[WSIS CS-Plenary] [WSIS THETHA] "Building Partnerships for the Information Society"

[Daniel Gray]

"Building Partnerships for the Information Society"

22-27 August 2005

Cape Town

www.cirn2005.org

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The Cape Peninsula University of Technology, with the support of the Cape
Town City, the Centre for e-Innovation in the Provincial Government of the
Western Cape and the South African Department of Communications, will
be organising and hosting a series of "Information Society" events from
22-27 August 2005 in Cape Town.

These events include the annual international conference of the Community
Informatics Research Network (CIRN), Western Cape Information Society
Week, Cape Town Smart City Programme, South African Civil Society
WSIS Colloquium and the WWW conference.

The theme of these activities is, "Building Partnerships for the Information
Society", and the focus is the social appropriation of ICTs for local
benefit. One of the major aims is to increase the ICT skills, awareness and
involvement of people in obtaining the benefits of these technologies
through horizontal and vertical integration of efforts locally, nationally
and internationally.

The Civil Society Colloquium, a working conference to be held from 22-23
August, will be the culmination of an NGO policy process in South Africa
that has been coordinated by SANGONeT. An initial policy document
compiled by SANGONeT will be reviewed and discussed during
SANGONeT Thetha forums to be held in Johannesburg (June) and Cape
Town (July).

The Civil Society Colloquium in Cape Town will finalise this process and
produce a statement from South African civil society. This statement will be
presented at, and used for lobbying purposes at WSIS PrepCom 3 to be
held in Geneva during September 2005.

The SANGONeT policy process is currently developing around seven subject
areas. The Civil Society Colloquium agenda will follow these and incorporate
other areas as they emerge during the Thetha process. It is envisaged that
international and local people will focus the discussions in the Colloquium.
The current discussion areas are local content, community broadcasting,
freedom of expression, diversity and pluralism, financing the digital
divide, education and ICT literacy, and gender & ICTs.

Information Society Week, the CIRN 2005 Conference and the Civil Society
Colloquium recognise your contributions within the community informatics
field. As a major aim of these events is to build partnerships for the
information society, we are bringing people from academia, government,
business and civil society together in ways that maximise benefit for
South Africa through sharing knowledge, experience and culture.

We invite you to consider participating in ways that are relevant to your
organisational focus and aligned with the overall theme for the week. Please
respond with your ideas for participation.

For more information on all these events, please visit - www.cirn2005.org or
contact:

Tracey Naughton
Civil Society Advisor
Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT)
Cell: 082 821 1771
E-mail: tracey at traceynaughton.com


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