UN Holidays - World Telecommunication and Information Society Day

The rapid development of information technology, cybernetics, and mass media communications was greatly influenced by the unification of countries to improve and use the results obtained to improve the quality of life and progress in all spheres of human activity Today it is impossible to imagine life without the Internet, digital television, mobile communications and technologies associated with them World Telecommunication and Information Society Day is traditionally celebrated by all communications and information technology specialists on May 17 By signing the first International Telegraph Convention in Paris back in 1856, representatives of twenty countries, including Russia, gave an unimaginable impetus to the development of telecommunications, initially in the revolutionary development of that time - the telegraph By creating the International Telegraph Union, countries were able to achieve uniform standards regarding equipment and parameters of signals transmitting information Agreements were also reached on other aspects - organizational and legal But scientific progress did not stand still, and with the advent of radio and telephone, and a little later television, the name of the union ceased to correspond to all available types of communication Therefore, in 1932, at the next conference, a new International Telecommunication Convention was introduced In 1934, the union received a new name - the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) And 13 years later, ITU became a specialized agency of the UN The holiday itself - World Telecommunication Day - received its name and official status in 1969, and in 2006 it again changed its name, which it still has to this day It is worth noting that the theme of the holiday changes every year, this is due to the fact that in the constantly changing information world, new issues arise related to the introduction and use of the latest technologies, ensuring access and distribution of all types of communications everywhere, increasing security and performance, and many others In the last years of the new millennium, at conferences and other events designed to ensure the availability of information about innovative discoveries and their application in the field of communications and mass media, an analysis of the work performed was carried out and questions were raised about overcoming the following problems: - cybersecurity; - the use of infocommunication technologies (ICT) people with disabilities; - use of ICT by youth; - increasing the availability of ICT in remote and isolated rural settlements; - gender equality in the use of ICT; - environmental aspects of the use of ICT and others In a dynamically changing world, ITU has an important mission - bridging the digital divide and ensuring equal opportunities to use ICT in all corners of the planet for a harmonious and creative future for humanity