WSIS Glossary
Aarhus Convention
The UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, usually known as the Aarhus Convention, was signed on June 25, 1998 in the Danish city of Aarhus. It entered into force on 30 October 2001. As of November 2005, it has been signed by 40 (primarily European) countries and ratified by 37. It has also been ratified by the European Union, which has begun applying Aarhus-type principles in its legislation. The Aarhus Convention grants the public rights regarding access to information and public participation and access to justice. It focuses on interactions between the public and public authorities. A special task force work on development of recommendations how to harness the power of the electronic tools in the implementation of the Aarhus convention.
ACSIS
African Civil Society for the Information Society intends to act as an umbrella structure through which African Civil Society can influence policy and ensure that strategies and programmes enable the promotion of development: Poverty alleviation, use of appropriate ICT for balanced development, participation of communities/civil society in policy and strategy development and implementation of initiatives.
Digital Divide
The gap that exists between those who have and those who do not have access to technology telephones, computers, internet access and related services. More broadly the digital divide refers to a collection of complex factors that affect whether an individual, social group, country or region has access to the technologies associated with the information economy as well as the educational skills to achieve optimal application of those technologies.
Digital Solidarity Fund
The DSF is an African initiative launched by the President of Senegal, H.E. Abdoulaye Wade during the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (Geneva 2003) and validated during the second phase (Tunis 2005). The fund aims to reduce the global digital divide, to put ICTs at the service of development and to build a solidarity-based and inclusive information society. The DSF is open to voluntary funding and does not rely on governmental help to function. It is governed by a tripartite Foundation Board composed of 24 members, representing, in equal parts, public authorities, the private sector and civil society of the various regions of the world.
E-governance
The public sector’s use of information and communication technologies with the aim of improving information and service delivery, encouraging citizen participation in the decision-making process and making government more accountable, transparent and effective.
E-learning
E-learning has been defined as the use of new multimedia technologies and the Internet to improve the quality of learning, to make it accessible to people out of reach of good educational facilities, and to make new and innovative forms of education available to all. One of the applications of ICT according to the WSIS action lines.
ICT4D
Information and Communication Technology for Development. The sustainable use of ICT to enable poor and marginalized communities to use the potential of ICT to transform their lives.
ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is responsible for managing and coordinating the Domain Name System (DNS) to ensure that every address is unique and that all users of the Internet can find all valid addresses. It does this by overseeing the distribution of unique IP addresses and domain names. It also ensures that each domain name maps to the correct IP address. ICANN is also responsible for accrediting the domain name registrars.
ICTD
The Information and Communications Technology Division of ESCWA, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. ICTD aspires to play a major role with ESCWA member countries in their transformation toward knowledge-based society and global competitiveness in the market, while striving to increase employment, reduce poverty and enhance quality of life through state-of-the-art ICTs and their applications.
IGF (Internet Governance Forum)
A global venue under the auspices of the United Nations, established to accommodate multi–stakeholder policy dialogue in the field of internet governance. It purports to bring together all stakeholders in the internet governance debate, whether they represent states, the private sector or civil society, on an equal basis and through an open and inclusive process.
Information society
A society in which the creation, distribution and manipulation of information is a significant economic and cultural activity. The knowledge economy is its economic counterpart whereby wealth is created through the economic exploitation of understanding. Specific to this kind of society is the central position information technology has for production and economy. Information society is seen as the successor to industrial society.
Intellectual property rights
One of WSIS key policy issues. Intellectual property is a legal definition of ownership over an intellectual creation. The intellectual creations that make up intellectual property are the copyright over the works of an author, the patenting of technical designs, the trademarking of designs or names, and the protection of databases of information. Intellectual property is the core of the new information society. It provides legal protection to the information traded or used in the media or on computer systems. But the effect of intellectual property law in recent years has been to close off knowledge, so providing a monopoly control to demand money for essential information. As a result there has been a backlash against the recent expansion of intellectual property rights. Most prominently by the open content movement.
Internet governance
One of WSIS key policy issues. There is still no universally accepted definition of this term, even after lengthy debate within the United Nations Working Group on Internet Governance. The current working definition is as follows: “Internet governance is the development and application by Governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet.”
ITU
The International Telecommunication Union. An international organization established to standardize and regulate international radio and telecommunications. Its main tasks include standardization, allocation of the radio spectrum, and organizing interconnection arrangements between different countries to allow international phone calls. It is one of the specialized agencies of the United Nations, and has its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, next to the main United Nations campus. The main organizer of WSIS.
Knowledge economy
Is a phrase that refers to the use of knowledge to produce economic benefits. Various observers describe today's global economy as one in transition to a "knowledge economy", or an "information society". But the rules and practices that determined success in the industrial economy of the 20th century need rewriting in an interconnected world where resources such as know-how are more critical than other economic resources.
MDGs
The Millennium Development Goals enshrined in the Millennium Declaration adopted by a gathering of world leaders in New York in September 2000. Most of the Development Goals are targeted for achievement by 2015. The MDGs are the following: 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger 2. Achieve universal primary education 3. Promote gender equality and empower women 4. Reduce child mortality 5. Improve maternal health 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases 7. Ensure environmental sustainability 8. Develop a global partnership for development: Including making available, in cooperation with the private sector, the benefits of new technologies – especially information and communications technologies – to all.
ODA
Official Development Assistance. Flows of official financing administered with the promotion of the economic development and welfare of developing countries as the main objective. By convention, ODA flows comprise contributions of donor government agencies, at all levels, to developing countries (“bilateral ODA”) and to multilateral institutions.
PrepCom
PrepCom is the Preparatory Committee meeting that is held periodically to help prepare the WSIS and to negotiate the documents that are presented for endorsement at the global event.
TRIPS
The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights is a treaty administered by the World Trade Organization (WTO) which sets down minimum standards for many forms of intellectual property (IP) regulation. Specifically, TRIPS contains requirements that nations' laws must meet for: copyright rights, including the rights of performers, producers of sound recordings and broadcasting organizations; geographical indications, including appellations of origin; industrial designs; integrated circuit layout-designs; patents; monopolies for the developers of new plant varieties; trademarks; trade dress; and undisclosed or confidential information. TRIPs also specifies enforcement procedures, remedies, and dispute resolution procedures.
Tunis Agenda for the Information Society
A consensus statement of the World Summit on the Information Society, adopted on November 18, 2005 in Tunis, Tunisia. It called for the creation of the Internet Governance Forum and a novel, lightweight, multi-stakeholder governance structure for the Internet.
