[WSIS CS-Plenary] Trying to respond to the position papers - defininig Universal Access

[Thomas Ruddy]

Dear all,

Chris asked:

>Would someone please tell us where we are supposed to send or post our
comments?

When I look at the WGIG page, it says that "Governments and all stakeholders
are invited to  <http://wgig.org/WGIG-Report.html> comment, "linking through
to a second page, http://wgig.org/WGIG-Report.html

and when you go there, you see that "Governments and all stakeholders are
invited to comment on these papers, preferably by making use of this
<http://wgig.org/docs/CommentTemplate.pdf> template,"
http://wgig.org/docs/CommentTemplate.pdf

"Comments should be sent by email to"  <mailto:wgig at unog.ch> wgig at unog.ch

Best,

Thomas

========================================

Thomas Ruddy,  Switzerland, convenor of http://www.wsis.ethz.ch 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org] On Behalf
Of zielinskic at who.int
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2005 11:40 AM
To: plenary at wsis-cs.org
Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Trying to respond to the position papers -
defininig Universal Access

 

Friends,

Well, my earlier comment seems to have stirred a fair amount of
correspondence, but it still hasn't elicited a way of responding to the
position papers. Would someone please tell us where we are supposed to send
or post our comments? 

While recognizing that it's going to get disorganized if we do it through
this list, I am offering below a short corrective to the definition used in
the Universal Access paper. I'll withhold more detailed comments until
someone answers the above question, though.

----------

The Unesco Recommendation concerning the Promotion and Use of
Multilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace
(http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13475
<http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13475&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECT
ION=201.html> &URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html ) has an excellent
definition of "universal access", which includes not just access to the
technology but also access to content, both of which are included in the
rest of the WGIG paper, but not in the definition offered on the first page.
I suggest we use it:

"Universal access to cyberspace is equitable and affordable access by all
citizens to information infrastructure (notably to the Internet) and to
information and knowledge essential to collective and individual human
development".

Note also that WSIS-CT has already worked in this area for previous
statements, and much of this is absent from the present text. I append a
text we prepared a couple of years ago (!)below.

----------

Chris

Chris Zielinski 

STP, Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research

RPC/EIP, World Health Organization 

Avenue Appia, CH1211, Geneva, Switzerland 

----------

Universal access

In an equitable information society, everyone must have universal and
equitable access to the infrastructure and knowledge available. 

Technological access requires enough of the right kind of infrastructure. It
is the responsibility of governments to ensure that the necessary backbone
infrastructure is built and maintained, and to ensure that there is an
enabling policy and regulatory environment that encourages communities, the
private sector, local government and civil society to provide value-added
services and to expand this infrastructure in locally relevant ways. 

Public investment in infrastructure, and market imperatives in the private
sector, should not result in wealthier urban populations being wired while
poorer rural communities are left untouched. The digital inclusion of the
few must not be allowed to perpetuate the social and economic exclusion of
the many. Equally, technological access does not merely mean the ability to
download information and advertising, it implies the ability to upload
information with sufficient bandwidth for two-way communication.

Access should be provided particularly to community organizations and other
constituencies that can have a high impact in terms of distributing benefits
of access. The needs of women and of specific communities such as the
disabled should be met. 

Expanding technological access to the Internet demands an expansion of the
available address space under IPv6, mindful of the societal and ethical
risks to privacy and personal security of increased penetration of the
Internet into society.

Transparent, accountable governance structures and equitable legal and
regulatory frameworks must be established, which are able to provide
socially responsible governance in a world that becomes increasingly
dependent on the Internet. 

Finally, universal access must be provided to information essential for
human development. Without access to such information and knowledge, there
can be no Information Society. This goes beyond the right of access to
information in the public domain, and includes all knowledge that is needed
for basic survival. Equitable access should be provided to information from
all sources, whether from developing or industrialized countries.

 

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