From muguet at mdpi.net Mon Feb 12 13:22:07 2007 From: muguet at mdpi.net (Dr. Francis MUGUET) Date: Mon Feb 12 13:44:14 2007 Subject: [Wsis-pct] IGF response Message-ID: <45D05BEF.805@mdpi.net> Dear Freedom supporters I have been quite busy recently organizing various events. Here is a message sent before catching a train to Geneva As indicated on the IGF site : All stakeholders are invited to send us their comments and views on the Athens meeting and make suggestions with regard to the preparation of the meeting in Rio de Janeiro by filling out our online form or downloading the form [rtf] and emailing it back to us at igf@unog.ch or posting their comments on our >> discussion section <<. I used the third way, the IGF Discussion Space to post comments just before the deadline http://intgovforum.org/forum/index.php?topic=21.0 at a wee hour, but I left the msg in my draft folder and forgot to send it to the PCT list. It turns out all 3 responses posted on the IGF Discussion Space were not taken into account either on the site http://www.intgovforum.org/contributions_questionnaire_responses.htm or in the synthesis paper. I cannot dare think this was deliberate, but it is a serious procedural shortcoming. However, I must add, that following discussions with my friends at EuroLinc, parts of my comments were included in their joint contribution, but all remarks and suggestions concerning the bureau and the need to make recommendations that were included in the Eurolinc contributions have not been reported in the synthesis paper. It could be just a coincidence. Anyway, I would like the group to give comments and post opinions about both the handling procedures of the MAG, and the content of my response. My post, sent in my personnal capacity, along with with your remarks and modifications could be read tomorrow in the name of the group, if a majority of the group agrees. Of course I would expect strong opposition from some MAG members, but their vested interest disqualify them to express themselve twice as their opinions are already expressed within the Governance Caucus that has been sending a congratulation letter to Desai. I will send another msg, when in Geneva Best regards Francis ------------------------------------------------------------------- Taking stock and the way forward All stakeholders are invited to send us their comments and views on the Athens meeting and make suggestions with regard to the preparation of the meeting in Rio de Janeiro. You may wish to address topics such as the preparatory process, the logistics of the meeting as well as its format and content. In order to facilitate the assessment of the feed-back we suggest that you fill in the Web based for and put your comments in the following broad categories. What worked well? The symbol of the location of the first IGF in Athens, cradle of the democracy. The first round of talks after the opening ceremony was unusually frank. The atmosphere created the possibility of informal exchange of informations. The Greek government provided gorgeous buffets, as well as diners. What worked less well? Political issues : The absence of H.E George Papadatos, WSIS Rapporteur, who proposed the idea of the first IGF in Athens, and who was very well acquainted with Civil Society, broke the continuity of the WSIS process, as far as Civil Society was concerned, It prevented the Greek government to play a major political role in the IGF organization.. Greece plays only the role of an event organizer. The current IGF process and the IGF event in Athens were not enough held and organize with a faithful spirit to the WSIS texts that were never strongly recalled to the participants. The organization of the IGF meeting was not articulated along the very precise points of the IGF mandate. In this sense, it can be felt that the current IGF process is betraying its mandate determined by the WSIS. In particular it must be recalled that according to the WSIS texts : 78.../.. The UN Secretary-General should also: 2. establish an effective and cost-efficient bureau to support the IGF, ensuring multi-stakeholder participation. A bureau has not been yet established so far, only a secretariat, which is diplomatically completely different. It is not up to the existing secretariat to decide whether a bureau should be established and how it should be done. It is up to the United Nation members to press the new UN Secretary General to fulfill this WSIS decision, as expeditiously as possible. A very important point of the mandate of the IGF has been deliberately brought off the spotlight. 72.We ask the UN Secretary-General, in an open and inclusive process, to convene, by the second quarter of 2006, a meeting of the new forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue called the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The mandate of the Forum is to: g)Identify emerging issues, bring them to the attention of the relevant bodies and the general public, and, where appropriate, make recommendations. No serious efforts were made to identify emerging issues during the IGF, The name of last session was a misnomer. The last IGF session was a most welcome effort to involve young people, but it was not a session targeted at identifying emerging issues as mentioned in the IGF mandate. It was replied to me that currently the IGF cannot make recommendations, because no rules of procedures have been determined towards that goal. It is rather clear that the very reason that a bureau is mentioned in the WSIS texts, and not an office, is that precisely it is the task of a bureau to determine and to deal with procedural issues; The creation of Dynamical Coalitions seem to have caught the IGF secretariat off guard, and in fact, after Athens, the IGF secretariat did not make any serious effort to organize, recognize, and empower the coalitions. Network and web site issues. The IGF web site was locked, allegedly because of a security bug that could not fixed during the entire conference, preventing many workshop organizers to update the IGF site with their workshop schedule. The computer network, entirely based, even for the cybercaf?, on wireless technology was overloaded and erratic. No computers at the cybercaf? were running Free Software operating system, not because of the incapacity of the technicians, but because it was not indicated in the specifications of their services, by the IGF organizers. The WIKI of the IGF where participants were invited, after the IGF meeting in Athens, to submit proposal of Dynamic Coalitions never worked properly, the proposals of Dynamic Coalition ( eg the Linguistic Diversity coalition ) on the WIKI were never taken into account, and finally the WIKI was closed recently without notice. Logistical issues. The location was ill-chosen, in a luxurious palace with exorbitant prices. I was informed that for some diplomats of small european countries, that the price was above their regulations and have to ask special authorization. It created bad feelings among some governmental delegates from developing countries, who were witnessing that some members of Civil Society could afford to stay at the Divani Appollon palace, when they could not. For most part of the Civil Society, it was a real obstacle, creating yet another divide. There was no easy public transportations from the Divani Appollon palace. Supplementary notes to Part I ( review of the IGF meeting in Athens ) The overall reactions in the international press were not very favorable to the IGF meeting, one article even called this IGF meeting : ?blablatopolis.? (http://light.pcinpact.com/actu/news/32422-gouvernance-internet-athenes.htm ) ----------------- Suggestions for improvement in view of the second IGF meeting? Political issues : It is hoped that the host country would take a stronger political role as a facilitator between all stakeholders, and that the same well trained diplomatic team that participated to the WSIS process would oversee the organization of the next IGF, taking into account the WSIS best practices. It is hoped that the next IGF meeting would be better articulated along the precise points of its mandate, and in particular that a specific session would deal with the identification of emerging issues, meanwhile that United Nations members would take the opportunity to make a formal request to the new secretary general to form Bureau for the IGF. The Bureau should be multistakeholder with a broad and inclusive membership. The current MAG, which is not mentioned in the WSIS texts, should not be considered as as the basis of the Bureau, because, at least, as far as Civil Society is concerned, Civil Society members of the MAG have not been selected towards this purpose. Concerning the outputs of the overall IGF process, in particular, the IGF meetings and of the dynamical coalitions, it was proposed in Athens that those outputs be formatted along a very effective process familiar to all internet architects :: RFC ( Requests for Comments http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Request_for_Comments ). It would be indeed a fitting diplomatic innovation to adopt this format to deal with internet governance. This RFC process was also proposed independently by the representative of Indonesia, during the IGF in Athens. Furthermore, it is suggested that willing governments involved in the next IGF meetings and any other willing government, alongside civil society and the business sector, should implement a web platform to manage those RFCs, that would be called RFC IS4D Information Society for Development ( name suggested by Eurolinc ). Since the themes of the IGF meeting in Athens overlapped with many of the themes of the actions lines as coordinated by ECOSOC, and implemented by various organizations such ITU, UNESCO, UNDP, etc... it would be appropriate that the organizer of the next IGF meeting should invite the representatives of ECOSOC, ITU, UNESCO, UNDP, etc.. to make report and held workshops at the next IGF meeting, and should organize a satellite Forum after the IGF meeting on topics of the Geneva plan of action and of the Tunis agenda. Concerning enhanced cooperation, nothing prevent the United Nation members to suggest to the new UN Secretary-General, to use the IGF forum as a cost effective tool to convene all stakeholders and to catalyze the enhanced cooperation, that has not started yet, It is hoped that the local Civil Society would be better involved than it was the case in Athens. Logistical issues. The conference center should be a public conference center, and not within a Hotel. It should be conveniently located nearby affordable hotels and easily reachable with public transportations. To compensate with Athens, it is suggested that all computers in the Cybercaf? be running GNU/Linux operating system in the next IGF meeting. Many workshops lacked translation in Athens, because of the cost. It is suggested that local volunteer students be called upon to help Civil Society workshops for translation purposes. Since the travel costs to fly to Brazil,are going to constitute an obstacle for many usual WSIS Civil Society participants. It is suggested that Brazil should provide some financial assistance, and should partner with the European Union that has promised to provide financial assistance through the channel of the WSIS Civil Society Bureau. Did the synthesis paper, which gave an overview of all contributions received and which was translated in all UN languages, meet a real need? Should a similar paper be prepared prior to the next meeting? There is a crucial need of a synthesis paper, the problem is that the content of the specific synthesis paper for Athens was not enough targeted at the real problems of Internet Governance,. It did not reported fairly critical opinions and therefore was of little practical use, and in fact it was never used as a reference in any discussion, so far I know in Athens. -- ------------------------------------------------------ Francis F. MUGUET Ph.D MDPI Foundation Open Access Journals Associate Publisher http://www.mdpi.org http://www.mdpi.net muguet@mdpi.org muguet@mdpi.net ENSTA Paris, France KNIS lab. Director "Knowledge Networks & Information Society" (KNIS) muguet@ensta.fr http://www.ensta.fr/~muguet World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS) Civil Society Working Groups Scientific Information : http://www.wsis-si.org chair Patents & Copyrights : http://www.wsis-pct.org co-chair Financing Mechanismns : http://www.wsis-finance.org web UNMSP project : http://www.unmsp.org WTIS initiative: http://www.wtis.org ------------------------------------------------------ From muguet at mdpi.net Wed Feb 21 13:54:50 2007 From: muguet at mdpi.net (Dr. Francis MUGUET) Date: Wed Feb 21 13:53:03 2007 Subject: [Wsis-pct] Mother Language Day - Information Society 2.0 event Message-ID: <45DC411A.4010807@mdpi.net> Hello I was busy recently, just after the IGF stock taking meeting, but I will report soon about this IGF event since there are really interesting developments that must be discussed within the group. for the moment, this annoucement : ------------------------------------- English / Fran?ais Sorry for cross-posting Hello If you are in Paris, now and next week you are kindly invited to the "Federating Event" Information Society 2.0 http://socinfo.wtis.org Apologies for other languages speakers, but except for the UNESCO MLD celebration and the workshop, Recent Experiences on Measuring Languages in Cyberspace, these are french-speaking only events ( as well as the web site ), it is somewhat of a paradox when striving for linguistic diversity, but they are modest local events. Please note the Celebration of International Mother Language Day 21 Feb 2007 at UNESCO all the complicated links to the UNESCO pages ( including english versions ) are listed on the page http://socinfo.wtis.org/liens.html For registration http://socinfo.wtis.org/inscription.html the authentication code is WSIS-PLEN For UNESCO events, deals directly with UNESCO. Please note the Internet Governance workshop, which is going to be rather timely, after the last IGF stock-taking session last week, where some "dissenting" opinions and suggestions have been set forward. The workshop includes a debriefing session of the IGF in Athens. Meetins at UNESCO and with EUROLINC will also spur some brain-storming activity toward the implementation of the dynamical coalition for "Linguistic and Cultural diversity". Best regards Francis --------------------------------------------- Bonjour Si vous ?tes ? Paris, actuellement et la semaine prochaine, vous ?tes cordialement invit?s ? l' Ev?n?ment F?d?rateur : Soci?t? de l'Information 2.0 http://socinfo.wtis.org dont le site vient juste d'^etre mis en ligne. Pour l'inscription http://socinfo.wtis.org/inscription.html le code d'authentification correspondant ? cette liste est WSIS-PLEN A noter l'atelier sur la Gouvernance de l'Internet, qui sera d'actualit? apr?s la derni?re r?union mouvement?e de stock-taking de l'IGF ? G?n?ve la semaine derni?re. Cet atelier incluera une s?ance de debriefing de l'IGF d'Ath?nes. A noter auss la C?l?bration de la Journ?e internationale de la langue maternelle , le 21 F?vrier 2007, ? L'UNESCO tous les liens compliqu?s de l'UNESCO sont inclus dans les pages http://socinfo.wtis.org/inscription.html et http://socinfo.wtis.org/liens.html Les r?unions ? l'UNESCO et chez EUROLINC serviront aussi de r?unions de reflexion pour la mise en mouvement de la coalition dynamique "Diversit? Linguistique et Culturelle". Cordialement Francis -- ------------------------------------------------------ Francis F. MUGUET Ph.D MDPI Foundation Open Access Journals Associate Publisher http://www.mdpi.org http://www.mdpi.net muguet@mdpi.org muguet@mdpi.net ENSTA Paris, France KNIS lab. Director "Knowledge Networks & Information Society" (KNIS) muguet@ensta.fr http://www.ensta.fr/~muguet World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS) Civil Society Working Groups Scientific Information : http://www.wsis-si.org chair Patents & Copyrights : http://www.wsis-pct.org co-chair Financing Mechanismns : http://www.wsis-finance.org web UNMSP project : http://www.unmsp.org WTIS initiative: http://www.wtis.org ------------------------------------------------------ From muguet at mdpi.net Wed Feb 21 13:57:09 2007 From: muguet at mdpi.net (Dr. Francis MUGUET) Date: Wed Feb 21 13:55:20 2007 Subject: [Wsis-pct] correction Mother Language Day - Information Society 2.0 event Message-ID: <45DC41A5.1010501@mdpi.net> Hello Sorry, the authentication code for this list is WSIS-PCT. Best Francis -- ------------------------------------------------------ Francis F. MUGUET Ph.D MDPI Foundation Open Access Journals Associate Publisher http://www.mdpi.org http://www.mdpi.net muguet@mdpi.org muguet@mdpi.net ENSTA Paris, France KNIS lab. Director "Knowledge Networks & Information Society" (KNIS) muguet@ensta.fr http://www.ensta.fr/~muguet World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS) Civil Society Working Groups Scientific Information : http://www.wsis-si.org chair Patents & Copyrights : http://www.wsis-pct.org co-chair Financing Mechanismns : http://www.wsis-finance.org web UNMSP project : http://www.unmsp.org WTIS initiative: http://www.wtis.org ------------------------------------------------------ From comunica at cibervoluntarios.es Wed Feb 14 11:14:26 2007 From: comunica at cibervoluntarios.es (Cybervolunteers Foundation) Date: Thu Mar 8 12:59:31 2007 Subject: [Wsis-pct] e-STAS 2007. Social Action Technologies Symposium Message-ID: Cybervolunteers Foundation invites you to the II edition of e-STAS, Technologies for the Social Action Symposium, an international and multi-stakeholder event whose aim is to finish with the digital divide. Te event, for 250 people, focuses on a strong networking line and we count with the participation of a top choice of lecturers and relevant celebrities, International figures such as: Mari Kuraishi President of Global Giving Foundation, Stuart Gannes Director of the Digital Vision Program at Stanford University, Allen Gunn of Aspiration Tech, Carlos Alfonso of RITs, Raoul Weiler European President of the Club of Rome and Bill Lester de Engender Health, among others. The Symposium will be held from the 22nd to 23rd of March 2007, in Diputación provincial of Seville, Spain. Come and join us, we need your presence and experience. **Register at www.e-stas.org or calling +34 915422900** You can download a pdf version here | Fundación Cibervoluntarios 2007 | info@cibervoluntarios.es -- Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --