World Summit on the Information Society
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is a high-level gathering of heads of states, ministries, and civil society convening to address challenges of the Information Society. The objective of the summit is to cultivate a clear statement of political will and from this a concrete plan of action for achieving the goals of the Information Society. The summit, endorsed by the United Nations (UN), recognizes the need to “marshal the global consensus and commitment required to promote the urgently needed access of all countries to information, knowledge and communication technologies for development so as to reap the full benefits of the information and communication technologies revolution.” WSIS is a two-phase summit. The first phase was in Geneva, 10-12 December 2003, hosted by the government of Switzerland. The second is to take place in Tunis, Tunisia on 16-18 November 2005. The Geneva summit addressed the themes of the information society and adopted a Declaration of Principles and a Plan of Action. The Tunis summit will be concerned with development themes and will be an opportunity to assess the progress and status of the Plan of Action. The summit, sponsored by the UN, is being administered by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which has created an executive secretariat to manage the day-to-day activities leading up to the summit.		-National Academies’ WSIS Collection -ICSU & WSIS -CODATA & WSIS -UNESCO’s WSIS Site -WSIS Secretariat -U.S. State Department’s WSIS Site

Prior to the first phase of the summit, the USNC/CODATA worked closely with CODATA and ICSU to help finalize ICSU’s Science in the Information Society—An Agenda for Action and to promote access to scientific data and information with official representatives to the WSIS at both the U.S. and international levels. The committee’s director was actively involved in all the official activities leading up to and during the December 2003 summit, including hosting the open meetings of the International Telecommunications Advisory Council of the U.S. Department of State.

Following the first phase of WSIS, which was held in December 2003 in Geneva, the USNC/CODATA will determine together with CODATA, ICSU, and the other cooperating organizations what follow-up actions should be taken in preparation for the second WSIS in November 2005 in Tunis. Several of the Committee’s activities specifically address issues identified in the WSIS action plan, which was developed in Geneva, including its work related to intellectual property issues described above and the regional archiving workshops in China and southern African that will be convened in the next two years.

Following the December 10-12, 2003 WSIS in Geneva, a public planning meeting was held at the National Academies to identify issues and activities in which the S&T community can play a constructive role in promoting U.S. interests and values. The following presentations from the March 23 meeting are available:

National Academies Contacts