R: [WSIS CS-Plenary] monitoring MSP post_wsis initiative

[Claudia Padovani]

Ciao Mike, finally I am focusing on the initiative we would like to discuss
in Tunis. So first of all let me reply t some of your concerns (as you may
have seen from my writings I am among those who have tried to conduct some
evaluation of MSP at wsis):

 

 

I do have a few questions however and one suggestion.  The single

suggestion is that prior to more actively pursuing this initiative that

you with colleagues conduct an open self-assessment of the Civil Society

role and activities within the WSIS process.  While in a number of

respects the CS process for WSIS has been a successful one, in other

areas I think there are issues that need to be addressed particularly if

one is concerned with being inclusive, equitable, development oriented

and transparent.

 

Maybe a much broader investigation would be useful; but there are already
reflections on this. Wolfgang Kleinwachter (Aarhus University and WSIS) and
Bart Cammaerts (LSE) have done research and written about these aspects.
Furthermore I organized a meeting in Venice, a year ago, with one session
devoted to an assessment of participation in WSIS (with voices from all
sectors involved). I believe we should build on those reflections but go
beyond. This is why we have planned to have the first part of our meeting in
Tunis addressing some of these concerns, from different voices. Then the
initiative will be introduced and then we shall have suggestions, reactions,
comments ecc (I am preparing a leaflet to be circulated in a couple of days)

 

The most significant issue has been, I believe, the severely limited

participation in the various WSIS Civil Society processes which largely

were physical processes of interaction and participation supplemented

between these events by on-line participation primarily among those

already active in the physical processes.  The absence of clear

procedures for agenda setting, decision making,

"representation"/inclusive participation, and language issues were all

to my mind somewhat problematic and need to be subjected to some self

and public examination in the context of extending a CS role into the

new and most important areas of monitoring that you are suggesting. 

 

You are touching upon the central issues we are faced with. On one side a
clear understanding of stakeholders as interlocutors and their roles in MSP.
On the other the need to support MSP processes with an inclusive use of
tools (ICTs but not only) which should be developed precisely to address the
constrains you indicate. In this sense we had submitted to the EU early this
year a proposal for a support action (with friends from wsis, including
Henrich Boell as a coordinator, plus others). The proposal has not been
approved but we have done work and writing for that, and these are all
resources we would like to bring into the initiative. The positive thing is
that there is an interesting group of people already involved in this
conversation, some from academia, others from NGos and grassroots, others
from local authorities' associations.

 

Overall, the limitation on participation in the WSIS/CS processes to

those who were able to find the resources (whether personal or

institutional) to physically attend seems to me to be a very major

limitation on these efforts and is something which must be addressed in

advance of any further activities such as you are suggesting. There is I

believe, the need to move beyond the current group of those engaged in

WSIS CS activities and to extend rather more broadly into the ICT

user/practitioner and community technology/community informatics

research communities.  Perhaps by building in bottom up processes for

monitoring from the very beginning some of these limitations may be

avoided.

 

The very idea of the initiative is precisely to move beyond the elites who
take part in global processes, and make these processes closer and relevant
to the people, through a very concrete and accessible proposal (you can
certainly help a lot in addressing this challenge)

 

However, this would necessarily require a significant broadening and

dare I say "growth" in what has emerged as the perspectives and issues

being addressed by CS in the context of WSIS Tunis (being driven of

course, in large part by the external WSIS negotiating agenda) as well

as some adaptation in the current CS processes, procedures and

practices.

 

I also agree on this. As you can see from the draft proposal, among the aims
of the initiative I have mentioned the potential of connecting people and
groups, supporting a trans-national mobilization which is of course grounded
and based in local spaces (and not just participating in global events), but
through this kind of joint effort can develop more common visions, and
actions.

 

So the challenge is a big one, and I strongly appreciate your willingness to
share these concernes with us in Tunis. The idea is to get a sense of what
people think, and possibly identify a small group of committed people who
may start from gathering informally in Tunis after the summit and develop a
plan and calendar for further actions: work on the framework (substance),
look for support (resources), articulate the proposal in a concrete manner
(outreach, involvement, use of platforms for collaborative exchange ecc)

 

I hope this is a good starting point for our own conversation. Best wishes

Claudia 

 

-----Original Message-----

From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org] On

Behalf Of Claudia Padovani

Sent: October 26, 2005 7:19 AM

To: plenary at wsis-cs.org

Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] monitoring MSP post_wsis initiative

 

 

Dear all,

 

Following Francis note on UNESCO,this note is to draw your attention to

an initiative which we think could be of interest in preparing for

Tunis, acknowledging all the controversies and shortcomings of this

final phase.

 

The idea, just in infant stage at the moment, is to set up monitoring

initiative on multi-stakeholder dimension of whatever will come out of

Tunis at national (and international) level after wsis, as a way to keep

people connected while putting pressure on governments and bringing

input to whatever mechanism will be set up.

 

We believe there is some potential to keep the energy of the civil

society constitutency that developed around WSIS while one of the risks

we are facing now is not to have any sustainability after Tunis for the

broad mobilization worldwide. We believe a sound proposal from different

CS groups, with a loose trans-national structure but some connection (to

be

discussed) to the institutional setting, can show that we have some

knowledge, competence and will to seriously foster MSP at various

levels, as a way to promote more participatory practices in

communication governance.

 

We aim at developing principles, criteria, indicators and a monitoring

mechanisms to "look after" the post-Tunis phase, building on former

experiences and existing frameworks to be adapted to the specific policy

areas emerging from WSIS Implementation.

 

As Tunis is coming closer, we would very much appreciate your feedback

on: 

 

the idea itself; the proposed initiative; the why, what, who and how; 

and eventually your own interest in supporting this exercise (through

knowledge exchange as well as in promoting the initiative further and

cooperate directly). 

 

We are planning to use the coming weeks refine the proposal, start

reviewing existing frameworks, contact those peoples who have done work

on this and come to Tunis with something that can be discussed, refined

and promoted broadly.

 

Please go to the WSIS MSP site to see the draft of the initiative -

http://www.wsis-msp.org/msmi_wsis/ (also in attach). Comments and

suggestions are most welcome.

 

With best regards 

 

Claudia Padovani

And 

Tatiana Ershova

 

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