So, here we are! It’s the World Summit on the Information Society! I’m so excited! That’s the only possible explanation for all these exclamation marks! 15,000 people, lots of government speakers, a huge expo hall, not much bandwidth!
This afternoon we’ll be presenting the ICT4Peace report, with an all-star line-up on the panel. That’s why I’m here. I missed the first phase of WSIS, which was happening in Geneva while I was happening in Liberia, so it’s also a great chance to see what this whole information society thing is all about.
So far, I’m not entirely sure what it’s all about. Andy Carvin has noted the lightly-clad lovely ladies that seem to be milling about various booths, as if it was a Vegas car show (not that I’m complaining as much as he is). There’s a lot of stuff here that I can’t work out – a strange mix of the hard core technology (online encrypted e-commerce solutions 4 all), the fuzzy feelgood (empowerment through sms 4 all) and the downright deranged (a laptop for every child 4 all).
From the humanitarian point of view, there isn’t much here. I had a good meeting with Rene Francis of the Ericsson Response Team, about extending ERT support to the NGO community – currently they work predominantly with the UN, on standby arrangement, but there’s no reason that couldn’t be applied to NGOs under a similar arrangement. Today I’m on a mission to find out some exciting new technologies, which I will promptly steal. Sadly, I think the most exciting thing here is WiMax – broadband wireless access for remote areas during humanitarian response is a bit of a no-brainer.
I’ll write more later, unless the wireless access here at WSIS goes down, which it seems to do every time anybody enters the building.
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