Gathered in Lyon in the framework of the first World Conference for Digital Solidarity to share our experiences and state our commitment to a fairer, more inclusive global information society,

At the invitation of Mr Gérard Collomb, Mayor of Lyon and Chairman of the World Digital Solidarity Agency, the General Assembly Meeting of the Global Cities Dialogue on Information Society (GCD) will take place in the framework of the Lyon Conference on Digital Solidarity that will be held on Monday 24 and Tuesday 25 November 2008 in Lyon, France.

The delegations of the second United Nations Commission which held a debate on information technology and communication (ICT) for development, recalled, Thursday 23 October, the urgency of bridging the digital divide between industrialized nations and developing countries.

Alcatel-Lucent’s Digital Bridge initiative relies on the active commitment of local actors for creating high added-value services and applications that meet the requirements of rural populations in developing countries. This initiative aims at finding solutions for innovative uses of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

Supported by the Orange Mali Foundation and Alcatel-Lucent, the Pesinet project (Pèse Infantile sur le Net or “Weighing children on the Net”) aims at deploying a medical prevention service amongst children, of 0 to 5 years old, who come from low-income families, using a “diagnosis at a distance” system based on monitoring and controlling children’s weight curves. The service consists of having children weighed in their homes once a week – twice a week for children under one year old – by trained persons living in the community concerned.