Ten years ago the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) took place in Geneva, aiming to bridge the global digital divide separating rich from poor countries by enhancing access to the Internet in the developing world. The first WSIS+10 review event of the objectives set in 2003 is being held this week, Monday to Wednesday, at UNESCO in Paris. This meeting is an integral part of the overall WSIS review process that aims to integrate findings into the UN Millennium Development Goals review process and into a possible post-2015 sustainable development framework.

More than 1,000 stakeholders gathered this morning to listen the opening speech by Irina Bokova, General Director of UNESCO and a thoughtful keynote speech by Prof. Jeffrey Sachs who addressed the importance of bridging digital and knowledge divide in achieving the Millennium Development Goals as well as in solving around the main sustainable development challenges.

During the day's keynote presentations the move from information to knowledge societies was addressed by a number of speakers. Others made it clear that media and information literacy has a key role to play in the development of knowledge societies, with Herminio Coloma, Secretary of the Presidential Communications Operations Office, Philippines, mentioning the importance of the IFLA/IFAP Moscow Declaration on Media and Information Literary.

IFLA will host two important panels tomorrow. One on the question of ownership and licensing and one on the role of public access to the internet to support knowledge societies. These sessions can be followed online and you can join via remote participation: