The first physical meeting of the WSIS+10 High- Level Event Open Consultation Process took place in Geneva at the ITU Headquarters, Geneva.  It was an open and inclusive consultation among WSIS Stakeholders (governments, private sector, civil society, international organizations and relevant regional organizations) focused on developing multistakeholder consensus on two draft Outcome Documents, to be developed by 1 March 2014 and submitted for consideration by the WSIS+10 High-Level Event: the Draft WSIS+10 Statement on the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes; and the Draft WSIS+10 Vision

Social networks, blogs, and online media offer citizens access to public life in an unprecedentedly direct way. Is the internet revolutionising democratic practice? This topical question will be raised this year during the World Forum for Democracy, organised by the Council of Europe with the support of the French government, the Alsace Region and the City of Strasbourg.

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a multi-stakeholder forum for policy dialogue on issues of Internet governance. It brings together all stakeholders in the Internet governance debate, whether they represent governments, the private sector or civil society, including the technical and academic community, on an equal basis and through an open and inclusive process. The establishment of the IGF was formally announced by the United Nations Secretary-General in July 2006. It was first convened in October-November 2006 and has held an annual meeting since then.

The International Day of Democracy on 15 September was established by the United Nations in 2007 as an opportunity to review the state of democracy in the world. Democracy is as much a process as a goal, and only with the full participation of and support by the international community, national governing bodies, civil society and individuals, can the ideal of democracy be made into a reality to be enjoyed by everyone, everywhere.

Entering a second quarter century of supporting and enhancing cutting edge research in the interface between law and computer technology, the 2013 JURIX conference will take place at the University of Bologna from 11 to 13 December 2013.

The school provided knowledge of the most significant ICT standards emerging for legislation, judiciary, parliamentary and administrative documents. The course provided an understanding of their impact in the different phases of the legislative and administrative process, awareness of the tools based on legal XML standards and their constellations, and the ability to participate in the preparation and use of standard-compliant documents throughout law-making process. In particular Lex Summer School aimed at creating consciousness in the stakeholders in the legal domain about the benefits and the possibilities provided by the correct usage of the Semantic Web technologies like XML standards, ontologies, natural language techniques applied to the legal text, legal knowledge modelling and reasoning.

The Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation held an EPCRD seminar “Modern technologies to support parliamentary activities - traditions and challenges" in Saint Petersburg (19-21 September 2013). This seminar was organized by the Council of Federation, in cooperation with the Secretariat of the Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States (IPA CIS), in the framework of the ECPRD Area of interest "Parliamentary Practice & Procedures".

The U.S. House of Representatives held its second annual Legislative Data and Transparency Conference on 22 May, in the Capitol Visitor Center Auditorium. The 2012 conference brought together the government insiders that create and publish legislative data with the public that consumes and reuses the information. The 2013 conference addressed the "use and future of legislative data," and covered topics including electronic legislative archiving, XML and metadata standards, and updates on beta.congress.gov. 

The Global Centre for ICT in Parliament will attend the World Summit on the Information Society Forum 2013, which represents the world’s largest annual gathering of the ‘ICT for development’ community. This forum will provide structured opportunities to network, learn and participate in multi-stakeholder discussions and consultations on WSIS implementation. This event builds upon the tradition of annual WSIS May meetings, and its format is the result of open consultations with all WSIS Stakeholders. The agenda and program of the WSIS Forum is built on the basis of official submissions received during the Open Consultation Process.

The National Democratic Institute (NDI), Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), the Omidyar Network and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) organized the conference "Governing Democratically in a Tech-Empowered World", on 23-24 April 2013, to explore how technology is changing the ways in which democracies function and how to support democratic institutions, particularly in developing democracies, in adapting to these changes. Anders Johnsson, Secretary General of IPU, delivered opening remarks and UN/DESA was represented by Flavio Zeni, Chief Technical Adviser, Africa i-Parliament Action Plan.

The Global Centre for ICT in Parliament participated in the Workshop Legal Open Data: from Institutions to Crowd-sourcing during the 14th International Conference on AI and Law (ICAIL 2013) held in Rome, Italy, 10-14 June 2013, under the auspices of the Senate of the Italian Republic, at the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (National Research Council of Italy), central unit in Rome.

The ECPRD - Parliaments on the Net - seminar entitled « Realizing the Digital Parliament », organized in the framework of the ECPRD Area of Interest “Information and Communication Technology in Parliaments” and hosted by the UK Parliament, focused in particular on the shift taking place in many parliaments from print to digital.  Follow: #potn2013 - http://potn2013.tumblr.com/ - Videos

The IFLA World Library and Information Congress "Future Libraries: Infinite Possibilities", 79th IFLA General Conference and Assembly, will be held in Singapore from 17 to 23 August 2013

The 2013 World Forum for Democracy "Rewiring democracy - reconnecting citizens and democratic institutions in the information age" will be held in Strasbourg (France) on 27-29 November 2013.

At the 128th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which took place from 22  to 27 March 2013, in Quito, Ecuador, the IPU Standing Committee on Democracy and Human Rights discussed the use of media, including Social Media, to enhance Citizen Engagement and Democracy.