The Emerging Role of Civil Society in the Information Society –
Australian Civil Society Engagement in the WSIS Process
Taylor W1*, Johanson G2*
1. Cape Peninsula University of Technolgy, Cape Town, South Africa
2. Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is the largest peace-time
Summit to be conducted by the UN. It held its first main meeting in 2003
in Geneva, and the second will be held in Tunis in 2005. A group of academic
researchers in two Australian centres undertook to lead a consultative
research process involving concerned Australian individuals and groups
to create a statement as input to WSIS1, and a Draft Strategy report as
input to WSIS2, which encapsulate the expectations and aspirations of
a nascent ‘civil society’ in Australia.
The two academic groups – the Centre for Community Networking Research
(CCNR) at Monash in Melbourne, and the COIN Internet Academy, at Rockhampton,
in Queensland – coordinated the establishment of the Roundtable
for Australian Civil Society (RACS). RACS participants were drawn from
a wide range of civil society backgrounds. The findings of the RACS research
process are intended not only as inputs to WSIS but also to Australian
policy development on the information economy.
Civil society has not been a widely-used term in the Australasian region
of the globe, so an initial phase of engagement in the RACS process was
to determine what it meant to Australians, and in what forums it was articulated.
The WSIS program has been conducted by the International Telecommunications
Union (ITU) on behalf of the United Nations (UN). As a global platform
for government, business and civil society to engage as partners in development
of policy and to share experiences of successful practice, WSIS aimed
to improve global access, and equity in digital inclusion in the widespread
use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).
The international acknowledgement of the necessity of engagement of ‘civil
society’ as an equal partner with business and government was a
refreshingly innovative way to stimulate energetic debate. The concept
of civil society as a basis for community engagement had neither form
nor function in many places. Development of the RACS process for the WSIS
has been supported by the Australian government, which values for civic
input.
Using Participative Action Research (PAR) and Grounded Theory (GT),
this paper reports on the two-part RACS research process and interprets
the findings in terms of the emergence of civil society as a stakeholder
in ICT policy development in Australia. It examines some of the underlying
issues of identification of civil society, describes opinions about Australia’s
global role, and makes recommendations about necessary future strategies
to enhance engagement. These researchers are concerned about the ongoing
lack of WSIS interest in reflective practice, which they believe should
parallel the mass of consultations occurring on other topics of permanent
global significance.
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