[WSIS CS-Plenary] Nobel prize winners, celebrities, Civil Society speakers, Online CS

[Dr. Francis MUGUET]

Dear Izumi and others

Is there any possibility for the Civil Society plenary to invite her to
join WSIS under Civil society umbrella?  I think that will add the
interest and significance significantly.

I share the enthusiasm of many of you (I guess the overwhelming
majority) concerning the Nobel Prize of Mrs Ebadi.
I fully agree with you, it is quite clear that the political impact 
is going to be much greater and this will quite helpful in promoting
the views of the Civil Society.
But to take into account the objections of Chun, such speakers must be
fully briefed by concerned working groups about they should say in the
name of those working groups. Celebrities should be not mistaken : they 
should give a vague speech ( I heard too many of them ) : they should
deliver a precise speech, delivering a message.
It is rather obvious that Mrs Ebadi could be deliver a speech for Human
rights. 
In order to be effective on the texts, Mrs Ebadi should intervene
in PreoCom3A, in November.

For other issues, for example,
concerning the Patent & Copyright issues, the fact that
Richard Stallman, a celebrity of his own right, has been able
to deliver a speech at Intersession, and to lobby in person
state delegations has been quite effective in promoting
free software issues. .

Concerning scientific information, we tried to follow the same
strategy. Unfortunately Nobel science prize winners are too busy to
attend Prepcoms for all their duration;
 in order to be able to deliver an ultrashort speech at a time that
is not known enough in advance.  

For the speeches during the
 WSIS summit itself which is going to approve decisions
taken at PrepComs,  The impact on the texts will be ZERO.
However, it may influence the next PrepComs of the Tunis phase.

Since head of states will be present, I guess that speeches
delivered by well briefed celebrities could be very effective,
since  texts of their speech can be written or checked by concerned
working groups.
 
Concerning round tables, the picture is less clear, it is quite
possible that answers given by celebrities that are not fully aware
of the WSIS process could be damaging to the CS.
Chun and Robert points are well taken.
The CS must be certain that round table participants know what they
are talking about.   

Concerning Al Alegre's suggestion to activate
an Online plenary, I believe this does not agree with
the principles proposed
by Sean and approved by the majority of the CS.  

Best regards

Francis


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

MDPI Foundation   http://www.mdpi.net 

WSIS Civil Society Working Group coordinator
http://www.wsis-si.org
http://www.wsis-pct.org
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