Historical Information Initiatives
within a strategic reframing of the Union of International
Associations (2005)
Digital divide |
The UIA organized the first gathering in
Europe of Internet cognoscenti from North America within the framework
of a demonstration symposium at the World Future Studies Federation Conference
on Science, Technology and the Future (Berlin, 1979)
As an early response to the digital divide, the UIA was probably the
first to demonstrate the potential of Internet technology in an African
developing country -- within the framework of a meeting of the UN University
(Dakar, 1979). In 1986 the UIA participated in the UN University’s
project on Information Overload and Information Underuse.
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Pioneering international documentation |
The intersect between its information management
skills and international content resulted in an invitation (declined)
to manage the “92” (international) domain of the International
Standard Book Numbering (ISBN) system -- as was an analogous invitation
to consider management of the .INT domain as first conceived. Registration
in the Yearbook continues to be used, under certain circumstances, as
a criterion for ascription of an International Standard Serial Number
(ISSN).
At the beginning of the 20th century, with a very strong bibliographical
focus, the UIA network of bodies maintained 11,000,000 card file records – portions
of its archives now being held by Mundaneum (Mons), currently presented
as being the first “Internet on paper”. One of the UIA’s
founding personalities, Paul Otlet, was intimately involved in the
development of the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) that remains
an alternative to the Dewey system. The other leading founder, Henri
La Fontaine, received the Nobel Peace Prize (1913) for his efforts
towards international organization through the UIA and associated bodies.
In that period the documentation work of the UIA was closely associated
with the International Institute of Bibliography (IIB) founded by Paul
Otlet and Henri La Fontaine in 1895. This was subsequently transformed
into the International Federation for Information and Documentation
(FID), which continued as a focus for the UDC and founded in 1995 the
Global Information Alliance (GIA) -- a strategic alliance of NGOs in
information, communication and knowledge to serve the world community.
The UIA continues to maintain strong links with the library world,
notably through a 20-year relationship with its publisher K G Saur
Verlag (Munich) one of the principal suppliers of international reference
works and itself closely associated with the International Federation
of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).
Following its pre-war (very “thick”) registry activity on
the international organizations (currently being released in electronic
form), the UIA produced in 1923 the first registry of all previous resolutions
of international conferences – the last occasion on which this
task proved possible to any institution until the UIA adopted its current
approach of registering problems and strategies recognized by the international
community. In that same period (1922-27) it operated an International
University for international association executives, participating as
students and staff.
In the 1920s, the UIA transferred its registry activity on international
organizations to the League of Nations whose establishment the UIA had
significantly promoted, notably through La Fontaine.
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Envisioning hypertext |
Historians of hypertext have recently acknowledged
[more] the prophetic description of a Universal Documentation Network
by UIA’s founder, Paul Otlet, as part of his work on the nature
of transdisciplinarity, which concluded, in 1935:
Man would no longer need documentation if he were assimilated
into an omniscient being – as with God himself. But to a less
ultimate degree, a technology will be created acting at a distance
and combining radio, X-rays, cinema and microscopic photography.
Everything in the universe, and everything of man, would be registered
at a distance as it was produced. In this way a moving image of the
world will be established, a true mirror of his memory. From a distance,
everyone will be able to read text, enlarged and limited to the desired
subject, projected on an individual screen. In this way, everyone
from his armchair will be able to contemplate creation, as a whole
or in certain of its parts. (Monde, pp. 390-391, trans.)
In this light, there is even a speculation that the UIA was itself designed
by Otlet and his network as a form of virtual organization [more]. Indeed
the 21st century interpretation of the UIA name, points to the challenge
of discovering new insights into forms of “union” that are
required to relate conceptual or social “associations” of
any kind across “international” boundaries that may be
cultural or sectoral as much as geopolitical
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Communication for the system of organizations |
In 1950 the UIA retook responsibility for
registering international organizations in its Yearbook of International
Organizations. Its capacity in this respect was acknowledged in a special
UN/ECOSOC Resolution 334B (XI) of 20 July 1950, and subsequently figured
in successive Annual Reports of the UN Secretary General. The UIA has
had consultative relationship with UN/ECOSOC since 1951 for that reason.
In response to the challenges of society, the UIA was generating studies
in 1969 and 1970 with titles such as: Improvement of communication
within the world-system: research uses, applications and possibilities
of a computer-based information centre on national and international
organizations and related entities and International organizations
and the generation of the will to change: the information systems required. The
UIA’s continuing dedication to democratic development and the
development of information technology potential are reflected in a
range of UIA-led project proposals, including:
- Information Context for Biodiversity Conservation under the Info2000
programme of the European Commission’s information directorate
(DG-XIII). (Project undertaken from 1997-2000).
- Interactive Conceptual Environmental Planning Tool for Developing
Countries (INTERCEPT): Approved for funding through the World Bank's
InfoDev program [reviews comments and responses] (submitted 25 March
1998; approved 2 June 1999; removed from proposal pool March 2000 due
to lack of funds).
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A century of organizational learning |
The UIA has survived in a country overrun
by two World Wars, and the following period in which international documentation
was subject to considerable Cold War pressures applied through intergovernmental
institutions to distort the realities with which individual organizations
had to deal. Although the UIA does not associate itself with advocacy
on particular concerns, in accordance with its documentalist culture,
it exhibited strong resistance to efforts to curtail or misrepresent
information from any sector throughout that period.
Underlying this century of exploration is the fundamental question
of what to do with information on organizations and issues to enable
action for the betterment of society – and how to enhance public
understanding of the challenge. At the start of this new millennium,
in a version of the knowledge society prefigured by its founder Paul
Otlet, the UIA seeks the endorsement of the modern Internet community
to continue this work in partnership with the civil society community
in the operation and delivery of services to the civil society community.
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