(Paris) UNESCO is organizing a High Level Dialogue on Rights to Communication and six Thematic Sessions at the WSIS Forum 2011 to be held, at the ILO Conference Centre, in Geneva, Switzerland from 16-20 May 2011.
UNESCO will organize the following sessions at the forthcoming WSIS Forum 2011:
High-Level Dialogue 1 “The Right to Communication”, Wednesday 18 May (9.30 – 11.15)
The high level debate on “The Right to Communication” will bring together stakeholders from all over the world ranging from technology experts, policy specialists, to users and cyber-activists to provide insight into the “right to communication” and its ethical implications. In turn, this debate will offer the means to reconsider humanity’s immersion in a socio-eco-techno apparatus that compels mankind to communicate in new ways. The panel will also encourage brainstorming and debates on burning issues of the “right to communication” related to the WSIS Plan Actions.
WSIS Action Line Facilitation meetings
Monday 16 May
Action Line C3 Access “ICT and Persons with Disabilities” (14:45-16:15)
This interactive debate will explore existing and potential usage of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to improve access by persons with disabilities to information and knowledge and encourage their participation in social, economic and political life. ICTs are effective tools to reach out to persons with disabilities which can improve their quality of life by providing new educational and employment opportunities as well as promote their social inclusion and participation.
Action line: C7 E-learning “E-Learning: Teachers Count” (16:30-18:00)
Within the framework of action line C7 e-learning, this year’s facilitation meeting will focus on the implication of UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers (ICT CFT) for governmental policy makers, teachers, and teacher training providers. The interaction among the international and national standard setters and two groups of the standard implementers will be focused probing the following interrelated questions:
- Are teachers assuming their ought-to-be roles in enabling effective e-learning?
- How and to what extent can teacher be groomed to be a qualified e-learning enabler?Tuesday 17 May Action Line C8 “Indigenous peoples and education” (14:30-16:30)
Within the framework of Action Line C8 Cultural and Linguistic Diversity, the preserving indigenous people’s culture is placed on the core of the inclusive knowledge based Information Society. This year’s meeting will therefore focus on the theme of promoting indigenous education and intergenerational transmission of indigenous knowledge.
The C8 discussion would give the opportunity to discuss how indigenous peoples, UNESCO, governments and the private sector are responding to these issues through the Information Society and the use of ICTs.Wednesday 18 May AL C9 Media “Media Regulation: Broadcasters and Social Media” (14:45-16:15)
The meeting explores various guidelines and media regulation frameworks of broadcasters, particularly PSB, and the emerging social network platforms, which feed into crosscutting subthemes of WSIS C9. Recent outcomes, guidelines and publications on the subject will be presented by panelists and debated with stakeholders. UNESCO will take the opportunity to launch its new publications “A Global Legal Survey of PSB” and “Guidelines for Broadcasters on Promoting user-generated Content and Media and Information Literacy”.
AL C10 Ethics “Cyber and Information Ethics” (16:45 – 18:00)
The questions posed by the ethics of science and technology, let alone cyber-ethics, are broad, ever-changing, and complex. Therefore, for hermeneutic purposes, we propose that the Interactive Facilitation Meeting on Cyber and Information Ethics, telescope 4 principle axes: Property, Freedom/Security, Malice, and Privacy.Thursday 19 May AL C7 E-science & C3 Access “Open Access: Progress since WSIS 2010” (14:30-16:30)
This meeting will look at the current achievements of the key players in the field – universities and research institutions – and facilitate a discussion about whether they are replicable across countries. We will invite other stakeholders, such as funders and policy-makers to discuss how Open Access could be included in national and regional research and educational policies, in order to formally embed Open Access into education and research institutions.
