Event brings together heads of state and thousands of representatives from academia, non-governmental organisations, charitable groups and information technology industries from 175 nations
The digital revolution has linked the global village, but much of the world remains disconnected and is left stranded by an ever-widening digital divide.
A six-member delegation from the Indiana University School of Informatics has been accredited by the United Nations and will be among those attending the UN World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis.
The event, hosted by the Tunisian government, 16-18 November 2005, brings together heads of state and thousands of representatives from academia, non-governmental organisations, charitable groups and information technology industries from 175 nations.
The gathering is the final of a two-phase summit convened by the UN.
The first phase was December 2003 in Geneva, Switzerland.
"Information technology has transformed society in dramatic and significant ways, but the gulf between rich and poor nations benefiting from these innovations continues to expand," says School of Informatics Dean Michael Dunn.
"While our faculty are there mainly as observers, they have expertise and insights they will share to help find solutions to the problems wrought by the digital divide." Attending are Christine Ogan, professor of informatics; Michael Gasser, associate professor of computer science; John Paolillo, associate professor of informatics; Eden Medina, assistant professor of informatics; David Hakken, professor of informatics; and graduate student Matthew Kane, who is seeking a doctorate in computer science.
"Our group members will participate in various conferences and seminars scheduled before the UN summit," says Gasser, whose research focuses on natural language processing and learning.
Gasser and Kane will be presenters at such a forum geared mainly for academicians.
Ogan's concentration is in social informatics, worldwide uses of new communications technologies and gender equity issues in the communications professions.
Also a professor in the IU School of Journalism, Ogan recently conducted a survey of 4500 visitors to a Turkish website and will conduct a study of the internet use by Turkish migrants in the Netherlands next spring.
She is also the external reviewer of a US-Middle East Partnership Initiative conducted by faculty at Bowling Green State University that is focused on capacity building of Tunisian journalists.
While in Tunis she will meet with members of the project.
Paolillo, also an associate professor in the IU School of Library and Information Science, specialises in linguistics and sociolinguistics of computer-mediated communication.
He will participate in a pre-summit forum sponsored by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
Hakken, a cultural anthropologist who researches cyberspace issues, chairs the School's new globalisation committee.
He recently returned from a Fulbright Fellowship in Malaysia where he studied open source software development and advocacy.
Medina's work examines the interplay of technology and history, and her most recent work documented the historical development of computing in Latin America.
She says her participation in the WSIS summit will allow her to advance her new project on information technology and human rights.
