[WSIS CS-Plenary] CS plans for UN ICT Task Force meeting in Berlin in November

[Ralf Bendrath]

Hi everybody,

the German WSIS coordination group met with the German government on
Friday and discussed the UN ICT Task Force meeting and Global Forum on
"Promoting Enabling Environment For Digital Development" that will take
place in Berlin on 19-20 November.

All who want to come and are interested in the subject: Please read this
mail carefully.

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General information

1. The ICT Task Force meeting and the Global Forum will take place in
the German Foreign Office. We were told that the number of seats there
is limited to 300 persons, including governments and private sector. So,
if you want to make sure you can participate, contact the Task Force
secretariat soon. The German government can not help in this regard, as
they are only providing the rooms.
Contact for the Task Force:
http://www.unicttaskforce.org
email: "Sergej L. Kambalov" <kambalov at unicttaskforce.org>

2. We will probably have meeting / hanging out space during all days
with internet connectivity in the downtown area, with lots of bars,
galleries and other hip locations around. The space will be provided by
our friends from the LinuxTrendStore "newthinking" (some will remember
Markus Beckedahl from the German crowd during PrepCom3 and the Summit).

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On the day before the Global Forum (18 November):

1. We will organize an informal meeting over dinner in the evening.

2. We are interested in organizing a more more formal civil society
briefing and workshop on financing and digital development during the
day. This would help preparing for the Global Forum, especially as there
is no caucus on financing yet.
!!! -> We will need some contributors to help with this in order to make
it happen, as we are not really experts in this field. Especially the
people who have already worked on financing are needed here. Rooms and
logistics etc. will be organized by us.
Please: All who are interested in helping with this, answer me until
Thursday (9 September) and let us know your ideas and possible
contributions. <- !!!

-----------------------------------
On the last day (20 November), after the Global Forum

1. We will organize a meeting for an assessment of the GlobalForum and
for strategizing for the next steps. It will be roughly like the meeting
we had at the Ford Foundation in New York in March, but with more time.

2. We are also planning to prepare a dinner / party in the evening -
also like the one we had in New York, but maybe more Berlin style. ;-)

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

More details on all this will also be discussed during the Public Voice
conference call next Friday. I copy the details here from Frannie's
invitation:

---------snip------------

NEXT PUBLIC VOICE WSIS RELATED TELECONFERENCE

- Date & Time: Friday, September 10th, 2004 at 12pm EDT, 1600 GMT
- Call in Number from North America: 1-888-268-1204   OR   from
outside North America:  1-512-225-3050
- Access code: 65889#
- Agenda: WSIS Briefing, UN Working Group on Internet Governance
Consultation, Berlin UN ICT Task Force Meeting

The Public Voice will hold a teleconference on Friday, September 10th
at 12pm EDT (1600 GMT) for discussion related to the World Summit on
the Information Society, Internet Governance and civil society
participation.  The agenda will include a briefing from the US State
Department, strategizing for the upcoming UN Working Group on Internet
Governance (WGIG) consultation in Geneva, and planning for civil
society participation in Berlin around the UN ICT Task Force meeting
in November.  Anyone from civil society involved in or interested in
the WSIS is invited to participate.  Meetings take place monthly.

A summary of this call will be posted online with summaries of past
Public Voice teleconferences and future meeting dates.

Public Voice WSIS Meeting Page:
        http://www.thepublicvoice.org/events/pvwsismeetings/

---------snip------------

So, we hope for your input and help, and are looking forward to meet
many of you in Berlin!

Best, 

Ralf