L4D Learning for Democracy

The SATW is since several years working on the issues of the Information Society (Workshops of Munschenwiler in October 2002, of Gwatt in February 2003, involvement in the December 2003 WSIS with the EKS Forum). It was therefore quite natural to formalise its contribution in view of the revision of the Government strategy for the Information Society. It was finalised in the November 2004 Münschenwiler workshop and this brochure explicits the context, the priorities, the urgent items and the main actions to undertake.

It will be easy to note that the urgent items are:
     • Needs to quickly revise the 1998 Swiss Strategy
        for the Information Society
     • The key role of Education
     • The prerequisites for a true Information Society
     • The needs to organise a concertation between the main actors

Independently of the recommendations derived from experts recent observations and of the priorities defined by the plurality of the assembled groups, the suggested urgent actions to be conducted with the various partners are necessary and unavoidable measures (they were sent to the federal Authorities in December 2004).

The obviousness of the urgencies and the priorities which surfaced after the reflections of the various working groups partly explain the success of the process. The interest and the value of such recommendations emerged also from the enlarged concertation and the synergy between the different groups which, normally, do not meet and collaborate; they were in fact issued from the plurality and diversity of the components of an Information Society at large.

Considering the generalisation of the current technological evolutions these recommendations present an obvious urgent character. This report wants to be a direct contribution towards the current preparatory work of the Federal Government in view of the updating of the Swiss Strategy for an Information Society.

It is in this spirit that the ICT commission of the SATW remains at the disposal of the federal Authorities to contribute to the completion of their activities and is available to continue to work in order to facilitate the measures which will be decided this year by the Federal Government.

               Raymond Morel                                  Fulvio Caccia
Chairman of the SATW ICT Commission       SATW Vice-Chairman