HONOLULU (Dec. 4) -- The upcoming World Summit on the Information Society, the first U.N. summit where NGOs have been invited as official delegates, may be "messy" and not resolve contentious issues. But it's a necessary first step in dealing with the top global information challenges, a telecommunications expert said.
"It's not high on the U.S. media radar or corporate and government priorities," said Richard Taylor, a visiting scholar at the East-West Center. "It's messy, (but) we can't ignore these issues."
U.N. targets include worldwide Internet access in villages by 2010. The Dec. 10-12 summit in Geneva is drawing 141 countries, 62 heads of state, 516 NGOs and 7,000 total participants -- making resolution of issues more difficult than ever, Taylor said.
Although the summit is receiving little attention in the United States, it is elsewhere, particularly in Asia. Taylor, professor of telecommunications who holds the Palmer Chair at Pennsylvania State University, said Asian countries attach the most importance to developing a global information society in terms of trade, e-commerce, and promoting stability, peace and prosperity in the region.
Some of the most contentious issues at the summit will be funding for poor countries to narrow the "digital divide" between developed and developing nations; and protests by China to discuss matters related to human rights and cross-border communication.
Other important issues include Internet governance, security and cybercrime, and intellectual property rights. The United States is most focused on security issues and also maintains strong views on freedom of information, an issue that should hold importance to media, Taylor said.
An influential group of developing countries has proposed that Internet governance fall under the control of the International Telecommunications Union, a branch of the United Nations. But the United States and other major powers are "dead set" against putting control under an international organization, Taylor said.
"The choices are people working inside together, or people outside throwing bricks through windows," Taylor said. "This may turn out to be a disaster if they can't get a resolution on issues. But at least they will come up with a process. These issues are very important."
Richard Taylor can be reached at rdt4@psu.edu