The 2012 World Telecommunication and Information Society Award was presented to three eminent personalities: President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina, Huawei Chairman Sun Yafang, and Academy Award winning actor Geena Davis, founder of the Geena Davis Institute of Gender in Media. The ceremony took place in Geneva to mark the 147th anniversary of the establishment of ITU in 1865.

The annual meeting in Brasilia (17-18 April) welcomes 1,190 delegates – including representatives from civil society organisations, businesses and governments – to discuss the latest reforms, tools and innovations in the open government field. A review of 35 of these action plans – covering countries from North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa – shows a wide range of different priorities which mirror the unique context within each. However the ten most common pledges are:

Tim Kelsey, Director of Transparency and Open Data from the UK Cabinet Office has just presented on the UK Action Plan at the OGP meeting in Brasilia.
Kelsey outlined that the UK Action Plan was published when the UK joined the steering committee of the OGP, but that the UK now plans to go through a process of refreshing the action plan, setting up a ‘large forum’ through which to engage with civil society. Tim explained the government have been thinking about ways in which to take in all the voices which have an interest in the UKs OGP participation, both focussed on the domestic activities and action plan, and on the UK role as co-chair of the OGP playing a global leadership role, can be engaged, explaining “we want to be transparent about how we engage”. This forum should be established during May.

Small Business Owners in and around Kingstown are being afforded an opportunity to develop their skills in using and managing basic Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools to advance their businesses