<nettime> manon ress: Notes on WSIS prep meeting in W.DC, February 10, 03 <...>

[t byfield <tbyfield@panix.com>]

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Subject: [Ecommerce] Notes on WSIS prep meeting in W.DC, February 10, 03 
(Open source question)
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 14:49:58 -0500
From: Manon Anne Ress <manon.ress@cptech.org>
To: ecommerce <ecommerce@lists.essential.org>

Please find a 1) short summary of my informal notes from the Feb 10,
2003 ITA meeting in Washington, DC; 2) a few links for more information;
3)Agenda of the meeting and 4) WSIS Timeline.  Note that Ambassador
Gross is welcoming comments, send to: wsis@state.gov.
(Let me know if you'd like more details.)

1) 2d International Telecommunications Advisory Committee (ITAC) on the
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) February 10, 2003 3-5pm
at National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Building, Washington, DC

Ambassador David Gross opened the 2nd meeting of a series planned to
prepare for WSIS.  He encouraged people to sent written comments to the
website.  He announced future meetings in Geneva (February 17) and in
Beirut and listed the regional meetings that just took place in
Bucharest, Tokyo and the Dominican Republic.  In Geneva there will be
committee meetings following the first 2 days of roundtables. The 3
themes are infrastructure, human capacity building and security.

Richard Beaird (State) reviewed key documents: the Tokyo Declaration,
the Bavaro Declaration and the Chairman "non-paper."   According to Dick
Beaird, there's a general consensus emerging from regional meetings.
The 4 "industrial sector meetings" (I quote) focused on some common
themes.  They seem to agree on "competition and privatization, and
exceptions were few and depended on "models" selected."  However, there
were more "nuances" regarding:
Access to technology and digital divide.  How to promote access in rural
areas, not only for telephone but also email? The second theme is the
open source issue.  He stated that the US "insisted" on adding "as
appropriate" in the Tokyo Declaration.  For Beaird the "market should
decide where open source is appropriate and "there's also a cost issue
linked to the compatibility between proprietary and open-source."
Another very important "emerging theme" with nuances is network
security.  He also talked about "local contents" and how each region is
different "this diversity has to be captured."  Finally, he talked about
"good governance" and how the extension of broadband can bring social
services to citizens.  In Bavaro there was discussion of the role of
government using ICT, some think that "government should lead".  Until
recently, he said, it was about b2b and SME but now it's also linked to
government services.

Paul Uhlir, The National Academies of Sciences (NAS) commented on the
"emerging consensus" and asked  "what is the role of the research
community in all of this?"  He spoke of the upcoming international
symposium on "Open Access and the Public Domain in Digital Data and
Information for Science" which will be held in Paris on March 10 - 11,
2003. Open to the public, see: http://www.codata.org/03march/index.html

The Q&A included questions or comments by Bill Drake (U of M) Miriam
Shapiro, Ruchika Agrawal(EPIC), David Fares - USCIB, Marilyn Cade -
AT&T, Marilyn Greene - World Press Freedom Committee, Dick Greene (DOC),
Ken Jarboe - Athena Alliance, a Georgetown Law Student and others.

I asked how and why in (1)"Priorities areas for action" of the Tokyo
declaration language that had called for open source to be "supported"
was changed to: "Development and deployment of open source software
should be *encouraged, as appropriate*, as should open standards for ICT
networking."

In his reply, Ambassador Gross described the document as "a consensus
document, a non binding document" that should not change US policy...but
procures views on the advantages and disadvantages.  M. Beaird explained
that "there are circumstances where proprietary software is appropriate
and the market place should make the decision.  "The US is concerned
about mandating either approaches...against flexibility important for
the developing world...there is no "one" model."  In Tokyo, the argument
was about changing a text that was "mandating open-source... which is
against US policy"


2) More on WSIS at:
http://www.state.gov/e/eb/cip/wsis/
http://www.state.gov/e/eb/adcom/c668.htm
To be added to the WSIS list serve write to:
Anne Jillson at: JillsonAD@state.gov

3) AGENDA International Telecommunications Advisory Committee (ITAC)
Meeting on World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
February 10, 2003, 3-5 PM
 National Academy of Sciences Building

AGENDA

1.	Introduction / Opening Remarks
2.	Review of Key Documents
-	Tokyo Declaration
-	Bavaro Declaration
-	PrepCom II Chairman Adama Samass�kou's non-paper
-	PrepCom II Time Management Plan
3.	Comments on Key Documents
4.	Future Meetings

4) WSIS Timeline


May 2002			African Regional Conference, Bamako
July 2002 	 		WSIS PrepCom I
Sept./Oct. 2002    		ITU Plenipotentiary Conference
Sept./Oct. 2002			Third mtg - UN ICT Task Force
November 7-9, 2002		Pan European Regional Conference, Bucharest
--------
Dec. 9 - Jan 15, 2003		UNESCO: On-line Forum for Civil Society WSIS
Preparations

January 13-15, 2003		Asian Regional Conference, Tokyo
January 29-31, 2003		Latin America and Caribbean Conference
February 17-28, 2003		WSIS PrepCom II
February 21-23, 2003		Fourth Mtg - UN ICT Task Force
March 10-11, 2003	International Symposium on Open Access and the Public
Domain in Digital Data and Information for Science, Paris
September 15-26, 2003	WSIS PrepCom III
December 10-12, 2003	World Summit on the Information Society, Geneva


-- 
Manon Anne Ress
Consumer Project on Technology
www.cptech.org
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
manon.ress@cptech.org, voice: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176

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James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
http://www.cptech.org, mailto:james.love@cptech.org
tel. +1.202.387.8030, mobile +1.202.361.3040

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