On May 22, 2007, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and Third World Institute (ITeM) have launched a major report overlooking at state of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy both at global and national levels, with a particular emphasis on impacts on the lives of people living in developing countries.

The report comes back on issues and perspectives of the WSIS event. It studies ICT policies of major organizations including ICANN, ITU, UNDP, UNESCO and WIPO. According to the authors, "the report includes provocative, analytical essays on five international institutions questioning the extent to which they allow all stake-holders to participate in their processes." There is a special section on how to measure progress.

The Global Information Society Watch 2007 report finally overlooks at the situation of national ICT policies through out the publication of twenty-two country reports. It concludes that when it comes to ICTs for development, there are some conspicuous similarities between the countries, "excluding Spain, the other twenty-one countries each show obvious evidence of the digital divide which impacts on the majority of people negatively."

This Report is the first in a series of yearly reports covering the state of the information society from the perspectives of civil society and stakeholders in the global South. The publication released under Creative Commons license can be downloaded in one large PDF file or by chapter (including reports per organization and country) from the new www.globaliswatch.org Web site.
Picture credit: Global Information Society Watch 2007.

http://www.globaliswatch.org/