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World Summit on the Information Society | | |
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Geneva Summit
Outcomes of the first phase of the World Summit
on the Information Society
Geneva, December 2003
The first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society was held
in Geneva on 10-12 December 2003. A Declaration of Principles, and a Plan
of Action, entitled “Building the Information Society: a global
challenge in the new Millennium”, were adopted by 172 governments.
In the Plan of Action, science is recognised as a key component of the
Information Society and many recommendations on how ICTs could and should
strengthen the advancement of science in the future have been incorporated.
Many of these recommendations emanated from the UNESCO/CODATA/ICSU preparatory
meetings for the Summit held throughout 2003 
Download the Declaration of Principles and the Plan of Action final
documents to see the issues relevant to the scientific community.
- Declaration of Principles
- Plan of Action
ICSU at the Geneva Summit, December 2003
ICSU president, Professor Jane Lubchenco addressed the WSIS General
Conference on 11 December. In her statement she emphasised the important
role of publicly-funded science in the Information Society and the need
for infrastructures as well as appropriate national and international
IPR policies in order to access knowledge.
- Professor Jane Lubchenco statement
(RealAudio)
Professor Lubchenco also had the opportunity to speak during the Ministerial
Round Table on Science, Information Society and the Millennium Goals
co-organised by UNESCO, ICSU, TWAS and CERN on the 11 December. The round-table
focussed on bridging the digital divide and highlighted themes such as
universal access to scientific knowledge, improving education and training
and policy issues in scientific information. Other speakers included Ministers
from Mozambique and Pakistan, and the President of Romania, Ion Iliescu.
On 8-9 December, a pre-Summit event on the Role
of Science in the Information Society was held at CERN in Geneva.
The event was co-sponsored by UNESCO, ICSU and TWAS and was attended by
400 scientists from across the world. A report
from the event was sent to the WSIS general conference by Luciano Maiani,
Director-General of CERN.
INASP, the International
Network for the availability of Scientific Publications, established by
ICSU in 1992, presented its activities as part of the ‘ICT for Development’
exhibition held during the Summit. Project managers from Bolivia and Ghana
were invited to present INASP’s Programme for the Enhancement of
Research Information (PERI). Some 250 exhibitors, including UN agencies
and NGOs, showcased practical examples of the development dimension of
ICTs.
Tunis Summit
Looking towards Tunis 2005…
The second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society will
take place in Tunis from 16 - 18 November 2005.
The organisers are planning to hold a preparatory meeting in the first
half of 2004 to review those issues of the information society which will
form the focus of the Tunis phase of the WSIS.
ICSU prepares for Tunis
- In the run-up to the Tunis Summit, ICSU will be considering the Declaration
of Principles and the Plan of Action from the Geneva Summit and integrating
these into its own Data and
Information Strategy
- CODATA, the Committee
on Data for Science and Technology will be continuing its work to ensure
that the collaboration between the scientific community, decision makers
and policy makers continues and strengthens. To this end, and to capture
the events of the Geneva Summit and prepare for the Tunis Summit, CODATA
will be organising its 19th International conference from 7-10 November
2004 in Berlin, Germany to address the interdisciplinary issues in scientific
and technical data management and dissemination.
Science in the Information Society – an Agenda for
Action
On 12 March 2003, ICSU and the ICSU Committee on Data for Science and
Technology (CODATA), in partnership with UNESCO, organised a workshop
in Paris on Science in the Information Society. Over 60 scientists, science
managers and representatives of international agencies from all over the
world took part in the event.
As a result of this workshop an Agenda for Action was formulated by participants
and endorsed by many international scientific organisations (see below).
The nine recommendations outlined in the Agenda are the core messages
which the international scientific community wished to convey to the Geneva
Summit.
This Agenda for Action was used as a basis for discussion during the negotiations
leading to the formulation of the Geneva Summit’s Declaration of
Principles and Plan for Action and a number of the Agenda’s recommendations
were included in the final Plan for Action endorsed at the Geneva Summit.
Introduction
Scientific research is one of the key factors underpinning the development
of the Information Society. All of the fundamental technological components
of the Information Society were discovered or invented in academic laboratories:
electricity, radio waves, lasers, the World Wide Web (www) and the web
browser.
Ensuring equitable access to scientific knowledge is essential in order
to achieve the Millennium goals and the use of information and communication
technologies (ICTs) now offers incredible opportunities in this regard.
Scientific research leads to the development of new technologies and
to the production of data and information that, when combined with these
technologies, can be of huge benefit to society as a whole.
The essential role of science and scientists in building the Information
Society should be clearly acknowledged in the Declaration of Principles
and reflected in the Plan of Action from WSIS.
Principles
- Scientific knowledge and data are of enormous importance in a global
Information Society:
- For fostering innovation and promoting economic development
- For efficient and transparent decision-making, particularly at
the governmental level
- For education and training
- Scientific data and information should be as widely available and
affordable as possible. The more people are able to share them, the
greater the positive effects and returns to society. Scientific knowledge
is a “public good“.
- The development of new ICTs opens up unprecedented opportunities to
ensure universal and equitable access to scientific data and information
and to enhance the global knowledge pool. However, excessive privatisation
and commercialisation of scientific data and information is a serious
threat to the realisation of these opportunities for the benefit of
society as a whole.
Agenda for Action
- Ensure that all universities and research institutions have affordable
and reliable high-speed Internet connections to support their critical
role in information and knowledge production, education and training.
- Promote sustainable capacity building and education initiatives to
ensure that all countries can benefit from the new opportunities offered
by information and communication technologies (ICTs) for the production
and sharing of scientific information and data.
- Ensure that any legislation on database protection guarantees full
and open access to data created with public funding. In addition, restrictions
on proprietary data should be designed to maximise availability for
academic research and teaching purposes.
- Promote interoperability principles and metadata standards to facilitate
cooperation and effective use of collected information and data.
- Provide long-term support for the systematic collection, preservation,
and provision of essential digital data in all countries.
- Promote electronic publishing, differential pricing schemes, and
appropriate open source initiatives to make scientific information accessible
on an equitable basis.
- Encourage initiatives to increase scientific literacy and awareness
of how to interpret web-based scientific information.
- Support urgently-needed research on the use of information technologies
in key areas, such as geographical information systems and telemedicine,
and on the socio-economic value of public domain information and open
access systems.
- Recognise the important role for science in developing and implementing
the new governance mechanisms that are necessary in the information
society.
- The agenda for Action is available in PDF:
- Science in the Information Society workshop
The following scientific organizations have considered
and formally endorsed the Agenda for Action:
INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC ACADEMIES
- Consiglio
Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy
- National Academy of Engineering, USA
- National
Academy of Sciences, USA
- National
Research Council (NRC), Canada
- National
Research Council, Thailand
- The
Academy of Sciences of Moldova
- The
Chinese Association for Science and Technology (CAST), China
- The
Georgian Academy of Sciences, Georgia
- The
Royal Society, UK
- The
Royal Society of New Zealand
- The
Science Council of Japan
- The
Scientific Research Council (SRC), Jamaica
- The
Scientific and Technical Research Council, Turkey
- Third World Academy
of Sciences
INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC UNIONS
- IGU
- International Geographical Union
- IMU
- International Mathematical Union
- ISPRS
- International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
- IUGG
International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics.
- IUGS
- International Union of Geological Sciences
- IUHPS/DHS
- International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science/Division
of History of Science
- IUPAB
- International Union for Pure and Applied Biophysics
- IUPAC
- International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
- IUPAP
- International Union of Pure and Applied Physics
- IUPESM
- International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine
- IUPsyS
- International Union of Psychological Science
- URSI
- International Union of Radio Science
OTHER SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATIONS
- CERN
- European Organization for Nuclear Research
- COSPAR
- Committee on Space Research
- DIVERSITAS
- An International Programme of Biodiversity Science
- ICTP
- International Center for Theoretical Physics
- IGBP
- International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
- WDC
- Panel on World Data Centres
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Preparing for Geneva
A number of preparatory events (PrepComs) were organised in the run up
to the Geneva summit to prepare the draft documents which were endorsed
during the final event.
PrepCom-1
PrepCom-1 took place in Geneva from 1-5 July 2002. Full documents are
available from the official WSIS
site.
ICSU participated in the civil society session of this meeting by convening
a workshop on “The role of the science community in the Information
Society” in partnership with the International Federation of Information
Processing (IFIP) and the ICSU Committee on Data for Science and Technology
(CODATA).
A summary of this workshop and the outcomes can be found in the documents
below:
- Workshop documents
PrepCom-2
Prior to PrepCom-2, ICSU responded to a letter from Mr. Yoshio Utsumi,
Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union, with comments
and recommendations on the proposed WSIS themes and draft Declaration.
- ICSU Letter to Mr Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary General of the ITU
PrepCom-2 was held on 17-28 February 2003 in Geneva. Two working documents
for a draft Declaration and Plan of Action were produced as a result of
the meeting, at which ICSU was represented.
Full documents are available from the official WSIS site 
The Intersessional meeting
The Intersessional meeting took place in UNESCO Headquarters in Paris
from 15-18 July 2003.
New versions of the Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action were
drafted and are available from the official WSIS site.
The scientific community made the following formal inputs to the meeting:
- Statement on behalf of the Science Community
- Comments and inputs from the Scientific Community on the Draft Declaration
and Plan of Action.
WSIS Intersessional Meeting
UNESCO official website
PrepCom-3
PrepCom-3 took place in Geneva in three stages (15-26 September, 10-14
November and 5-6 December 2003). During this meeting new versions of the
Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action
were drafted. Most notably, a paragraph (number 23), dedicated to the
acknowledgment of the role of Science in the Information Society was added
to the draft Declaration of Principles.
The Plan of Action was redrafted to include a number of references to
science, scientific information, universities and research. Many of these
were taken almost verbatim from ICSU’s Agenda for
Action formulated during the ‘Science in the Information Society’
workshop held in March 2003.
CERN, UNESCO and ICSU made several statements about science and many countries
both from the North and the South gave support to ICSU’s Agenda
for Action.
- Full documents are available from the official WSIS site
ICSU Science Events for the WSIS
International Symposium on Open Access and Public Domain
in Digital Data and Information for Science
An International Symposium on Open Access and Public Domain in Digital
Data and Information for Science, organised by ICSU, CODATA and UNESCO
was held at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 10-11 March 2003. This
symposium brought together some 140 leading experts and managers involved
in the creation, dissemination and use of data and information in public
research.
The meeting sought to describe the role, value and limits of public domain
and open access to digital data and information in the context of international
research. Some of the legal, economic and technological pressures involved
were reviewed as well as ways to preserve and promote public domain and
open access to science and technology data and information on a global
basis, with particular attention to the needs of developing countries.
- CODATA site for the International Symposium
- Webcasts of the International Symposium
Science in the Information Society Workshop
A workshop on Science in the Information Society, organised by ICSU,
CODATA and UNESCO, was held in Paris on 12 March 2003. It brought together
scientific experts, managers and representatives from several inter-governmental
agencies to try and identify the major issues for science in relation
to the WSIS.
Four over-arching themes were selected for discussion:
- Scientific data and information for decision-making and better governance
- Ensuring universal access to scientific knowledge internationally,
including overcoming the “digital divide”
- Scientific data and information as a global public good
- Using scientific data and information to improve all levels of education
and training
These themes were designed to be inclusive rather than exclusive and
were chosen with the multi-stakeholder audience of the WSIS in mind.
One of the key outcomes of the workshop was an Agenda
for Action with nine recommendations outlining the core messages which
the international scientific community wished to convey to the Geneva
Summit.
The four themes of the workshop were highlighted in a series of four
brochures
(one per theme) available both in hard copy and electronically. These
have been widely disseminated amongst the stakeholders involved with the
WSIS.
- Archive of the Online Discussion Forum on
“Science and Technology in the Information Society” (archived)
- Workshop Documents:
- Background Document for the Science in the Information Society
Workshop
- Agenda of the Workshop
- Participants list
- Science in the Information Society: Agenda for Action
- The agenda for Action is available in PDF:
Publications and Links
Science in the Information Society Brochures
The four themes of the Science
in the Information Society workshop, held in March 2003 are highlighted
in a series of four brochures (one per theme) available both in hard copy
and electronically.
- Brochures in PDF:
Optimizing Knowledge in the Information Society Brochure
This brochure explains the concept of a ‘knowledge society’
and proposes specific actions required to reduce the knowledge divide
in the Information Society
- Brochure N°5
- English
- French
Other ICSU publications
WSIS Press Releases and Related Articles
- Communiqué from the UNESCO Ministerial Round table "Towards
Knowledge Societies" (9-10 October 2003)
- Science magazine editorial: Lubchenco and Iwata, Science and the
Information Society, Science Vol 301 (12 September 2003)
- International Council for Science (ICSU) launches an Agenda for Action
– ‘Science in the Information Society’ - and invites
governments to endorse it during the World Summit on the Information
Society (7 July 2003)
- UNESCO’s Approach to Open Access and Public Domain Information
(18 March 2003)
- Science magazine editorial: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan poses
an information challenge to scientists of the world (7 March 2003)
- ICSU/CODATA launch online forum for World Summit on the Information
Society (2 October 2002)
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