Re: [atlarge-discuss] FYI: Civil Society Wins a Place at WSIS Table

[Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com>]

Judyth and all,

  ALL efforts of effective and equal representation and communications
rights to be exercised in, on or about internet issues and it's
continuing development and propagation.  WSIS, which I
am, and have been a very active participant as well, is just
one of many ongoing efforts in these directions.  ICANN
has indeed flouted and negated at almost every turn, stakeholder/user
participation.  This is a very bad and damaging thing.

  Yet we have seen that WSIS has a long way to go to understand
and completely recognize any and all interested parties or otherwise
stakeholders/usres in efforts for said espoused recognition.  But
much progress is realized and is also underway.  I personally
fail to see where the real problem is however, in that some
WSIS participants and those desiring participation are yet
in a few ways blocked from doing so still.

espresso@e-scape.net wrote:

> Some might disagree with me but I still think the WSIS
> process will ultimately be more important than ICANN
> in determining the ability of individuals to exercise
> their communications rights over the Internet. In fact,
> in the long run, it should require ICANN to adopt a
> "newer blueprint" whereby Internet users do have effective
> representation at the decision-making level through
> democratic "civil society" organizations.
>
> Y.J. Park has been more intimately involved with the
> process than I, and has already asked this group to
> think about becoming part of the civil society effort.
> I really hope people are looking into the possibilities.
>
> The world won't change overnight ... but it won't change at
> all if we don't find credible means of communicating the
> role of the Internet as a public good and essential tool
> for international co-operation by real citizens, as well
> as a source of power and money for a multinational "ICT
> elite". And it certainly won't happen if we let ICANN
> continue to be the "tail that wags the dog".
>
> My two cents Canadian,
>
> Judyth
>
> << start of forwarded material >>
>
> From: "Bruce Girard" <bgirard@comunica.org>
> To: crisinfo@comunica.org
> Subject: [CRIS Info] IPS - Civil Society Wins a Place at WSIS Table
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> Date: Sat, 01 Mar 2003 15:01:21 +0100
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> ________________________________________
>
> Civil Society Wins a Place at WSIS Table
>
> Gustavo Capdevila
>
> GENEVA, Feb 28 (IPS) - The World Summit on the Information
> Society this year will be the first multilateral negotiations in which
> non-
> governmental organisations will participate on equal footing with
> governments and business.
>
> The NGOs claimed an important victory Friday, at the conclusion of
> the two-week meeting of the WSIS preparatory committee (Prepcom)
> in Geneva.
>
> Committee chairman Adama Samassékou, of Mali, went so far as to
> say that the creation of the Civil Society Bureau was the most
> important achievement of the sessions.
>
> The delegates to the Prepcom decided that, alongside government
> and private sector representatives, civil society and international
> inter-
> governmental organisations will be the main actors involved in
> preparing for and participation in the December Summit, where the
> mandate is to establish policies to bridge the global digital divide.
>
> The committee has begun drawing up plans to reduce the inequalities
> between rich and poor countries in terms of access to the Internet and
> other information and communication technologies.
>
> The civil society groups accredited for the WSIS number 1,200, and
> prefer the ”civil society” tag to the long-standing initials ”NGOs”.
>
> Samassékou's announcement of the inclusion of civil society in the
> WSIS process was ”really a high point” of the Prepcom, commented
> Renate Bloem, chairwoman of the Conference of NGOs (CONGO)
> with United Nations consultative status.
>
> The civil society groups were ”desperate” after being excluded from
> the previous WSIS Prepcom, in July 2002, added Bloem.
>
> The International Civil Society Bureau, which already began
> operations at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) under
> the coordination of Louise Lassonde, has divided its members into
> families, according to each organisation's speciality.
>
> The working documents include, as points of reference, proposals to
> connect all of the world's villages to the Internet by 2010 and to set
> up
> community access to this technology by 2015.
>
> Samassékou clarified, however, that the texts of a declaration and a
> plan of action discussed over the past two weeks in Geneva are
> merely working documents and do not hold the same weight as a
> Prepcom draft document would.
>
> Other points of reference included in the texts cover the connectivity
> of universities, secondary schools and primary schools, as well as
> establishing Internet access for all hospitals and health centres
> worldwide.
>
> These are just some of the preliminary aspirations for a plan of action
> and final declaration to be discussed at the WSIS, to take place in
> Geneva Dec 10-12.
>
> The content of both documents will be up for debate prior to the
> Summit at the third Prepcom, slated for Sep 15-26, also in this Swiss
> city.
>
> The second phase of the WSIS, to evaluate progress, is to take place
> in Tunisia, Nov 16-18, 2005.
>
> The United Nations promoted the idea of the Summit as one of many
> means towards achieving goals related to the eradication of poverty,
> universalisation of primary education, full recognition of gender
> equality, and others.
>
> The Summit delegates are to adopt policies aimed at correcting the
> inequalities in access to ICT (information and communication
> technologies). The ITU calculate that there are 500 million Internet
> users worldwide, but 80 percent are in wealthy countries.
>
> In the developing world, meanwhile, only one person in 50 has
> Internet access. In the industrialised world, the ratio is two out of
> five.
>
> In addition to governments, the private sector is weighing in on
> policies related to information technology, attempting to regain lost
> ground after the market contraction suffered by the ICT industry in
> 2001.
>
> Sales of semiconductor materials fell 29 percent, and computer sales
> declined for the first time in 15 years, while mobile telephone sales
> stagnated, according to figures from the World Trade Organisation
> (WTO).
>
> Yoshio Utsumi, secretary-general of the ITU, which is organising the
> WSIS, says the Summit must also help industry, which has excess
> capacity in the countries of the North, to cover the technology markets
> of the developing countries.
>
> Civil society groups challenged the initial orientation of the WSIS
> because of its ”very heavy focus on commercial conditions to bring
> telecommunications infrastructure to all the corners of the globe,”
> noted Sally Burch, of the Latin American Information Agency (ALAI).
>
> The NGOs ”shared their concerns about building full access to
> communications technology, in particular among developing countries
> and remote regions of developed countries,” said Burch. ”But
> technology should not be the starting point for this process,” she
> added.
>
> The draft plan presented by the civil society organisations demands
> priority for issues like sustainable development, democratic
> government, literacy, education and research, human rights, and the
> protection of global knowledge, and cultural and linguistic diversity.
>
> The last point of the document mentions information security, which
> became one of the central issues at this Prepcom.
>
> The civil society groups state that information security concerns must
> not in any way violate people's privacy nor their right to free
> communication.
>
> The terrain the NGOs have gained is important. The only inter-
> governmental agency that had recognised the participation of
> independent sectors prior to this is the International Labour
> Organisation (ILO), which has representatives of governments,
> businesses and trade unions sitting on its administrative council.
>
> (END/2003)
> --
> Bruce Girard @ Roma
> bgirard@comunica.org
> Home: +3906 474 4124
> Fax and voicemail: +31 84 882 6517
>
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> << end of forwarded material >>
>
> ##########################################################
> Judyth Mermelstein     "cogito ergo lego ergo cogito..."
> Montreal, QC           <espresso@e-scape.net>
> ##########################################################
> "A word to the wise is sufficient. For others, use more."
> "Un mot suffit aux sages; pour les autres, il en faut plus."
> ##########################################################
>
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Regards,
--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 129k members/stakeholders strong!)
================================================================
CEO/DIR. Internet Network Eng. SR. Eng. Network data security
Information Network Eng. Group. INEG. INC.
E-Mail jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com
Contact Number: 214-244-4827 or 214-244-3801



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