Public information

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will launch officially on 18 and 19 November, the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI), an initiative of the Department of Public Information aimed at creating new partnerships for the Organization by engaging the academic world.

Representatives of Governments, international organizations, the Internet community, the private sector, civil society, and the media will convene from 14 to 17 September 2010 in Vilnius, Lithuania, for the fifth meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). More than 1,200 people from 115 countries have already registered for attending the meeting. Many more will be actively taking part in the Forum’s discussions and workshops via remote participation.

More than 140 leaders in development applications of information and communications technologies (ICT) met today at the United Nations to fine tune an online tool that will be launched during the upcoming High-Level Millennium Development Goals Summit in New York on 21 September 2010.

Youth from all regions of the world came together on 14 to 18 August in the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to participate in the second edition of the Global Model United Nations Conference 2010 organized by the United Nations Department of Public Information on the theme “Towards an Alliance of Civilizations — Bridging Cultures to Achieve Peace and Development”.

Submissions to the “Citizen Ambassadors” video contest on the UN Channel on YouTube will end in three weeks, on 23 August.

The United Nations announced today the release of United Nations e-book applications for the iPhone and the iPad, as well as e-books for Amazon’s Kindle, that will give users easy access to offline reading and reference on global issues.

The Department of Public Information has launched the 2010 edition of its “Citizen Ambassadors to the United Nations” campaign, which utilizes new media and social networking websites to engage global audiences on the work of the United Nations.

Eighteen university students from around the world have taken on the challenge of leading the 2010 Global Model United Nations Conference organized by the world body’s Department of Public Information, with nine being selected to form the Secretariat while others were elected as General Assembly officials in an online poll.

The Committee on Information this afternoon called on the United Nations Department of Public Information to continue to advance, through new technology, multilingualism, partnership, efficiency and local outreach, to better raise awareness of critical international issues.

The membership of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group, which is entrusted with assisting in the preparations for the annual meeting of the Internet Governance Forum, has been renewed. A total of 56 members, 3 among them new, have been appointed. The Advisory Group members are from all stakeholder groups, representing Governments, private sector and civil society, including the academic and technical communities, representing all regions.