OFFICIALS REPORT PROGRESS IN PLANNING FOR WORLD SUMMIT ON INFORMATION SOCIETY

Officials from the U.S. and other countries today said they were making progress in planning for the World Summit on the Information Society, which is scheduled to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, in December and in Tunis, Tunisia in 2005.

The purpose of the summit is to identify ways to use information and communications technologies, such Internet access, to improve life in the developing world. Those being invited include world leaders, industry, international intergovernmental organizations, and civil leaders. The United Nations is sponsoring the summit, which is being managed by the International Telecommunication Union.

At a Washington news conference today, organizers of the event acknowledged that the process has been difficult, but they expressed optimism that a planned declaration of principles and action plan would be ready by the time the summit begins in 4-1/2 months. The event is scheduled to be held Dec. 10-12 in Geneva and Nov. 16-18, 2005, in Tunis.

David A. Gross, the U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy at the State Department, said he was pleased with the progress made by attendees last week during a special four- day planning meeting held in Paris. The meeting was held after participants were disappointed by the lack of progress at two earlier planned preparatory sessions, he said. The last scheduled preparatory session is scheduled to be held in Geneva in September.

"I was not widely optimistic that we were going to make substantial progress, but I was very pleased by the progress that we did make. . . There was a lot of effort by many of the other administrations to find common ground, to raise the level of discourse in terms of trying to find the language that would work for all," he said. "I come out of this knowing there's a lot of work to be done but feeling more positive, particularly with the relatively short amount of time remaining before the summit."

He noted that participants at last week's meeting whittled down the draft declaration of principles from about 40 pages to 12 and plan to further reduce it to about five or six pages. He said plans called for officials to finalize the principles at the September meeting. A "more user-friendly" draft of the action plan is scheduled for release next month; delegates plan to tackle it at the September meeting. He said the U.S. would like three things to be reflected in the declaration of principles: the importance of (1) developing information and communications infrastructure, (2) developing content, and (3) ensuring network security.

Mr. Gross and other U.S. officials have expressed concern that some attendees at the summit would push for heavy regulation of the Internet. "There are a number of things that we are concerned about that are still floating around," he said. But he said he was pleased that ITU Secretary General Yoshio Utsumi's call for international treaties on cyber issues was not reflected in the draft documents prepared for the summit.

On other issues, he said U.S. officials wanted to ensure that intellectual property right issues - specifically open-source and propriety software - were "offered in a balanced way." He also reiterated that the U.S. would resist any efforts to include language that governments should play a direct role in controlling management of the Internet. For example, he noted that U.S. officials favored private-sector management, with "government input," of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Mr. Gross also said U.S. officials "would like to see a clear, stronger statement about the importance of good governance," as well as "a clearer reaffirmation of freedom of communication." That is "a controversial concept for many administrations," he noted. But he also stressed that the U.S. would oppose any of the summit's work being mandated on countries. "The declaration and the plan of action will not, ought not to, be a set of legal requirements on anyone," he said. "Rather, what we have focused on is trying to identify those areas that give the greatest benefit for which there is general international consensus."

Other speakers at today's news conference stressed the need for such consensus. "There is some great distrust among world stakeholders," said Adama Samassekou, a former Mali education minister who is heading the summit preparatory process. But he said participants had an "historic opportunity" to develop partnerships. He acknowledged that it wouldn't be easy. "We will have in this summit very important issues which are controversial."

Marc Furrer, secretary of state for Switzerland's Federal Office of Communications, said among the more controversial issues were (1) concerns about governments being able to access personal information about consumers, (2) the role of open markets vs. state monopolies, and (3) free trade. He said he was hopeful that the Geneva session, which is expected to attract 6,000-8,000 people, could at least begin to tackle all of the issues, even though some might not be resolved until the 2005 meeting. Others said the purpose of the 2005 session was to follow up on implementation of initiatives launched as a result of this year's conference. - Paul Kirby, [email protected]