World Summit on the Information Society

Second preliminary session of the World Summit Information Society, plenary meeting, 18–25 February 2005, UN building, Geneva, Switzerland.
Internet history timeline

Early research and development:

Merging the networks and creating the Internet:

Commercialization, privatization, broader access leads to the modern Internet:

Examples of Internet services:

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was a two-phase United Nations-sponsored summit on information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis. WSIS Forums have taken place periodically since then. One of the Summit's chief aims is to bridge the global digital divide separating rich countries from poor countries by increasing internet accessibility in the developing world. The conferences established 17 May as World Information Society Day.

The WSIS+10 Process marked the ten-year milestone since the 2005 Summit. In 2015, the stocktaking process culminated with a High-Level meeting of the UN General Assembly on 15 and 16 December in New York.[1] A WSIS+20 review will take place in 2025.[2]

  1. ^ "United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs". Public Administration and Development Management. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
  2. ^ "WSIS+20 High-Level Event 2025", itu.int, retrieved 22 October 2024