The Society we want: Civil Society influence on the Information Society

The UN General Assembly has resolved to support a World Summit on the Information Society which will be held in two phases: in Geneva from the 8th to the 12th December 2003 and in Tunis from the 16th to the 18th November 2005. Coordinated by the ITU, the summit will involve governments, international organisations, the private sector and the civil society. The focus of the Information Society Summit is not technical but related to the advent of a globalised society in which the emancipation of the human being is in part related to the possibilities of communication and exchange of information. The non-government, non-business sector – the civil society sector – brings together wide-ranging educational, professional, cultural, social and media interests reflecting their community context. Panellists will raise a number of significant issues for the developing information society and for the values and roles of academics and concerned citizens, as part of the debate that is focussed on establishing an international declaration of principles and action plans for the global information society. 1 Summary from the Civil Society Bureau website at http://www.geneva2003.org/wsis/indexa01.htm