It is indeed a great pleasure to be the guest editor of the WSIS Flash! WSIS Flash is an excellent medium to update, learn, share and exchange information about projects and activities relevant to the WSIS Process. The WSIS Forum 2011: Preparatory Meeting held on the 23rd November was a good platform to initiate discussions on the WSIS Forum 2011 and for each focal point to update stakeholders present both in Geneva and through the remote participation facilities. As a follow up, I would like to update all Stakeholders on our most recent activity.

I am happy to announce that the e-Agriculture Community is launching a totally new online platform today, 16 December 2010. The launch is in conjunction with the ICTD2010 conference, where a special half day session on enhancing the impact of ICT in rural development has been organized by FAO and other partners in the e-Agriculture Community.

After three years of exciting growth, collaboration and knowledge sharing around ICT for rural development, I am certain that this new platform will keep pace with the needs of the e-Agriculture Community for the next several years. This platform is the result of the Community's suggestions and input, the combined effort of many individuals, and takes advantage of appropriate new tools including Drupal and social media applications. The result is not only a new website, but a new way for the Community to interact, collaborate, share experiences, and expand our collective understanding of key issues in the ICT4D field.

The e-Agriculture platform is also a partner of the WSIS Stocktaking Platform that helps in expanding the outreach for exchanging information, ideas, and resources related to the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for sustainable agriculture and rural development. We hope that several discussions will feed into the WSIS Forum in 2011.

Michael Riggs
WSIS follow-up focal point for e-agriculture Knowledge and Information Management Officer e-Agriculture Community Lead Facilitator Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Forum 2011

We have received over 100 submissions on the Thematic Aspects and New Innovative Format of the WSIS Forum 2011. An overview of submitted contributions received as of the 15th December 2010 is available here .

Please note that upon request from several WSIS Stakeholders we have extended the deadline for submission till the 15th of January, those of you who have not submitted your comments please do using the online form.

The WSIS Forum 2011 Preparatory Meeting was held on the 23rd of November, from 14:30 - 18:00, Room No. 4, CICG, Geneva. More than 50 people attended the meeting onsite and a total of 53 Remote Participants were registered, Remote Delegates: 10 Remote Observers: 43. We thank all WSIS Stakeholders for their active and enthusiastic participation. A glimpse of the core submissions made by the participants present is available here.

Please note that this document only highlights the core submissions made on the Thematic Aspects and new Innovative Format for WSIS Forum 2011.

All  documents relevant to the meeting are available here.

The WSIS Stocktaking Platform provides a large database consisting of  an estimated 4927 projects and 1876 members. The WSIS Stocktaking platform offers a global events calendar, global repository, blogs, online communities, online forums, interactive online interviews, implementation case studies, country case studies, an embeddable interface and the WSIS Lab.

WSIS Stocktaking: Call for Update and New Entries

We would like to thank all stakeholders for the active participation in the WSIS Stocktaking process by submitting new entries describing the activities being undertaken. The deadline for the submissions was 15 December 2010  and the number of submitted entries since October is more than 150.

WSIS Stocktaking Online Forum

In November/December, the Online Forum continue to have the following ongoing discussions:

• what do you think about remote hubs? how it could be used? 
• Photos from WSIS 
• The latest news  
• ICTs and disasters 

• e-Health and the risk of misinformation  
• African ICT Week (AICTW) 
• Social Impact assessment of ICT4D interventions   
• Literary translation 

Contribute or follow the online Forum at http://groups.itu.int/Default.aspx?tabid=716.

WSIS Interviews

As part of the WSIS Network activities, lastly the WSIS stocktaking platform conducted the following  interviews online: Research ICT Africa.Net, 17 November 2010 HUB: Health UnBound, 30 November 2010 In addition,  WSIS team conducted the live interview with ITA, The Sultanate of Oman. Please, click here to watch the video.

WSIS Stocktaking Blog

Provides a virtual space to exchange ideas and articles describing activities of stakeholders within the framework of WSIS. This blog provides you with the opportunity to collaborate electronically, build virtual networks of discussions and increase visibility of your activities. For the best use of information, blog functionalities such as comments and ratings are available for you. Everyone is welcome to submit their comments for the articles. The information may be submitted directly to the blog or to wsis-stocktaking@itu.int.

In November-December, the following articles were submitted to WSIS Stocktaking Blog. 

• Submission deadline December 15
• United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancún
• Child Online Protection taken to new level - President of Costa Rica and ITU Secretary-General announce action phase for initiative
• International Day of Persons with Disabilities
• AIDS Day
• WSIS Open Consultation 2010
• Open consultation meeting (14 December 2010, New York)
• ICT Business & Innovation Symposium 2010
• Global Symposium for Regulators in Dakar
• Follow-up on ICT4ALL Forum 2010
• ICT4ALL Forum 2010
• What applications for m-Learning?
• WSIS Workshop in UAE
• mHealth: A Summit for Innovative Solutions
• Comments on the news
• The small revolution of m-banking

WSIS Lab

Collaborative space on broadband presented new articles that focused on the broadband strategies. By 2010 some countries around the world adopted or planned to introduce the national broadband plans. What type of intervention governments should take to promote and facilitate the deployment of broadband infrastructure – for these and other questions, please search onwww.wsis.org/wsislab. The updated WSIS Lab website is available with a new logo type and the summary of the outcomes. WSIS lab team invites all users to share relevant research.

The Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development is an international, multi-stakeholder initiative to improve the availability and quality of ICT data and indicators, particularly in developing countries. Launched in 2004, the Partnership helps measure the information society by: 

• Defining a core list of ICT indicators  and methodologies to collect these indicators;
• Helping developing countries collect ICT statistics, particularly through capacity-building and hands-on training for national statistical offices;
• Collecting and disseminating information society statistics in a number of formats, including a global report and database. 

Download the Partnership information brochure.  

The 8th World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Meeting was held in Geneva, Switzerland on the 24-26 November 2010.http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/wict10/index.html

Global Repository
www.wsis.org/repository

Recently Submitted Publications

• European Parliament, Report of the Workshop on Technological Options for Capturing and Reporting Parliamentary Proceedings, 2010
• Information Technology Authority, Information Technology Authority Annual Report 2009
• UNDESA and IPU, World e-Parliament Report 2010, 2010
• Korea Communication Commission, Green Communications Promotion Plan of Republic of Korea, 2010

View More

Global Events Calendar

• Online EDUCA BERLIN 2010,
  1-3 December 2010.
• mHealth Africa Summit- The Promise of mHealth in Africa,
  2-3 December 2010.
• CII FAIM KM INDIA SUMMIT 2010,
  3-4 December 2010.
• Healthcare IT Exchange,
  5-7 December 2010.
• World Radiocommunication Seminar 2010 (WRS-10),
  6-10 December 2010.
• 3rd Euro-Africa Cooperation Forum on ICT Research,
  7-8 December 2010.
• Open consultations on enhanced cooperation on international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet,
  14 December 2010.

View More

CoNGO is one of the official focal points of the Civil Society for the WSIS Process
"CoNGO will offer the richness and expertise of more than 600 Civil Society members to the WSIS Process."
Liberato C. Bautista, CoNGO President
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International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development
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ITU News – Latest Issue
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ITU Statshot
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Video Volunteers Announces 'IndiaUnheard' - The World's First Community News Service: Making Change By Bringing Untold Stories from the Farthest Villages of India to Impact a Global Audience
A network of people from slums and villages in India who have been trained to make video news reports on corruption, human rights, health, sanitation and other issues, IndiaUnheard is making an impact in these villages and across the globe. “Community Correspondents report on human rights violations they live through, and this gives their videos new perspective and power". The work has inspired thousands of poor people to organize and take actions.
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Case Studies

• ITU/UPU (Book, 2010), ICTs, new services and transformation of the post (including a series of separate case studies for Buthan, Bostwana, Brazil, Korea, Russian Federation, Sauri Arabia)

• ITU (2010), Satellite Connectivity to Remote Areas and E-Services for Development: Initiatives through Post Office Telekiosks in Buthan

• ITU (2010), ICTs Communicty Access and Development: Case Studies from Six Developing Countries (Mali, Bhutan, Honduras, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Tanzania)

• Innovative ways of appropriating mobile telephony in Africa (2010)  

HUB: HealthUnBound

mHealth Alliance has worked with key partners around the globe to launch HUB: HealthUnBound, an online forum for consensus and sharing in this space:www.healthunbound.org

The HUB brings together public health practitioners, policy-makers, technologists, and business leaders to build stronger health systems, driven by the needs and action of members.

HUB is the place to promote applications (http://www.healthunbound.org/technology/applications) and methodologies that work, and to establish agreement on ways to integrate mHealth into Health Information Systems.

HUB is the premier repository for what is happening in mHealth and eHealth. We welcome your participation. We would be delighted to hold workshops with key stakeholders.