Dr. Ramon Puigjaner is Industrial Engineer (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona 1964), Master in Aeronautical Sciences (EcoleNationaleSupérieure de l’Aéronautique, Paris 1966). Ph.D. (UPC, 1972), License (Bachelor) in Informatics (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 1972) and Doctor Honoris Causa (Universidad Nacional de Asunción, Paraguay, 2010). From 1966 to 1987, he shared his time between UPC (teaching and researching on Automatic Control, Computer Architecture and Computer Performance Evaluation), and positions in the industry in Spain, mainly from 1970 to 1987 at UNIVAC, in charge of computer performance measuring and modelling. In 1987, he joined full time the Universitat de les IllesBalears to become Professor of Computer Architecture and Technology. From 1988 to 2000 he was Dean of the Informatics Faculty of this university and from 2000 to 2004 director of the Polytechnical School. In 2010 he becomes Emeritus Professor in this University. He is author of a book and of more than 200 reviewed papers in international journals and conferences. He is Life Senior Member of IEEE and Distinguished Educator of ACM. Currently he is IFIP Vice-President charged of promoting Digital Equity, of the World Information Technology Forum (WITFOR) and of the support of developing countries. He earned the Prize to the latinMaerican Merit in Informatics (CLEI 2007) and the Prize José GarcçiaSantesmases for the creationof the Conferencia de Decanos y Directores de Centros Universitarios de Informática (CEDI, 2007).

Digital equity can be defined as a state in which both the digital divide and the participation gap are bridged
Digital equity ensures that everyone has equal opportunities to use the tools and resources needed to fully participate as a citizen in today's digitally-powered world. Lacking these opportunities causes people to encounter educational, economic and social limitations that negatively impact their quality of life.
The progress towards the Digital Equity should be achieved by:

• Promotingaccessibility of ICT,
• Promotinggoodpractices,
• Promoting and enhancing appropriate access to knowledge and experiences,
• Organizing and contributing to activities aimed at achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),
• Organizing and contributing to activities aimed at achieving the goals of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

These actions are equally valid for both developed and developing countries with different urgency and related to other ITU (WSIS in particular) activities can be stated that:

• Digital Equity is a transversal aspect of the WSIS action lines that are deeply related with the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN.
• Development countries are further than developed ones in achieving Digital Equity and that the initial aspects that should be initially covered are:
• • To allow that people can obtain the knowledge for conveniently using computers and networks in a large sense; so, initially it will necessary to form educators able to deliver all levels of teaching depending the needs of the different types of citizens (e.g. basic user, advanced user, expert in installation and maintenance, hardware and software development and building, ICT research).4
  • To ensure that people will be able to easily and deeply use both computers and networks for accessing and using all kind of information; so to ensure the existence of an appropriate networking infrastructure and availability of access devices (e.g. smart phones, tablets, PCs).
    

An analysis of these differences in developed and developing countries will be presented and discussed.

As the Chairman of the Committee on ‘Korea Information Infrastructure Field Trial Services’ from 1994 to 1997, Dr. Seang-Tae Kim designed fundamental polices for Korea’s Broadband development and greatly contributed to the success of broadband in Korea including broadband roll-out in schools and local autonomies in rural areas. Based on his expertise in broadband and infrastructure, he served many globally important roles such as Executive Board of Information & Communication Sub-committee of Korean National Commission for UNESCO and Chairman of Future Network 2020 Forum to name a few. Since Dr. Kim was appointed as a commissioner of ‘ITU-UNESCO Broadband Commission for Digital Development’ in May 2010, he has actively participated in regular Broadband Commission Meetings. With around fifty commissioners of global ICT leaders, he shared ideas to design a blueprint for rapid worldwide broadband development while minimizing the global digital divide. Dr. Kim was the first President of National Information Society Agency (NIA) following the merger of the former National Information Society Agency and the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion (KADO) in 2009. During his term of office in NIA, Korea was ranked 1st on the biannual UN e-Government Survey both in 2010 and 2012. As NIA is the chief managing body for e-Government projects in Korea, Dr. Kim had been also globally recognized for his expertise and contribution for the success of Korea’s e-Government. From 2008 to 2013, he initiated various global ICT activities in NIA. Under his leadership, NIA provided IT policy consulting to twenty-five countries and established three IT Cooperation Centers and twenty-one Information Access Centers around the world. Currently, he is the President of Industry-ICT Convergence Association. He also serves as Advisor , Special Commission for Creative Economy in National Assembly. He has published and co-authored many books including ‘Smartizen : The Center of the 4th Wave (Book Concert, 2013)’, ‘The Smart Society : Strategies for the Future (2011)’, ‘Challenges and Opportunities of Future Korea (Bobmunsa, 2011)’, ‘Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide (National Center for Public Productivity, 2008), ‘E-Governance: A Global Perspective on a New Paradigm (IOS Press, 2007)’ and ‘Global e-Government: Theory, Applications and Benchmarking (IDEA Group Publishing, 2006).’ Dr. Seang-Tae Kim graduated from Seoul National University with a BA in English and later completed both his Masters in Politics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Ph.D in Public Administration at the University of Georgia. Now he is Full Professor in Sungkyunkwan University.

As digital convergence and informatization progresses, it is becoming more important to betterutilize various resources. Therefore, making a qualitative difference about the digital divide issue is urgent, and relevant policies and efforts need to be strengthened to narrow the digitaldivide. In this regard, the overall improvement of information literacy of the public is requiredas it can increase the convenience in citizens’ everyday lives and can create added value. It is, therefore, necessary to continue the development of policies and projects to narrow the digitaldivide. The Korean government plans to keep strengthening its support with policies tolegislateregulations that narrow the digital divide and provide fair opportunities to access information, and to improve information literacy. The efforts to narrow the digital divide and effective policies to achieve the goal must be continued to relieve social conflict and integrate the society.

Diane Whitehouse is a founding partner of the UK-based business partnership, The Castlegate Consultancy, which focuses on research, policy, and deployment in eHealth, eGovernment, and eInclusion. Diane previously worked in the European Commission Directorate-General, now called Connect, on eHealth and eInclusion. Diane’s previous career history includes action and academic research and teaching in e.g., information systems and organisational theory and behaviour. She has written widely on subjects relating to eHealth and eGovernment, and many other topics regarding the social implications of information technology. Her latest co-edited publication is on Managing eHealth: From Vision to Reality: www.palgrave.com She is currently Chair of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP)'s technical committee on ICT and Society, and Chair of IFIP's working group 9.2 on social accountability and computing.

The International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) believes that digital equity is the social justice goal of ensuring that everyone in our society has equal access to technology tools, computers and the Internet. Given that IFIP is an international federation, with computer society members throughout the globe, such a belief has huge implications for action-taking around the planet.

The societal implications are immense – for each country and each continent – and relate to a re-balancing of equity.

IFIP has many areas of interest. One of the federation’s most active technical committees is technical committee 9 (TC9) which concentrates on issues relating to ICT that have a societal aspect. The committee liaises with horizontal activities established by IFIP, such as its domain committee on cloud computing (a deliberately cross-disciplinary activity that brings the work of various technical committees together). It also has a tendency to work closely with other technical committees that have societally important areas of concern such as education (technical committee 3 (TC3)).

While at least three of the issues raised by this panel are specifically educational in character (technical resources, effective use, and content creation), two are more general and relate to culture and content:

• Quality content: Access to high quality digital content.
• Culturally responsive content: Access to high quality, culturally relevant content.

This presentation will explore the meaning of some of these challenges in several of the eleven working groups and special interest groups that form part of its activities in terms of the social accountability of computing: social implications of computers in developing countries; ICT and sustainable development; virtuality and society; and computer (mis)use and the law. It will also ask some vital questions about culture and access to computer-based content in the home, at work, and for both men and women.

Dr. Gabriela Marin has a M.Sc. in Computer Science from Case Western Reserve University, and a Ph.D. in Business Analysis and Research from Texas A&M University. She has been a professor at the Escuela de Ciencias de la Computación e Informática of the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR) since 1980. From 1988 to 2008 she was the Chairperson of the Graduate Program in Computer Science and Informatics. She was afterwards elected Dean of Graduate Studies at the UCR for a four year period. She is currently Director of the new Centre for Research in Information and Communication Technologies (CITIC). She has organized several international and national conferences, and is part of several editorial committees. In 2012, she was elected President of the Latin American Center for Studies in Informatics (CLEI), becoming the first woman to hold such a distinguished position. She was re-elected as CLEI´s President in 2014.

Latin America and the Caribbean is a middle-income region, with the majority of its 42 countries and territories belonging to that category. However, it is a heterogeneous region, ranging from low income countries, as Haiti, to countries which have higher income and are regarded as more developed, like Chile, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. According to SEDLAC 34.3% of the Latin American population is in the middle class (with incomes between $10 a day and $50 a day), and 25.3% are still under the moderate poverty line of $ 4 a day.

In the last decades, the region has worked to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): poverty has been reduced to lower levels, more girls are in school, child mortality has dropped, and diseases are being fought. However, gender issues remain. Too many women still die in childbirth, and more needs to be done to boost gender parity in employment and decision making, as well as, access to education and reproductive health services. Inequality remains a key problem. Progress in the Region has been weaker amongst women, youth, indigenous peoples, afro-descendants and rural populations.

Digital divide is rooted in the very issues that constrain Latin America’s overall economic development—income inequality, lack of infrastructure and a still-nascent technological knowledge base according to UNDP. The region, as a whole, suffers from a poor legal framework for the development of the ICT sector, heavy administrative burdens, almost in-existing government prioritization for ICT development, low Internet penetration rates, and pervasive brain drain which undermines the potential for faster growth of the economies’ ICT sectors.

An overview on gender inequality on access to technology tools, computers, Internet and education in the region is presented. Moreover, women´s low participation on the ICT sector is depicted. Cultural, professional and technological barriers imposed on women participation are analyzed, and some possible actions to reduce such gender biases are proposed. Latin American initiatives to try topromote gender digital equity and the presence of women on the ICT sector are also described.

Dr. Yuko Murayama is a Professor in the Department of Software and Information Science at Iwate Prefectural University, Japan. Her research interests include internet, network security, security, trust and anshin, and disaster information processing. She had a B.Sc. in Mathematics from Tsuda College, Japan in 1973 and had been in industry in Japan. She had M.Sc. and Ph.D. both from University of London (attended University College London) in 1984 and 1992 respectively. She had been a visiting lecturer from 1992 to 1994 at Keio University, and a lecturer at Hiroshima City University from 1994 to 1998. She has been with Iwate Prefectural University since April 1998. She is IFIP Vice President as well as TC-11 Chair. She serves as the Chair of the Security Committee for IPSJ (Information Processing Society of Japan) as well as a secretary for IPSJ Special Interest Group on security psychology and trust (SIG on SPT). She is a senior life member of IEEE, as well as a member of ACM, IPSJ, IEICE and ITE.

Digital equity as the social justice goal of ensuring that everyone in our society has equal access to technology tools, computers and the Internet. Is now coming to be true in terms of access to the Internet world by- means of smartphones and gadgets which are economical enough for anyone to have. On the other hand, the knowledge on the threats which those gadget could bring in is important for making use of them, yet not so many users are aware of it. It is important to survive the digital world nowadays to be aware of how to be careful when one has an access to the Internet.

Digital equity may only be effective when one is sure of what kind of environment they encounter with those handy tools. Education plays an important role in this regard. Education is a term to deliver the knowledge to people. One could do so by means of propagating the information through the trustworthy channels. Alternatively one can use a traditional channel to teach at school or an institute. In the digital era, we could deliver the knowledge in various ways. In this regard, users may well need to have the sense of security. If the tools and the environment are secure enough, one should make use of it, however, if the tools or environment are not secure, one needs to be aware of it and decide whether s/he will take a risk. Proper risk communications are required.

In my talk, I shall present the sense of security and required risk communications in terms of security as well as possible threats with mobile devices nowadays as case studies.

Raymond Morel is acting actually as:

• Individual member of SATW (the Swiss Academy of engineering sciences)
• Past member during 12 years  of the SATW Scientific Advisory Board (WBR)
• Past Chairman of the SATWe-Switzerland platform (ICT Commission) -2
• Swiss representative at the IFIPGeneral Assemblyè SIC (Swiss IFIP Committee)
• Swiss representative at the IFIP TC3 (Technical committee 3 on ICT and Education)
• Special consultant at the IFIP TC3 (Technical committee 3 on ICT and Education)
• Member of the IFIP ILC (IFIP International Liaison Committee)
• IFIP delegate to WSIS (2003 and 2005) and WSIS Forum since 2006 (World Summit of the Information Society)
• Member of the executive Committee of SI (SchweizerInformatikGesellschaft)
• Member of the executive Committee of SISR (Section Romande de la Société Suisse d'Informatique)
• Member of SIRA (Swiss Informatics Research Association)
• Member of the executive Committee of SSAB (SchweizerischeStiftungfüraudiovisuelleBildungsangebote)
• President of the cooperative of research Social-IN3
• Member of the Council of Yinternet.org as well asmember of the Executive Committee and the Scientific Advisory Board
• Member the Scientific Advisory Board of the Free IT Foundation
• Consultant for IITE and UNESCO

We will begin to explicit one general observations and actual trends in in our information societies. If we like to promote Digital Equity in developed and developing countries, we should consider from the educational point of view some prerequisites according to various variables (not only technological, but also cultural, linguistic and institutional).The matrix SDGs x WSIS Action lines is certainly a precious tool to elaborate components of Digital Equity (defined as digital divide + e-participation) from the educational point of view with links and bridges for other dimension in the knowledge society. We hope to fix already in an interactive session some first tracks of concrete actions including developed and developing world in a close cooperation within a diversity of bodies and institutions. Of course in a long range vision we need to include some parameters (like disruptive technology, reengineering of educational systems, etc.) in a dynamic way to try to rich a more sustainable education in a world in smart (r) evolution.