[WSIS CS-Plenary] WSISblogs.org: an idea worth developing?
Rik Panganiban
rikp at earthlink.net
Thu Dec 16 19:46:37 GMT 2004
Ah, a WSIS RSS feed aggregator. Yes, that would a great tool to have.
Particularly since there are a host of WSIS-related events in 2005 that
people will want to receive reporting on. OK, you've got my vote.
Rik Panganiban
On Dec 16, 2004, at 9:22 AM, Andy Carvin wrote:
> 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
>> -----------------------------------
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>> ===============================================
>> 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
> -----------------------------------
> _______________________________________________
> Plenary mailing list
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>
===============================================
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. **
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