[WSIS CS-Plenary] Statements for Prepcom III

[Beatriz Busaniche]

Hi, 
this is my 186 words frustrated speech of this morning (in spanish).  Below 
our statements paragraph by paragraph , english version. 

Presentación del Caucus de Educación y Academia
Martes 16 de septiembre 2003

Soy Beatriz Busaniche de Argentina y hablo en nombre del caucus de educación 
y academia.

Estamos muy  preocupados porque dificilmente podemos encontrar la palabra 
educación en la declaración de principios. 

En relación al párrafo 30  proponemos incluir que: 

La educación, la alfabetización y la investigación son los componentes 
fundamentales de la sociedad de la información y el conocimiento.  Como 
principio postulamos que la educación formal, informal y continua, construye 
democracia por desarrollar una ciudadanía alfabetizada y una fuerza de 
trabajo capacitada.   

Por eso, consideramos  que los párrafos de creación de capacidades deben ser 
más firmes y contundentes. 

La sección 2 sobre acceso al conocimiento no debe enfocarse desde el rol de 
receptores, sino que queremos promover la idea de ser activos productores de 
conocimiento socialmente significativo.  

 Es fundamental mantener la mención sobre  la libertad de elegir las 
aplicaciones informáticas y la promoción de los programas de fuente abierta 
como modelo de acceso más asequible a las TIC’s como plantea el párrafo 24. 

Proponemos enfatizar los párrafos sobre la necesidad de minimizar los efectos 
negativos de las TIC’s en el mundo laboral y promover la idea de una 
capacitación continua para generar nuevas oportunidades de trabajo en la 
sociedad de la información. 


english version of our paragraphs suggestions.

Input from Education & Academia Caucus

The education and academia caucus is worried that education has lost its 
position as key principle and empowering tool in the Information Society, and 
we can hardly find the word education in this document. Therefore, we would 
like to propose a strengthening of the following paragraphs:

Para 21-22: we want to add that: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion 
and expression including the freedom to seek, receive, produce and import 
information and ideas. 

Our argument is that it is important that all people have the opportunity to 
produce knowledge in order to be able to actively participate in the 
Information Society

Para 27: The Internet has evolved into a global public good

Para 30: This paragraph does not mention education which in both the formal 
and informal form is the basis of empowering peoples around the world

New Para 30: We want to add: Literacy, education and research are fundamental 
components of information and knowledge societies. On principle we posit that 
education (formal, informal, lifelong) builds democracy both by creating a 
literate citizenry and a skilled workforce. 

And we want to strengthen the language used in the remaining part using the 
word must instead of should. 
[Everyone must be offered the opportunity to acquire the necessary skills in 
order to understand, participate actively in, and benefit fully from, the 
Information Society and the knowledge economy. Given the wide range of ICT 
specialists required at all levels, building the institutional capacities to 
collect, organize, store and share information and knowledge must be given 
special attention. Governments must develop comprehensive and forward-looking 
strategies to respond to the new human capacity needs, including the creation 
of an environment that supports information literacy, ICT literacy and 
life/long learning for the general public.] 

Para 31: we want to add the importance of promoting and protecting gender-
sensitivity in the educational system.
In addition, we propose to keep the sentence which is now in [square 
brackets], because people involved in educational processes are the ones who 
make a difference - therefore their “tools” should be preserved 
[Creators, publishers and producers of content, as well as teachers and 
trainers, can play a crucial role in promoting the Information Society.]

Para 33 C + D: The Education and Academia caucus propose to keep both 
paragraphs but to merge them into one as they are very much connected. Both 
paragraphs express the crucial need to minimize the possible negative effects 
of ICTs on job security. Furthermore, we want to promote new opportunities, 
not only for traditional jobs but also for new jobs in the Information 
Society. 



--
Beatriz Busaniche
busaniche at caminandoutopias.org.ar
www.caminandoutopias.org.ar

---------- Original Message -----------
From: karen banks <karenb at gn.apc.org>
To: plenary at wsis-cs.org, ct at wsis-cs.org
Sent: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 14:59:38 +0100
Subject: [WSIS-CT] Statements for Prepcom III

> hi
> 
> As with the intersessional, we'll try to put all of the verbal and 
> written statements from Civil Society online.
> 
> Could all speakers make sure they post a copy of their written 
> statement to the ct at wsis-cs.org list (susanna has already asked for 
> paragraph replacement language and other contributions for the CS 
> compilation statements)
> 
> Also, the voluntary translation team are available to translate 
> Civil Society statements into french, spanish, portuguese and 
> chinese, for online publication, but we'll need the electronic 
> versions of statements in order to do this..
> 
> thanks..
> karen
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Ct mailing list
> Ct at wsis-cs.org
> http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/ct
> Civil Society Plenary: http://www.wsis-cs.org/
> Content & Themes Documents: 
> http://bscw.fit.fraunhofer.de/pub/bscw.cgi/0/42953798
------- End of Original Message -------