In 2003 and again in 2005, the international community was called by the United Nations to take part in a World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). This two-phased summit placed an unprecedented global spotlight on information and communication issues. At the same time, the WSIS represented a grand experiment in global governance: the active participation of non-governmental stakeholders in the development of public policies at the international level. Digital Solidarities, Communication Policy and Multi-stakeholder Global Governance examines the actors, structures and themes that shaped the WSIS with a particular focus on the role played by civil society. The book investigates how civil society self-organization has continued post-WSIS through the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and other policymaking venues, and reflects on what the WSIS experience reveals about the challenges and opportunities embedded in the notion of multi-stakeholder governance and its implications for understanding global communication.

Canada is at a critical juncture in the evolution of its communications
policy. Will our information and communications technologies continue
in a market-oriented, neoliberal direction, or will they preserve and
strengthen broader democratic values?

"Media Divides" offers a comprehensive democratic audit of
communications law and policy. Using the concept of communications
rights as a framework for analysis in five key domains -- media,
access, the Internet, privacy, and copyright -- leading analysts
reveal that Canada's failure to respond adequately to a host of
pressures and developments has left its citizens with unequal access to
the nation's communications system and the freedom of expression
it promises.

"Media Divides" not only offers the first up-to-date account
of the democratic deficits in Canada's communications policy, it
formulates recommendations -- including the establishment of a
Canadian right to communicate -- for the future.