The preparatory meeting for the Tunis phase will be held from 24 to 26 June 2004
The provisional Bureau of the WSIS Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) decided, at its 31 March 2004 meeting, that the first preparatory meeting for the Tunis phase is to be held in Hammamet (Tunisia) from 24 to 26 June 2004. The provisional Bureau confirmed that one of the meeting's tasks will be to specify the structure and mechanisms for the second phase of WSIS, as well as the expected outputs. All information concerning the preparatory meeting will be published on the official WSIS web site..

Deadline for accreditation: 12 May 2004
Non-governmental organizations and civil society and private-sector entities who wish to participate in the preparatory meeting of June 2004 and who are not yet accredited to the PrepComs for the Geneva phase (see lists of accredited entities), should submit the accreditation request form to the Executive Secretariat by 12 May 2004 at the latest by fax (fax number 00 41 22 730 63 93) or by mail. 
Requests submitted after the deadline can be considered only for the next WSIS Preparatory Meeting.
Dates for registration of members of accredited organizations and entities will be provided as soon as possible.

Informal preparatory meeting held in Tunis on 2 and 3 March 2004
The Tunisian Government, in coordination with ITU, invited the members of the new intergovernmental 
PrepCom Bureau, the civil society Bureau, HLSOC (High-Level Summit Organizing Committee) and CCBI (Coordination Committee of Business Interlocutors) to attend an informal preparatory meeting in Tunis on 2 and 3 March 2004 for the purpose of launching discussions on the structure and mechanisms for the second phase of WSIS. Some 100 people took up the invitation and participated in the informal discussions on the 
preparatory process for the Tunis phase.
In the course of the discussions, Tunisia stressed the importance of continuity and cohesion between 
the two phases of the Summit, as well as the need to be guided by the principle of "digital 
solidarity" with the objective of limiting the digital divide between the countries of the North and 
those of the South and of setting up an Action Plan extending, beyond the Tunis phase in 2005, to the 
year 2015. Tunisia proposed that the second phase of WSIS should be placed under the theme "
Partnership for sustainable development based on solidarity". See the corresponding press release from the Tunisian Government.

Composition of the new WSIS PrepCom Bureau
The governments participating in WSIS have agreed on the composition of the new Bureau of the 
Preparatory Committee for the Tunis phase. The provisional Bureau decided to raise the number of 
countries per region to six. Further to this decision and to regional consultations on the matter, the 
five regions designated their representatives to serve in the new provisional PrepCom Bureau for the 
Tunis phase. In its new composition, the provisional WSIS PrepCom Bureau met for the first time on 19 March 2004. The composition of the PrepCom Bureau for the Tunis phase, as well as its chairmanship, will be formally approved during the above mentioned preparatory meeting.

WSIS fundraising campaign launched
On 5 April 2004, the ITU Secretary-General launched a fundraising campaign for WSIS 2005 to support 
the preparatory process for the Tunis phase of the World Summit on the Information Society. The 
campaign marked its first success with a donation of CHF 386 300 from the Government of Japan. Several 
Member States and other players announced, moreover, that they would be supporting WSIS by seconding 
experts to the Executive Secretariat. Costs in respect of the preparatory process for the Tunis phase 
are expected to amount to CHF 15 million. The goal of this campaign is to raise at least CHF 5 
million, to be paid into the WSIS Special Fund, with the remaining amount to be covered by in-kind 
contributions from various partners. For more information, please consult the WSIS website.

ITU Workshop on Internet Governance. Results
ITU has just published the detailed Report on the Workshop on Internet governance organized on 26 and 27 February 2004 in Geneva, together with the Report from President Shyamal Ghosh. 
The Workshop organized by ITU was held as a follow-up to the first phase of the World Summit on the 
Information Society (Geneva, 10-12 December). The workshop highlighted participants’ views that the 
scope of governance activities should be articulated in a neutral and systematic ways and should make 
the difference between "hard" forms of governance, which involve laws, regulations or standards, and 
"soft" forms, such as cooperation and coordination. This approach would make it possible to map big-
picture issues such as development of technology for equitable and sustainable global development and 
more narrow-focused issues such as the use of common resources and the exchange of specific services 
and products between nations. Other key components of governance issues that were highlighted included 
information and network security, protection of citizens’ rights and consumer interests, support for 
cultural and linguistic diversity, and measures to deal with spam.
See also the ITU press release.

ITU Working Group on WSIS. Results of the fifth meeting
The fifth meeting of the ITU Council WG-WSIS, open to all Member States and Sector Members, took place 
in Geneva on 25 February 2004, in order to discuss the output from the Geneva Phase of the Summit, and 
evaluate the possible role ITU could play in the implementation of the Declaration and Action Plan, 
and on the organization of the Tunis phase of the Summit.
Participants noted that in the WSIS Declaration of Principles (Para 64), ITU’s core competencies are 
considered of crucial importance for building the Information Society, and that some 8 of the 11 key 
principles in the Declaration relate to the mandate of ITU and most of them require that ITU play a 
leading role in implementation
In order to prepare the final report to Council 2004, the sixth meeting of the Council WG-WSIS will be 
held at ITU Headquarters in Geneva from 7 to 8 June 2004. 
Further information and meeting documents are available at the ITU Council website. 

ITU-D activities relating to WSIS
Given the major synergies that exist between the outputs of the Geneva Summit and ITU's Istanbul 
Action Plan, the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) is in no small way concerned with the 
implementation of the WSIS Action Plan. See the List of BDT activities planned for 2004.

Global Forum on Internet Governance
The UN ICT Task Force Global Forum on Internet Governance that was held on 25 and 26 March 2004 at United Nations headquarters in New York brought together leading players and stakeholders interested in Internet 
governance, including United Nations Member States, civil society, the private sector and 
intergovernmental organizations, including ITU. The Global Forum, organized by the United Nations 
Information and Communication Technologies Task Force, enabled the United Nations Secretary-General to 
lay emphasis on the need to create new, inclusive and partnership-based models for Internet regulation 
that would allow for the needs of all the peoples of the world to be taken into consideration. See the corresponding United Nations press release. 

A Swiss diplomat appointed to head the Internet Governance secretariat
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Swiss diplomat Mr Markus Kummer to head the 
Internet Governance secretariat. This secretariat is to be established in Geneva at the Palais des 
Nations with the task of assisting the Secretary-General in setting up the Working Group on Internet 
Governance. The establishment of the working group was decided by WSIS in December 2003 in Geneva, the 
participating governments having at that time requested the United Nations to set up a working group 
on Internet governance to study, during the run-up to the 2005 Summit and within the framework of an 
open and inclusive process, issues relating to Internet governance, and to formulate proposals with 
regard to the measures to be taken. See the corresponding United Nations press release.