Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Follow-up to the World Summit on the Intormation Society

UNESCO has for some time had created a website communicating about its actions following up the WSIS.

It has now opened an online platform to facilitate initial contacts among stakeholders and to launch activities under the Action Lines of the Geneva Plan of Action that are in the area of competence of the Organization.

These action lines include the following:

# C3: Access to information and knowledge

# C7: E-learning and E-science

# C8: Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content

# C9: Media

# C10: Ethical dimensions of the Information Society

The platform is intended to gather the opinion on all aspects related to multi-stakeholder implementation of all those who are interested in working to implement the above action lines.

There has also been published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), following up WSIS:

The GOLDEN BOOK: STAKEHOLDER COMMITMENTS AND INITIATIVES

The Golden Book is a permanent record of the new commitments and resources pledged by stakeholders during the Tunis Phase of WSIS. Participants and stakeholders at the Summit were asked to submit details of their activities planned and announced during the Tunis Phase using an online questionnaire to highlight the different activities being undertaken to implement the WSIS Plan of Action. As a result, ITU estimates that at least € 3.2 billion (US$ 3.9 bn) were committed to activities promoting the WSIS goals during the Tunis Phase. The Golden Book highlights some of the valuable work being done around the world to promote ICTs in projects, large and small, by governments, individuals or team effort, for the benefit of all. It provides illustrative examples of new and innovative projects to build infrastructure, promote ICTs in education, health and governance, ensure fair access and enhance online security. A database and online search engine are available to help agencies, NGOs and administrators make contact with networks and support organizations within their field and area of operations.

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