Beyond the dust and heat: APC looks at Tunis and Geneva in perspective

By APCNews GOA, India,

Some months after the heat and dust settled on the Tunisian skyline, an international not-for-profit network has come up with its evaluation of what the four-year World Summit on the Information Society could hold out for people on the planet.


But the ‘reflections’ of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) throw up a mixed bag. There are some positive signs emerging from WSIS, it suggests.


But it cautions that unless active steps are taken to ensure that vested interests don’t take over, and local opportunities are created, all hope and optimism could be rather misplaced.


Called ‘Pushing and prodding, goading and hand-holding’, this eleven-page document is a "reflection" from the global civil society organisations’ network APC (Association for Progressive Communications) at the conclusion of the World Summit on the Information Society.


It looks at issues grouped under various topics –creating spaces for non-state actors, civil society organisations at WSIS, regional and national differences, and whether WSIS could be setting a new precedent for global policy processes.


Other themes it examines are the entire internet governance debate, financing ICTD (information and communication technology for development) and the many opportunities lost there, human rights, and the critical issue of implementation


and follow-up.


The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was a series of UN-sponsored conferences about information and communication that took place between 2002 and 2005. One of its chief aims was to bridge the so-called "digital divide" separating rich countries from poor countries by spreading access to the internet in the "developing" world.


This "reflection" concludes that WSIS has "been basically a discursive exercise and, at this point of time, its outcomes impact more in the virtual areas of networking and political debate, rather than in the area of concrete decisions".


It voices cautious optimism over "wider political debate" and "extensive multi-dimensional networking and relationship building" the four-year WSIS process threw up. But, it added, "it is early days".


APC cautioned: "The eventual impacts will only be evident in the next few years. It will depend on action and collaboration at regional and national level; on southern


governments forming alliances, working together, taking risks (e.g. saying no to binding deals with large multinational software companies), creating competitive environments for business and opportunities for local initiatives, and ensuring that private monopolies do not take over from public monopolies."


And there’s "no guarantee" that governments will actually do this. Or that intergovernmental organisations will facilitate such action, the APC says pointedly.


In this contest, it suggests that civil society organisations "can make sure that we keep pushing and prodding, goading and hand-holding -depending on what is required at different junctures".


Doing a cost-benefit estimate of the WSIS process, the APC feels that "one would have to say that it was not worth the money and time".


On the other hand, it points to the power of networking, the "intended and unintended consequences of having so many people interacting with one another and a set of issues for an extended period". APC says the impacts of this "should not


be underestimated".


"People drive change, and changing how people think and act is not a trivial process," APC’s reflections comment. It believes that the WSIS process – with all its flaws – did change the way in which many people think about ICTs for development.


"In many developing countries post-WSIS there is now far more focus on the integration of ICTs and information and communication with social, economic and political development than there was before," says the statement, released in the


form of an 11-page PDF file available via the internet.


This ‘reflection’ seeks to take a well-balanced, all-things-considered point of view.


It notes: "Many people, particularly those involved in ICTs for development, argue that it does not matter how the internet is governed if the majority of the world’s people do not have access to it."


But it also observes that while there’s an element of truth in that, social change "takes place through shifts at several levels".


APC argues that in a world where decision-making power is already so concentrated, being able to make a difference in how the internet is governed is a way of saying that things need to change, as well as showing that they can change.


It asks if WSIS – with the greater involvement of CSOs and non-state actors – could set a new precedent for the global policy process. On the other hand, it also concedes that this might "have stemmed from the specialised, technical


nature of WSIS and does not necessarily create a precedent for other UN processes".


Yet, a step has been taken for changing the nature of the intergovernmental process, says APC, which peppers its reflections with examples from across the globe – particularly a part most deprived of the benefits of the internet, Africa – and also specific quotes and footnotes that add weight to its stand.


The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is an international network of civil society organisations dedicated to empowering and supporting groups and individuals working for peace, human rights, development and protection of the environment, through the strategic use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), including the internet.


APC’s vision is: "A world in which all people have easy, equal and affordable access to the creative potential of ICTs to improve their lives and create more democratic and egalitarian societies"




Author: —- (APCNews)
Contact: communications apc.org
Source: APCNews
Date: 02/16/2006
Location: GOA, India
Category: Internet Rights



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