Note: This Web page is in significant need of being updated in order to reflect the activities if Information Habitat sine June 1995. Details on some of the projects mentioned below, and of more recent activities of Information Habitat can be found on the Information Habitat Home Page and on the Habitat II web site that was manged buy Information Habitat.
United Nations Liaison Office The principal focus of Information Habitat at the United Nations is to support the application of information and communication technology to enable broad-based participation in decision-making and action, and access to information, in international proceedings. The work has mostly concentrated on the "Rio Cluster" of United Nations proceedings and on the review of the role of non-governmental organizations at the United Nations. Information Habitat -- as the successor to the International Synergy Institute United Nations Liaison Office -- is a non-governmental organization in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
Institute on Information and Communication for Sustainability A preliminary concept paper is being developed for an Institute on Information and Communication for Sustainability that would support an integrated approach to ways in which the emerging information and communication technology can have an impact on a transition to sustainability. An option being explored is of proposing that such an institute should function as a virtual entity under the auspices of the United Nations University, building on the proposal by the International Telecommunication Union for a Global Telecommunication University.
An Agenda for Information Based on the premise that we are in the midst of an information revolution that is likely to have effects on a scale comparable to those of the industrial revolution, a draft paper has been initiated for an Agenda for Information that would parallel the Agenda for Peace and the Agenda for Development proposed by United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali
Information, Communication and Sustainability workshop, Halifax, Nova Scotia This workshop, organized in conjunction with TOES/US (The Other Economic Summit/US) -- will be held at the People's Summit which will be at the same time as the Group of Seven meeting in June 1995 -- has as its full title "Information, communication and sustainability: economic, political, social, cultural, legal and ecological implications, opportunities and choices of emerging information technologies". A Listserv and Web site are being planned in conjunction with the workshop. Among other things, the workshop will consider the Global Information Infrastructure plans presented at the G-7 Ministerial meeting in Brussels in February 1995.
Synergistic Processes Launched in the final phase of preparations for the June 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the Synergistic Processes project had the goal of "the application of information technology in support of effective communication, access to information, and broad-based participation in environment and development decision-making".
Participant Interactive Messaging Systems A key element of the Synergistic Processes project was the development and implementation of the Da Zi Bao participant interactive messaging system -- pioneered at the Roots of the Future non-governmental organization conference in Paris and continued through the rest of the preparations for Rio. Under the name Your Voice, a variation of Da Zi Bao was implemented successfully at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago in August 1993. Da Zi Bao was developed in response to a proposal presented by Tony Judge of the Union of International Associations to the International Facilitating Committee.
Alternative Treaties The Synergistic Processes project played an active role in the NGO Alternative Treaty process at Rio, particularly the Communications, Information, Media and Networking Treaty and was the first to publish the treaties in print -- distributing a "pre-publication" edition at the September 1992 U.S. Citizens Network conference, and a final version, with Ideas for Tomorrow Today, in January 1993. The edited text of the treaties prepared by the project was used in subsequent editions of the alternative treaties published by Commonweal and by the International NGO Forum.
Electronic Communications The development and promotion of the use of on-line communications, principally among non-governmental organizations, had played a major role in the activities that led to the establishment of the Synergistic Processes project, and have continued to play a major role in the project's development.
Disk-based dissemination The use of on-line communications was supplemented by disk-based dissemination, beginning in March 1992, of United Nations documents in recognition that this provided a much more accessible and cost-effective option for many non-governmental organizations, especially those from developing countries. In addition to dissemination of the official documents from Rio, the project also distributed disk-based versions of the alternative treaties and of a database, developed by the project, of NGOs accredited to the Earth Summit.
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Updated: 30 August, 1996