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The world we live in today is called an information society; a place where the informed are ruling and receive all the best is no doubt the result of science and technology.
We are living in the information age, an age which is characterized by inventions and innovations that make for better information recipients and easier communication for all. Imagine the information systems! All aspects developed to great standards, as well as great inventions and developments- that is the power of information technology. African nations have yet to grab hold of the actions and tips of the age of information in uniformity.
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is a world summit organized by the United Nations through the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and member states to develop the information society to a standard that ensures no society is digitally divided, its information limited or staved.
It started some years back in Geneva in 2001 and continues with the 2005 edition ending in Tunis, Africa.
The youth in Africa held many policy training and preparatory conferences in Africa for the summit and highlighted the various ways in which the action plans would benefit the African continent, a continent bereft of basic infrastructure and besieged by poverty.
The summit characterizes and discusses extensively how African nations and people can evolve to embrace the WSIS action plans and policies on assisting their countries with the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to achieve the Millenuim Development Goals (MDGs).
We have been deliberating on how our information society will be able to develop in comparison with that of the western countries even at an arithmetic progression.
African nations have been lagging behind in the development of their information infrastructures and technologies due to poverty and other factors that inhibit our development. With the help of the advanced nations and in reference to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals plan for action, African nations hope to achieve a balanced and possibly, a semi-standard information society by the year 2015.
The youths of Africa are playing great and key roles in this venture. They are making the government understand their part in the process and implementation of the agreed upon projects and plans, organizing policy training sessions to enlighten and educate; and also, by participating in the decision making faction of WSIS on that which concerns the Information society of Africa.
It is real time African nations evolve to embrace information and communications technology for development and innovation, since the informed are leaders; we are called to become the informed in a united world and united global information village. The WSIS paves a clear road to Africa’s information technology development; let us embrace it and work towards it!
At the World Summit on the Information Society meeting, which just ended in Tunis, the World Leaders resolved to make the World Information Society one, with information accessible and available for all. Internet governance is awarded to the innovators and inventors.
The U.S. was praised for making the internet available for all and solving the control problem.
We believe that this commitment will stand when people keep the promise!
We are landing: Keep the promise youths by making your voices heard, even when people are not listening!
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Henry Ekwuruke
Henry Ekwuruke is Executive Director of the Development Generation Africa International.
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