[WSIS CS-Plenary] Overview article on Prepcom

[Rainer Kuhlen]

Thanks Sally for the report - only one remark (probably better be done 
by Sean Ó Siochrú himself):

Under the header "Financial Mechanisms: no new commitments" you write 
among other interesting points:
"A proposal put forward by the CRIS campaign, jointly with other 
organizations, stated that information and communications and networks 
should be considered a global public good; it emphasized the centrality 
of the role of public finance in the area of Information and 
Communications for Development; and underlined the role of community 
driven and owned initiatives, in contributing to sustainable development 
and social empowerment."

Networks cannot be considered public good. Sean himself wrote:

"The global communication network is not a ‘pure’ public good, but it 
has one of its core characteristics. .... However, the /infrastructure 
itself /is not a global public good, in that it is not difficult to 
exclude people from using it, and in principle there are limits to usage 
and it needs constant maintenance. Rather, the public good derives from 
its use for communication purposes. ....."

this is exactly the point: communication constitutes and creates a 
global public good, not ICT or networks do this.

Might be an important detail
RK
*
*
Sally Burch - ALAI wrote:

> All,
>
> I have written an overview piece on the WSIS Prepcom, in English and 
> Spanish:
>
> English:
> http://www.alainet.org/active/show_news.phtml?news_id=7704
> or http://www.crisinfo.org/content/view/full/752
>
> Spanish: (version más corta)
> http://www.alainet.org/active/show_news.phtml?news_id=7688
> or http://www.crisinfo.org/content/view/full/751
>
> Sally Burch
>
> ________________________________________________________
> Sally Burch - Directora Ejecutiva
> Agencia Latinomericana de Información -
> INTERNET: sburch at alainet.org
> Direccion: Casilla 17-12-877, Quito-Ecuador
> Telefono: (593 2) 250 5074 / 222 1570 / 252 8716
> Fax: (593 2) 250 5073 URL: http://alainet.org
> _________________________________________________________
> _______________________________________________ Plenary mailing list 
> Plenary at wsis-cs.org 
> http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/plenary 


-- 
Prof. Dr. Rainer Kuhlen
Department of Computer and Information Science - University of Konstanz
Box D 87
email: rainer.kuhlen at uni-konstanz.de [also: rk_iw at gmx.de]
URL: http://www.kuhlen.name
Phone Univ.: ++49 (0)7531 - 882879; Fax: ++49 (0)7531 882048
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