AITMS 2005, Day 2

On the second day of the summit, we were given some free time to tour TELECOM ARABIA 2005 and the BROADBAND MIDDLE EAST 2005 conference, two events held concurrently with the Summit at the Bahrain Convention Centre.



One of the high points of the 2nd day was the chance to meet and interact with Dr. Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN, the international organization charged with coordinating the Internet's system of unique identifiers, including the Domain Name System and the Internet Protocol address functions. Prior to heading ICANN, Dr. Twomey worked for the Australian Government and was involved with the process to redelegate the Australian domain name registry. He also served as the Chair of one of ICANN's most powerful committees, the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) which consists of over 100 government officials from individual member countries.



Another high point was the floor debate (above) on the Summit declaration. Perhaps inspired by my story about People Power 2, the Azerbaijani minister had submitted a paragraph on "IT for Democracy and Human Rights" to be considered for inclusion in the Summit declaration. Unfortunately, there were others in the Summit who did not feel as enthusiastic about democracy (and human rights). Thus ensued a 2-hour debate (!) on how to wordsmith the final declaration. In the end, a compromise was reached, and thus you will not find the word "democracy" in the Bahrain IT Declaration.

The Summit concluded with the selection of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan as the location for the 4th Asia IT Ministers Summit.

Click here for more photos of the summit.