[Ecommerce] Reading WSIS Declaration of Principles and Action Plan

[Manon Ress]

My selection form Declaration of principles (as of Dec 9, 2003) Only 9
pages now!  And MUCH much better (last sentence of 42 is not clear to me)!

http://www.itu.int/wsis/documents/doc_multi.asp?lang=en&id=1154|1155

27.        Access to information and knowledge can be promoted by
increasing awareness among all stakeholders of the possibilities offered
by different software models, including proprietary, open-source and
free software, in order to increase competition, access by users,
diversity of choice, and to enable all users to develop solutions which
best meet their requirements. Affordable access to software should be
considered as an important component of a truly inclusive Information
Society.

28     We strive to promote universal access with equal opportunities
for all to scientific knowledge and the creation and dissemination of
scientific and technical information, including open access initiatives
for scientific publishing.

42.         Intellectual Property protection is important to encourage
innovation and creativity in the information society; similarly, the
wide dissemination, diffusion, and sharing of knowledge is important to
encourage innovation and creativity. Facilitating meaningful
participation by all in intellectual property issues and knowledge
sharing through full awareness and capacity building is a fundamental
part of an inclusive Information Society.

In the Draft Action plan 13 pages now):

d) Governments, and other stakeholders, should establish sustainable
multi-purpose community public access points, providing affordable or
free-of-charge access for their citizens to the various communication
resources, notably the Internet. These access points should, to the
extent possible, have sufficient capacity to provide assistance to
users, in libraries, educational institutions, public administrations,
post offices or other public places, with special emphasis on rural and
underserved areas, while respecting intellectual property rights (IPRs)
and encouraging the use of information and sharing of knowledge.

e) Encourage research and promote awareness among all stakeholders of
the possibilities offered by different software models, and the means of
their creation, including proprietary, open-source and free software, in
order to increase competition, freedom of choice and affordability, and
to enable all stakeholders to evaluate which solution best meets their
requirements.

i) Encourage initiatives to facilitate access, including free and
affordable access to open access journals and books, and open archives
for scientific information.

j) Support research and development of the design of useful instruments
for all stakeholders to foster increased awareness, assessment, and
evaluation of different software models and licences, so as to ensure an
optimal choice of appropriate software that will best contribute to
achieving development goals within local conditions.
[...]
o) Governments, through public/private partnerships, should promote
technologies and R&D programmes in such areas as translation,
iconographies, voice-assisted services and the development of necessary
hardware and a variety of software models, including proprietary, open
source software and free software, such as standard character sets,
language codes, electronic dictionaries, terminology and thesauri,
multilingual search engines, machine translation tools,
internationalised domain names, content referencing as well as general
and application software.

--
Manon Anne Ress
Consumer Project on Technology
www.cptech.org
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
manon.ress@cptech.org, voice: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176

--
Manon Anne Ress
Consumer Project on Technology
www.cptech.org
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
manon.ress@cptech.org, voice: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176