On information technology
Mohamed Sid-Ahmed explores the features of a new information revolution where the divide between technologically advanced and technologically backward societies can no longer be tolerated
New developments in technology, namely, new forms of direct relationship between man and machine, ushered in a new era of Information Revolution. The most salient feature of the new era is mobiletelephony, the suppression of wire as means of communication between machines and its replacement by radio waves. Wireless technology dramatically improves the performance of the Internet as, without the need for physical contact, the various elements of electronic communication become an integrated whole. To address the possibilities and challenges of the new information age, the UN World Summit on the Information Society was held in Geneva last week.
The resurrection of the Alexandria Library was a reminder that the storage of information did not always require paper. Cavemen drew on walls, their descendants wrote on stone tablets then on papyrus before paper as we know it today was invented. then came Gutenberg and the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. The next milestone in information technology, the Information Revolution, is bringing us to a post-paper stage. It is also offering new opportunities for development, and the main objective of the Geneva Summit was precisely to discuss how best to harness the power of information technology for development. As Kofi Annan put it in his inaugural address to the Summit, the event is unique, because "where most UN conferences focus on global threats, this one will consider how best to use a new global asset. Ultimately, the effort to realise technology's great promise will transcend technology. While technology shapes the future, it is people who shape technology, and decide to what uses it can and should be put".
The uniqueness of the summit is worth investigating in depth. First, from the technical viewpoint, a totally new world is gradually emerging, with mini-computers penetrating every walk of life. In the not too distant future, we might have computer-controlled clothes designed to keep us warm in winter and cool in summer, whose styles and colours could be changed at will. We might have computer-controlled cars, accident proof, with antennas and radar-protection immunising the car against collision with any other solid object. We might have mini-robots to perform all mental chores and spare us from tedious irksome tasks. We might even not need paper as interface between thinking processes and their recording in an "artificial", "external", mind. Technically, practically everything required to bring about such transformation of our environment is now available; what is missing is a comprehensive outlook that would put all the pieces together, that is, extend the field of "smart instruments" endowed with some form or other of artificial intelligence.
The lack manifests itself most critically in the area of information and communication technologies, where there is a very real "digital divide" between rich and poor countries, with 70 per cent of the world's Internet users living in the richest 24 countries, which contain just 16 per cent of the world's population. The divide is not just in technology, with only part of the world developing an infrastructure fit for the Information Revolution underway, but also in content (nearly 70 per cent of the world's Web sites are in English). In addition, there is a gender divide, with females in many countries, rich and poor alike, enjoying less access to information technology than males. Thus while, on the one hand, information technology is becoming more and more global and all-encompassing, on the other, the digital divide stands as a formidable obstacle in the way of genuine globalisation.
For the Information Revolution to realise its full potential, the necessary infrastructure must be equally developed all over the globe, a requirement that is far from being satisfied in a world where the technology barrier is becoming more and more pronounced between a minority of developed societies in the North and a majority of non-developed societies in the rest of the world. It is counter- productive for the most developed societies themselves that non-developed societies lack telephone circuits and even mobile telephony. Generalising the new technology to the world at large requires sustained investment and commitment, and developed societies have every interest in contributing towards financing the development of electronic infrastructure in the non-developed part of the world. With this objective in mind, an Information Summit for Africa is scheduled to be held in Cairo next May. All parties concerned, from both North and South, should be interested in the success of this endeavour. It would be the first step towards a new stage in information technology, and towards generalising the new features of a "second generation", "smart", information era.
However, the Geneva Summit on the Information Society witnessed disagreements between the Western States on the one hand and countries which adopted a more critical position towards the final declaration of the summit and its Action Plan on Human Rights on the other. While Switzerland and the European Union insisted on a strict observance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including the provisions related to complete and unhindered freedom of expression, Iran defended its policy of banning Internet sites containing pornographic or amoral material, on the grounds that they violate the principles of Islam. Khatemi claimed that only 240 sites had been closed but informed sources put the figure at over ten thousand.
Fifty-five years ago, in the immediate aftermath of the horrors of World War II, article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserted that everyone has the right "to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers". Two developments have occurred since then: first, the actual technical possibility of implementing that right for global society as a whole; and, second, scourges like racial hatred and child pornography are raising valid concerns about the unrestricted use of that right.
Differences also emerged over how to manage the Internet which, as it now stands, is the de facto property of the state where it has developed the most, namely, the USA. Some states demanded that it be internationalised. The Action Plan called on the secretary general of the United Nations to create a working team that would study the issues of Internet management and come forward with a coherent set of proposals before the end of 2005. These proposals should include a practical definition of the Internet, guidelines for its general policies, and the role of the different governmental and international organisations in this field, as well as in the private sector and civil society. Meanwhile, not everyone was happy with the results of the summit. African countries were angry that the richer nations refused to provide funds to bankroll information technology projects in the developing world, while the Palestinian delegation was thwarted in its attempt to include a condemnation of Israel's deliberate destruction of the Palestinian information infrastructure in the Declaration of Principles and the summit resolutions, as were the Arab delegations in their attempt to have Israel's continued occupation of Arab land condemned as a violation of human rights. In short, many problems have not been dealt with satisfactorily and much remains to be done before we can truly call ourselves a global information society.
The summit's prospects of success were further dampened by America's low-key participation: observers noticed that the US representative, David Gross, was the only delegate who did not ask to take the floor.
