 | |
| |
TechnologyDaily Mobile
A Tech Event Of Olympic Proportions
by William New
As with biennial congressional elections, it is never too soon to begin soliciting support for the next World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT), which also happens every two years. At least that is the thinking of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), which oversees the conference.
The next WCIT will be held in Athens, Greece, on May 19-21, 2004, with the theme of "The Future Is Now." But organizers, led by WITSA's U.S. branch, the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), held a kickoff event this month with Greek Ambassador George Savvaides and George Newstrom, Virginia's technology secretary and the chairman of WITSA, which represents 49 organizations that account for 90 percent of the world's IT industry.
The world congress is a meeting that attracts technology industry leaders, top corporate executives, renowned academics and government officials. The event's organizers are seeking sponsors. Past corporate speakers have included Cisco Systems President and CEO John Chambers, Sybase Chairman and CEO John Chen, Dell Computer Chairman Michael Dell, Oracle Chairman and CEO Larry Ellison, Hewlett-Packard Chairwoman and CEO Carly Fiorina, and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.
Athens clearly held an edge over fiercely competing nations in the bid to host the congress because the event will be held immediately before the 2004 Olympics there. Greece also holds the presidency of the European Union until July 2003. The 2006 WCIT site will be in Austin, Texas, and then the event will rotate to Asia.
A business fair focused on information technology, telecommunications and e-government will precede the Athens event, according to WCIT CEO Dimos Vatikiotis. Many meetings will be held with European tech officials as well.
ITAA President Harris Miller said at the organizational event that the WCIT "is a major step forward for Greece." He said it would be the first meeting of a "more mature industry" and noted that at the 2000 meeting in Adelaide, Australia, "people were depressed" because of the tech market's fall. The industry is "more rational" now because the people in it are "no longer crazy," Miller said.
The World Without Technology
On World Telecommunication Day on Saturday, meanwhile, some officials noted the importance of communications technologies to the world since the first International Telegraph Convention was signed in 1865. But they also recognized that the majority of the world's population has never used the technologies.
"More than 70 percent of people in this world have never heard a dial tone, let alone surfed the Web," said U.N. General Assembly President Jan Kavan of the Czech Republic. The lack of availability of telecom systems and computers is compounded by illiteracy and the absence of computer skills, he said.
Kavan likened being cut off from telecom services to hardships such as a lack of food, safe drinking water, shelter and education. He urged U.N. members to use the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society to set "clear and quantifiable goals and targets" for the information society, with benchmarks and timeframes for measuring progress.
The two-part summit, to be held in Geneva in December and Tunis, Tunisia, in 2005, also should lead to "multi-stakeholder alliances for action" with concrete commitments, he said. Kavan's call echoed one made the same day by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
A Call For Economic Unity
Plans for Tuesday's German-American CEO Summit at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce began a year ago. But to the U.S. and German officials and industry executives in attendance, the timing was perfect for talk of jumpstarting the two nations' economies and mending fences between the nations after disagreements over the war against Iraq.
Germany accounts for 40 percent of Europe's economy, according to Wolfgang Clement, German minister of economic affairs and labor. Germany must get its economy moving again, which will help the global economy, he said, and its firms stand ready to participate in the rebuilding of Iraq. The German government is taking measures to make the labor market more flexible and encourage entrepreneurship, he added.
Reflecting a view shared by several speakers, such as U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, Clement urged the United States and Germany to "do all we can" to push forward the multilateral trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization. He said the path to world peace, prosperity and development lies in growth and employment, and the further opening of markets to trade. The basis lies in the cross-border exchange of goods, services and intellectual property, he said.
Clement also called for the resolution of U.S.-European trade disputes. And in the expanded European Union beginning next year, unity will be key to successful global competition, he said. This includes a European research, technology and industrial policy that "latches onto our potential and boosts our strengths," Clement said.
Chamber President Tom Donahue said the chamber is talking with the German Institute for Standardization about the possibility of establishing a clearinghouse in Washington for companies to learn more about doing business in Germany. Donahue also said he is discussing opening a joint office in Berlin with the Federation of German Industries that would work with roughly three dozen European organizations that write international trade and investment rules.
In a separate effort to keep global trade alive in the current security-heavy environment, the U.S. Morocco Free Trade Agreement Coalition on Tuesday issued a statement condemning the recent terrorist attacks in Casablanca and reaffirming its support for stronger economic ties between Morocco and the United States. The nations are negotiating a trade agreement.
Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, said the coalition hopes the events "will only increase the resolve to strengthen ties between our two nations." He added, "[A free-trade agreement] with Morocco sends a message to the rest of the world that the United States is committed to supporting a longstanding friend and staunch ally in the war on terrorism."
Practicing The Information Technology Gospel
The United Nations is busy trying to advance the developing world's use and understanding of information technology. The global body also is practicing what it preaches. Last week, the U.N. committee on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) announced that it was the first U.N. committee to fully employ information technology in its official work.
The effort, dubbed the "Paperless Committee" pilot project, was backed by Hewlett-Packard's donation of computers and the Mumbai Educational Trust of India's technical support. The project will allow more efficient processing of committee documents and applications for status by NGOs. It eliminated the need to photocopy up to 80,000 pages per year, the U.N. said.
The U.N. International Telecommunication Union will hold two workshops on electronic activities in the next two weeks: a workshop on standardization in e-health on May 23-25, and a workshop on e-government in Geneva on June 5-6.
Another Geneva-based group, the World Intellectual Property Organization, announced this week that it received its 5,000th case over disputed Internet domain names under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy. The English soccer club Tottenham Hotspur filed the cyber-squatting case. The total number of cyber-squatting cases filed at WIPO but not under the policy is 20,511, WIPO said in a statement.
NEW FEATURE
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
