[WSIS CS-Plenary] Opening Ceremony Speaker PCT proposal : Richard Stallman

[Dr. Francis MUGUET]

Dear Adam
> To be honest, and with no disrespect to Richard Stallman, I would 
> much prefer to have the opening speaker (5 minute slot) be someone 
> who speaks on overarching issues: basically on rights essential to 
> information society.
 To be honest too, I believe this summit is quite specific, it
 is not a general UN event devoted to Human Rights, 
 although Human rights ( don't get me wrong ) are crucial 
so let us be specific and  stay focused and efficient, 
 as somebody just said,
 what about the digital divide and the practical ways to solve it ? 

> Ideal would be someone on human rights (Mrs. Ebadi if available), or 
> perhaps gender and disabilities. I think it's important that we do 
> not begin the Summit by endorsing WSIS as a technical activity and 
> technical process onward to Tunis, it is the wrong message. 
> Stallman's one of the leading technologists of our age, 

 1/ "techonlogist", I am afraid that the use of this word reflects a
disdain for tech questions that are so important to understand otherwise
you get screwed and you cannot enforce any respect of any rights in a
 society that is technologically oriented
 2/ besides identifying Stallman as a "techonlogist" 
  is completely wrong. He proposes a view for the whole society and  not
just  about application software, 
this is the basic difference with "Open Source".
 I would rather have him to answer you directly on this topic.  
 
 Having a speaker unfamiliar with ICT would send the wrong message,
and disappoint all those who are expecting practical results. 

 Best regards

 Francis 

-- 

------------------------------------------------------ 
Francis F. MUGUET Ph.D 
muguet at mdpi.org   muguet at ensta.fr  

MDPI Foundation   http://www.mdpi.net 

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
------------------------------------------------------