During the past decade the international community has focused its efforts on strategies to help the people of the world's poorest countries share in the benefits of globalization and escape the traps of poverty. The decision at the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000 to adopt eight specific Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) provides an agreed political benchmark for measuring the progress of global development. In the same year, the G-8 initiated the Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT Force) to harness the forces of new technologies in order to narrow social and economic inequalities by making the benefits from these technologies accessible and meaningful for all humanity.