[WSIS CS-Plenary] UN Official Document System is online

[Georg C. F. Greve]

 || On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 12:28:56 +0100
 || Vittorio Bertola <vb at bertola.eu.org> wrote: 

 vb> I'm not looking forward to appearing as a defender of the
 vb> establishment but... how can you say this? 

I can say this because none of representatives chosen by Civil Society
to represent it on these topics were included.

Saying that these are not represented is not the same as saying that
there is noone who would as a person care for them or take interest in
them, which is where your confusion seems to come from.

There are many people involved in many working groups with diverse
interests. I believe that there are people with very qualified
opinions on many issues in many groups. But it is also true that these
people have often not followed the intensive discussions that took
place within these working groups during the months of work at the
first phase.


There are certainly people with a very solid understanding of internet
governance in the PCT working group that I know of. But if the WGIG
had been set up without any of the representative from the CS working
group, I would say that Civil Society is not represented on these
issues.

If Civil Society self-organisation seeks to have any meaning, I
believe that indeed Civil Society has to stand tall on seeing the
issues that are not represented put outside the scope of the WGIG.


 vb> So I wouldn't say in advance that the WGIG is biased against free
 vb> software - I would at least wait for the results to judge.

I never said nor implied such a thing.

All I know is that Free Software is not represented in the WGIG, which
is not the same as saying that nobody took an interest in them. In
fact, I know that many people take lots of interest in these issues.

But I am also aware that in particular several people from the
industral, which sometimes come disguised as governmental, and
governmental sides take a hearty interest in these issues. 


But my main worry was actually not Free Software, I am more worried
about the PCT issues, which some people seem to try sneaking in
through the back door after they were officially excluded from the
scope of the WGIG by Mr. Kummer when the WG was set up.

While I don't wish to diminish the greatness of seeing some people
From Civil Society included in that working group and certainly don't
want to belittle your influence, I have enough experience in this
field to know uneven the potential means of influence are distributed.


That is why I believe it is of crucial importance to resist allowing
the extension of the scope after it has been set up. Limiting the
scope and trying to prevent the worst seems most reasonable.

Regards,
Georg

-- 
Georg C. F. Greve                                 <greve at fsfeurope.org>
Free Software Foundation Europe	                 (http://fsfeurope.org)
GNU Business Network                        (http://mailman.gnubiz.org)
Brave GNU World	                           (http://brave-gnu-world.org)
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