In his report, “Global Governance of Information and Communication Technologies” (2004),
Sean O Siochru examines the relationship between governance and civil society. He examines
how global governance structures constrain technology-based networking by global civil society,
and he identifies concrete changes to reduce such constraints and to promote more effective
global civil society. His report offers a sweeping overview of issues, institutions, and on-going
trends.
This response paper provides a more detailed examination of one governance institution: the
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). WSIS is a two-part United Nations world
summit held in 2003 (in Geneva) and 2005 (in Tunis). The 2003 Geneva meeting brought
thousands of people to Geneva to articulate a collective vision about the benefits and potentials of
information in society and the policies needed to realize them. Preceding the actual summit were
two years of preparatory activity held around the world. The final products, a Declaration of
Principles and a Plan of Action, cover hundreds of topics, as far-ranging as infrastructure
deployment, cultural diversity, and intellectual property.