Summits are best at dealing with problems, where the need for action is urgent and the range of possible actions limited. They are less good at deali…

- David Souter

Kofi Annan described World Summit on the Information Society as the first summit to deal primarily with an opportunity. The range of issues and poten…

- David Souter

The concept of the "information society" is both vague and all-embracing. Different participants meant different things by it. In practice, though, W…

- David Souter

I don't think that developing countries gained from a two-stage process. A single phase summit (which is, after all, a two year process, not a three …

- David Souter

Summits [World Summit on the Information Society] are meant to help governments reach a global consensus on major issues which has proved elusive in …

- David Souter

The main drawback, of course, was cost. Participating effectively in World Summit on the Information Society was very expensive for both developing c…

- David Souter

It is much easier to modify an opinion if one has not already persuasively declared it.

- David Souter

It is impossible, maybe undesirable, to take partisanship out of the political process.

- David Souter

It does seem to me, though, that the countries that gained most from World Summit on the Information Society are those that saw it as an opportunity …

- David Souter