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http://www.igc.apc.org/habitat/agenda
Towards an Agenda for Information
Note: this is a very preliminary draft - written in early 1995 -- in parts just in outline format -- to initiate a process of dialogue concerning the need for an Agenda for Information
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Outline - Table of Contents
1 An Agenda for Information
1.1 The Information Revolution
1.1.1 Implications, opportunities and choices
1.1.1.1 Who will be affected
1.1.1.2 Who will make the decisions
1.1.2 Need for comprehensive dialogue
1.2 Timeliness
1.2.1 United Nations
1.2.1.1 Post-Cold War
1.2.1.2 Earth Summit and Beyond
1.2.2 Coming of age of information technology
1.3 General Assembly Forum
1.3.1 International Telecommunication Union
1.3.1.1 Global Telecommunication University
1.3.2 G-7 Global Information Infrastructure Agenda
1.4 Universal Access
1.4.1 Opportunities for democracy
1.4.2 Addressing existing inequities
1.5 Swords into Ploughshares
1.6 Implications of transition to an information age
1.6.1 Concentration of power and privilege?
1.6.2 Equality and democratization?
1.6.3 Participation in global economy
1.6.4 Access to technology and information
1.7 Who will be making the decisions
1.8 The opportunities and choices
1.9 The need for comprehensive dialogue
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2 Information and Communication Infrastructure & Development
2.1 Infrastructure development
2.1.1 Satellite technology
2.2 Investment in infrastructure development
2.2.1 Relation to technology cooperation / technology transfer
2.2.2 Enabling factor in economic and social development
2.2.3 Critical path considerations in infrastructure development
2.3 Investment in education and capacity-building for information technology
2.4 Ownership, pricing policy & regulation
2.5 Need for deliberate dialogue on the impact of information and communication technology
2.6 Marginal cost theory / [market economy]
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3 Information and communication technology
3.1 Ownership, control and beneficiaries of information and communication technology
4 Historical overview
4.1 Technology -- evolving from dinosaur to power-pc
4.1.1 Putting nations large and small on equal footing
4.2 Many initiatives, evolving integration of policy
4.3 Bringing into consciousness what has been happening, with self-reflection and clarification resulting from that
4.4 What are the implications for G-77
4.5 The information revolution
4.6 History & growth projections
4.7 Relation to economic & social development
4.8 Organizing highly complex information
4.9 Economics of information and communication
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5 United Nations Documentation & Proceedings
5.1 The emergence of a framework for international law
5.2 Access to previously agreed language
5.3 Timely access to documents
5.4 Present status of electronic access to United Nations documents
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6 Developing an Agenda for Information
6.1 Process of dialogue
6.2 Should be prepared, developed and disseminated as a hypertext document
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7 Participation
7.1 United Nations System
7.1.1 Secretariat
7.1.2 Agencies
7.1.3 Bretton Woods Institutions
7.1.4 Member States
7.2 Major Groups
7.2.1 Non-governmental organizations
7.2.2 Academic & research institutions
7.2.3 Business & Industry
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8 Funding
8.1 Private foundations
8.2 Corporations
8.2.1 Telecommunications
8.2.1.1 Telephone
8.2.1.2 Satellite
8.2.1.3 Cable
8.2.1.4 Broadcasting
8.2.2 Information & information technology
8.2.2.1 Computer hardware
8.2.2.2 Software
8.2.2.3 Publishing
8.3 Governments
8.5 Role of in-kind contribution
Towards An Agenda for Information
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1 An Agenda for Information
The transition to an information age, comparable in significance to the industrial revolution, deserves to be the subject of comprehensive international deliberation. There should be an Agenda for Information -- to complement the Agenda for Peace and the Agenda for Development. The agenda should address four principal dimensions: political, economic, social and cultural, and ecological.
1.1 The Information Revolution
The impact of the information revolution and of the integration of information and communication technologies is being felt in every area -- in commercial transactions and services, in manufacturing processes, in communications, and in the breakthroughs offered in the ability to organize, integrate and create access to information from the complex and inter-related documents that reflect the present workings of the international community.
1.1.1 Implications, opportunities and choices
The implications of the new information technologies are not pre-determined; they will reflect assessments of the opportunities offered by the technologies and choices made on the basis of those assessments and of priorities and values.
1.1.1.1 Who will be affected
The impact of information and communication technologies is -- and will be -- felt in every community and nation, large and small, as well as at a global level.
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1.1.1.2 Who will make the decisions
Most of the current decisions that will influence the impact of the information revolution are being taken in the board rooms of large corporations and in recent national planning processes for national information infrastructure in industrialized countries. The impact of decisions and policy will be felt globally, however, to what extent will the concerns and perspectives of developing countries and countries in transition shape the decisions?
1.1.2 Need for comprehensive dialogue
While there are plenty of ideas as to potential outcomes of the information revolution, there is a critical need for comprehensive dialogue that considers its implications in all major areas -- from perspectives not only of its manufacturers, marketers and advocates but also from those areas that may be adversely affected, or that may need to undergo major transitions to come to terms with the technology.
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The post-Cold War and post-Rio debate concerning inter-dependent global governance together with the coming of age of information technology provides an ideal opportunity for this Agenda for Information.
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In his report to the General Assembly on the State of the Organization -- A/49/1 -- the Secretary-General spoke of the need and opportunity for a comprehensive, multi-dimensional strategy for the United Nations to address the complex inter-related challenges of peace, development, environmental protection, democracy and human rights on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.
Freed from the Cold War stalemate between opposing super-powers, the United Nations is now able to support a new level of multilateral dialogue on social and economic development, while testing its ability to engage in an unprecedented range of peace-keeping activities.
1.2.1.2 Earth Summit and Beyond
The Earth Summit represented a watershed in the adoption of a multi-dimensional approach incorporating a broad range of factors having to do with environment, development and the sustainability of life on earth. In is respect, it is not an accident that the Earth Summit was the first major United Nations conference in which electronic dissemination of documents played an important role.
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1.2.2 Coming of age of information technology
Information technology has been undergoing a profound evolution, and the dramatic increase in power of microcomputers combined and in their connectivity represents a significant coming of age of the technology.
The increases in power, affordability and portability of microcomputers continue without any immediate prospect of slowing down. Combined with advances in software -- including multi-media applications -- the microcomputer is becoming a powerful information system with the capacity of a small library.
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The last twelve months have witnessed an unprecedented increase in activity on the global Internet, principally due to the development of the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web offers a capacity to set up links among the exponentially increasing volume of information that is available on-line along with an unprecedented power to retrieve, compile and organize complex information.
1.3 General Assembly Forum
The scale of the information revolution and its implications requires that the proposed Agenda for Information needs to be considered by the most representative and highest international political forum -- the United Nations General Assembly. However, unless the General Assembly can act soon and decisively, it is likely to find that it has been preempted as a decision-making forum by a much less central and representative body.
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1.3.1 International Telecommunication Union
The March 1994 World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) organized by the ITU, gave rise to the Buenos Aires Declaration for Global Communication Development for the 21st Century. The Declaration begins by acknowledging the fundamental importance of the issue "Telecommunications is an essential component of political, economic, social and cultural development. It fuels the global information society and economy which is rapidly transforming local, national and international life ...". The WTDC also formulated an Action Plan for the Global Development of Telecommunications; however, the emphasis of the plan was mostly on technical issues with little attention to the broader implications of information technology.
1.3.1.1 Global Telecommunication University
The ITU has just put out a call for proposals and comments on a Global Telecommunications University (GTU) to be part of the United Nations University. However, as the proposal stands, the GTU would be limited to technical and engineering aspects of telecommunications, and would fall far short of the inter-disciplinary focus that needs to be brought to bear on the issue.
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1.3.2 G-7 Global Information Infrastructure Agenda
Following up on the Buenos Aires Conference, the G-7 is moving ahead with discussion of its strategy for a global information infrastructure. This was the central focus of discussion at the G-7 Ministerial Conference in Brussels, 25-26 February 1995, where a U.S. proposal titled Global Information Infrastructure: Agenda for Cooperation was presented.
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A key element in the equitable realization of the benefits that can be derived from the use of information and communication technology is the provision of universal access -- from and within all nations.
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1.4.1 Opportunities for democracy
By enabling comprehensive access to information and documents, the new technologies offer opportunities for greatly democratizing political institutions, within States and at the United Nations. Once access is established, the technology serves as an equalizing force, and can, for example, significantly strengthen the effective participation at the United Nations of governments that can only maintain small delegations.
1.4.2 Addressing existing inequities
The democratization aspect of information and communication technology can, however, be realized only if decisive steps are taken to address substantial existing inequities in access to the technology, particularly in Africa.
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1.5 Swords into Ploughshares
We are witnessing an explosion of computer applications for peaceful goals -- for economic development, education, monitoring environmental conditions and in publishing, to name just a few. However, the earliest applications of computer technology were in the calculation of ballistic trajectories in conjunction with weapons used in World War II; much of the research and development work in computers has been for the development of weaponry; the original impetus for the Internet was the U.S. Defense Department's interest in a communications network that would minimize vulnerability in the event of nuclear attack. Leadership by the United Nations could play a pivotal role in fulfilling the role that information technology can play in turning swords into ploughshares.
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1.6 Implications of transition to an information age
1.6.1 Concentration of power and privilege?
1.6.2 Equality and democratization?
1.6.3 Participation in global economy
1.6.4 Access to technology and information
1.7 Who will be making the decisions
1.8 The opportunities and choices
1.9 The need for comprehensive dialogue
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2 Information and Communication Infrastructure & Development
Information and communication infrastructure will play an increasingly critical role as a precondition of the establishment of the capacity of any economy to be an effective participant in the global economy of today and tomorrow.
2.1 Infrastructure development
2.1.1 Satellite technology
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2.2 Investment in infrastructure development
2.2.1 Relation to technology cooperation / technology transfer
2.2.2 Enabling factor in economic and social development
2.2.3 Critical path considerations in infrastructure development
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2.3 Investment in education and capacity-building for information technology
2.4 Ownership, pricing policy & regulation
2.5 Need for deliberate dialogue on the impact of information and communication technology
2.6 Marginal cost theory / [market economy]
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3 Information and communication technology
The rate of technological development in the area of electronic information and communication technology has continued to accelerate since the first electronic computer was assembled just over fifty years ago. During this time, the computer has become an increasingly present element in all economic spheres, and is increasingly being utilized in the social and political realms.
3.1 Ownership, control and beneficiaries of information and communication technology
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4 Historical overview
4.1 Technology -- evolving from dinosaur to power-pc
4.1.1 Putting nations large and small on equal footing
4.2 Many initiatives, evolving integration of policy
4.3 Bringing into consciousness what has been happening, with self-reflection and clarification resulting from that
4.4 What are the implications for G-77
4.5 The information revolution
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4.6 History & growth projections
From the first electronic computer in the early 1940's and the early mainframe computers that had to be housed in large, dedicated climate-controlled rooms to the latest generation of massively parallel super-computers and the recently announced 1 gigabit (1 billion bits) chip, there has been a consistent trend towards increase in computing power and storage capacity, and towards decrease in prices, size and use of natural resources, and there are no indications that this trend is changing.
4.7 Relation to economic & social development
4.8 Organizing highly complex information
A central characteristic of information and communication technology is the ability to compile, organize, integrate and provide access to very large amounts of complex information. Whether in relation to the broad range of complex, inter-related issues that are central to most of the deliberations within the United Nations, of national or provincial legislative bodies, and increasingly of business enterprises, the intelligent use of information and communication technology can play an invaluable role in support of sound, informed decision- making and actions. The recent development of "hypertext" language -- the central element of the World Wide Web -- is a particularly powerful tool to develop and explore the links between different documents.
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4.9 Economics of information and communication
The transition towards an economy with an emphasis on the compilation, organization and dissemination of information embodies a major shift in the underlying parameters of economic activity. The current trade dispute between the U.S, and China highlights the implications of information technology for an economic model in which pricing is based on the marginal cost of production.
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5 United Nations Documentation & Proceedings
The extensive body of documents from United Nations proceedings is virtually unmanageable without the use of information and communication tools available on microcomputers. The quantity of documents from a single proceeding makes it impractical to reproduce the full set of documents in its entirety for colleagues who are not able to participate directly and creates a major demand for ingenuity of filing procedures; when one attempts to organize documents from a set of related proceedings, e.g. from what can be called the "Rio cluster" of conferences, conventions and commissions more or less related to the Earth Summit, the tasks becomes a Herculean one if documents are only available in printed form.
5.1 The emergence of a framework for international law
As the United Nations enters its second half-century, it brings with it a substantial legacy of international declarations, principles, agreements, conventions and covenants. This legacy provides an important basis for the establishment of a framework of international law. To date, however, there is very limited awareness of these agreements beyond the boundaries of the United Nations itself, nor does there tend to be much analysis of the relationship between the language and concepts of the different agreements; systematic use of information and communication technology could have a significant effect on these shortcomings.
5.2 Access to previously agreed language
At conferences and proceedings where a declaration or programme of action is being developed, or where a Convention is being negotiated, there is often reference to the need to make use of language from previous international agreements, however, lack of ready access to the full body of United Nations documents means that previously agreed language and concepts are often overlooked, and that there are no systematic means at hand to search through existing agreements.
5.3 Timely access to documents
5.4 Present status of electronic access to United Nations documents
While there are some very encouraging initiatives within the United Nations concerning the electronic dissemination of documents (see attached Annex for some examples) there is little evidence of any overall commitment to a comprehensive and systematic approach to the issue. The formulation of a bold Agenda for Information for the United Nations could be the spark that is required to shift the United Nations's information strategy into the 21st century -- especially if such an agenda is designed to build on the experience of those who have played a leadership role in the initiatives to date.
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6 Developing an Agenda for Information
6.2 Should be prepared, developed and disseminated as a hypertext document
In order to maximize the ability to portray the range of activities and initiatives relevant to the development and implementation of an Agenda for Information ...
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7 Participation
7.1 United Nations System
7.1.3 Bretton Woods Institutions
The necessity of recognizing the interrelationships between different issues and processes that was highlighted by the Rio process also led to a recognition of the critical importance of the contribution of "major groups" in addressing issues of environment, development and sustainability. The value of the active participation of major groups in the use and application of information and communication technology in addressing global issues is especially evident now that the World Wide Web is becoming the critical element of the global information infrastructure. For the Web allows a seamless integration of information from a very broad range of separate sources and makes practical a degree of cooperation and collaboration that had previously remained just an ideal.
7.2.1 Non-governmental organizations
7.2.2 Academic & research institutions
7.2.3 Business & Industry
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8 Funding
In creating mechanisms to support the development of information and communication capacity and infrastructure in developing countries and countries in transition, as well as within the United Nations system, it will be important to go beyond the traditional funding models that have in large part failed to mitigate trends towards greater disparity in wealth between rich and poor nations. The United Nations has developed relationship with private foundations and donor to fund important projects; this type of partnership could be explored and developed in creative ways to fund an Agenda for Information for the 21st Century.
The corporations involved in the areas of information and communication technology are rapidly becoming more powerful, especially in light of the increasing convergence and integration of the various technologies. The magnitude and wealth of these corporations -- the Chairman of the company that produces the most widely used microcomputer operating system is one of the wealthiest individuals on the planet, with a net worth that has been estimated at $8 billion -- means that they could make a major contribution towards funding the implementation of a Agenda for Information initiative. It would, of course, be essential to ensure that safeguards are in place against such an agenda being dominated by commercial interests. Among the principal realms in the corporate community that could be a source of financial support for the development and implementation of an Agenda for Information are the following:
8.2.2 Information & information technology
8.2.2.1 Computer hardware
A large consortium of universities assumed responsibility for underwriting the costs of the Internet once the U.S. Defense Department released its predecessor, Arpanet, from the military establishment. The Internet holds the prospect of becoming an even more invaluable resource for researchers and scientists -- enabling increased cooperation and collaboration between researchers at widely separate locations, and increasingly across different disciplines -- providing a clear justification for tangible support for an Agenda for Information initiative from universities.
8.5 Role of in-kind contribution
The nature and structure of the Internet and the World Wide Web is such that it can easily facilitate significant in-kind contributions to an Agenda for Information. The culture of cooperation that has evolved among many of the leading participants in the development of Internet has supported what has been described as a virtual community -- or set of linked virtual communities. There is an enormous wealth of expertise and information within these virtual communities -- a wealth that is backed up with a very substantial reservoir of good will and commitment in support of creative initiatives that would strengthen the intelligent use of the Internet. To the extent that an Agenda for Information is able to mobilize support within these virtual communities, it will be able to draw on very extensive in-kind contributions that can play an invaluable role in an effective implementation of an Agenda for Information.
web pge updated: 7 February, 2002
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