Global Information Society Watch

This initiative is shaped by a commitment to enhancing public participation in national and international forums related to processes such as the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). In order to ensure that consumer groups, the media, research institutions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and so on are involved in governance processes related to ICT policy, organisers have created a website to provide wider access to its annual Global Information Society Report. This publication, which covers the state of the information society from the perspectives of civil society and stakeholders in the global South, is meant to be a tool for information, advocacy, and evaluation. For example, among the contents of the 2007 report are: a series of overviews of international institutions and regulatory agencies, a "Measuring Progress" section that includes ICT indicators for advocacy, and a series of country reports examining issues of access and participation within a variety of national contexts.

The website that provides free access to this publication each year also serves as a networking tool; a dedicated Collaborators page provides synopses of the work of participating organisations, with links to their own websites for further information. There is also a "Have Your Say" section.

Technology, Rights.

Organisers embrace the goal - articulated at the WSIS in Tunis (November 2005) - of bridging the "digital divide" while also respecting human rights, promoting education, public access to information, women's empowerment, and economic prosperity. They also support the commitment to accomplish this goal through the involvement, cooperation, and partnership of governments, the private sector, civil society, and international organisations. However, while recognising the challenges that could hamper progress in achieving this, in their estimation there remains a gap between "good intentions and actual achievements, between promises and realities, between high sounding principles and concrete actions." The monitoring project is meant to address this gap.