WSIS

I realised that in my previous post I forgot to mention WSIS, the World Summit on the Information Society. This conference is being held in Tunis, and is supposed to be a forum to help technology and development institutions to use technology as a driver for economic growth in third world countries, at a grassroots level that sees even the poorest income segments of LDAs benefit directly. Of course, the Global Information and Communications Technology department, the group I work for at the Bank, is going to have an important presence and is making several presentations. Unfortunately, as this BBC article describes, the event is being overshadowed by a row between developed countries over control and policing of the Internet. For this reason, the World Bank has sent representatives on a mission more akin to observation rather than policy discussion and resolution - who would they side with? This is a shame for 2 reasons: i) this conference could have had the potential to spearhead significant development initiatives in technology, and ii) it is my opinion that attempting to control the internet is a futile exercise in any case. Anyway, what would Europe do differently to the US? Not much, considering that the EU has said nothing of its intended policy shift should it gain control. So developed countries selfishly battle over a non-issue while poor people await the benefits of the technology revolution in vain. When will we learn?

By the way, my department's website at the Bank is here. There is a link describing World Bank activities at the conference. And if you want to see something almost as cool as me getting my first business card, check this out. You might have to scroll down a bit, and my picture is a bit distorted, but I think you can recognise me :)