[WSIS CS-Plenary] upcoming ITU/WSIS thematic meeting on Spam July 7-9, Geneva

[Rik Panganiban]

Dear Colleagues,

The ITU is organizing from 7-9 July in Geneva a WSIS thematic meeting 
on combatting Spam.  While many of your organizations may not be doing 
work directly related to Spam, I believe that this is an important 
issue that civil society needs to be involved in.  Spam raises all 
sorts of important social and cultural concerns, particularly in 
relation to advertisements of a criminal or sexual nature.  The 
regulation of spam can open the door towards more government control of 
other kinds of email traffic if careful democratic controls are not put 
into place.

Spam has serious reprecussions for both the North and the South.  For 
richer countries, spam (which can account for more than 60% of internet 
traffic) can cause serious delays in vital scientific, government, and 
financial data.  For developing countries, where citizens often pay 
much more for internet access, spam can be incredibly costly to manage.

I would hope that we would at least have adequate representation at 
this meeting from our networks working on human rights, internet 
governance, and security and surveillance.  The deadline to register is 
18 June.

Below is pasted the official invitation letter from the Secretary 
General of the ITU.  More information can be found at 
http:.//www.itu.int/spam .

Sincerely,

Rik Panganiban

---------------------------------------------------------

Chers Collègues,

L'UIT organise à partir du 7-9 juillet en Genève une réunion thématique 
de WSIS sur combattre le Spam. Tandis que plusieurs de vos organismes 
peuvent ne pas effectuer le travail directement lié au Spam, je crois 
que c'est une question importante que la société civile doit être 
impliqué dedans. Le Spam soulève toutes les sortes de soucis sociaux et 
culturels importants, en particulier par rapport aux annonces à 
caractère criminel ou sexuel. Le règlement du Spam peut ouvrir la porte 
vers plus de controle de gouvernement d'autres genres de trafic d'email 
si des démocratiques mesures ne sont pas installées.

Le Spam a des reprecussions sérieux pour le nord et le sud. Pour des 
pays plus riches, Spam (qui peut expliquer plus de 60% du trafic 
d'Internet) peut causer sérieux retarde des donnees scientifiques, 
gouvernementales, et financielles. Pour les pays en voie de 
développement, où les citoyens payent souvent beaucoup plus l'accès 
d'Internet, le Spam peut être incroyablement coûteux pour contrôler.

J'espérerais que nous aurions au moins à représentation proportionnée 
lors de cette réunion de nos réseaux travaillant sur des droits de 
l'homme, le gouvernance d'Internet, et sécurité et surveillance.  La 
date-limite à enregistrer est 18 juin.

Au-dessous est collé la lettre d'invitation officielle du sécrétaire 
général de l'UIT (seulemente en anglais malhereusement). Plus 
d'information peut être trouvée à http://www.itu.int/spam.

Sincèrement,

Rik Panganiban

=============================================

INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS UNION
General Secretariat

Contact: ClaudiaSarrocco
Tel:  +41227306301
Fax:  +41227306453
E-Mail:  counteringspam at itu.int
Geneva, 28 April 2004

To:  Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the Member States of the  ITU and 
Member States of the United Nations
International Organizations
ITU Sector Members
WSIS accredited NGOs, civil society entities and accredited  business 
entities

Subject:  ITU WSIS Thematic meeting on Countering Spam,* International 
Conference Center of Geneva  (CICG), Geneva, 7–9 July 2004

Dear Sir/Madam,

During the Geneva phase of the World Summit on the Information Society 
(WSIS) in  December 2003, spam—or unsolicited commercial 
communications—was identified as one of  the major problems affecting 
today's digital world.

With the growing dependence of users on the Internet and e-mail for 
both personal and  professional communications, the phenomenon of spam 
can seriously hamper the  development of the digital economy and 
society by undermining user confidence in online  activities. 
Accordingly, WSIS participants recognized that spam is a “significant 
and  growing problem for users, networks and the Internet as a whole” 
(WSIS Declaration,  paragraph 37) and, that in order to build 
confidence and security in the use of ICTs, there is a  need to “take 
appropriate action at national and international levels” (WSIS Plan of 
Action,  paragraph C5, d).

In this regard, I am pleased to invite you  to an ITU WSIS Thematic 
meeting on  Countering Spam,  which will take place from 7 to 9 July 
2004, at the International  Conference Center of Geneva (CICG), next to 
ITU headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The  meeting is open to all UN 
Member States, International Organizations, ITU Sector members,  WSIS 
accredited NGOs and civil society entities, and accredited business 
entities. Please note  that the proceedings of the meeting and 
associated documentation will be in English only.

Regularly updated information about the event can be found at: 
http://www.itu.int/spam/.  A registration form for the event is 
attached in Annex 2, which should be returned by  18 June 2004.

Discussion during the event will based upon the themes outlined in the 
briefing note attached  in Annex 1. You are invited to submit, by 30 
June 2004, a written contribution on any of these  themes to 
counteringspam at itu.int (such as national approaches to countering 
spam). All  written contributions will be made available on the event 
website.

For any additional information, please contact the ITU Strategy and 
Policy Unit (contact  details above).   I look forward to welcoming you 
at this important event.

Yours faithfully,

Yoshio UTSUMI  Secretary General

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  Rik Panganiban             email: rikp at earthlink.net
  UN Reporting & Advocacy    tel: (+1) 917-710-5524
  Civil Society Organizer

"The future is here,                     -- William
it's just not evenly distributed yet."      Gibson
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