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

[Alan G. Alegre]

Dear Francis and all

Lest I be misunderstood about the intent of my earlier post: I am not
against Mrs Ebadi being nominated at all to speak in one of the civil
society spaces on the summit. I am sure she is an eminent person worthy of
the Nobel peace prize and would indeed make an impact on the WSIS. (I in
fact also congratulated Amir off list on the honor his compatriot was
accorded by the Nobel committee.)

What I suggested in terms of precisely choosing who the reps would be that
this decision should be subjected to some sort of consensus-building process
(i.e., in establishing criteria, mechanism for choosing/verifying
availability/willingness, etc.)

For example, aside from Mrs. Ebadi, it would also be nice to see the
following people speaking in the plenary/high level round tables:
- a credible representative coming from poor communities of Africa (or Latin
America or Asia)
- somebody like Noam Chomsky
- the jailed journalists of Tunisia
etc etc etc

My point being, there are probably thousand of qualified eminent people and
we have to decide on the criteria for nominating them to the Invitation
Committee (or whatever structure does this function)... It really also
depends on what is the message we want to deliver, and what is the base to
make an impact...

We also have to be sure that the *prevailing* sentiments of CS--(i.e.,
humble recognition of the gains we have had at WSIS, but in general deeply
concerned that much of our content developed over 18 months has been dropped
from the initial draft documents) be expressed somehow in the most
appropriate way...

We also have to ensure some sort of regional/cultural/gender balance among
all speakers...

Etc., etc, etc.

(I do echo therefore Robert's recent post also on this topic)

Having tried to clarify this, I do want to say that I agree with practically
all of Francis' points below....except for one:

> 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.

I felt my suggestion was in fact keeping with spirit of the document which
was drafted, proposed and circulated by Sean, Renata et al on Civil Society
structures...that when the Plenary cannot convene physically, the online
plenary list is the next best thing.

Regards
Al Alegre



----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr. Francis MUGUET" <muguet at mdpi.org>
To: <plenary at wsis-cs.org>
Sent: Monday, October 13, 2003 2:07 AM
Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Nobel prize winners, celebrities, Civil Society
speakers, Online CS


> 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
>
>
> --
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
> 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
> ------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Plenary mailing list
> Plenary at wsis-cs.org
> http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/plenary
>


Alan Alegre
Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA)

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