Message of the Secretary-General of ITU
The Secretary-General of ITU, Mr. Yoshio Utsumi, is proud of the landmark achievements of the Geneva phase of the World Summit on the Information Society, which produced a political consensus among the leaders of the world about the importance of the Information Society. This consensus has been expressed in the Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action. Launching the second phase of WSIS, Mr. Utsumi stressed that we are now faced with the challenge of transforming the principles and proposals of the political documents into concrete action. Click here for the message of Mr. Yoshio Utsumi

Partnership projects announced
With the announcement of a number of Partnership projects, the participants at the Geneva Summit launched the implementation process of the political principles of WSIS.

Mr. Charles Geiger nominated Assistant Executive Director
Mr. Utsumi thanked Mr. Pierre Gagné for his excellent work as the head of the Executive Secretariat for the first phase of WSIS. As Mr. Gagné has taken over responsibilities in the Telecommunication Development Bureau  (BDT) at ITU, the Secretary-General of ITU nominated Mr. Charles Geiger as Assistant Executive Director of the WSIS Executive Secretariat. Mr. Geiger is on secondment from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Swiss Confederation for the preparation of WSIS.

WSIS-online.net
WSIS-online.net is an international community Internet platform, which was created on the initiative of Switzerland to bring together global actors in the Information Society, as well as projects and events organized during and between the two summits in Geneva 2003 and Tunis 2005, in order to ensure visibility, transparency and follow-through for the WSIS Plan of Action.

WSIS official website
The WSIS Executive Secretariat will keep its website active (www.itu.int/wsis) in order to keep you informed about the ongoing preparatory process for the Tunis phase. A new section has been opened on the website to include contributions on Internet Governance and Financing. As indicated in the basic documents of the Summit, Working Groups on Internet Governance and on Financing will be created and will function under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General.

Website of Tunisia
Tunisia, host of the second phase of WSIS, has recently created a new website: www.smsitunis2005.org

Website of Switzerland
Switzerland, host of the first phase of WSIS, will continue to maintain the website that contains valuable information and insights: www.wsisgeneva2003.org

Digital Solidarity Fund
The President of Senegal, Mr. Abdoulaye Wade, has invited to Dakar the partners of the initiative supporting the Digital Solidarity Fund – representatives of the City of Geneva, the City of Lyon and the region of Torino - to assess the situation and give the necessary impetus for the realization of the Fund. For more information, please see the Press release of the City of Geneva, dated 19.1.04.