The mix of participants reflects the cooperative nature of the effort, which includes the private sector and international organizations. Other speakers included OAS Assistant Secretary General Christopher Thomas and Jamaica's Minister of Education, Burchell Whiteman. Participants stressed the need for open access to equitable and affordable educational opportunities, as well as respect for domestic educational priorities and national sovereignty. They also discussed the need to honor differences in culture, language and dialect, saying that classes should be offered in different languages and educators from different cultures should work together to develop joint curricula. The goal is to devise an infrastructure that will support schooling, job training and other services, and will benefit individuals, countries, and educational and cultural institutions.
Organizers have high hopes that high technology can help level the playing field in education.