This theme will allow our contributions to focus on a range of research and practical issues relating to e-Exclusion and the Knowledge Society. As a follow-up to Geneva, the emphasis in Tunis is expected to be on development gaps, the role of technology, Internet Governance, new policy approaches and their application to practical human problems, particularly in the Global South. Contributions to the IAMCR panel presentation would therefore be expected to provide research-based responses to issues relating to "the potential of ICTs, including the Internet, for leapfrogging development in general for education and research." Other issues within the scope of this Session include "objective constraints in accessibility and unequal distribution of ICT between North and South, regions and states, social groups, including gender and language..." The implications for Intellectual Property Rights, TRIPS, Universal Service arrangements, Human Rights and existing legal and policy regimes would also be relevant.

A difficult issue for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis 2005 is the question of where the massive investment needed to implement that WSIS Action Plan will come from.  The list of actions is long and the estimated need for new sources of financing to reduce ‘digital divides’ is enormous.  For the poorest countries and poorest regions within countries, there is widespread agreement that investment must be mobilised on a scale far greater than in the past.  Beyond the WSIS, the private sector, governments and many other organisations will have to play a role.  This paper will critically assess various perspectives on this issue. Some advocate ‘market-led’ solutions while others advocate the need for new mechanisms and a greater reliance on public or community initiatives to supply infrastructure and services.  These issues are discussed within an analytical framework that highlights the strategic economic and political interests of the actors.

Taking a long, historical view on the governance strategies adopted for previous new ICTs leads us to conclude that the problems stemming from gaps in access and broader concern for social development have always been central to policy approaches to communication governance. Until the recent discussions of the Internet, these issues have traditionally been addressed mainly at the national level -- but the Internet, we argue, is a global public good. This principle should be at the centre of any policy approach to Internet governance, but it presents a real conceptual challenge to policy makers for, obvious as this may seem, much of the discussion around Internet governance has been tainted with the orthodoxy of a view that digital technology is (and should be) somehow immune to control. Thus, the next contribution to be made in establishing the principle of the Internet as global public good is clearly to extend the historical notion of ‘the public’ which has framed the policy approach to previous ICTs to discussion of Internet governance issues. With this historical context in mind, this paper will consider whether notions such as globalization and problems such as underdevelopment are in fact incompatible with previous conceptions of the public interest in communication governance and will respond to the question:  Is a new policy approach to Internet governance based on the principle of the Internet as a global public good a conceptually sustainable framework for directing the potential of ICTs towards the problem of underdevelopment?

Digital technologies have enhanced many aspects of social, economic and political life where these tools are available and in widespread social use. They also can contribute to promoting creativity and assist social and cultural inclusiveness. However, where these technologies remain inaccessible and expensive, or where there are inadequate strategies for their effective use, they can and often do contribute to increasing disparity, exclusion and divergence, in an era dominated by the tools for social, technological and economic convergence. The challenge of WSIS Tunis, as well as for 21st century policy-makers and all citizens of the 'digital millennium', is to find effective ways of redressing this growing disparity, which is emerging on similar patterns of geography, gender and social status to traditional economic gaps in global development. While, quantitatively, the world is now more endowed with tools of communication and information flow than the scenario painted by the 1983 Maitland Commission, there remains an enduring 'missing link' that requires more committed financial resources and strategic planning by communities, state and global actors in both the North and the South. Emerging creative initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean have begun to address the 'digital divide', including provision of the eLAC Plan of Action, informed by the ambitious principles of the WSIS Geneva Phase and targets of the UN Millennium Development Goals.