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Speechs
- Empowering
Creators and Educators "Quality Of a Global Information Society"
Opening
remarks to the closing plenary session Chaired by :
Lumko Mtimde
Chief Executive Officer
Media Development and Diversity Agency
07 October 2006
Global E-content Summit
04-07 October, Yerevan, Armenia |
|
Map
of South Africa
About
the Media Development and Diversity Agency (S.A.) –
the MDDA
Section 16 and 32 of the Constitution Act of South Africa
provides for freedom of expression and access to information.
The MDDA Act provides for a statutory body entrusted with
the responsibility of promoting media development and diversity
in S.A. by providing financial and other support to community
(non profit) and small commercial media projects.
MDDA – in the nutshell
Help create an enabling environment for media development
and diversity that is conducive to public discourse and which
reflects the needs and aspirations of South Africans.
www.mdda.org.za
 |
Prime
Minister of Armenia H.E. Andranik Margaryan in his
yesterday, the 06 October 2006 Opening speech read
on his behalf to the Global E-content Summit |
“…. In promoting the development of the
IT sector and placing it on the list of Armenia’s economic
priorities, we realize very well that in order to keep the
pace with this rapidly evolving world, not only do we need
to follow closely the developments in the area of electronic
communication and information technologies, but also to put
our own achievements at the service of the international efforts
in defiance of modern challenges facing humanity. “
“…The development-oriented present achievements
may only be upheld by improved educational systems, training
of new generations of qualified specialists, which is among
the agenda items of this Summit. I am confident that the discussions
scheduled for the couple of days to come will result in a
clearer outline of the ways and tools to provide e-content
developers and trainers appropriate skills in accordance with
modern criteria, account taken of the fact that the panel
workshop initiated jointly by the WSIS e-content gala award
organizing committee and the Fund of Information Technologies
aims the development of cultural diversity and multilingual
electronic content. .. “
Prof. Peter Bruck’s roadmap
in his yesterday’s (06 October 2006) keynote speech
to the Global E-content Summit
 |
Context
of World Summit Awards
|
Geneva
2003 – Geneva Action Plan
|
Tunisia
2005 – Tunis Declaration of Principles
and Commitments |
WSA
03 – WSA 05
|
WSA
07 |
“Bridging
the content gap and narrowing the digital
divide”
|
|
| Prof.
Peter Bruck’s |
Prof
Divina Frau-Meigs in her yesterday’s (06 October 2006)
keynote
response speech to the Global E-content Summit
 |
Presented
conclusions and recommendations from the “Human
Rights in the Information Society – Empowering
children and young people” conference held from
the 05th – 06th October 2006, same venue.
She emphasized creative content and 3P’s
Protection
Provision
participation
|
| Prof
Divina Frau-Meigs |
Prof
Caro Lucas in his yesterday’s (06 October 2006) keynote
response speech to the Global E-content Summit
 |
Spoke
of how IT can be leveraged in development projects
in rural areas. Therefore I suppose emphasizing the
use of ICT’s for development and economic growth.
“…consumers want their devices to work
together and to share content.”
Referred to the 3 I’s
Information
Intelligence
Integration
Context awareness
Presented the example of Gharnabad village in Iran,
with its advanced centre of ICT services
|
| Prof
Caro Lucas |
Today,
07 October 2006 in the different presentations tabled at the
Global E-content Summit
 |
Ms
Jacqueline Karaaslanian, quoted one of the veteran,
Prof. Seymour Papert, talking about “knowledge
workers”.
Ms Emilia Nercissians spoke about societal transformation
in the context of ICT and gender.
The second and third sessions showcased us case studies
of excellence in e-content. These ranged from the
Eternal Egypt, FM Liberte from Togo, Sisu Samrakshak
from India, Epygi Labs AM from Armenia, etc.
|
| Ms
Jacqueline Karaaslanian |
Quality
of a Global Information Society
 |
The
then, Executive Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, in his
opening address to the Information Society and Development
Conference (ISAD) held at Gallagher Estate, Johannesburg,
13-15 MAY 1996, said;
“We
need to ensure that the path to the Information
Society does not widen the gap between rich and
poor, developed and developing countries. The tragic
irony we might confront, is that this technology
which has enormous potential to benefit all humanity
could serve to entrench and widen this gap. “
|
| President
Thabo Mbeki |
Quality
of a Global Information Society
|
President
Thabo Mbeki (as he is now the President of S.A.) further
said (in 1996);
“…..
there would be no Information Society without proper
infrastructure and delivery mechanisms adapted to
the global development needs of the people.
We are not talking only of the rich neighbourhoods
in major cities, but also of the small villages
and townships, rural and remote areas; not only
of residential, industrial and downtown business
districts, but also schools, hospitals, colleges
and universities….
|
| President
Thabo Mbeki |
Quality
of a Global Information Society
|
President
Thabo Mbeki continued;
“….Content
in news, educational, cultural and entertainment
programmes, songs, games, etc., plays a pivotal
role in the building of the Information Society.
Therefore the creation, production and formulation
of content must be encouraged at all levels, not
only at the national level of all developing countries
but, within the same nation, at the local and community
levels, to ensure that developing nations do not
remain information consumers of a content conceived
by others. …
|
| President
Thabo Mbeki |
Quality
of a Global Information Society
|
President
Mbeki, continued;
“….
Infrastructure allows for the transformation of
people inspiration, creativity and artistic, literary
and scientific skills into the production of education
and entertainment works shared by all.”
|
| President
Thabo Mbeki |
Quality
of a Global Information Society
|
President
Mbeki, in his address to the WSIS 2005 Tunis, 16 November
2005, Tunisia concluded by saying;
“….
We are therefore determined to do everything we
can to implement the outcomes of this World Summit
on the Information Society and appeal to all stakeholders
similarly to commit themselves to take action to
translate the shared vision of an inclusive development-oriented
information society into practical reality.”
|
| President
Thabo Mbeki |
Quality
of a Global Information Society
 |
I
would therefore end by saying :
“Let
us together and in partnership globally, push back
the frontiers of poverty and help develop our communities
using ICTs.”
Broadly,
questions to be answered in this session, range
from :
Towards an information economy, bridging the content
gap, infrastructure divide and narrowing the digital
divide
Protection, production and promotion of local content
What global e-content strategies for the information
society in the years to come
To what extent will all these take forward the of
Millennium Development Goals and better lives of
all world citizens
|
| MDDA
CEO |
 |
The
first speaker to help us navigate the challenge posed
in this session with “Vision Speeches”
is:
Marcus
Leaning, Lecturer of the Scool of Creative Arts
and Humanities, Trinity College, University of Wales,
UK
|
| Marcus
Leaning |
|
The
second speaker will be:
Caro
Lucas, Center of Excellence:Control and Intelligent
Processing and School of Cognitive Sciences, University
of Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
|
| ProfCaro
Lucas |
 |
Quality
of a Global Information Society After the presentations
will be |
Merci
boko (French)
Shenorhakalutyun (Armenian)
Motshakaram (Farsi, from Iran)
Ndiyabulela (Xhosa, from S.A.)
Ke a leboga (Sotho, from S.A.)
Ngiyabonga (Zulu, from S.A.)
Asante sana (Swahili, from Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia,
etc.)
I thank you (English) Lumko
Mtimde
lumko@mdda.org.za
www.mdda.org.za
07 October2006
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