For the more than 17,000 participants who made their way to Tunisia last week to attend the World Summit on the Information Society, the chances are that the truly massive event was both more and less than they hoped for.
Involving not only government leaders from more than 170 countries, but also representatives from hundreds of NGOs and major technology companies, the sheer scope was at times mind-boggling. While heads of state, ministers of technology and other organizational leaders presented their views on the importance and challenges of the information society in three days of plenary sessions, as many as 15 or 20 simultaneous panel discussions would also be underway at any given time in other meeting halls. For the hundreds of media representatives covering the summit, there was a continuous cavalcade of press conferences. And the side expo with booths from hundreds of nations, NGOs and high tech companies literally took hours to tour with any degree of thoroughness.
The short of it is that it really was a world summit -- as inclusive, as energetic and as shrouded in intense security as any world information society undertaking that involved government leaders must inevitably be. "The outcome was more than I expected," said Yoshio Utsumi, secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union which helped to organize the summit with the UN.
Officially, that outcome is summarized in two declarations -- the "Tunis Commitment" and the "Tunis Agenda for the Information Society" which lays out an eleven-track implementation plan to bridge the digital divide worldwide. Utsumi added that leadership would be created within the UN system to oversee the implementation of this action agenda. However, the actual implementation would be left in the hands of individual stakeholders. And while participating nations acknowledged that current funding was not enough, no significant new funding was announced that would hasten technology deployment in the many developing nations seeking to move their people into the information age.
So leaders seeking to bridge the digital divide in their own countries gained little in immediate new aid. Similarly, countries which came with a different political agenda -- such as moving the control and regulation of the Internet from ICANN to an international body or gaining widespread agreement on the need to better control net content -- came away empty handed.
Future of the Net
US policy prevailed even before the official start of the summit with the adoption of an agreement on the future governance of the Internet. "It reaffirms the importance of technology and particularly the Internet to the world," said Ambassador David Gross, U.S. coordinator for international communications and information at a press briefing after negotiations ended. "It focuses and refocuses and reaffirms the importance of the free flow of information, reaffirms the importance of technology in facilitating that and for the positive economic, social and political developments that can occur from that."
To get the agreement, however, it was announced that a new Internet Governance Forum would be formed to provide a mechanism for the governance issue debate to continue. Utsumi described this as a new page in net governance in his closing remarks while insisting that "freedom in cyberspace is a pre-requisite for an information society."
It was a message that surfaced frequently throughout the summit. "It is the role of governments to ensure that ... freedom of expression is available to its citizens and not to stand in the way of people seeking to send and receive information across the Internet," Gross added.
Journalists working behind the scenes to file stories from the summit. One focus was controversy that added persistent underlying tensions.
Ironically, the host country of Tunisia, which did so much to contribute to making the summit a success, also became the subject of criticism by both the media and some government representatives for its censorship policies.
For instance, John Marburger, director of the U.S. Office of Science and Technology, told national delegates that he hoped the summit would provide additional incentive for Tunisia "to match its considerable economic and social accomplishments with comparable progress in political reform and respect for the human rights of its people."
One thing became clear from different national perspectives on the Internet -- the freedom of expression that has been intrinsic to the Internet from its inception is not necessarily the Internet that will continue indefinitely.
In his closing remarks to the press, Utsumi suggested that the net would continue to evolve, that the Internet of today is not the net of tomorrow, and that we likely will see a regionalization with development of many nets that link up the way telephone systems connect to form an international system. He added, however, that "freedom in cyberspace is a prerequisite for an information society."
For many Western countries, bridging the digital divide is seen as a humanitarian activity according to Utsumi. He insists it isn't, but rather it is "a win win game for everyone," essential not just for an equitable society but for world harmony. "Only a level playing field will make a peaceful society," he said.
Reach for Technology
What is indisputable, however, is that bringing Internet access to all citizens the world over is now seen by most government leaders as essential to the continued development of their countries. The participation of so many high-level government leaders in the summit is itself an indication of how perceptions of information technology are changing.
"Most government leaders now realize that these technologies are vital for sustainable development," Utsumi said. "And [this level of] recognition means commitment."
And while never broached in these words, the clear intent on the part of the majority of participants is that all communities in the world need to be on a fast track to becoming digital communities, openly connected to the rest of the world for economic and social progress to occur.
The technologies that will achieve this continue to evolve. But there was scarcely a booth featuring projects in developing nations where wireless did not play a substantial role.
In most industrialized nations with substantial wired infrastructures, wireless is viewed mainly as a convenience. But for developing nations, it is increasingly seen as the vital technology that can bridge the gap between poverty and the still illusive dream of worldwide economic prosperity through education and net connectivity.