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FCT › Information Society › News

News

The preparation of the 10^th Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2015, event to be held in João Pessoa, Brazil, from 10 to 15 November, starts on 1^st December 2014, in Geneve, with the Open Consultations and the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) Meeting.

The Open Consultations, on 1^st December, will focus on the analysis of 9^th Annual Meeting of IGF, held in Istanbul, in September 2014, and examine the impact of other Internet Governance processes on the preparation of the 2015 IGF. Participants will also discuss the outcomes of the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) 2014 Plenipotentiary Conference, with regards to Internet Governance, as well as the NetMundial Initiative, recently launched by ICANN, World Economic Forum and CGI.br.

The MAG meeting, of advisory group to the IGF editions, will be held over the two following days and will cover several tasks, namely the definition of the global structure of IGF meetings and the preparatory process that will lead to IGF 2015, always with the goal of turning IGF into an ever more and more important Forum for the dialogue about Internet, Information and Knowledge Society Policies.

Other issues will be discussed, such as dynamic coalitions and their relationships with IGF, the calendar of preparations for the Brazil meeting, the commitment with national and regional IGF and better ways to communicate the IGF outcomes.

In the recently renewed MAG is Ana Cristina Neves, Director of Department of Information Society of FCT, the only Portuguese governmental representative, that establishes a "bridge" with the other stakeholders, such as civil society, private sector and the academic and technical communities.

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, once said: "The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect". The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) are recommendations that web contents should follow in order to make the World Wide Web accessible to all citizens. The translation of these guidelines into Portuguese was recognised by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) on 24 October 2014.

The mission of this consortium is to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential, by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure the long-term growth of the Web, transforming them in worldwide accepted standards.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are one example, and the Portuguese translation, already in its 2.0 version, was the first to be recorded in the W3C database, in 2009. In this translation there are two documents that match to the European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese variants. The centres in each country came together to make a technical consolidation of the translation, in itself an unprecedented fact in the Guidelines' story. In Portugal, the technical centre was leaded by the DSI/ Access Unit team at FCT; in Brazil, the technical center was led by the W3C Brazil office. In total, about 40 experts in accessibility participated in the review process, 21 of which Portuguese, from several sectors: academia, public administration, organisations representing disabled people and businesses in the ICT sector.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 were already included in the national laws, by Regulamento Nacional de Interoperabilidade Digital (RCM n.º 91/2012, 8 november) (National Regulation of Digital Interoperability) with effects on the government and state representatives, on the central public administration services, including public institutions, and the decentralized State services, the regional public administration services and the State-owned business sector.

According to Pedro Carneiro, Vice-President of FCT, "the publication of these documents is a significant step: the Portuguese variant of WCAG 2.0 gains a new international statute, becoming a W3C reference to Portuguese language."

Ana Neves, Director of the Department of Information Society at FCT, explains: "unlike physical accessibility, the barriers in digital space aren't solved with occasional interventions of rectification of structures or platforms for website edition and management. It's a work that implies daily attention from everyone that is responsible for content edition. Each new content on a website has to meet a range of criteria depending of editor's knowledge and not of the digital platforms - generally a bad digital platform don't produces a good content, but a good digital platform isn't a guarantee of a digital content without barriers."

The 7^th edition of EuroDIG, the European Initiative of the IGF (Internet Governance Forum) took place in Berlin, on June 12 and 13, and focused on the overarching theme: “Digital society at stake – Europe and the future of the Internet”.

As in previous editions, the programme included several sessions, workshops and flash sessions covering topics such as the global Internet Governance landscape, public vs. private spheres, digital accessibility, inclusion and empowerment, net-neutrality, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, trust in the Internet, ICT to foster growth and development in Europe, parental guidance and duties in the digital age, European copyright for the digital age, the role of IXP (Internet exchange point) in Internet Governance, hate speech and online libel, Internet principles vs. state security and legal frameworks for security.

FCT was the Focal Point for the organisation of the workshop on accessibility and inclusion (WS2) - "The Three Musketeers of ICT for Development: Access, Inclusion and Empowerment". This workshop took place on 12 June, and was moderated by Jorge Fernandes, from FCT's Department of Information Society. In this session, several issues were discussed, namely public access to ICTs; ICT as key factor for inclusion of vulnerable people; and the need to define policies that take into account all the ecosystem around ICT, in which the users' empowerment and the increase of digital literacy levels gain relevance.
The debate also focused on the new European Standard on Accessibility Requirements for Public Procurement of ICT products and services, the European Accessibility Act, included in the European Commission's work plan for 2014, and the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the accessibility of public sector bodies' websites, the final version of which will soon be published.

The key messages of this workshop were:

1. There has to be a holistic approach to policies aiming to improve Accessibility, Social Inclusion and Empowerment.
   A common European approach can be useful for setting minimum standards.
2. It's paramount to not only train end users, but give didactical training to multipliers and to tie in efforts in the respective country's formal education system
3. It's highly context dependent what the 'right' policy is - basic infrastructural requirements have to be addresses first, before tackling issues of digital literacy.

The Messages from Berlin were also shared at the 9^th Annual IGF Meeting, that was held in Istanbul, in September.

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (FCT) and the Portuguese Association of Electronic Commerce and Interactive Advertising (ACEPI) signed last wednesday, 22^ndOctober 2014, a cooperation protocol that joins one of FCT's responsibilities - to propose the necessary actions for development of a digital inclusion and literacy policy which allows to mobilise the Society for the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) - and ACEPi's mission - debate, enhancement, promotion and generalization of Digital Economy in Portugal.

Therefore, between the several work areas to be developed, some of them are highlighted:

• the use of ICT in the training, in order to develop qualifications and talents to the Digital Economy;
• the adaptation of digital competences to emerging areas;
• the stimulation of alliances between businesses, entrepreneurial associations and civil society in the ICT area;
• the promotion of ICT for Digital and Social Inclusion;
• the development of an accessibility policy for portuguese digital contents and platforms, and
• the promotion of massive digitalization of contents in Portuguese language.

The efforts in the development of Digital Economy in Portugal are added with this protocol, particularly in the sphere of digital literacy, qualification and inclusion, among citizens in general and actors belonging to economic activities.

“Digital Venice” was organized by the City of Venice and promoted by the Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, with the support of European Commission – DG Connect, which sought to continue to tracing the way for the digital economy.

This event is predicted to be held every year since this 1.^st edition and hosted 5 workshops, counting on the attendance of more than 300 innovators, government officers, experts and researchers, which gave its contributions, namely to the future European policies within the framework of Digital Agenda.

Portugal was represented by the Director of Department of Information Society of FCT, which spoke in the Workshop #1 “Digital Skills and Jobs”. Portugal highlighted the main goals that are set, presently and at national level, towards a policy about eSkills and digital competences: a action plan included in a national programme to be launched in the digital inclusion and literacy area, the implementation of "Rede TIC & Sociedade", the implementation of measures of Digital Agenda for Portugal on this subject, as well as actions that seek to ensure a better correspondence between the supply of digital competences and the demand of labour market, namely through the creation of a National Coalition for Digital Jobs, based on “Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs”, launched on March of 2013 by EU.

The presentation made in this Workshop is already available here.

Jaime Filipe was a portuguese inventor, pioneer of Rehabilitation Engineering in Portugal and founder of CIDEF - Centro de Inovação para Deficientes Físicos (Centre of Innovation for People with Physical Disabilities), in 1974. In this Centre he conceived several patents, prototypes and assistive products for people with disabilities, like tactile vision systems, a electronic white cane for blind people, a drive mechanism of prosthesis, wheelchair lifts and vibrating warning systems to deaf people. In 1978, Jaime Filipe also created a television programme called "Novos Horizontes", on Portuguese tv channel RTP, and in which disclosed themes related with accessibility and disability, as well as with assistive technologies for the promotion of the autonomy and independence of people with disabilities.

The Symposium "Life and Work of Engineer Jaime Filipe" was held in the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, in Vila Real, on the 30^th of May, 2014, with the purpose of divulge relevant aspects of Engineer Jaime Filipe's life and work.

The event was composed by three pannels: 1) "The Rehabilitation Engineering and the Jaime Filipe Prize"; 2) "The inventor and the Inventions"; 3) "The Television and the Personality". Counting also on the collaboration of FCT and other entities, the programme included specialized speakers and representants of entities belonging to the rehabilitation engineering area. The presentations are available at the event website. In this occasion, the name of Jaime Filipe was given to the main laboratory of CERTIC - Centro de Engenharia de Reabilitação em Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (Centre of Rehabilitation Engineering in Information and Communication Technologies), in the same University.

Jorge Fernandes, from Unidade ACESSO of Department of Information Society, participated in the second pannel, with the presentation of Eng. Jaime Filipe's work in the tactile vision area, of which the Electrovisor is one of most revolutionary concepts. In the patent of 1959 can be seen a microcamera positioned in a glasses, whose image is converted in electrical impulses, that are transmitted by sensors positioned on the skin (more concretely on the back). The Optacom, a product that had its peak during the 70 and 80' decades, and that sold more than 15.000 units over the world, was using this same principle, in order to enable to blind people the reading of black-printed material, mainly before the boom of Braille electronic devices, since the end of 80s.

This same tactile vision concept is been currently explored by Wicab company, a University of Wisconsin-Madison startup, that is exploring the tongue as a perception vehicle of tactile patterns through the development of BrainPort V100, presently in testing phase. Its market launch is waited in 2015.

Supported by Fundação Portuguesa de Telecomunicações, FCT organized a debate session to celebrate the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, which was held exceptionally on the 16^th May, in 2014.

The World Telecommunication and Information Society Day - 17^th of May - was declared by UN, in the framework of the World Summit on the Information Society, held in two phases (2003 e 2005), to help raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT) can bring to societies and economies, helping them to bridge the digital divide and to reduce the social and regional imbalances.

The event was opened by the Secretary of State of Science, Professor Leonor Parreira, and was moderated by the journalist Fátima Caçador.

The debate session counted on the participation of speakers that presented ongoing initiatives: The TIC & Society Network (A Rede TIC e Sociedade), Children, Internet and mobile media in Portugal (Crianças, Internet e meios móveis em Portugal), How to surf in the Internet with more confidence (Como navegar na Internet com mais confiança), Technological Immersion: broadband | hipermedia | innovation contexts (Imersão tecnológica: banda larga |hipermédia| contextos de inovação), Choices Program - 10 years of Digital Inclusion (Programa Escolhas – 10 anos de Inclusão Digital), The Technologies at the service of eAccessibility (As tecnologias ao serviço da eAcessibilidade) and Digital Inclusion in Horizon 2020: Funding possibilities (A inclusão digital no Horizon 2020: Possibilidades de financiamento). Presentations and videos of the speakers (in portuguese) are available in the event programme .

This session ended with a round table discussion about strategies to decrease the 1/3 of info-excluded in Portugal, with the participation of FCT, High Commission for Immigration and Intercultural Dialogue (ACIDI), Associação para a Promoção e Desenvolvimento da Sociedade da Informação (APDSI), Escola Superior de Educação do Instituto Politécnico de Santarém (ESE-IPS) and Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (FCSH-UNL).

The NETmundial Multistakeholder Statement of São Paulo is the outcome of the – “Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance”, which gathered 1480 stakeholders from 97 countries and was an important milestone on Internet Governance outside the ecosystem of the United Nations.

The first part of the Statement is dedicated to Internet Governance Principles, common principles and important values that contribute to an inclusive, multistakeholder, effective and evolving Internet Governance framework. It also recognizes Internet as a global resource that should be managed in the public interest.
The Principles refer topics such as Human Rights and shared values, cultural and linguistic diversity, Internet as a unified and unfragmented space, security, stability and resilience of the Internet, open and distributed architecture, and the Internet as an enabling environment for sustainable innovation and creativity as well as open standards.

The second part is dedicated to the definition of a Roadmap for the evolution of Internet Governance, through a set of steps which ensure the full involvement of all stakeholders, in accordance with their respective roles and responsibilities. All the organizations, fora and processes that discuss and belong to the Internet Governance ecosystem are encouraged to take into account the outcomes of NETmundial.

The welcome remarks from government representatives and all working sessions are available for consultation online, as well as the web channels used during the meeting (Youtube) and the transcriptions of the opening ceremony speeches. The following speeches of the participating speakers are highlighted: Nnenna Nwakanma, representing civil society, Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil, and Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda for Europe.

Nnenna Nwakanma advocates the open web as a public good and basic right, that everyone can access and use freely, and highlighted several key issues to be considered during the meeting: access, social and economic justice, freedom and human rights, participation, resources and change. Quoting Nnenna Nwakanma: "The web we can trust, that is the web we want; the web that contributes to global peace, that is the web we want; the web that remains open and inclusive, that is the web we want, the internet of opportunities, of social justice, of development and of respect to privacy and human rights, that is why I am here."

Dilma Rousseff emphasized the several features of the Internet Civil Framework (Marco Civil, law that was passed at the beginning of the meeting, and that "establishes principles, guarantees, and user rights, clearly assigning duties and responsabilities of the different stakeholders". It also values network neutrality, under which " the telecommunications companies should treat any data packages on an egalitarian fashion, without any distinction whatsoever by content, origin, destination, service, terminal, or application." In addition, "companies may not block, monitor, filter or analyze the content of data packages." The Internet Civil Framework "protects citizens' privacy not only in the relations with the governments but also in relations with the Internet companies.”
Rousseff also referred that Brazil advocates that "Internet Governance should be multistakeholder, multilateral, democratic and transparent by nature" and take into account two premises: 1) protection of the " Internet as a democratic space, available to end use by all, as a shared asset, truly heritage of humankind, more that simply a work tool and way beyond its well-known contribution for economic growth, provided, of course, that it be increasingly inclusive; 2) the need to involve " an increasingly broader audience" in these issues, of which the Internet Civil Framework and NETmundial Meeting are examples, due to the previous processes calling to the participation of all stakeholders.

Neelie Kroes appealed to the positive change based on what the different parts agree on, more than on what divides them: an improved multistakeholder model, a process for the transition of the IANA functions involving all the stakeholder community, the strengthening of the Internet Governance Forum, the capacity building through information sharing and Internet observatories, and a approach of jurisdictional issues on the Internet through transparent systems." This is what open and democratic debate should be: we listen, we discuss, and them we reach real decisions.", she stated.

The 49th ICAAN Meeting was held in Singapore, from 23 to 27 March. ICANN is a public interest not-for-profit organization, dedicated to the coordination of the Internet names and numbers assignment system, to the maintenance of a secure, stable and interoperable Internet, and to the promotion of competition in Internet name registry.

The Governmental Advisory Committee - GAC is a group formed by representatives of ICANN member governments, that includes public authorities of regional economies and intergovernmental organizations. It assists in providing advice and promoting the discussion of public policy issues related with ICANN’s activities, such as Generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs). This group met, as usual, during the ICANN Meeting, and its activities within the scope of this meeting began on 22^nd March. Portuguese representation in this group is ensured by FCT.

The topics discussed in this meeting included:

• suggestion of approval of new country names and 2-letter and character codes, that should be done directly by the countries concerned;
• advice regarding preferential treatment for all applications which have visible community support, in order to protect public interest;
• request for consideration of the issue related with the domain .amazon as a high priority, not yet decided by the ICANN Board;
• reference to sensitive political and religious terms, as .ram and .indians, contested by India;
• recommendation to ICANN Board to reconsider the delegation of the strings . wine and .vin, encouraging the applicant(s) to these gTLDs to proceed negotiations with the interested parties, in order to a obtain additional safeguards regarding "Geographical Indications". This problem also applies to Portuguese wine regions, such as "Douro";
• the reaffirmation that singular and plural versions of the same strings could lead to confusion from the users.

This meeting was however dominated by the announcement of the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration National (NTIA), on 14^th March, in which the United States consider that IANA's (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) functions should transit to multistakeholder community (the effective reach of this announcement remains unclear). This announcement was made 40 days before the Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance, known as "NETmundial", in São Paulo, Brazil, on 23^rd and 24^th April.

NETmundial, an international event for discussing issues related Internet Governance, in a broad sense and outside of usual instances (UNO - included IGF, UIT, UNESCO - and ICANN), aims to strength the idea of a multistakeholder Internet Governance between the several stakeholders involved (governments, civil society, private sector and academic and technical comunities), adopt a set of Principles universally acepted about Internet and define a Roadmap for the evolution of Internet Governance's ecosystem.

This event will take place on 23 and 24 april, in S. Paulo, Brazil, and is organized by Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br) and by 1net Initiative. It will counting on 800 representatives of those stakeholders and, for whom that cannot attend and wants to watch it and participate in it, there are web channels available: via Adobeconnect (audio, video e interactive chat), Youtube, Live Scribing (23/4 and 24/4). This event also can be accompanied via twitter. The program is available here.

This event was boosted by the visit to Brazil of Fadi Chehadé, CEO of ICANN, with the purpose of avoiding the disturbance of Internet Governance future, after the President of Brazil's Statement, in the General Assembly Opening Session, last September, in which was proposed a multilateral governance of Internet, and also following the public recognizing of electronic spy activities of USA over the President of Brazil.

In preparation of this meeting, the Executive Multistakeholder Committee, meanwhile created to organize the event, carried out an open consultation, until 8^th March. Most of almost 200 inputs received for discussion defends the globalization (without knowing exactly which is the real meaning of this) of Internet management (concerning domains and numbers assignment) that has been conducted in the sphere of contracts between ICANN(the responsible entity) and the U.S. Commerce Department since 1990.

Jointly the analysis and contributions of High-Level Multistakeholder Committee, and under the guidance of NETmundial’s Chair and Co-Chairs, was released a document NETmundial’s Executive Committee Output Document available until 21^th April to public consultation.

European Union is following this subject, and the European Commission has adopted, on 12^nd February 2014, the Communication "Internet Policy and Governance - Europe's role in shaping the future of Internet Governance" and also has discussed, through the Working Party on Telecommunications and Information Society , a "Lines to Take" Project. After its approval, this document will contribute to a aligment of Member States position, not only for this NETmundial but also for the several fora about this subject, in the their many aspects, which will take place in 2014 and 2015.

Portugal has closely accompanied and influenced all these movements, presently through FCT, cooperating intensively with the diverse stakeholders and between the governments of developed and developing countries, and emerging ecconomies (G77), all of them with non aligned interests in this process.

In this event, following the diligences made by the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Portuguese Embassy in Brasilia, Portugal is co-chair of the Council of Governmental Advisors, together with Brazil, Australia and China, supporting in loco the organization and conduction of the meeting works. The portuguese delegation to NETmundial will be attended by FCT and ANACOM representatives, and will be headed by Pedro Cabrita Carneiro, Vice-President of FCT.

The opportunities and challenges of the Portuguese participation in ICT projects in the H2020 context (2014-2020) were discussed in a public session "As TIC no Horizonte 2020”, on 20^th February 2014. This event was co-organized by FCT and by Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), where the session took place, and had approximately 200 attendees.

This session aimed to discuss the opportunities, weaknesses, constraints and national potential when participating in H2020, as well presentat best practices to encourage the Portuguese participation in the recent EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, for which a total funding of nearly 80 billion euros for I&D is estimated.

An open space for discussion, reflection and sharing of information about ICT in H2020 (subjects and amounts involved, taking into account the work programme already approved for 2014-2015), there was also opportunity to present best practices in forming consortia and the role of partners in them, discuss the most relevant process and administrative aspects (cost models, submission of proposals, etc.) and the evaluation process (how proposals are evaluated, who evaluates and the relevant criteria for a good evaluation).

Experts and different public and private organisations with proven knowledge and experience on the subjects under discussion were present in the session. Presentations and event videos are already available here.

The analysis conducted by FCT's Department of Information Society (DSI), throughout 2013, reveals that none of the 338 institutional websites of Higher Education institutions analysed, meets the minimum accessibility requirements (A level) of the Accessibility Guidelines recommended by the International Consortium W3C. Version 2.0 of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) entered into legal order by the Regulamento Nacional de Interoperabilidade Digital (RNID) (National Regulation of Digital Interoperability) and is compulsory for digital contents made available by Higher Education institutions since February 2013.

According to the RNID:

"all Internet sites that exclusively provide information are obliged to meet WCAG's 2.0 'A' level, from 8^th February 2013. RNDI recommends the 'AA' level for this type of website;

all Internet sites that exclusively provide online information services are obliged to meet WCAG's 2.0 'AA' level, from 8^th February 2013. RNDI recomends the 'AAA' level for this type of website."

Although no website with WCAG 2.0 'A' level was identified, 54% of sites obtained a AccessMonitor classification above 5.

The Department of Information Society (DSI) participated, on 9^th and 10^th December 2013, in the 17^th Annual Meeting of OCDE Working Party on Indicators for the Information Society (WPIIS), which took place in Paris.

In the meeting, the discussion of new proposals for measuring tools for Information Society (Data Analytics and Internet as a data source - IaD) and the presentation of on-going experiences with crossing data across ICT, Innovation and Employment, to a better understanding of the dynamics of the Information Society, were addressed. The highlighted meeting outcome, was the decision to make survey models and methodological recommendations for statistical measuring of ICT usage by households, businesses and health sector (hospitals and healthcare professionals) public, from January.

WPIIS is one OCDE's Committee for Information, Computer and Communications Policy (ICCP) four specialised groups, dedicated to Information Society and Information and Communication Technology Policies.

The 47^th meeting of ICANN was held in Durban, South Africa, from 14 to 18 July 2013. A public interest not-for-profit organization dedicated to the coordination of the Internet names and numbers assignment system, ICANN also aims to promote the maintenance of a secure, stable and interoperable Internet, and the competition in the registry of names in the Internet.

At the opening session, ICANN’s CEO, Fadi Chehadé, made a reference to Portugal, with regard to his convictions about the future of multistakeholder model and the role of ICANN in this issue, reiterating what he had stated in Lisbon, during EuroDIG Lisbon 2013.

Simultaneous to this event was a meeting of the Governmental Advisory Committee, which also took place (GAC). This group is composed of representatives from Government members of ICANN, public authorities of regional economies and intergovernmental organizations, and advises and discusses public policy issues related to ICANN’s activities. Portuguese representation is assured by FCT.

In GAC Communiqué – Durban, South Africa, GAC presented to ICANN’s Board the outcomes of its discussions and highlights the debate regarding the approval of new gTLDs (generic Top Level Domain names), which pose problems to public policies of several countries. In particular, GAC unanimously objected to the application of domains “. amazon”, proposed by Amazon, Inc., and “.patagonia”, proposed by Patagonia, Inc.. GAC also proposed to ICANN the non-approval of these registrations and recommended a mutual collaboration in refining the Applicant Guidebook to new gTLDs, with regard to the protection of terms with national, cultural, geographical and religious significance.

Portugal, together with European Commission, France, Luxembourg, Spain, Chile and Peru, also raised questions regarding the approval of gTLDs “.vin” and “.wine”, contested by the U.S.A., Australia and New Zealand. The discussion of this subject will continue until the next GAC meeting, which will take place at the same time as the 48^th meeting of ICANN, in November 2013.

Considering that, no rare times, digital inclusion begins in the family’s context, the Department of Information Society of FCT (represented by Elisabete Fei) attended in the national event "Barrigas e Companhia”, this year subordinated to the theme “Family - The Pillar of Society”, which took place in Parque dos Poetas, Oeiras, on 7^st of July. Dissemination actions were focused on using of the “Skype”, with the aim of general public’s raising awareness (and info-excluded public, in particular) for the relevance of the use of ICT.

On 18^st of July, the Department of Society Information of FCT (Inclusion and Digital Literacy – represented by Elisabete Fei – and Safer Internet Center – represented by Patrícia Fialho) realized a awareness action in CERCICA – Cooperativa para a Educação e Reabilitação de Cidadãos Inadaptados de Cascais, addressed to a group of approximately 70 youths with slight intellectual disability, accompanied by educators from several areas.

Taking into account the various levels of knowledge in Information and Communication Technologies of this target audience, this action had the double objective of appealing to the youth’s attention to the advantages in the use of Internet and also to alert them about the inherent risks.

In June, Universe Awareness organized an activity that brought together children from Portugal and South Africa, to share their stories about the constellations shining over their home countries.

This event, called “Space Skype” involved a group of 40 nine-year-old students to take part in several hands-on activities related to astronomy, and also included a Skype link between Portuguese children and the children from the Carnarvon Primary School, in the Northern Cape province of South Africa.

These activities were following a workshop about radio astronomy and SKA (Square Kilometer Array), which counted on the participation of Portuguese researchers and was realized in the framework of 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT. This event occurred in Lisbon, in November 2012, and was organized by the Department of Information Society of FCT, through the EuroAfrica-ICT/P8 Initiative.

FCT's Department of Information Society has published “Vulnerable People & ICT in Portugal – The practice of more than 15 years”, a document that presents an overview of initiatives in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for vulnerable people in Portugal for the last 15 years.

Electronic accessibility to People with Functional Limitations, the best practices about Internet Safety and Vulnerable people, and Digital Literacy and Access to ICT’s are the topics addressed in that document, launched during EuroDIG 2013– European Dialogue on Internet Governance, that took place in Lisbon, on 20th and 21st June.

The WTFP-13 took place in Genève, Switzerland, from 14st to 16st May 2013, with the participation of governmental, industrial and regulatory bodies around the world. FCT also attended this event, within its competences in the area of the Information Society.

The WTFP-13, hosted by ITU (International Telecommunication Union), discussed and approved the following issues:

1. 1 – Promoting Internet Exchange Points (IXP) as a long term solution to advance connectivity

1. 2 – Fostering an enabling environment for the greater growth and development of broadband connectivity

1. 3 – Supporting Capacity Building for the deployment of IPv6

1. 4 – In support of IPv6 adoption and transition from IPv4

1. 5 – Supporting Multistakeholderism in Internet Governance

1. 6 – On supporting operationalizing the enhanced cooperation process.

Brazil presented a new theme - On The role of Government in the Multistakeholder Framework for Internet Governance – which didn´t gather consensus and will continue to be a part of the discussions in the several fora linked to the United Nations.

In the opening speech of the WTFP-13, the European Commission (EC), through Linda Corugedo Steneberg, Director in DG Connect, emphasized the public’s growing awareness of internet related policies, and that "only by preserving of the multi-stakeholder approach we can safeguard much of what is good about the Internet that we know today – its incredible diversity, the rapid rate at which it generates innovations and the value it brings, both socially and economically to communities around the world."

The EC also considers that the output of the WCTS' meeting in Dubai, in December, "was disappointing for the European Union and to many other countries that value the multi-stakeholder model, but it did provide another opportunity for an exchange of views on the kind of issues that are important and sensitive for governments", in the Internet Governance area. Finally, the EC stated that it"stands firmly behind a model where governments are not the only decision-makers, possibly not even the main ones", and announced thus the intention to "create an alliance of like-minded states and other stakeholders that support the idea of a single, open and free Internet", in order to continue this discussion.