[WSIS CS-Plenary] Opening ceremony speaker

[Bertrand de LA CHAPELLE]

Hi all, 

Choosing who will speak in the opening ceremony is important 
to be sure our views are faithfully expressed and to enhance 
media coverage. But it is also about strategically 
ESTABLISHING THE RIGHT FOR CIVIL SOCIETY TO NOMINATE WHO 
WILL REPRESENT IT.  

Therefore, as the goal is to set a precedent upon which we 
can build later, we need to choose someone reflecting CS 
views on the Information Society that cannot be rebuffed or 
refused by any government.

For these reasons, why not invite for the opening ceremony 
speech Tim Berners-Lee, THE inventor of the World Wide Web 
and the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) ? 

This would present many advantages, reminding participants 
and in particular governments :
- that the Information Society they keep talking about is 
fundamentally organized around the World Wide Web, which was 
invented by civil society (indeed a single human : how more 
civil society can you be ?)
-  that without wanting to protect or patent his invention, 
Berners-Lee made it a gift to the whole world, showing that 
if legal protection can help innovation, it is not always a 
necessity;
- that the creation of this global commons (an open 
standard) has triggerd a multi-trillion dollar industry and 
impacted society in a way similar only to the printing press 
or electricity
- that new frontiers are being explored (the so-
called "Semantic web" of the highest importance for cultural 
and linguistic diversity).

Beyond singlehandedly inventing the Web, Tim Berners-lee 
also designed the World Wide Web Consortium or W3C), an 
innovative multi-stakeholder decision-making and standard-
setting process dedicated to addressing the issues raised by 
its development.

In a nutshel, TBL did not only promote the values we defend 
(global commons, open architectures and standards, flexible 
frameworks for dialogue involving a wide variety of 
stakeholders, access to information, transparency, non-
profit approach,  ...); he also implemented them in 
everything he did. 

The very success of what he created is the best proof that 
those principles do work. Nobody is in a better position 
(credibility) to expose the present attacks against some of 
the founding principles of the Internet and the Web that CS 
cares about.

Other advantage : no government in its sane mind can take 
the risk of the public ridicule of refusing the floor in a 
summit on the Information Society to the very man who, more 
than anyone, helped it happen. Should Civil Society agree on 
his nomination through the present process (and provided of 
course he can and wants to participate), his name could be 
given with no alternative option, thereby establishing CS 
right to nominating its own speakers. 

I hope you will find this suggestion useful and capable of 
triggering a rapid consensus. Many things can be added.

But as my view may be biased, I encourage suggestions, 
comments and critics on this one. In particular, I recognize 
TBL, as a white male living in the US, does not help on the 
criterias of gender and geographical balance. 

Should a decision be taken among us, I am sure many of you 
are in a position to help contact TBL if necessary and we 
should select the best channel . 

Cheers to all

Bertrand