Those in attendance were generally from top levels of their organization from around the world such as Greg Dyke, Director-General of the BBC, Ayisi Makatiani, Co-Founder and CEO Africa Online, Jon DeVaan, SVP TV Division of Microsoft (head of all TV efforts), Roberto Zaccaria, Chairman of Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI), Fernando Espuelas, Chairman and CEO StarMedia Network (South America), Merrill Brown, SVP and Editor-in-Chief of MSNBC.com, Yoshinori Imai, Director-General of International Broadcasting Division, NHK (Japan), and many more media and government representative leaders from around the world.

White earpieces were certainly in use like modern-day conch shells accepting translations and amplifications of the proceedings. Befitting such an international audience, Kofi Anan, the secretary-general of the United Nations, gave the keynote address.

The mandate of this year's Forum was to address how television, ITV, and the Internet are shaping world culture, content, politics, communications, public vs. commercial broadcasters, and especially the digital divide. These topics encouraged earnest discussion and some polite outrage rather than the usual marketing pitches from companies. Although much was introduced, it was a scratch on the surface.

Positive developments were having the discussions themselves. Presentations included general statements by advertising partners (an excellent sponsorship device), specific examples of new works bridging the digital divide. Second day panels looked at the role of news, education, social advocacy, sports, digital radio, digital visionaries, new strategies, and future scenarios. Without going into micro detail, below you will find general points that were raised, interesting presentations, and then a few observations made by [itvt] about what was missing from the event.

General Points

• Need to provide advanced technologies to developing countries (referred to difference between the "North and the South".)
• Need for standards
• Role of public broadcasters vs. commercial necessities.
• Prices of producing and receiving new television technologies and services are still high.
• Building the skill set to develop this new content is still a challenge.
• Telephone messaging is an important component of ITV revolution.
• Fragmentation of broadcast global space - vs. need for high localization of content and applications
• Still unsure of role of government and regulation.
• Broadcasters, content providers, and networks are increasingly merging to become one and the same. How will we maintain a strong diversity of voices?
• New media ITV news production requires a much faster production cycle than ever before. How do we maintain integrity?

• Personal broadcasting - a new TV broadcasting platform in which anyone can send stored content to a satellite presented by Antonio Arcidiacono of Eutelsat. When speaking with him, Arcidiacono talked about their SkyPlex (multiplexing satellite technology). A new Nokia box called Mediaterminal built with LinuxTV OS with a Java virtual machine with work with SkyPlex. Although it's still too expensive for the small broadcaster, they are working hard to bring costs down.
• IDSB System - the only real ITV set-top box driven platform shown from NHK. Expected to launch soon.
• The Universal Networking Language Programme- Professor Tarcisio Della Senta of the United Nations is working on a new total translation architecture (like Star Trek?) Plans to have the ability to communicate in all UN languages by 2005. http://www.unl.ias.unu.edu
• Africa Online - Ayisi Makatiani, Co-Founder and CEO Africa Online, and a very impressive speaker, presented the work his company is doing across Africa. Although he said that the average income of the African is 1$ a day, Africa Online is building digital centers where people can have access to information, communications technology, and certainly DVB satellite-driven ITV television and interactive services where available at very cheap prices. They have built centers in 8 countries.

• Seemed to be a general disconnect between what actually is ITV vs. broadband.
• There were no real discussions about ITV deployments around the world.
• Microsoft was the only high profile ITV platform provider to present/participate - to their credit.
• Other than MSNBC.com, no high profile US broadcasters presented. Some representatives from the networks were in attendance, however. Their lack of participation was apparent to all.
• Not enough discussion about dynamics of advertising on a global stage or of community development.

"Despite all new complimentary tools, the need for mass communications is as conspicuous as before as we jump into the world wide illusion of bits and bytes. Not just information of any kind, but knowledge - enlightenment, orientation, wisdom. We need knowledge and transparency. Any open free democratic society needs the means for public dispute for the process of forming opinions. To regard the world of communications as a mere marketplace - would be the wrong approach to cope with the challenges we are facing. It would be a fatal mistake." - Dr. Albert Scharf , Director General, Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation, President European Broadcasting Union

"I believe that television will be the test of the modern world." - quoted by Danny Schecter, Executive Editor of Mediachannel.org from E.B. White

"ITV and interactivity: 1) gives options to the audience, 2) interactivity - allows one's words to be said, 3) helps disable undemocratic regimes." - Shabah Shahidi Moadab, Deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Iran.

"Content reflects the politics of its producers. Who makes the cut to make the world agenda? We see the voices of the developing world on global TV, but they speak a first world language." - Shashi Tharoor, Director, Communications and Special Projects, Executive Office of the secretary-general, United Nations

"If content is King, language is the Queen." - someone in the audience from Spain.

[itvt] Bottom Line: Overall, a very worthwhile conference if you're looking for international exposure and partnerships, insight into global views, and in need of a bit of inspiration. Although there was some (more than we've mentioned here) discussion of real world projects, the event needs more examples shown to provide attendees with knowledge of how ITV experiments are actually working and changing behavior patterns.

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