[communication 954] Re: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Nobel prize winners, celebrities, Civil Society speakers, Online CS

Mon Oct 13 00:51:32 BST 2003

Dear all,

Thank you for your comments regarding my prior message!
I think Al is addressing one important procedural issue that we should 
take the decision making power to nominate for speaking slots. 
First, that should be sorted out.
And basically fully agree with Amir that the nomination of Mrs Ebadi for 
a key speaker could have very strong message itself. And IF we decide to 
use the speaking slots for our strategy, I fully support that idea.

But,my suspicion is the fact that to allocate appropriate figures for
civil society speaking slots could itself look one endorsement action for
WSIS or one message that we are ready for the endorsement. Then, if
necessary, we could reserve all our decision including such allocation. Of
course, we should count which could be more beneficial to our own purposes
beforehand. At this point, I have no prejudice or any concrete motion. But
I believe it unnecessary for us to follow up all planned scinario so that
those two governments' documents may be blessed. Therefore, we should
design our basic direction forward and strategy. Still, we are very
unclear to this issue. In that regard, I propose to evaluate last PrepCom
III and to discuss what could be our next step from now on.

regards,

Chun

On Sun, 12 Oct 2003, Alan G. Alegre wrote:

> 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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> 

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