Digital Dividend: A Television Debate Part 2 of 6

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) have become an integral part of how we live, work and spend our leisure time. Ranging from telephone, radio and television to computers and internet, these tools enable the gathering, processing and dissemination of information and ideas faster than ever before in human history.

How can these ICTs help reduce poverty, create more jobs, generate income and add value to people's livelihoods? And how can we prevent them from widening existing disparities in our societies?

These and other questions were addressed in this high level TV debate that was recorded in Geneva, Switzerland, a few weeks ahead of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held in Tunis, Tunisia, in November 2005. The debate was initially broadcast on BBC World TV on 22 October 2005, followed by regional and national broadcasters across the world.

The Debate was staged by Dev.tv, a non-profit association of media professionals, in collaboration with the UNDP Asia Pacific Development Information Programme (UNDP-APDIP), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP).

An invited audience of 50 leaders from government, industry, academia and international organisations - all dealing with ICT issues - participated in the debate that had representation from all the geographical regions of the world. Many participants argued that ICT initiatives will be more successful if they respond to people's information needs and wants. Information, and not technologies, mattered more.

Among the other questions that were raised: Is the 'Digital Divide' distracting development donors and political leaders from the far deeper and wider Analog Divides that have affected society for decades? And are donors wasting aid money on tiny ICT projects that are never scaled up?

Broadcast personality Anita Mc Naught, who moderated the debate, helped the participants and panellists to raise many of the right questions - even if all the answers were not immediately found within the make-shift studio at the headquarters of International Telecommunications Union (ITU) headquarters where the debate was recorded.

The debate must continue - in the living rooms and seminar rooms across the planet.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Economics
• ICT for development
• Information society
• Intellectual property
• Rural development
• Science and technology
• South-south co-operation
• United Nations