UN WSIS CONTRIBUTORY CONFERENCE ON ICT & CREATIVITY
Vienna, Austria | June 2-3 2005
SUMMARY & OUTCOME
On 2 and 3 June 2005, experts from all over the world came to Vienna to share visions on and discuss about the topic of ?ICT & Creativity?, a burning issue not just for the Austrian government, which hosted the event.
At this official WSIS Meeting, helping to prepare the Second Phase of the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society that will take place in Tunis from 16-18 November 2005, key business people met ministers and state secretaries, researchers, creatives and members of the civil society, but also thinkers who are very critical of the Digital Revolution. continue ...
Now available: the final version of the Vienna Conclusions
A crucial outcome of the Vienna Conference on ICT & Creativity, which took place from June 2-3 2005, is the ?Vienna Conclusions? document. This living document consists of two parts: (a) the chapeau and (b) the topic sections.
(a) The chapeau of the ?Vienna Conclusions? is a shared effort, drafted by Peter A. Bruck ? on the basis of a disputation with the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk ? and edited, reworked and re-written by a Drafting Committee, taking into consideration recommendations from conference participants.
(b) The topic sections are the result of presentations and discussions in 10 workshops.
The ?Vienna Conclusions? have been published on a Blog , and comments and further alterations were welcomed as part of the preparation process for the second phase of the WSIS in Tunis and the working meetings and content fora organised in the framework of the World Summit Award (WSA).
The WSA is Austria?s official contribution to the WSIS, and its message is the same as outlined in the ?Vienna Conclusions?: Creativity and a strong focus on the quality and diversity of content are needed to make ICT become the fundament for an Information Society we all can ? and want ? to be part of.
Franz Morak, Head of the Austrian Delegation at the WSIS in Tunis, is going to present the main outcomes of the ?Vienna Conclusions? at the UN summit.
The Conference Secretariat would like to thank you for your efforts on and interest in this living document. We hope that the ?Vienna Conclusions?, which can be accessed here, will continue to be a living document, not mainly by giving answers but by sparking fruitful discussions and competitions of ideas in Tunis.
Quotes from the UN WSIS Thematic Meeting
on ICT & Creativity
?This conference focuses on the development of creative and high-quality contents, quite responsible and fascinating tasks. However, creativity calls for a threshold requirement: general access to information and education.?
Wolfgang Schüssel ? Austrian Federal Chancellor
?The theme of the conference "ICT & Creativity" is
central to the task of bridging the Digital Divide and
closing the Content Gap, so that truly open and
diverse Knowledge Societies may be constructed.?
Koïchiro Matsuura ? UNESCO Director-General
?I'm grateful that the World Summit Award has taken
the initiative to raise awareness for what the process
of WSIS can bring to humanity in terms of quality econtent.?
Adama Samassékou ? President of WSIS Preparatory
Committee for the Geneva Phase
FURTHER INFORMATION Download the Conference Programme Folder (PDF)
CONFERENCE PROGRAMME Get detailed information on the the schedule
SPEAKER BIOS Find out more about 80 high level speakers
SPEAKER PRESENTATIONS Download workshop presentations of many speakers
IMPRESSIONS OF THE VIENNA CONFERENCE Visit the ?ICT & Creativity Online-Gallery?
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS
Adama Samassékou about education for all using ICTs
Joseph Weizenbaum discusses today's eLearning
Paul Hoffert on the World Summit Award
Janis Karklins talks about the WSIS process
Andreas Leo Findeisen summarizes trends he noticed at the conference.
Georg C. F. Greve presents the concept of Free Software
Edgard Cyr K. Tougouma talks about his experiences as WSA National Expert 2003
Sergei Kambalov talks about the mission of the UN ICT Task Force
Waheed Al Balushi talks about the World Summit Award
Watch the conference trailer!
VIDEO STREAMING of the Conference
kindly provided by TELEKOM AUSTRIA
Bandwidth
June 2
Opening Plenary: Creativity in the Global Information Society