[WSIS CS-Plenary] Opening ceremony speaker

[Fullsack Jean-Louis]

Hi Bertrand and all

Once more Bertrand proposes Tim Berners-Lee to the CS for beeing  its
"header". It reminds me a memorable night session of our C&T group,
discussing the final proposal for the layout and additive content to be
incorporated into the Action plan, at the end of PrepCom-2. Bertrand then
showed us (i.e. the CS night workers) the first page of the Action plan in
its "final" layout. It was headed by a quotation of and a tribute to his
"heroe". I definitely opposed this "header" in such a strategic CS document,
explaining that we the CS aren't here for promoting the Internet, but at
first committed for making efficient proposals to narrow the "digital
divide". This opinion was shared by the other CS delegates present and
finally Bertrand accepted to withdraw his proposal, not without mentioning
that we are at first committed in giving the Information Society its
substance.
I remind that episode because it is symptomatic of the orientation and goals
of a significant part of CS representatives at the WSIS, and particularly in
the C&T group, giving an excessive importance and priority to issues related
to the Internet. Of course, we ALL agree that Internet gouvernance as well
as the rights for its access and usage are important issues that have to be
tackled by the CS, but this doesn't need to worship the inventor(s),
designers or manufacturers of the Internet who took largely profit from it.
In such a logic CS soon will propose a quotation of Bill Gates as a "header"
in the Declaration of principles ! The numerous messages nominating
personnalities from this sphere -most of them without any contact to our
activity and commitment in the WSIS process- as CS speakers at the Summit
prove this regretable drift.
CS has to come back quickly to its sources and to the issues it is mandated
for by its members and not in promoting, even indirectly, neither the
Internet nor its gourous. As it has to be prudent in adopting, without
sufficient discussion and debate, some controversial gouvernements' views
(the "Solidarity Fund" or "Agenda" is one among others).
This involves some ethics to be respected inside of the CS. Very
opportunately and with solid arguments Meryem reminds us all how CS should
act as to respect democratic rules and procedures in the WSIS process,
especially in the view of preparing the Summit and in designating OUR
speaker nominees. I fully subscribe to her opinion and recommendations, even
if I still feel some "trouble" as far as CS participation at the round
tables is concerned. I feel that at least we sould be "as close as possible
to the seats" if we aren't sitting on them following a decision that only
the CS Plenary can take.
As far as speaker nominees are concerned I support the African Caucus
nominees proposal (with a preference for Aminata Traore as Opening speaker)
even if I previously suggested Philippe Quéau to be one of them. For me this
suggestion should mainly give a strong signal of CS's independence from any
kind of "official connectivity".

With my best wishes to Bertrand and all CS delegates for a good job at
PrepCom-3a that I must unfortunately follow remotely.

Jean-Louis Fullsack
CSDPTT - France


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bertrand de LA CHAPELLE" <lachapelle at openwsis.org>
To: <plenary at wsis-cs.org>
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 2:06 AM
Subject: Re: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Opening ceremony speaker


> 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
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