UNESCO and the Information Revolution

A television from the time of UNESCO's birth.

UNESCO began operations in 1946 and has continued it operations without cease until today. Thus it has been functioning during the entire period of the technologically based social and economic transformation that we call the Information Revolution.

UNESCO was chartered to be the lead agency in the United Nations system dealing with mass media, including radio and film. Even in its first years its leadership recognized the importance of the newly invented electronic digital computer and as computers became more and more important, UNESCO became more involved in "informatics" eventually creating an Intergovernmental Program for Informatics and taking over the functions of the the International Bureau for Informatics.

UNESCO has played a visible role in the field, notably as cosponsor of the 1978 Strategies and Policies for Informatics Conference and the World Summit on the Information Society in 2003-2005. Its website provides a portal on free and open source software, and UNESCO has as usual served as a laboratory for ideas, a clearing house of information, and a forum for discussion.

Indeed, in 1980 the discussion of the McBride Report at the UNESCO General Conference, following the earlier declaration of the United Nations on a New World Information Order was both contentious and widely publicized, and is thought to have contributed to the decision by the United States and United Kingdom to withdraw from UNESCO.

Not only was UNESCO present and visible at the beginning and throughout the Information Revolution, it experienced huge growth during its lifetime, notably expanding from 20 member nations at its founding to 193 member nations today. With the large number of new states created by decolonization joining UNESCO prior to major technological advances, the period from the 1970s to today gave UNESCO a broad constituency to discuss the issues of the digital divide.

Incidentally, as I have pointed out often in this blog, I understand the digital divide not only to include the disparity in personal connectivity (phones, mass media, personal computers, Intente connectivity) but also the vast difference in expenditures on ICT infrastructure in manufacturing, finance, and transportation between rich and poor countries.

In my seminar on UNESCO at George Washington University last night, we discussed the Communications and Information Program of UNESCO. I asked the class to consider whether UNESCO had adequately risen to the challenges and opportunities provided by the Information Revolution.

One of my students answered, correctly I think, that the question is meaningless. While one might wish that things had been different than they were, they were what they were.

Still, I wonder whether UNESCO might have done more to prepare the world for the Information Revolution and to reduce the Digital Divide if:

• There had been a professional and managerial staff more attuned to the challenge of the Information Revolution;
• There had be a governance structure better designed to allow detection and response to technological opportunities;
• There had been more money to support a larger staff and program;
• The response to the Information Revolution had not been in the hands of an organization charged also with leadership in the fields of education, science and culture, each of which was also experiencing explosive global change.

The Apple IPad: The latest in personal computer/telephone tech.