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The event summarized in this volume was one of four official side events that occurred in conjunction with the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society. Both events were held in Tunisia, near the Mediterranean coast of Tunis, during mid-November 2005. “Past, Present and Future of Research in the Information Society” (PPF) took place over the three days (13–15 November) preceding the main Summit (16–18 November). The chapters in this volume are abbreviated versions of the sessions at the PPF conference. Each author was asked to provide an extended abstract of their presentation and the lead author of each chapter edited these together.

In this chapter we will critically examining some of the illusions, promises, challenges, and realizations of the Information Society. Handed down from the past are specific myths that may create illusions in the present and promises for the future that in effect will hamper the realization of the Information Society in its most promising forms.

To understand the processes and impacts of a globalizing technology like the Internet, one must account for the historical development of that technology, the process of technology transfer in general, and the local cultural dynamics in unique regions. The Internet will diffuse differently in different regions and among different sectors within those regions. Chile, for historical and cultural factors, should demonstrate a different diffusion and use pattern than India or Kenya. This leads to different definitions of how Internet technologies are constructed within distinct regions and poses challenges for the development of a symmetrical global scientific community fueled by new ICTs. This last statement often weaves itself into the “taken for granted” rhetoric found in multi-lateral conferences like the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). It is simplistic to assume that the Internet will resolve inequities in social, political, economic and even scientific terms. It is a noble perspective, but the last 50 years of development failures based on other western technologies and protocols does not provide much optimism. The following session review highlights the complex factors involved in Internet diffusion, post war history, technological culture, case studies in the developing world, and innovations in technology research and development.

This session focused on the history of the development of computer networks, the linking of these networks via the creation of the Internet, and the emergence of the active participants in these networks, the netizens (i.e., net.citizens). The session included papers about the scientific development of networking technology, and about the impact of the Internet.

In World Summits on Information Society in Geneva (WSIS 2003) as well as in Tunesia (WSIS-2005), roles of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for and in Developing Countries played an important role. This had been argued since the 1990s but only the United Nations’ Millennium Plan forced economists, politicians and the public to analyse the situation and problems of many regions in “the South” more careful.

The strategy of the European Union is to establish Europe as “the largets knowledge base economy” by 2010 (Lisbon Strategy). This is supported by several programs, esp. also addressing developments of Information and Communication Technologies with some emphasis on security.

The past decade has seen remarkable advances in the availability of tools to support scientific collaboration at a distance. This is especially good news for international collaborations, where in the past constraints on collocation and travel have made such collaborations a major challenge. The emergence of advanced cyberinfrastructure and associated tools is changing the landscape for international collaborations. However, as the papers in this session show, there is much more than good engineering involved. There is a complex interplay of social, organizational, legal, and technical issues. Just because something is possible does not mean it will happen. Many forces involving incentives to work together through emerging technologies and policies that govern how such work might proceed serve as inhibitors to success. The papers in the session that led to this chapter explore a number of these issues.

The purpose of this panel was to give visibility to some of the efforts of a large global company to build capacity in the world. A few in the audience confirmed afterwards that their preconceptions of corporations had changed — they could now tentatively allow that maybe corporations could do good as well as do well, and in fact, that maybe some companies understand that they will do better by doing good. Several other attendees proposed projects for collaboration, and indeed collaboration has ensued.

Technology enables globalization. We hear that soon, anyone, anywhere can access information and communicate knowledge and resources. But who is ‘anyone?’ Where is ‘anywhere?’ Technology holds the promise of overcoming, or the threat of ever widening the massive gender divide. The talks presented here represent a few of the voices from the edge of this new “flat world” working tirelessly to ensure that technology-enabled globalization fulfills its promise and that no woman or girl — indeed no one — is left to struggle in isolation on the wrong side of an abyss.

Open access is a key issue in the development of the information society. It may also shape the extent to which the generation of new scientific and scholarly research itself can be tuned to the future needs of developed and developing countries. Much of the promise of e-science is based on an implicit notion that open access will accelerate scientific and technological development and will increase the number of people and institutions that can tap into these shared resources. However, this begs the question of what open access actually signifies: access to what for whom? This chapter will take up this key question and look into what open access to e-science and -research will mean, and how novel regimes of open access may affect the dynamics of knowledge creation and dissemination at the international level.