[WSIS CS-Plenary] Reminder: WSIS Telecentres Working Group begins this Wednesday

[Andy Carvin]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to post a reminder that the new Telecentres Working Group 
will begin its discussions this Wednesday, September 15. If you are 
interested in participating, please join the discussion group; 
instructions are below. Please feel free to translate and/or share this 
announcement.

Je voudrais vous rappeler que le groupe de travail de Telecentres 
commencera ses discussions en ligne ce mercredi, septembre 15. Si vous 
êtes intéressé à participer, svp joignez-nous ; les instructions sont 
ci-dessous. Sentez-vous svp libre pour traduire et/ou partager cette 
annonce.

Quisiera recordarle que el grupo de funcionamiento de Telecentres 
comenzará sus discusiones en línea este miércoles, de septiembre el 15. 
Si usted está interesado en participar, ensámblenos por favor; las 
instrucciones están abajo. Siéntase por favor libre traducir y/o 
compartir este aviso.



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Announcing the WSIS Telecentres Working Group!

In November, 2005, thousands of representatives from governments, civil 
society and the private sector will go to Tunisia for the second phase 
of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), a United Nations 
event to identify strategies to bridge the digital divide and utilize 
information and communications technologies (ICTs) for global 
development. The civil society delegation, which includes 
representatives from NGOs, academia and other groups, is working to 
offer input to government leaders during the WSIS process, developing 
recommendations on a variety of issues, including human rights, privacy, 
health, education and copyright.

As part of civil society's contribution to WSIS, we are forming a new 
working group on telecentres and other public technology initiatives, 
including community technology centers, telecottages, public computing 
centers at schools and libraries, community wireless networks, and other 
initiatives that seek to offer Internet access, ICT training and related 
community services to the public. Participation in the working group is 
free and open to the public.

Once online discussions commence, the group will brainstorm to identify 
specific projects that could serve the WSIS process, such as the following:


     * Informing policymakers of successful strategies to utilize 
telecenters as a tool in reaching the UN Millennium Development Goals;

     * Identifying opportunities for cross-sector, public-private 
partnerships for promoting sustainable telecenters;

     * Organizing an international thematic conference on telecenters 
and other public computing venues;

     * Establishing an international network of telecenters and 
telecenter associations at the local, national and regional level in 
order to forge greater connections between them;

     * Collecting and disseminating case studies that demonstrate the 
rich diversity of telecenters, including programs run by libraries and 
community networks, and how they impact various aspects of global 
development (education, health, the environment, civic participation, etc.);

* Sharing of best practices and tools, translated for cultural and 
linguistic appropriateness.

Other issues may be identified as well. As discussion proceeds, 
participants will be encouraged to volunteer and coordinate various 
aspects of the working group, from organizing events, writing position 
papers and translating the group's official documents.

As this will be an international discussion, the working group will 
allow posts in English, French and Spanish; participants will be 
encouraged to utilize free translation tools such as Altavista Babelfish 
to help make the daily discussion as accessible as possible.
There are two options to join the group:

Option 1: Go to 
http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/telecentres and fill 
out the subscription form;

Option 2: Send an email to telecentres-request at wsis-cs.org with this 
word in the subject line: subscribe

After submitting your subscription request, you'll receive a 
confirmation request from the list server. Please follow the directions 
in this email; you'll then be confirmed as a member of the list.

Since this is a new list, we would like to give incoming members a 
chance to participate from the beginning. To accomodate this, 
discussions on the list will not open until September 15; at that point, 
I will post an announcement welcoming members to the list, encouraging 
them to post personal introductions. Then, we will proceed with the 
discussion.

For more on WSIS, please visit http://www.wsis.org.... -andy

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Andy Carvin
Program Director
EDC Center for Media & Community
acarvin @ edc . org
http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org
http://www.edwebproject.org/andy/blog/
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