Abstracts

Abstracts

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Jānis Kārkliņš
Ambassador of Latvia in France
Chairman, Tunis Stage Preparatory Committee, World Summit on the Information Society

Technological Development Makes Us Revise Previously Set Objectives

In his interview, H.E. Jānis Kārkliņš stressed several important factors that, in his opinion, require further attention to build an Information Society for All. The earlier declared goal of ensuring an access of almost everyone on the planet to radio and television has virtually been achieved. The world’s current and future problems now rest in ensuring broadband Internet access and the developing multilingualism on the Internet. Today’s most successful projects involve mobile telephones and the Internet access provided by mobile devices. Humanity is on the verge of achieving mobile governance. One of the most outstanding issues dictated by this breath-taking pace of modern technological development involves the storage of electronic data.

Adama Samassekou
President, International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies
President, The MAYA World Network for Linguistic Diversity
Chairman, Geneva Stage Preparatory Committee, World Summit on the Information Society

It is a Charter of Ethics That We Need to Put Humanism in the Center of Entire Development Process

In an interview with The Information Society journal, Adam Samassekou lays out his vision of the pressing problems now facing modernity, which he believes may be resolved only through the united efforts that take all the various interested parties’ interests into account. Samassekou stressed the need to expand the field of humanitarian science research since most of it currently focuses exclusively on Western European consumers. He said it was tremendously important to also include the other regions in this work – Africa, Asia, South America and Oceania. And in order to profit from the wealth of diversity in world cultures, this research must also lay out the particular qualities of each culture, region and nation. We must return to our fundamental values, which means that humanity must become the center of our entire world development process. In essence, what we are talking about is a new humanitarian paradigm. The creation of a Charter of Ethics for an information society, or a society of knowledge, is a fundamental issue of our times.

Frank Thomas
FTR Internet Research (France)

Vittadini Nicoletta
Professor at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Milan (Italy)

Pedro Gómez Fernández
Associated Professor in the Sociologie VI Department (Public Opinion and Mass Communication) at the Faculty of Communication Sciences (Journalism) of the Complutense University of Madrid

Cultural influences on the adoption of web 2.0 services
The roll-out of broadband infrastructure and the socially inclusive use of broadband-based services are central issues in Europe's path towards an information society. The way in which broadband infrastructure itself diffuses including the availability of broadband connections, connection speed and tariff structures, discussed in chapter 5 of this book) has important consequences. However, the actual take up of broadband services is also clearly significant, even if, according to recent studies, broadband diffusion and service adoption in Europe are driven more by supply than by demand (Crabtree, 2003). One thing we need to know about the adoption that does take place is whether there is a common model for all European countries that helps to us to understand broadband take up and use or whether we have to take national differences into account? The present work is devoted to these questions.