The Global Conference on Space and the Information Society – GLIS 2016 – was held at the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva, 6 - 7 June 2016 drawing attention to the fact that space and space applications have a major role to play in the shaping of a future “connected” world.
Public relation and international affairs of TIC announced
that: The international community faces substantial challenges: digital
divide, disaster management, cybersecurity, big data analysis and climate
change, to name a few. The next years will see governments, industry, academia
and NGOs work together in a new era of connectivity. A combination of factors,
such as the implementation of the UN Space Development Goals, the deployment of
new mega constellations and the launch of new digitalized systems will strongly
contribute to reaching this goal. International organizations, such as the
United Nations and its agencies, ITU and UNOOSA, along with the IAF, aim to
extend cooperation in space to achieve a better connected world.
“This is an exciting time in space,” declared Jennifer
Warren, Lockheed Martin Corporation Vice President for Technology Policy &
Regulation Trade & Regulatory Affairs in her keynote address. Karsten
Geier, Head, Cyber Policy Coordination Office, Germany’s Federal Foreign
Office, emphasized the importance of cybersecurity, noting that “outer-space
based as well as cyberspace programmes can present challenges to international
security”.
“ITU is committed to maintaining right of access to the
radio-frequency spectrum and satellite-orbit resources, and to ensuring their
rational, equitable, efficient and economical use, free from harmful
interference,” said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao. “Through our concerted
efforts, we can help remove the obstacles that impede the development of new
satellite networks and applications and bring them into operation to connect
the unconnected around the world.”
“Activities in space contribute enormously towards shaping
the information society,” said François Rancy, Director of the ITU
Radiocommunication Bureau. “These involve the production of big data, the
provision of global positioning information, the distribution of television
programmes, the provision of emergency services, the prevention and mitigation
of natural and man-made disasters, the forecasting of weather, the understanding,
monitoring and protection of Earth natural resources and the connection of the
world population to broadband services. Indeed, satellite systems play a
critical role in supporting each and every one of the 17 sustainable
development goals adopted last year by the United Nations.” Rancy added that
the decisions of the ITU World Radiocommunication Conferences are aimed at
maintaining a stable, predictable and universally applied regulatory
environment that secures long-term investments for the multi-trillion dollar
ICT industry including outer space activities.