[WSIS CS-Plenary] meeting rooms during the interssession (issue of common interest and concern)

[Bertrand de LA CHAPELLE]

Dear all,

I unfortunately missed the recent debate on rooms during 
the intersession. So let me add a few comments

The situation is the following :

1) the UNESCO has two main facilities, at less than five 
minutes walking distance but still in a different building.

2) the conference itself will take place in the main 
building (place de fontenoy) 

3) in this building, two large rooms are reserved for the 
governmental process (plenary and possible drafting 
group)

4) only two other rooms are available in this building 
furing the intersession : one is reserved permanently for 
the private sector; the other one (room 9) should be a 
natural fit for civl society plenaries : medium size, with a 
podium. The Unesco told me they try to WiFi-enable the 
whole venue, so this room should be WiFi as well if 
signal goes through the thick floor. But there is no 
translation available and getting our own translators in 
would have required previous screening by the 
translation office of Unesco (the corporation is very 
protective as you know).

5) The main problem is : as no general reservation was 
made by anybody from either the civil society bureau or 
the CS division of the executive seretariat, 2 1/2 days on 4 
were already reserved on a first-come, first served basis. 

6) Two reservations (total 1 day) were :
- for the full afternoon of the 15th, by an organization 
called "Observatoire National de l'Internet des 
professions liberales" (web address : 
http://www.apipl.org, contact : Thierry Bouchard at : 33 
(0)6 82 14 25) who will be organizing a series of 
"auditions of experts" on the role of "professions 
liberales" in civil society
- for the full morning of the 16th, by the organizers of the 
Local Authorities Summit on the Information society to be 
held in Lyon on Dec 4-5 (contact Véronique Kleck : 33 
(0)6 75 61 26 08)
As there were no rules established, it seems difficult to   
prevent them from holding meetings they already have 
advertised and are legitimate to hold.

7) This leaves the  pb of the remaining 1 1/2 day (the 
morning of the 15 th and the whole day of the 18th) where 
the only appropriate room for Civil Society as a whole is  
reserved by our friends from .....Webforce. I leave to the 
Civil society bureau the question of how to handle this in 
the most appropriate manner. But it certainly raises 
some concern.  

8) as a matter of security, I reserved the afternoon of the 
16th and the whole day of the 17th to make sure it would 
not be taken before we decide what to do. These time 
slots are therefore at the disposition of all civil society but 
I would keep 2 hours on the 16th (ideally 3 to 5) and 2 
hours on the 17th (at a time to be determined).
They will be used for a presentation of the OpenWSIS 
web site and an illustration of its methodology, but also to 
allow some other actors to present the processes they 
have launched : this includes CRIS, but also the Unesco, 
the ICT4D platform and the VirtualWSIS, initiatives that 
can be of interest to civil society. 

9) additional - very - small spaces (not really rooms, 
more like openspaces with high separations) are 
available near the room 9 and we may use them for light 
drafting, but they will be close to the offices reserved for 
the executive secretariat 

9) the Unesco is very keen on providing additional 
meeting rooms and enough space is available in the 
second building, which is really close. Internet 
connexions can be available but no projector nor WiFi. 

10) the contact person for rooms is :
Natasha Denissova
Information Society Division
UNESCO
1, rue Miollis - 75732 Paris
Tel.: + 33.1 45 68 43 27
Fax: + 33.1 45 68 55 83
E-mail: n.denissova at unesco.org

She is very cooperative and will really try to accomodate 
the needs we may have. But they did not have any 
mandate to regulate who reserved what and should not 
be held responsible for us not having made a general 
reservation beforehand.

I hope this will clarify the issues.  And anyway, we'll 
manage. The key question is : shall we wait until the 
afternoon of the 16th to have a first plenary meeting ?

Best to you all

Bertrand
 





Bertrand de LA CHAPELLE
OpenWSIS Initiative
lachapelle at openwsis.org
tel : 33 (0)6 11 88 33 32


About OpenWSIS 
The OpenWSIS Initiative is an open consultation and 
cooperation process for all categories of stakeholders to 
jointly identify and formalize Issues of Common Concern 
or Interest (ICCIs), to facilitate implementation of the 
WSIS Action Plan between  Geneva and Tunis.

A propos de l'OpenWSIS
L'Initiative OpenWSIS est un processus ouvert de 
consultation et de coopération permettant à toutes les 
parties prenantes concernées d'identifier et de formaliser 
ensemble des sujets de préoccupation ou d'intérêt communs 
(SPICs)qui faciliteront la mise en oeuvre du plan d'action 
du SMSI pendant la période de Genève à Tunis.