World summit on the information society

World Summit on the Information Society (French. Sommet Mondial sur la Société de l'Information , Eng. World Summit on the Information Society ) is one of the United Nations -sponsored World Summit on the subjects of information and communication . It was carried out by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) according to a decision of the United Nations and consisted of two parts.

The first part took place from December 10-12, 2003 in Geneva (Switzerland) and had around 12,000 visitors. About 17,000 delegates from 175 countries attended the second part from November 16 to 18, 2005 in Tunis (Tunisia).

Discussion topics

World summit on the information society

• Common understanding of the information society
• Ways to reduce the digital divide , especially between industrialized and developing countries, but also between rich and poor, between the sexes and between generations.
  • Development and financing of the necessary technical infrastructure
  • Connection of authorities, hospitals, schools and other facilities to modern communication networks.
  • Establishment and expansion of universal and equal access to information and knowledge
  • Preservation of linguistic and cultural diversity
• The right to intellectual property versus the right to knowledge as a public, non-commercial good
• Freedom of information and expression , data protection , protection of privacy, human right to communication
• Information network security
• Internet governance

See also: world information order

Procedure and results

2002 and 2003

Preparations for the 1st part: The practical implementation and the content were discussed at international conferences. Originally three conferences (PrepCom 1 to 3) were planned, but since no agreement could be reached as to whether the first part should deliver concrete results in the form of a final document, three additional conferences took place, whereby the agreement at the last emergency conference was only 19 hours came about before the beginning of the summit. Regional preparatory conferences were also held: an African one in Bamako , a pan-European one in Bucharest , an East and West Asian and a Latin American one.

Geneva, December 10-12, 2003

The 1st part of the WSIS took place in Geneva . Here the results of the 1st phase of the preparations were discussed and two essential documents were adopted:

• Geneva Declaration of Principles (Geneva Declaration of Principles)
• Geneva Plan of Action (Geneva Action Plan)

2004 and 2005

Two topics were excluded in Geneva because they could not agree in the preparatory negotiations. The topics were internet governance and finance. The Secretary General of the United Nations , Kofi Annan , was asked to set up two working groups to work on these issues and to present their report in the second part of the summit. Then the

• Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) and the
• Task Force on Financing Mechanisms (TFFM)

which presented their reports in summer 2005.

Tunis, November 16-18, 2005

The second part took place in Tunis . The resolutions from Part 1 were confirmed there and two further declarations were adopted:

• Tunis Commitment (Tunis commitment)
• Tunis Agenda for the Information Society .

Most states rejected a binding financing model to overcome the digital divide in the sense of a digital solidarity fund . Shortly before the official start of the summit, the participating states agreed on a compromise solution with regard to the future of Internet governance . Accordingly, the supervisory function of the USA over ICANN was not affected, but an international Internet Governance Forum (IGF) will be created to discuss all relevant issues of Internet governance that are not taken up by other bodies.

The summit in Tunis was accompanied by attacks by the security forces on critical journalists and on organizers of parallel events.

literature

• Wolfgang Kleinwächter: Power and Money in Cyberspace. How the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) sets the course for the future. Hannover: Verlag Heinz Heise, 2004. - ISBN 3-936931-22-4
• Wolfgang Kleinwächter : Dossier: Internet Governance - the WSIS controversy: A global resource in the field of tension between national interests . In: Medienheft, November 14, 2009 (also as PDF) .

Web links

Commons : World Summit on the Information Society  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• WSIS homepage (English, French, Spanish)
• Homepage of the Heinrich Böll Foundation for the WSIS
• Wolfgang Kleinwächter: Full steam ahead to Tunis ( telepolis November 9, 2005)
• Homepage of the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG)
• Homepage of the Task Force on Financing Mechanisms (TFFM)
• Geneva Declaration of Principles (Geneva Declaration of Principles)
• Geneva Plan of Action (Geneva Action Plan)
• Tunis Commitment
• Tunis Agenda for the Information Society