[WSIS CS-Plenary] [WSIS-CT] Final keynote speaker proposal

[Sally Burch - ALAI]

Ad hoc committee proposal for keynote speaker:

The ad hoc committee on speakers for the summit has been 
exchanging over the last week on criteria and names for the 
keynote speaker.  Here is a summary and final 
recommendation.

Please send any comments before midday (Europe time) 
Tuesday as we need to send a recommendation to the 
secretariat tomorrow (Tuesday).

1) The following criteria have been agreed on for selecting 
a keynote speaker:

-	s/he a represents Civil Society organization; most of 
civil society can identify with his/her positions
-	defends the main values, theories, conceptual 
proposals and practice/action lines that CS has put forward 
in relation to the Information Society: people–centred 
approach to development, North South paradigms, information 
and communication issues, link to social issues, etc.
-	has a strong grounding in human rights issues
-	is a visionary, with known capacity
-	can provide an independent perspective on issues of 
ICT and development
-	is eloquent, well respected, charismatic and has a 
media profile/public visibility (a high public profile is 
desirable but not essential)
-	there is strong support for a woman, from the South, 
and/or representing a marginalised group; also some strong 
support for a speaker from Africa


2) The following names have been received as proposed 
keynote speakers for the WSIS opening session on Dec 10:

Carlos Afonso
Tim Berners-Lee
Renata Bloem
Ms Mary Chenery-Hesse
Cheick Modibo Diarra
Dr LAW Chi-kwong 
Nelson Mandela
Kicki Nordstrom
Richard M. Stallman
Aminata Traore  (not available on Dec 10)
Lynne Muthoni Wanyeki

(Details on each available at: 
http://mboom.draper.albany.edu/~mciver/WSIS/Summit/Speakers
/Nominations-Main.html


3) Considering the above criteria, two names have been 
retained by this group:

- Lynne Muthoni Wanyeki
- Carlos Afonso

Each has been proposed by their respective regional caucus 
and by others.  Here some comments on each:

a) Lynne Muthoni Wanyeki

Executive Director of Femnet, African NGO in the 
information and communications field, involved in WSIS. 
Deputy President of AMARC, World Association of Community 
Radio Broadcasters.
 
Comments received:
 
"Muthoni is a woman of great integrity, has fabulous 
presence and charisma (you simply cannot miss her in a 
room), is a brilliant speaker ("stellar", as the Community 
Media Caucus describes her), and is so superbly articulate 
on complex inter-linkages of media, communications and ICTs 
in Africa, gender equality, unequal power relations and 
development paradigm, relations between the North and 
South, and human rights from a South perspective.  Although 
she is not "famous" yet (only by virtue of her being in her 
early 30's), she is well known amongst African 
communicators and feminists circles. From where I can see 
her, she is a rising star, and a woman that I believe will 
be one of the radical leaders of the South in a decade or 
so.  Her organisation FEMNET has also been involved in the 
WSIS process from the very beginning".


b) Carlos Afonso, Brazil

Director of RITS (Brazil), member of the Association for 
Progressive Communications (APC).

Comments received: 

"Carlos Afonso has played important roles in building and 
shaping the Information Society not only in the region but 
also in the world.  He has been one of the most crucial 
promoters of the ICTs for social, economic and political 
civil society empowerment.  He has not only contribute 
substaintally to the development of effective strategies 
for social appropriation of ICTs but also has contributed 
to the development of theories and conceptual proposal in 
relation to the Information Society issues.   

"Carlos Afonso, head of technological development at RITS, 
the Rede de informaçãoes para o terceiro setor - the 
information network for civil society. From this nonprofit 
organization (and from some other important NGOs in LAC), 
Carlos has been working for decades to "make computer 
technology and its powerful communication tools available 
to the poorest sectors of the population, largely bypassed 
by the digital revolution". Carlos Afonso is a person with 
an unquestionable representation in the field of ICTs for 
development.  He is from LAC but with global reach.  He 
represents a broad and articulated civil society vision in 
relation to the Information Society.  He has participated 
in the evolution of the new ICTs since their introduction 
in the LAC region without losing his leadership and always 
promoting and defending the interests of the third sector. 
His experience is transversal to most of the issues that 
the WSIS is covering: free software, digital inclusion, 
intellectual property, internet governance, etc."


The ad hoc committee, after much discussion on proposing an 
order of priority, has agreed to request that both speakers 
share the speaking slot (considering gender balance, 
representation of two regions from the South; their 
different areas of experience).

Only if this proposal is not accepted by the Summit 
organizers, then we will suggest an order of priority.  We 
would like feed-back from the caucuses as to what that 
order should be.

Proposals regarding other groups of speakers will be sent 
on Tuesday.  Please be on the look out to react quickly.

Sally Burch


---------------------------------
Sally Burch - Directora Ejecutiva
Agencia Latinoamericana de Información - ALAI
Casilla 17-12-877, Quito, Ecuador
sburch at alainet.org      http://alainet.org
Tel: (593 2) 250 5074  222 1570  Fax: (593 2) 250 5073
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