A World Summit on the Information Society held in Geneva last week adopted a declaration and action plan aimed at a people-oriented information society where everyone can create, access and share information and knowledge. It had many of the right principles and action proposals. But due to basic disagreements, decisions were postponed on two key issues (global Internet governance and creating a Digital Solidarity Fund) whilst another key issue (intellectual property) was hardly addressed.
THE “information society” was the subject of a United Nations world conference last week in Geneva. Fittingly so, as the use of computers, e-mail and the Internet is so rapidly changing the way society works. And how we, as individuals, organise our lives.