UN backs Info Society Summit. (World).The United Nations adopted a resolution to launch the World Summit on the Information Society The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was a pair of United Nations-sponsored conferences about information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis. , a global gathering designated to promote access for all countries to information, knowledge and communications technologies. The Summit will be held in two phases, the first in Geneva Geneva, canton and city, Switzerland Geneva (jənē`və), Fr. Genève, canton (1990 pop. 373,019), 109 sq mi (282 sq km), SW Switzerland, surrounding the southwest tip of the Lake of Geneva. , Switzerland in 2003, and the second in Tunisia in 2005, and will encompass themes such as building a communications infrastructure, opening universal and equitable access to the information society, services and applications, user needs, and information and communication technologies education and development. Touted as a major step towards bridging the "digital divide," the resolution urges governments to actively participate in Summit preparations and to represent themselves at the highest possible level. The Summit is being convened under the high patronage of U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan, and its preparations will fall under the leadership of the International Telecommunication Union International Telecommunication Union (ITU), specialized agency of the United Nations, with headquarters at Geneva. It was created in 1934 as a result of the merging of the International Telegraph Union (est. (ITU (International Telecommunication Union, Geneva, Switzerland, www.itu.ch) A telecommunications standards body that is under the auspices of the United Nations. Comprising more than 185 member countries, the ITU sets standards for global telecom networks. ). An initiative of the 1998 Plenipotentiary PLENIPOTENTIARY. Possessing full powers; as, a minister plenipotentiary, is one authorized fully to settle the matters connected with his mission, subject however to the ratification of the government by which he is authorized. Vide Minister. Conference of the ITU, the Summit is endorsed by the General Assembly, which also invited the international community to make voluntary contributions to a special trust fund established by the ITU to support the Summit. |
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