The World Summit on Information Society and the Development of Internet Diplomacy

Abstract

The World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), ending in 2005, was the most recent in the series of global United Nations (UN) summits that started with the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.1 The main objective of the WSIS was to discuss the effects of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on modern society.2 The unique feature of the WSIS was its two-phase organisation, including two main summit events: one at Geneva in 2003 and the other in Tunis in 2005. The Geneva summit aimed at identifying main issues, principles and lines of action. The Tunis summit, often described as a ‘Summit of Solutions’, focused on implementing the broad framework agreed upon at the Geneva summit.3 The Tunis summit also finalised the WSIS negotiations on internet governance and financial mechanisms, two issues that had remained unresolved after the Geneva phase. The overall WSIS process lasted between May 2002 (the first African Regional WSIS Conference) and November 2005 (the Tunis summit).