The conference's central goal is to get the internet, telephones and other communications to at least half the world's inhabitants by 2015.
Doing so, many delegates argued, could speed up progress towards solutions to many problems in the developing world, including poverty, Aids, poor education and child mortality rates.
western leaders insisted that existing funding mechanisms are adequate, essentially deferring serious discussion on the matter until the next information society summit in Tunisia in 2005.
