[WSIS CS-Plenary] WSISblogs.org: an idea worth developing?
Andy Carvin
acarvin at edc.org
Thu Dec 16 14:22:32 GMT 2004
Hi Rik,
No, that's not exactly what I had in mind. I'm not thinking of
re-creating DailySummit.net, particularly if David Steven and his
colleagues return for 2005. And I don't mean hosting blogs for people,
since there are free sites for people to do that already, including our
new digitaldivide.net website.
What I'm suggesting is a RSS feed aggregator: a website that retrieves
content from all the websites like DailySummit and others that will be
covering WSIS, and hosting summaries of those blogs in one place.
Conventionbloggers.com is a good example of an event blog aggregator,
though it's missing some of the features I'd want. It was created for
all the bloggers who were covering the US political conventions this
summer. (The republican convention was the second event, so that's why
this site is showing conservative blogs at the moment.) The site would
capture the latest blog entries from dozens of different blogs around
the Internet covering the event and aggregate it in one place, saving
people the trouble of scouring the Net for individual blogs.
I'd envision doing something similar, but make it sortable by date,
topic, geography and language. I see the site as a place where people
can follow WSIS-related events in near-real time, as bloggers from
various sources post content. So if you're blogging, I'm blogging,
DailySummit's blogging, Ralf's blogging, others are blogging, summaries
of our latest blogs could appear in one place.
Technically it shouldn't be that difficult, and I'm trying to corral
some volunteers from the blog technical development community for
design, hosting, etc. Fortunately there are a lot of blog techies here
in the Boston area, so I'm talking about the idea with them.
And you're absolutely right, we also need collaborative online
workspaces that go beyond blogs, since blogs certainly can't do
everything. I'd love to have us experiment with the new Digital Divide
Network website as a collaborative tool. The site can host free blogs,
bulletin boards, document storage, news and events listings, articles,
etc, and is free to anyone working on issues related to the digital
divide. We're going to use DDN for the telecentres caucus, and invite
other groups to try the site for themselves and see if it could be
useful to them.
http://www.digitaldivide.net
thanks,
ac
Rik Panganiban wrote:
> Hi Andy,
>
> I don't think its necessarily a bad idea, particularly if you are
> offering to host the site and provide blogging services for whoever
> wants to use it. However there are several blogs and news sites already
> out there. Perhaps you mean an effort similar to what the British
> Council did at the Geneva summit, the "dailysummit" journalist blogs? I
> would certainly support something that is more edgy, humorous, and
> outsider-friendly.
>
> On wsis-cs.org we will probably be adding a CS blog / news coverage page
> shortly.
>
> Some of us who have established WSIS civil society sites (APC, German CS
> group, WSIS-online.net, CONGO, etc) have been talking about the need for
> a more centralized online space for CS to work collaboratively, share
> documents, report the latest developments, etc. The blog piece is
> important, but only one part of the puzzle. The kind of stuff you guys
> have set up for the digital divide network is a great system for
> communities to use. Perhaps we should just invade your site?
>
> Regards,
>
> Rik Panganiban
> (ocassional blogger at rikomatic.objectic.net)
>
> On Dec 14, 2004, at 7:25 PM, Andy Carvin wrote:
>
> 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
> -----------------------------------
> _______________________________________________
> Plenary mailing list
> Plenary at wsis-cs.org
> http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/plenary
>
>
> ===============================================
> RIK PANGANIBAN Communications Coordinator
> Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations
> (CONGO)
> web: http://www.ngocongo.org
> email: rik.panganiban at ngocongo.org
> mobile: (+1) 917-710-5524
>
> ** Please note CONGO's new mailing address: *CP 50, 1211 Genéve 20,
> Switzerland.* Our physical office address is 11, Avenue De La Paix, 1st
> Floor, 1202 Genéve, Switzerland. **
>
--
-----------------------------------
Andy Carvin
Program Director
EDC Center for Media & Community
acarvin @ edc . org
http://www.digitaldivide.net
Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com
-----------------------------------
More information about the Plenary
mailing list