[WSIS CS-Plenary] Fwd: World Summit on the Information Society - A Summit of Solutions for ICT Development

[mclauglm at po.muohio.edu]

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>Hello Lisa,
>
>On 11/2/05, mclauglm at po.muohio.edu <mclauglm at po.muohio.edu> wrote:
>
>
>>  It's stunning how many plenary speakers are from
>>  the big IT corporations
>
>Why?
Hi McTim,

***I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised about anything except that 
there's not even an attempt to hide the corporate stranglehold over 
the process this time. WSIS has been billed as a "multistakeholder" 
event in which each stakeholder was described as "participating on an 
equal footing," if anyone ever believed that version of events to 
come. But, in any case, this isn't the World Economic Forum in Davos 
(or maybe it is, in a sense).***

>
>>
>>  Let the public-private partnerships begin. I
>>  suspect that, when all is said and done, we will
>>  find that CS has been used to cast a shadow of
>>  legitimation over a market-based, high tech
>>  global project.
>
>Why does the private sector need CS to make them legitimate?

***According to numerous reports re the Global Compact, etc., the PS 
needs these partnerships in order to improve their corporate image 
(esp. partnership with the UN. But, I mostly was addressing the UN's 
need for CS in order to appear legitimate and not, as with Kofi 
Annan, to privileged the PS.***

>
>Here in Africa, there are lots of excellent CS initiatives in re: ICT4D.
>
>But to be completely honest, their impact is dwarfed by that of the PS
>in re: building an Information Society.

Best,

Lisa

>
>--
>Cheers,
>
>McTim
>nic-hdl:      TMCG
>"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In
>practice there is"
>Yogi Berra
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-- 
Lisa McLaughlin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Mass Communication & Women's Studies
Editor, Feminist Media Studies
Director of Graduate Studies, M.A. Program in Mass Communication
Union for Democratic Communications Representative,
World Summit on the Information Society

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