United Nations ICT Berlin meeting

Back from Berlin, where I attended the UN ICT taskforce global forum. It'a strange experience attending a UN meeting - lots of civility but almost no content at all.

They did agree three things: [1] to set up a Global Alliance to replace UN ICT next year, not least because some claim it might be perilously close to the $500,000 minimum funding left in the coffers; [2] to meet in Dublin in April to discuss education, with new Vice-Chairs (see funding gap) Brendan Tuohy of the Irish government and Art O'Reilly from Cisco; [3] to feed into the WSIS process, on Internet governance and funding mechanisms.

But there was no real movement on the two key issues; [1] a Digital Solidarity fund - which was buried under the table; [2] real empirical work on seeing how ICTs do aid development - and whether they really contribute to the NIEO-style top-down Millenium Development Goals.

So lots of talk and not much action, but the networking around the event was fun...more below!