19^th International CODATA Conference
Category: World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)

Science and the World Summit on the Information Society

Carthage Smith
Deputy Executive Director, International Council for Science (ICSU)

Science has a central role to play in the development of the information society. Many of the fundamental technological components of the information society, from electricity to transistors and the World Wide Web itself, were discovered or invented in academic laboratories. The next breakthroughs - Grid computing, the semantic web - are already in the pipeline. Even more important is the role that scientific knowledge plays as a driving force for social and economic development. New information and communication technologies can enable universal and equitable access to scientific data and information and thus assist all countries in achieving their development goals.

However scientists alone cannot ensure universal access. The principle barriers to access - lack of infrastructure, prohibitive pricing policies, shortage of specialized personnel, restrictive IPR policies - are beyond the control of the scientific community. These barriers are accentuated in developing countries and, as scientific practice becomes increasingly dependent on international collaboration, they are a threat to science itself. It is crucial that scientists engage with policy-makers, and other key (public and private sector) stakeholders in order to eliminate these barriers. The UN World Summit on the Information Society is a unique opportunity to do just that.

In March 2003, ICSU, CODATA and UNESCO organized an international meeting of scientists in Paris to define the key messages that should be conveyed to the first phase of WSIS (Geneva, December, 2003). The outcome was an agenda for action - "Science in the Information Society". Working in partnership with other international science organizations, principally CERN and TWAS, this agenda was highlighted and further developed in a series of WSIS preparatory meetings and at key events in Geneva. It has been incorporated, almost in its entirety, into the formal documents that were eventually agreed by Heads of State.

So having achieved political endorsement, what now is the role of the international science community in implementing its agenda for action prior to the next gathering of governmental leaders in Tunis in November, 2005? ICSU itself has just completed an assessment of the future needs and priorities for scientific data and information, which has important implications for the re-structuring and focusing of its own activities. Interdisciplinary bodies, such as CODATA, INASP and the World Data Centres have a key role to play in ensuring universal access both at a policy and operational level. This needs to be supported by national initiatives. Between now and Tunis there is a window of opportunity, when the attention of all the key stakeholders is focused on the information society. The challenge is to exploit this; to turn words into actions; to ensure that the digital divide in scientific knowledge is eliminated.