INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION FOR INFORMATION PROCESSING
IFIP WITFOR 2003
World Information Technology Forum
27-29 August 2003, Vilnius, Lithuania
Hosted by
Government of the Republic of Lithuania
Organized by
Lithuanian Computer Society
Infobalt Association
1Aim
World IT Forum focuses on the ICT-equity agenda and aims at assisting emerging nations to implement sustainable strategies for the application of ICT by organizing state of the art conferences on global trends in information and communications technology in developing countries and by initiating projects in different areas of the ICT spectrum.
2Background
The 4th principal element of IFIP's mission statement states that IFIP will pay special attention to the needs of developing countries and it will assist them in appropriate ways to secure the optimum benefit from the application of IT. More detailed information is available at the IFIP website
IFIP has today, among others, a standing committee on developing countries to achieve this mission. One of the main functions of the Developing Countries Support Committee has been to support participation of delegates to and from developing countries to different IFIP events. IFIP also supports a number of events such as conferences, workshops and tutorials in developing countries.
Although IFIP already sponsors a number of activities in developing countries, IFIP has decided to develop a more focused approach to promote information and communications technology in developing countries. IFIP needs activities in developing countries that really bring the ICT-equity agenda in focus, and concluded that there is a need for global conferences of a World Congress type in developing countries.
3WITFOR
By organizing the WITFOR conferences IFIP has the unique capacity to move its global ICT-equity agenda forward. WITFOR can:
1.Help put equity centrally on the agenda of different organizations and governments and groups now involved with information and communications technology.
2.Work with different groups to ensure that the issue of ICT-equity is on the agenda of senior policy makers and political leaders.
3.Urge international organizations and donor agencies to build equity more centrally into their loan and funding programmes and to put adequate financial and institutional resources behind them.
4.Be more pro-active in using new technologies explicitly to reduce existing social tensions and conflicts.
5.Influence scholars, analysts and researchers to put the issue of electronic equity higher on their research agendas.
6.Make analysts in industrialised nations, as individuals and groups, listen to and learn from colleagues around the world about their unique concerns over access to technology.
4Organization of WITFOR
Starting with August 2003, WITFOR will be organized every other year in co-operation with IFIP members and local governments in developing countries. It will be organized on a rotating basis in different parts of the developing world. Main responsibility for the conference lies with IFIP. Co-operation is solicited from organizations like UN, UNESCO, EU, UNU, UNHCR, OECD, World Bank, etc.
The first WITFOR will take place in Vilnius, Lithuania, 27-29 August 2003. The Government of Lithuania, the Lithuanian Computer Society (LIKS) and the Lithuanian IT Manufacturers Organization will host the conference as main organizers.
WITFOR 2003 has the specific objectives to:
- Solicit and examine different reports reflecting on the equitable use of ICT applications, access to quality contents and information in the public domain and intellectual property rights and the development of "fair use principles" in the Internet Age,
- Develop a position paper on these issues and draft a "Vilnius declaration" advising governments on strategies for the use of ICT.
5Conference Format WITFOR 2003
The 2½ days conference will use the first two days in order to prepare a VILNIUS-DECLARATION which is a document aiming at advising governments in emerging countries on how to formulate and follow the best strategy for the use of ICT in order to achieve global ICT-equity. The program consists of keynote speakers and of parallel commissions. The final half-day will be a presentation of the results of the commissions and of the Vilnius Declaration.
6Conference Program
The draft structure of the program is as follows.
Day 1. Wednesday 27 August 2003
09.00 - 10.00 Opening session
HE Prime Minister of Lithuania Algirdas Brazauskas
UN official
10.00 - 11.00 Keynote 1 (from a government or an NGO/IGO)
11.00 - 11.30Break
11.30 - 12.30Keynote 2 (from a government or an NGO/IGO)
12.30 - 14.30Lunch
14.30 - 17.30 Commissions (parallel sessions)
Day 2. Thursday 28 August 2003
09.00 - 09.30Keynote 3 (from industry)
09.30 - 10.00Keynote 4 (from industry)
10.00 - 10.30Keynote 5 (from academia / research)
10.30 - 11.00Break
11:00 - 11:30Keynote 6 (from an NGO/IGO)
11.00 - 12.30Panel discussion, led by a professional moderator
Participants: available keynotes from day 1 and 2, if necessary complemented by others
12.30 - 14.30Lunch
14.30 - 17.30Commissions (parallel sessions)
Day 3. Friday 29 August 2003
09.00 - 11.30Short presentations of the 8 commission reports (by the co-chairs)
11.30 - 12.00 Presentation of the Vilnius Declaration
12.00 - 12.30Closing session
7Participation
Given the aim and specific objective of WITFOR 2003 most of the participants will be invited. Invitations will be sent to all countries in the world, but particularly emphasizing the importance for developing countries to participate. In particular, invitations will be sent to:
-Politicians at IT Minister level
-Government staff at very senior level
-Government agencies
-Inter-governmental organizations (IGO’s)
-International organizations (NGO’s)
-IFIP experts.
Besides these specific invitations, there will be “open invitations”, meaning interested persons can solicit for participation (for awarding such applications, criteria will be developed). This category of participants will pay a conference fee of approximately EUR 350 (to cover documents, lunches, dinners and social events).
8Organization and work of the commissions
At WITFOR, different commissions will propose documents concerning their theme. For each commission there will be two co-chairs. These co-chairs will lead the work of the commission. They will identify and select different experts in the field to form a team or workgroup. The workgroup will draft a report prior to WITFOR. How they arrange this is open, e.g., by having separate meetings or by e-mail or otherwise. The report from each group will include:
1. Current status
2. Problems
3. Proposal for solutions
4. Proposal for actions
5. Project Plan
6. Budget
At the WITFOR conference these reports will then be discussed during the commissions (with the conference participants who have to indicate what theme they want to contribute to). After these discussions, the reports will be finalized and incorporated in the Vilnius Declaration.
9Commissions
For WITFOR 2003, the following commissions (parallel sessions, themes) have been identified:
- Preparing the Ground for ICT
- Building the Infrastructure
- Economic Opportunity
- Empowerment and Participation
- Health
- Education
- Environment
- Social and Ethical Aspects
9.1Preparing the ground for ICT
The new ‘network society’ of the Information Age does not come naturally to many disadvantaged communities and individuals. The mere fact that they have access to the Internet and to information does not in any way guarantee a transformation from being left behind to being part of the global village. At the least, these communities and the individuals have to become computer literate to be able to use the new technologies that are made available to them. Without an understanding of what they can do with the information they could then access, the information would, however, remain just meaningless data. They also have to become information literate, and this implies more than just knowing where they could obtain certain data and how they could surf the Internet. What is needed is a transformation of the individual’s mindset to see where he or she fits into the new emerging global, networked society. This transformation must be such that the individual is led to accept for himself or herself a new role unlocked and enabled by ICT, and must from within embrace this new role.
The challenge is how to achieve this given the fact that the individuals referred to here, constitute a very large majority of the population in developing countries. The challenge is made the more difficult because simply ‘telling these individuals’ about the wonders of the ICT world that await them, will not achieve the desired result. They must be assisted to discover this for themselves.
It is posited that this assistance process has hitherto not been sufficiently nor successfully addressed. We have not delved deeply enough into the process to understand its complexity, and our ‘solutions’ thus far have been weak results of shirking away from the overwhelming complexity of the task.
9.2Building the infrastructure
While industry and business are providing the infrastructure for access to information resources, as well as contents, the challenge is to define the concepts of "public domain" and "universal access" in a global context to promote common public welfare while encouraging private initiative and protecting rightful economic interests.
What are the most important economic obstacles to access to information (telecommunication tariffs, Internet access fees, taxes and duties, etc.)? How can public administrations balance the commercial interests with their civic and moral obligations to promote equitable access? What financial mechanisms can be put into place to ensure universal access to information (cross subsidies, preferential taxation, etc.)? Should telecommunication regulatory and tariff policies be extended to cover Internet access? What political, ethical, social and cultural criteria should be used in the formulation of such policies? Can some goods (tangible and intangible products) be exempted from tariffs? Could Internet taxation be a viable and useful approach? Should the concept of "e-rates" (preferential tariffs for educational and cultural institutions) be standardized and generalized? Could it be applied internationally to assist public service institutions and disadvantaged communities in developing countries? How can public authorities assist public service and civil society institutions to contribute to solutions (consortia, community facilities, freenets, etc.)? What role can the media play in facilitating the worldwide acceptance of the concept of universal access?
What are the most important technical obstacles to access to information? How can the availability of the ICT infrastructure be guaranteed? What needs to be done to provide quality aspects of ICT such as integrity of the information provided?
The principle of free access to and free flow of information as defined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights must be ensured on digital media, while content security, reliability and trustworthiness are essential attributes of future information networks. The Internet is indeed a new mass medium, but also differs qualitatively from the "traditional" media in the degree to which it permits individual as well as mass interaction, providing new possibilities for creativity, expression and provision of personal services while raising the new threats of manipulation of citizens. Governments, in both industrialized and developing countries, should take action to guarantee citizens' security, privacy and freedom of expression in the Information Society. Clearer guidelines and legal and ethical frameworks on these issues, equally applicable to all, need to be formulated.
9.3Economic Opportunity
ICT can contribute to income generation and poverty reduction. It enables people and enterprises to capture economic opportunities by increasing process efficiency, promoting participation in expanded economic networks, and creating opportunities for employment.
There are a number of ways ICT is enhancing rural productivity. ICT enables solution sharing between local people and communities, providing access to practical information on small business accounting, weather trends and farming best practices, for example. Timely access to market information via communications networks also helps farmers make astute decisions about what crops to plant and where to sell their produce and buy inputs. ICT is also providing unprecedented access to rural finance. The financial and information service network canoffer micro-finance opportunities for local people and small enterprises that previously had no access to flexible financing due to rigid banking regulations and the information monopolies of government and large businesses.
ICT enables improved business process efficiency and productivity. Businesses can reduce operational costs by decreasing material, procurement and transaction costs, resulting in lower prices for intermediate and finished goods, and they can also use more and better information to improve the value of their output.
ICT facilitates global connectivity, resulting in new ways of creating and delivering products and services on a global scale. New business models and market configurations enabled by ICT, including business process outsourcing, value chain integration and disinter mediation, provide developing countries with access to new markets and new sources of competitive advantage from which to drive income growth.
ICT can contribute to better employment opportunities in developing countries both through improved labour market facilitation and direct employment. Using electronic job marketplaces, employers and employees can match labour skills and availability to satisfy their demands.
9.4Empowerment and Participation
ICT can contribute to fostering empowerment and participation and making government processes more efficient and transparent by encouraging communication and information sharing among people and organizations, and within government.
Using ICT, governments can improve the quality and responsiveness of the services they provide to their citizens as well as expand the reach and accessibility of services and public infrastructure. This is facilitated by e-government applications that provide services and information to citizens over the Internet and other communication networks.
ICT connects individuals and local communities with information and resources beyond their geographic boundaries, encouraging information dissemination, information exchange and communication. Citizens are encouraged to participate in the democratic process through ICT mechanisms such as electronic forums and bulletin boards, which enable participation in public discussions. This is especially relevant for marginalized communities and groups such as women, youth and ethnic minorities: they can share and exchange information of mutual interest, strengthen their collective power and shape their own development solutions.
Organizations in developing countries also find it increasingly feasible to participate in information sharing that strengthens governance and collective power, allowing them to influence political and institutional decision-making processes. Trade unions, for example, have used the Internet as a campaigning tool to organize labour globally in the fight against exploitation.
As much of global knowledge is not subject to intellectual property rights, what needs to be done to avoid under-provision of this knowledge? What information should be considered as a national and/or global public good? Should the concept of public domain of classical and anonymous works and information produced with public funds be extended to include "copy-left" information distributed free of charge subject to certain authors' rights (e.g. open source software)? What policies should be adopted on the provision of this information? What criteria (economic, political, ethical, social, educational) should guide the adoption of these policies? How should the production and delivery of this information be financed? How can the participation of citizens in the production of and access to information be encouraged? What special measures are needed to help developing countries and disadvantaged communities benefit from available knowledge and information? How can private industries more effectively exploit and contribute to the electronic public domain? What are the distinctions and interplay between electronic and traditionally published public domain information? What is the role of traditional information institutions and of virtual libraries and archives?
9.5Health
Some of the most promising and clearly demonstrated applications for ICT in development are in the improvement of health care delivery. Experience to date suggests there is a number of specific ways ICT can be applied to achieve better health outcomes.
ICT is being used in many developing countries and communities to facilitate remote consultation, diagnosis and treatment. For example, nurses in remote villages may use digital cameras to download images of symptoms onto a PC and transfer them to nearby towns for examination by doctors. The same model is being applied to facilitate collaboration among physicians themselves. The principle of ICT-facilitated collaboration extends to medical research also.
Health workers in developing countries are accessing relevant medical training through ICT-enabled delivery mechanisms. Several new malaria Internet sites for health professionals include innovative 'teach and test' self-assessment modules. In addition, centralized data repositories connected to ICT networks enable remote healthcare professionals to keep abreast of the rapidly evolving stock of medical knowledge.
When applied to disease prevention and epidemic response efforts, ICT can provide considerable benefits and capabilities. Public broadcast media such as radio and television have a long history of effectively facilitating the dissemination of public health messages and disease prevention techniques in developing countries. The Internet also can be utilized to improve disease prevention by enabling more effective monitoring and response mechanisms.
A number of countries have invested in ICT to improve the administrative efficiency of their public health systems and ICT can also be applied to improving the efficiency of medical facility administration through, for example, the streamlining of medical procurement or the creation of patient record databases.
9.6Education
Across a range of educational applications, ICT is being harnessed to improve the efficiency, accessibility and quality of the learning process in developing countries.
One of the most clearly demonstrated applications is distance education. Distance education has been a particularly successful model in developing countries where affordability and geography have been real barriers to access. Distance learning has mainly been applied to tertiary education where the motivation and commitment of students is high. In the case of primary and secondary education, ICT has been found to significantly enhance the learning process by enabling increased access to knowledge and more collaborative and interactive learning techniques, but is not an effective substitute for close personal supervision from teachers or parents.