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The BA at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)

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Alexandria, 20 October 2005—In partnership with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) of Egypt, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) will participate in Phase II of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held in Tunisia during the period from 15 to 19 November 2005. Egypt participated in the first phase in Geneva 2003 with a distinguished delegation headed by HE President Hosni Mubarak.

During the WSIS, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) will participate in three main events:

  1. The VVIP pavilion, where HE President Mubarak will inaugurate the Egyptian pavilion and announce the launch of the Arab Info Mall, envisaged as a tool of the Arab Reform Forum to further the cause of democracy, freedom and peace through support of civil society efforts towards reform and dialogue in the region.


  2. The Egyptian pavilion at the ICT4All Exhibition, which is considered the greatest parallel event during the WSIS. The Exhibition is a multi-stakeholder event with representatives from the UN, Private Sector, Governments, Civil Societies, International Organizations and NGOs. The exhibition and partnership area is divided into five themes and the Egyptian pavilion falls within the Inclusive Access theme zone. The Egyptian pavilion is further divided into five themes and the International School of Information Sciences (ISIS) and CultNat, affiliates of the BA, will represent Egypt in the E-Content theme with the following projects:

    • Gamal Abdel Nasser Collection
    • Million Book
    • DAR: Digital Assets Repository
    • Description de l’Egypte
    • Virtual Browser of Manuscripts
    • UNL: Universal Networking Language
    • Arab Info Mall Database and Website
    • Eternal Egypt
    • Culturama

    For more information about these projects, please visit www.bibalex.org/isis and www.cultnat.org.


  3. The BA will also participate in other parallel events taking place. It will organize a workshop on 18 November 2005 from 1:00 – 3:00 pm at Jerba Hall. The panel discussion will be chaired by Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Its main topic is the BA’s Role in Information Society and it will discuss the BA’s contributions in:

    • Promoting culture in the digital age
    • Bridging the digital divide
    • Providing Arabic e-content
    • Building the Digital Library
To register in this workshop, please fill out the registration form.

Please see www.EgyptatWSIS.com.eg for more information on Egypt’s contribution to the Summit.

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