Accueil / Réseaux et expertise
VETTER Tony
Project Officer, Information Society and Sustainable Development Policy
IISD (International Institute for Sustainable Development)
Ottawa, Canada
Voir l'interview (3° Forum international TIC21 2007)
 |
Tony Vetter has over 10 years of experience in the telecommunications sector, having worked in product management, technical marketing, network planning and technical support. Tony recently launched a new career direction by pursuing a masters degree at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA), focusing his studies on international development theory, policy and economics. His research interests include: technology as a catalyst for development, the impact of technology on societies, microfinance, and promotion of entrepreneurship as a development tool. Tony currently holds a Bachelor and Masters of Engineering Physics (McMaster University, Hamilton), and completion of his MA at NPSIA is expected in early 2008.
Contribution
In 2003, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) declared its challenge "to harness the potential of information and communication technology (ICT) to promote the development goals of the Millennium Declaration." WSIS also reiterated its "commitment to the achievement of sustainable development." One of the key issues that emerged during the WSIS process was a debate on Internet governance. The summit affirmed that “the Internet has evolved into a global facility available to the public and its governance should constitute a core issue of the Information Society Agenda.” It also recognized that “Internet governance, carried out according to the Geneva principles, is an essential element for a people-centred, inclusive, development-oriented, and non-discriminatory Information society.”
The Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG), created by WSIS to clarify the issues of this debate, defined Internet governance as “the development and application by Governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet.” Through its attempt to resolve key issues such as access, multi-stakeholder participation, openness, and security, among others, the Internet governance debate will have a bearing on the future of global communications and knowledge exchange.
The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) believes that WSIS’s commitment to sustainable development should follow and inform the Internet governance debate. Sustainable development efforts cannot be conceived without global communications and knowledge exchange: therefore, the outcomes of the Internet governance debate will affect our ability to manage the social, environmental and economic factors of sustainable development. Beyond this fundamental link, numerous and diverse issue areas exist where the Internet governance and sustainable development policy communities could discover mutual challenges and learn from each others approaches to confronting them, setting the stage for future cooperation. Over the past year, in collaboration with partners and stakeholders, IISD has aimed to expand the links between these two communities of researchers and practitioners.