A global alliance for information & communication technology (ICT...
A global alliance for information & communication technology (ICT) should replace the United Nations ICT (UNICT) Task Force, the Internet Governance Project (IGP) said Tues. In Bringing Policy Development to the Public and the Public to Policy Development, the…
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IGP said the UNICT is scheduled to go out of existence after this year’s World Summit on the Information Society. However, the group said, given the “innovative structure of the Task Force” and its work program, there should be a debate about successor organizations and processes. Many issues of international concern now aren’t amenable to traditional, restricted decision-making processes, the IGP said. International agreements on those issues must be reached via procedures that are seen as open, transparent and permitting full participation. That, in turn, requires the free flow of information, the group said. The UNICT Task Force is a good example of how techniques made possible by the Internet and the World Wide Web -- e- mail, online forums, Webcast meetings -- can be used. But the IGP said that what has been missing is the ability to collaborate over the Internet in real time. In the last few years, software developers have created collaborative methods that allow synchronous communication, one example of which is now being tested, the IGP said. The concept of a “collaboratory” could be built into the emerging concept of the global alliance, it said. ICT is “particularly amenable” to that sort of approach, because like existing global alliances it involves multiple interested parties. Project members include the Convergence Center, Syracuse U.’s School of Information Studies, the Internet & Public Policy Project, Ga. Institute of Technology, and the Institut fuer Politikwissenschaft at the U. of Zurich.