ICSU/CODATA on line discussion forum: “Science and Technology in the Information Society”

• Background
• Aims of the on-line Forum
• The themes for the forum

• Access the Archive of the forum

Background

The UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is scheduled to take place in Geneva in December 2003 and in Tunis in 2005. The scientific and technological community has a key role to play in the development of the Information Society for the benefit of society as a whole. In this development, there are both opportunities and threats for the future of science itself. In its aim to bring together stakeholders from all sectors (governments, business and industry, and civil society), WSIS provides a unique opportunity to define the principles and specific actions that will underpin future development of the information society. The international S&T community has a responsibility to ensure that its voice is heard in defining these discussions. This on-line forum is one small step in that direction.

Aims of the on-line Forum

The overall aim of the forum was to collect input from all sectors of the international science and technology community, which will help form the basis for negotiations that will take place at WSIS: i.e. what key messages does the international S&T community want to convey to other stakeholders in the information society?

The themes for the forum

To encourage discussion on a broad range of related issues, four themes have been selected for this forum:

1. Scientific data and information for decision-making and better governance
2. Ensuring universal access to scientific knowledge internationally
3. Scientific data and information as a global public good
4. Using Scientific data and information to improve all levels of education and training

These themes are designed to be inclusive rather than exclusive, and were chosen with the multi-stakeholder audience of WSIS in mind. In order to identify more specific issues and initiate discussion, a brief ‘informal’ background paper has been prepared on each of theme. Recognizing that the themes do overlap and fall far short of being all-encompassing, we would encourage contributors to post under the most appropriate theme. For example, ‘infrastructure of the information society’ is not a theme per se, but related topics might be placed under theme 2 or 4, depending on the emphasis.