• The Steering Committee includes NGOs' representatives.
• The Advisory Committee may include representative of any WSIS participants : UN, IGOs, Governments, Business Entities and NGOs as well as scientists that do no belong to organizations accredited at the WSIS.

The task of the Steering Committee is to prepare contributions to the draft Declaration of Principles and Action Plan, to organize round tables, meetings, actions in relationship to WSIS SI issues. The Advisory Committee provides help and advise to the Steering Committee, and may include representatives of governments, foundations and companies, that are willing to participate and provide assistance to events organized by the WG, as well as scientists. After some discussions, it has been found that our initial requirement that scientists must belong to accredited organizations was very detrimental to an open consultative process for several reasons :

• It is time-consuming and cumbersome for most scientists to ask their institutions to be accredited.
• It is the institution that is represented, it the opinion of the accredited organization which is stated. Unless, there is a good working relationship between the concerned scientist and the head of the institution, the position of the institution and the concerned scientist may differ. This is alleviated by the fact, that WG reunions are pretty informal at PrepCom meetings and no records are made concerning the specific author of a recommendation that is adopted by the WG.
• Some institutions, lacking personnel with international diplomatic background, are reluctant to join the WSIS process.