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World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) The second and final phase of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) was held at Tunis during 16-18 Nov 2005 at Tunis. Several seminars, workshops and discussion meetings were organized by different stakeholders on the broad theme Past, Present and Future of Research in the Information Society just before the Summit during 13-15 Nov 2005. Indian National Science Academy had sent a delegation comprising of Dr Krishan Lal FNA (NPL) and Dr Usha Mujoo-Munshi (INSA) to participate in the Summit and related activities. In all about 20,000 delegates, representing governments of ~175 countries, UN Organizations like UNESCO, scientific organizations like ICSU and CODATA, TWAS, NGOs and numerous corporations took part in a very large number of sessions and exhibition amid elaborate security arrangements. WSIS at Tunis was a historic occasion and aimed at ushering in a new era after political consensus at international level to manage the tools of moder ntechnology like Internet. All the organizations participating in the Summit underlined the potential of electronic technology as a powerful tool for efficient societal development, particularly in the less endowed countries. Also, its applications need to be optimized for the research and development sector and technology utilization. The efficiency of information generation and dissemination can be increased enormously and there is scope for savings in costs. However, there are conflicting interests in view of IPR protection and commercial sector.There are demands of a wide spectrum of users starting with scientists and technologists at the uppermost end and common people who see great potential to free access to a vast and rapidly increasing reservoir of data, information and knowledge at the other end. Therefore, a paradigm shift in our approach to efficient and nearly unrestricted flow of information is the need of the hour. Several major international organizations had been working together to provide inputs on behalf of the stakeholders to the global information society, which is under development. Free flow of data and information has always been a key element in the phenomenal growth of science and technology. Even though these flow freely these are not free. The impact of high costs of scientific literature is particularly high for the developing world which seriously affects growth of R&D infrastructure, capabilities and contributions. At present, even the industrially strong countries are quite concerned and there are several initiatives like the Berlin declaration and efforts of the IAP to make optimum use of digital technology and Internet in this field. Also,there are pressures in advanced countries like the US to make the free available data and information generated through public funding. On the other hand whenever this field develops commercial interest issues like intellectual property rights protection and copyright become quite important and serve as impediments to free access. Therefore, there is a definite need to evolve newer strategies to gain maximum advantage from the new technologies at the front end, where state of the art level science and technology are being generated, and also at the last stage concerned with the dissemination of the two for societal welfare.CODATA, the ICSU Committee for Data in Science and Technology, has been at the forefront of consolidating the point of view of an important stakeholder namely the scientific community for the WSIS. It together with its partners ICSU, ICSTI, INASP, UNESCO, Science Commons, TWAS, and in collaboration with OECD has organized very important meetings. The last two were at the CODATA international Conference at Berlin in Nov 2004 and at UNESCO Paris in Sep 2005. Two editorials in Science by President CODATA, Professor Shuichi Iwata, the last one on the eve of the Summit, have highlighted the basic issues among the scientific community. Efforts of CODATA and its partners have nucleated an initiative on Global Information Commons for Science. CODATA and its collaborators organized the following two Sessions on 14 November 2005: |
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(i)Access to Scientific Data and Information: Benefits to Society, and (ii)R ound Table Discussion on The need to develop an “Information Commons for Science Initiative” The first Session was chaired by Krishan Lal, Vice President, CODATA and INSA delegate; and Paul David, Stanford University, and Paul F. Uhlir, National Academies, US chaired the second Session. Topics covered in the first Session were: Global Spatial Data (Harlan Onsrud, University of Maine, USA); Access to Scientific Information in the Research and Academic Network in Ukraine (Mikhail Zgurovsky (National Technical University, Ukraine);Access to Archived Data in China Liu Chuang Chinese Academy of Sciences; and The Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) Consortium (TCP): A Model for Public Private Partnerships (Michael Morgan). The participants of the round Table Session represented Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development – OECD (John Dryden); International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications – INASP (Carol Priestley); International Council for Science – ICSU (Carthage Smith); Third World Academy of Science - TWAS; Krishan Lal (Committee on Data for Science and Technology -CODATA); Science Commons (John Wilbanks);UNESCO (Elizabeth Longworth); and CERN (Hans Falk Hoffmann).The first session focused on experiences in different societies and different disciplines of science which underlined the benefits accrued of free flow of data and information. In the second session a new initiative developed by CODATA and its collaborating organizations named as: Information Commons for Science Initiative was launched. The genesis of this initiative is the first phase of WSIS, Geneva, December 2003, wherein the Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action (paragraph 7), it was clearly stated that “science has a central role in the development of the Information Society. Many of the building blocks of the Information Society are the result of scientific and technical advances made possible by the sharing of research results”. The Global Information Commons for Science Initiative is planned to be a multi-stakeholder undertaking that would leverage the strengths of a diverse coalition for the purpose of raising awareness on the part of the actors and increasing the effectiveness of the activities directed to facilitating various methods of open access and re-use of publicly-funded scientific data and information, and to promoting cooperative sharing of research tools and materials among researchers.As a panelist Krishan Lal emphasized that traditional knowledge should remain truly in the domain, even though, presently, it suffers from attempts to encroachment. It was mentioned that INSA has nucleated a group on open access issues and a few meetings at national level have been organized. Prof. Iwata, President CODATA had delivered at talk at the national Seminar at Pune in December 2003.He emphasized on the steps needed to ensure quality of data and the advantages of south-south collaboration.CODATA had organized a session during the Summit on 17 Nov 2005. A presentation entitled, “Enhancing Access to Scientific Information” by Usha Mujoo-Munshi and Krishan Lal was made by Dr. Munshi. The Indian scenario was reviewed in this talk. There were several interesting sessions at the Summit including one organized by UNESCO, a session on the needs of handicapped persons, where several persons of remarkable capabilities in spite of serious physical limitations shared their experience. There was a major exhibition as a part of the Summit.Several countries including India and the host country Tunisia had their stalls. Indian stall showcased our capabilities in the government and the corporate sector, both public and private. Practically all major corporations in the field had demonstrated their latest technologies.More information about scientific activities related to information society can be obtained from the CODATA website: http://www.codata.org/wsis/sessions/index.html.
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