[WSIS CS-Plenary] Tunisia meeting & better defining ourselves..

[richard t jordan]

--Hello, Wolfgang, et al, The weekly DPI (Dept. of Public Information) briefing for NGOs here at UN Headquarters on February 12 consisted of the Permanent Representative of Tunisia, Sara McCue, of UNDP, Therese Gasteau of DPI and myself, from NGOs. Sergei Kambalov of the UN ICT Task Force made an informal intervention from the audience during Q&A. There were a number of delegates also present.

Basically, this was informational only, what was the Summit like, what did it do, and introduced the Tunisian phase. Some delegates found the new (at that time) Canadian site of interest, since it contained Rik's synopsis of that Geneva meeting. 

It was abundantly clear that NGOs in New York, and others for that matter, now realize (my view) that this process is one that would be valuable in which to be engaged.

What I did suggest, and it seemed a welcome proposal, was for some type of open-ended working group in New York, composed of anyone who wanted to participate, be formed to discuss what those in New York feel the second phase could deal with.

With few NGOs but myself from New York having been involved in the process from the beginning, there has always been a vacuum, so we will see how things work out here.

Cheers, 
Richard

P.S. Agree with Robert about working on positive results for Tunis.


--------- Original Message ---------

DATE: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 09:30:15
From: <wolfgang at imv.au.dk>
To: "Robert Guerra" <rguerra at cpsr.org>,<plenary at wsis-cs.org>
Cc: 

>I agree with Robert, that there is a need to look forward and to formalize - in written documents - the emerging and evolving CS structure. What we need is something like bylaws. I know that this is in contrast with the radical bottom up theory, but if we reach a certain level of complexity, you have to have a stable system,also to become independent from individual activists and to guarantee continuity in cases where one or another activist is ill, is unable to continue or has no will anymore to continue with her his voluntary work.
>
>Best
>
>wolfgang
>
>-- Original Message --
>From: Robert Guerra <rguerra at cpsr.org>
>To: plenary at wsis-cs.org
>Send: 2004-02-25
>Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Tunisia meeting & better defining ourselves..
>
>I do remind everyone the following i mentioned a few days ago.. that the 
>informal meeting in Tunis is NEXT week. Consequently,
>
>
>* it would be a good idea to have those that are attending relay a 
>message from the plenary and/or CT group. what that message is, well - 
>that i'll leave to discussion.
>
>
>* as mentioned by mereym and others, we need to come up with a consensus 
>on where we stand in regards to the CSB.
>
>
>we must recognize the fact that certain governments and the summit 
>organizers might be seeing the CSB, and those who are listed as it's 
>members as empowered to give ideas and/or represent civil society in 
>some capacity.
>
>One of the shortcoming of the CSB since it was setup at PC2 is that 
>there are few, if any authoritative documents which clearly establish 
>the CSB rules of procedure, conduct of it's representatives and what 
>actions it is empowered (and not) it can engage in.
>
>I would put it to the plenary that this is something that needs 
>immediate attention. Might it be too much to ask to create a 
>subcommittee where lawyers, drafters,governance experts and others in 
>Civil Society could start collaborating to create a set of guidelines 
>for the CSB, and perhaps other structures which we have created.
>
>We can discuss what's wrong, which is fine - but let's do something 
>about. would that not be better?
>
>
>regards
>
>Robert
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