Observatory on Digital Communication

View from the previous OCCAM - Observatory on Digital Communication headquarters, in Milan, Piazza Duomo, with the UNESCO flag.

The Observatory on Digital Communication (OCCAM) was established in 1996 by UNESCO in Milan, with the Agreements signed by the director general, Federico Mayor and Marco Formentini in June 1996. The acronym stands for Observatory for Cultural Communication and Audiovisual in the Mediterranean.[1][2]

Since 2003, OCCAM has been associated with the United Nations Department of Public Information,[3] while in 2005 it received Special Consultative Status at the UN's Social and Economic Council (ECOSOC).[4][5] Since 2006 OCCAM is leader of the e-service for development Community of Expertise within the Global Alliance for Information and Communications Technologies and Development (UN - GAID), initiative launched by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Kuala Lumpur.[6]

The president of the Observatory is the architect Pierpaolo Saporito, who founded it during his presidency at the UNESCO International Council for FIlm Television and Audiovisual Communication (CICT- IFCT), nominated High Level Advisor of the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development.[7]

OCCAM was founded with the mission to fight poverty as effectively as possible using the new technologies and to promote sustainable development actions in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs),[8] and works to support the UN strategies for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), former Millennium Development Goals (MDGs, 2000-2015).[9]

OCCAM's actions, besides its function of Observatory on Digital Communication with studies and research, focuses also on two other main initiatives:

  • the Infopoverty World Conference that has been held annually since 2001 in the UNHQ in New York; it takes stock of the phenomena of the digital revolution as it can be employed to strengthen the fight against poverty;
  • the Infopoverty Programme that collects the operational suggestions emerging from the conference to turn them into projects realized in various parts of the world.

As part of the Infopoverty program, OCCAM promoted the foundation of the Infopoverty Institute at the University of Oklahoma in 2004, to spread the Infopoverty vision in the American academic world, having as its scope to improve the living conditions of the population with ICT.[10]

The president of OCCAM - Observatory on Digital Communication, Pierpaolo Saporito with Staffan de Mistura at the previous Observatory's headquarters in Milan, Piazza Duomo, on the occasion of the UN celebration day.
  1. ^ "Ferrari da Fiera Spa al Comitato UNESCO". laRepubblica. 18 October 2007. p. 8.
  2. ^ Belloni, Alberto (17 October 2007). "Tecnologia e Sviluppo - Ferrari "ambasciatore" per il Palazzo di Vetro". il Cittadino. p. 12.
  3. ^ Piromalli, Ilaria (26 July 2018). "l 21 aprile si terrà la Infopoverty World Conference, che porta le parole chiave di sviluppo e sostenibilità per l'abbattimento della povertà". Ultima Voce.
  4. ^ "IL CONTRIBUTO ITALIANO ALLA LOTTA ALL'HIV/AIDS - IX INFOPOVERTY WORLD CONFERENCE - III SESSIONE ITALIANA". Consgilio Nazionale delle Ricerche. 20 March 2009.
  5. ^ "Civil Society Participation". NGO Branch, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
  6. ^ Celik, Aliye P. (2007). Foundations of the Global Alliance for ICT and Development. New York: United Nations. p. 66. ISBN 9789211045673.
  7. ^ "Pierpaolo Saporito, presidente di OCCAM, nominato High Level Advisor dell'Alleanza Globale delle Nazioni Unite per le ICT e lo sviluppo". Marketpress.
  8. ^ "Innovazione e Tecnologia al servizio del Terzo Mondo". il Giornale ed.Milano. 17 October 2007. p. 46.
  9. ^ "Text delivered by Pierpaolo Saporito President of OCCAM 44th Commission on Social Development – ECOSOC" (PDF). United Nations Public-Private Alliance for Rural Development. 13 February 2006.
  10. ^ "Infopoverty Institute". infopoverty.ou.edu.