the seriousness of equal access to information for all - Information Summit

From Swiss demand clear goals for Information Summit:

"At the opening of the third preparatory meeting for the summit in Geneva, Leuenberger set out his recommendations before more than 1,900 representatives from 143 nations, the private sector and non-governmental organisations. Leuenberger added that the main bone of contention was finding ways to finance the summit initiatives and he urged the participating nations to present more concrete ideas by September 26, the last day of the prep talks."

"The three-day summit, which kicks off in Geneva on December 10, hopes to develop an action plan to provide equal access to information for all people around the world."

The initiatives for equal access to information for all the people around the world are to be admired at least for recognizing the importance of access to information in today’s information society (or better said society relaying so much on information exchange).

However, with the presence of representatives from the private sector who ultimately care about their bottom line (i.e. $$$), it can hardly be expected that much will be achieved in terms of equality to information access. This sort of exercises lead nowhere unless there is a long stick that the ITU can use to implement the promoted initiatives, to even modestly tilt the balance of access to information.

What usually happens in such meetings though is that the private sector that controls the means of access as well as the information itself is unwilling to give up some of its power. So, what ends up happening is that the current private-sector players join forces with local private sector players around the world, as if that means equal access. The private sector is interested about the bottom line whether it is in the developed countries or in the developing countries. So, instead of equal access to information for all, the current private sector players extend their control of access to information even further, paradoxically via the vehicles (such as this summit) that were supposed to enable the equal access.

What is a possible solution? Perhaps the state representatives to the Information Summit need to change their policies in terms of access to access technologies and information. These types of summits are good, but ultimately the mains responsibilities reside with the states themselves, with NGOs playing an important role in pushing their governments to enact 'fair' policies regarding access technologies and access to information.