Worlds Best Practice No.3 September 2003 Mama Samassekou °'" '"'R WY ADAMA SAMASSEKOU PrepCom President welcomes WSA PrepCom President Mama Samass4kou welcomed the initiative to make e- content a key aspect of the WSIS. In a conversation with the Head of the Austrian PrepCom Delegation, Walter Lichem, and WSA Board Chairman, Peter A. Bruck, President Samassokou said: «The World Summit Award gives expression in a very concrete way to the hopes of people to use the IS technologies for something good. It is also a most important means to allow the cultural identities of all nations to be communicated in the Summit Process*. «We have talked much about the cultural dimensions of the Information Society in the course of the World Summit preparations. The WSA makes a clear statement that richness and diversity can be develo- ped and that all in the South and North can benefit from each other when contents are exchanged in an open manner* added Mr. Samassokou. The PrepCom President indicated that he might take the opportunity in upcoming talks with UNESCO officials to stress the potential of the WSA for this UN organization. Adama Samass€kou has a distinguished career in Mali, Africa and on the global stage. He is Resident of the African Academy of Languages, former Minister of Education of Mali (1993-2000). world summit d The best in e-Content and Creativity EMINENT EXPERTS AT WORK THE WSA ATTRACTS ATTENTION WORLDWIDE The success of the WSA 03 strongly relies on the effort and support of the national eminent experts in each of the 136 participating countries. The main task of an elected expert is to select and propose eight, in his/her opinion, best practice examples in e- content Er creativity from his/her country. The selection is to be made according to eight WSA categories and to the selection guidelines, provi- ded by the WSA office. According to the reports from the countries, most experts established nation-wide an