World Internet Forum Planned for Next Year

Computergram International, Sept 20, 1999

A British member of Parliament yesterday launched the World Internet Forum, what is hoped to be an annual public-private conference aimed at getting 500 government officials and industry leaders into a room to thrash out net-related ideas. Key issues are likely to be education, culture, health and welfare and all information will be published on the conference web site.

Derek Wyatt, an outspoken Labour MP with a history in IT, announced that WIF would be a way for governments to learn from one another's experience. This would prevent mistakes being duplicated internationally, and help tardy states keep up with 'internet time'. Wyatt is said to have come up with the project in response to the continual failure of governmental IT contracts, such as the Siemens passport controversy earlier this year.

Wyatt stressed the international diversity of the event, offering to fly over representatives of poorer nations at the conference's expense. But as yet there are no plans for UK government funding for the project, which raises the probability of corporate sponsorship. The first WIF will be held at Oxford University, UK, for five days beginning September 3, 2000.