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:
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]