[WSIS CS-Plenary] RE: [governance] BNA article on UNICT

Thu Apr 1 16:59:10 BST 2004

Désolé, pas de traduction en français, cela ne mérite
pas tant le mépris est est grand !
Dear William and other friends,
As long as nobody try to understand that 99% of
african population have not access to Internet or at
impossible conditions regarding their revenus, as long
as nobody seems to take into consideration the need of
translation of messages in other languages than only
English as in this list and manu others aiming an
univesal dialogue, there will be a world of those who
have, the master of the world and those who have not
the real sleave of the world.
You and me are in the first class and we continue to
give no consideration for the second class....
It is hopeless to see that we as the so called civile
society are not aware !
All the best
Djilali
--- William Drake <wdrake at ictsd.ch> wrote:
> Hi Milton, et al,
> 
> My bottom line was more or less reflected in the
> article.  I guess I'd say
> it went rather well, especially when you consider
> the structural constraints
> of an event like this and the many ways it could
> have been worse.  Like the
> ITU workshop, the Global Forum was not a decision
> making body.  The UNICT
> Task Force plays a facilitative role on development
> initiatives and
> international dialogues, but it does not have a
> mandate to formally do
> anything with respect to WSIS, which is a separate
> activity.  Hence, while I
> understand Vittorio's complaint the other day, it
> did not have the authority
> to issue strong recommendations to or even discuss
> the formulation of SG
> Anan's forthcoming working group.  Instead, the
> forum was intended to be
> just that, a forum---an opportunity for diverse
> stakeholders to come
> together and share their views, network, etc.  It
> served that purpose pretty
> well, although I hear that some CS folks who wanted
> to didn't get a chance
> to speak (true of the private sector as well---very
> big room with lots of
> people with their hands up makes it difficult to
> make sure everyone gets a
> turn).  Even so, a number of us did manage to and
> emphasized the importance
> of CS having not just a voice but influence in
> Internet governance decision
> making.
> 
> I also was surprised that the developing countries
> that have been
> challenging the status quo in the WSIS context
> didn't show up in greater
> numbers. I doubt that the overlap with the CTO
> meeting in Nairobi fully
> explains this, but either way, the views we heard in
> the prepcoms, and
> especially in the IG working group, were in a
> pronounced minority in NYC,
> which affected the sense of the meeting most people
> came away with.  For
> example, in the break out session I moderated, we
> had a couple of developing
> country people criticizing ICANN and a larger group
> from the North saying
> this is just a misunderstanding, everything's on
> track and getting better
> all the time.  (When, in the plenary the next day, I
> reported on the
> conversation and gave equal time to both views,
> someone came up afterwards
> to complain that I should only have concentrated on
> the majority view---not
> the only conversation I had like this, alas). 
> Bottom line, there was a bit
> of a disjuncture between the UNICT discussion and
> the WSIS discussion, and
> it's hard to see how the former added momentum for
> the developing country
> coalition's agenda.  Regardless of where one stands
> on the issues, it seems
> fair to say that they missed an opportunity to push
> it, if they are still
> intent on doing that beyond in ITU (which is not
> clear).
> 
> As to CS strategies, who knows, things seem pretty
> fragmentary these days.
> The IG caucus hasn't attempted to agree a text or
> shared position since
> before the summit, and accordingly also missed an
> opportunity to weigh in as
> an organized constituency, not only in New York but
> also at the ITU
> workshop.  Nor has there been much effort to develop
> a caucus/plenary
> interface to help facilitate input by the larger
> coalition in these forums.
> I agree with Vittorio that it could make sense to
> write to the secretariat
> of the Anan group and ask them to consider reserving
> a slot or two for
> constituency representation, but only if we actually
> get it together to
> function as a constituency.  The reality is that
> we're not really on the
> radars of governments and international
> organizations all that much and
> we're not organized in a manner they know how to
> deal with (recall the
> discussions prior to the ITU workshop on this
> point).  Compare our situation
> to the Internet Society, which has global rock stars
> like Vint, letterhead,
> a budget, two offices, big conferences, and
> nominally 15,000 or so members
> around the world.    It might help if we did
> something noteworthy first to
> make us look like a semi-organized and important
> network, i.e. releasing a
> compelling joint analysis or whatever with lots of
> endorsements.  But that'd
> take a lot of work and coordination, people would
> have to step forward and
> take a lead, and we're running on volunteer labor.
> 
> Hopefully we can keep together what's been built and
> leverage it elsewhere,
> especially if they cancel on substantially downsize
> the Tunis summit (a real
> possibility).
> 
> Best,
> 
> Bill
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Milton Mueller [mailto:Mueller at syr.edu]
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 4:35 PM
> > To: wdrake at ictsd.ch; governance at lists.cpsr.org
> > Cc: plenary at wsis-cs.org
> > Subject: Re: [governance] BNA article on UNICT
> >
> >
> > Bill:
> > Rather than serving as a forwarding service
> > why don't you report to the caucus on your own
> > perspective on the New York event, and also on
> > what positions /processes and strategies this
> > caucus might be looking at?
> >
> > --MM
> >
> > >>> "William Drake" <wdrake at ictsd.ch> 03/31/04
> 04:15AM >>>
> > Different tone to this piece from the "UN seeks to
> take over the
> > Internet" meme...
> >
> >
> >
> >
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Plenary mailing list
> Plenary at wsis-cs.org
>
http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/plenary

=====
Djilali Benamrane : dbenamrane at yahoo.com
Tél/Fax : (331) 01 45 39 77 02 Paris - France
Page web sur l'Afrique et la globalisation : http://www.multimania.com/djilalibenamrane/
Groupe de discussion: http://www.egroups.com/list/afriqueglobalization

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Small Business $15K Web Design Giveaway 
http://promotions.yahoo.com/design_giveaway/