call for participation
17:03, 24 January 2010
.. Posted in techculture and tech to help.. Link
Back in 2003, I had the pleasure of being a part of the United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITES) team that developed and staffed a community technology center booth at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva, through by then employer, UNDP and the UN Volunteers programme. We walked our talk about what a community technology center really looks like in the developing world, with free Internet access, presentations to build capacity of those who attended, a meeting space and more. We created one of the busiest and most-talked about booths in the exhibit area, received a visit from the UN Secretary-General of the time, Kofi Annan, and got UNV's Online Volunteering service profiled on the BBC's Click Online. Here are some photos from that amazing time.
I was pleased to learn that UNESCO, ITU, UNCTAD and UNDP, is organizing an open consultation for a new WSIS Forum in 2010. All individuals, networks and organizations interested in this issue are invited to participate in the three-fold process, consisting of an online discussion, a questionnaire and a review meeting.
This year’s Forum, which will be held in Geneva (Switzerland) from 10 to 14 May 2010, will review progress made in the WSIS implementation and reconsider strategies for the remaining five years.
The online consultation process will be carried out in three phases:
The online consultation process will be carried out in three phases:
- An online multi-stakeholder consultation is taking place on the online WSIS Community platform until 5 February. Stakeholders are invited to express and exchange their ideas in order to generate possible themes and potential speakers for the 2010 Forum.
- Stakeholders can also submit their official contributions, by 5 February, through an online questionnaire or by sending a query to: wsis@itu.int.
- All submitted comments will be examined during the Final Review Meeting, which will take place at the ITU Headquarters in Geneva on 10 February. Register for this meeting. Remote participation will also be possible via webcast, the link to which will shortly be available on the Forum’s website.
