[WSIS CS-Plenary] WSISblogs.org: an idea worth developing?

[Angelamaria Loreto]

I think it's a very good idea. Thank you for doing it

Angelamaria Loreto
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andy Carvin" <acarvin at edc.org>
To: <plenary at wsis-cs.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 1:25 AM
Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] WSISblogs.org: an idea worth developing?


> Last night on a whim, I went online and bought the domain names
> wsisblogs.org and wsisblogs.com.
>
> As you all know, we’re less than a year away from WSIS 2005. During the
> the first summit in Geneva, there was a small contingent of bloggers in
> Geneva, including myself and the amazing folks at DailySummit.net.
>
> Undoubtedly there will be many more at the next summit, including
> delegates, professional journalists, civic journalists and others. And
> let's not forget the prepcoms and thematic meetings. Should we expect
> much of media presence at all of these events, particularly when the
> major policy decisions will take place? Precedence suggests otherwise.
> At the last prepcom meeting in Tunisia last June, I was one of a handful
> of bloggers present, all of whom -- as far as I know -- represented
> civil society; there was practically no mainstream media present, nor
> any noticeable media coverage after the fact.
>
> Just 10 days ago, Rebecca MacKinnon lamented in her blog on the lack of
> mainstream media coverage regarding Internet governance, which was
> discussed at a recent ICANN meeting in Capetown. The event was covered
> by numerous bloggers, she noted, “But no meaningful mainstream media
> coverage so far. Maybe it’s not as easy to understand or as exciting as
> the FCC, but isn’t it just as important (if not more so) for our global
> communication future?”
>
> So all of this got me wondering about WSIS, the upcoming prepcoms and
> other WSIS thematic meetings, and the dearth of quality media coverage.
>  From my perspective, it’s incumbent upon civil society – including
> civic bloggers – to embrace a bigger leadership role in publicizing the
> policy outcomes that are currently at stake, and mobilize the online
> public to take interest in the issue.
>
> With all of this swirling through my head last night, I purchased the
> domain names WSISblogs.org and WSISblogs.com. I haven’t thought through
> what should be done with it, but I can envision something like Dave
> Winer’s ConventionBloggers.com, which aggregated all the bloggers
> covering the Democratic and Republican National Conventions here in the
> US this past summer. In other words, a site where you could find all the
> latest posts from all the bloggers participating and/or observing the
> WSIS process. The site could be organized by major policy outcomes and
> related WSIS topics, so users could explore the latest blogs on Internet
> governance, the digital divide, protest activities, human rights issues,
> etc, as they occur. It would also be great to allow bloggers to add
> their RSS feeds to the site, since it’s not always possible to get an
> authoritative list of who’ll be blogging prior to WSIS-related events.
>
> Even if we do nothing, chances are there will be bloggers galore at
> WSIS: dozens of bloggers, blogging on a variety of issues, in a variety
> of styles and languages, giving the public unfettered, unfiltered access
> to the WSIS process. Imagine if we could organize them all in one place.
>
> Anyway, it’s just an idea. Would love to hear what others think. -andy
>
> --
> -----------------------------------
> Andy Carvin
> Program Director
> EDC Center for Media & Community
> acarvin @ edc . org
> http://www.digitaldivide.net
> Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com
> -----------------------------------
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