[WSIS CS-Plenary] Preparing for PrepCom 2

[Andy Carvin]

Hi Rik,

Robert and I had a conference call about this late last week. I'm hoping 
to do some fundraising to put some staff-time on developing a 
WSISBlogs.org site between now and Tunis; in the meantime, I'm probably 
going to create a very simple aggregator for those of us blogging from 
the Prepcom, something along the lines of my tsunami-info.org site. 
Also, just yesterday I figured out a cool way for a group of people to 
create "mobcasts": audio blogs (podcasts) with multiple contributors, 
all filing their blogs over their mobile phones. I'm about to start 
experimenting with the concept at http://mobcasting.blogspot.com as soon 
as I get some volunteers. It's free, and only requires calling a US 
phone number (which might pose some problems for non-US mobile networks 
whose keytones are different than US keytones, though).

Meanwhile, we're in the process of getting MediaWiki running on the 
Digital Divide Network server; I thought it was all set a few days ago 
and I created a space where people could post their prepcom itineraries, 
propose meetings, etc, but for some reason the page erases itself every 
few hours. Needless to say it's not ready yet, but hopefully in the next 
couple of days EDC's tech team will be able to solve the problem.

thanks,
ac


Rik Panganiban wrote:
> Thanks, Robert for trying to getting us onto some of to focus on the 
> most pressing, practical concerns.
> 
> On your points:
> 
> On Jan 16, 2005, at 10:01 AM, Robert Guerra wrote:
> 
>     Reading the ongoing discussion that is going on, has me thinking if
>     the same energy and great effort being expended could not also be
>     used for another very important issue - that of starting to prepare,
>     organizing and discussing the coming PrepCom 2...
> 
>     It is my view that in addition to an ongoing debate and/or
>     discussion we need, we must also start focusing our attention on the
>     coming prepcom...
> 
>     Here's my list of suggested list of items that I think we should
>     start planning for:
> 
>     * A debriefing session for the different working groups and caucuses
>     - Where each group could update each other on activities we've been
>     involved in and the try to agree on objectives to achieve for Week 1
>     & 2 of the prepcom
> 
> 
> My understanding is that there will be time set aside for a general 
> overview of the different caucuses and working groups as well as 
> breakout sessions for them on the Feb 14 orientation sessions organized 
> by CONGO and others.
> 
>     * Press Briefings -
>     This was done very effectively at really only PrepCom 1 of the first
>     phase. It would be good to organize a daily public press briefing
> 
> 
> Frankly I see very little purpose to this at this point in the 
> negotiations to do a big press outreach effort. Going in to prepcom II, 
> there really isn't much newsworthy to report, except *possibly* some 
> response from CS to the TFFM. Perhaps the Financing WG could approach 
> some press people and tell us if there is any interest in a press briefing.
> 
> At Prepcom III we will lots of final negotiations and preparations for 
> the actual summit, so some press work then would be more warranted I think.
> 
> 
>     * Meeting with the governments
>     As in the past, I think it would be quite effective to try to
>     arrange one or more meetings with the regional blocks such as the
>     EU, Africa, GRULAG etc. For this it would be good to start planning
>     already.
> 
> 
> Yes, I'm in full support in seeing if we can sit together with some of 
> the regional blocs. We have not done this enough.
> 
>     * Building an online resource for the CS delegates .
>     Given enough time - something we have now - an online resource of
>     some kind could be setup so that not only do we know how to get in
>     touch with each other, but also what our common positions and
>     objectives are for the meeting.
> 
>     * Communications
>     One of the issues that came up in this month's public voice
>     teleconference is that we need to better share news and updates that
>     are going on.
> 
>     I for one have started a blog to keep this caucus and others
>     informed on my wsis activities. If you have a blog, or know others
>     who do - please let me know so that I can feed them into the WSIS
>     news section on my site.
>     http://www.privaterra.org/activities/wsis/blog/
> 
> 
> I think Andy Carvin had also proposed setting up a CS WSIS news 
> aggregator, combining blogs and other news feeds. So yeah, this would be 
> a good idea.
> 
> Rik Panganiban
> CONGO
> 
> ===============================================
> RIK PANGANIBAN Communications Coordinator
> Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations 
> (CONGO)
> web: http://www.ngocongo.org
> email: rik.panganiban at ngocongo.org
> mobile: (+1) 917-710-5524

-- 
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Andy Carvin
Program Director
EDC Center for Media & Community
acarvin @ edc . org
http://www.digitaldivide.net
http://www.tsunami-info.org
Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com
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