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World Congress on Information Technology

WCIT 2006 I was admitted as a delegate to the World Congress on Information Technology this week because I had served on WCIT2006's technology committee, though I haven't given the conference the attention it deserves – i.e. I haven't had time to participate in most of the sessions, unfortunate because I hear they've gone very well. WCIT, a conference of the World Information and Technology Services Alliance (WITSA), is described as "as a catalyst for social and economic development through the exchange of policies, ideas, and technology" that draws "2,000 business, government, and academic leaders from 80 countries."

This 15^th World Congress seeks to explore issues of impact and create actionable policy recommendations to world and technology industry leaders focusing on three issues of Global Impact: privacy and security, healthcare, and global digital access.

My overall impression of the conference based on my limited participation has been that it's very business-focused, and the usual suspects (Microsoft, Intel, Dell) are expected to dominate global technology development and extend their reach into developing nations. The vibe is top-down, but I heard a lot of folks talking about bottom-up, as well.

jon posted this at 8:20 AM
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Comments

Hey Jon,

I'd have to agree with the sentiments based on my very limited exposure. I only attended the Open Source Workshop on Tuesday, May 2. The venue, being the court setting in the UT law school, gave off a distinctly institutional aroma which semmed to clash with the spirit of open source to me, but still had a great time connecting with folks during the breaks.

One of the questions that burned for me during the day was: are the corporate types really catching on? (I had just read the IBM GIO report). My conclusion is that they have a clue, but only barely. They see that a buck can be made by contributing to open source efforts and monetizing products and services on top of that work, but they apparently still cling tightly to a notion of control that is increasingly indefensible.

If you haven't seen it, a great working paper that covers these ideas in considerable depth is available on John Hagel's site at: http://www.johnhagel.com/creationnets.pdf

- David

Posted by: David Swedlow | May 9, 2006 3:24 AM