[WSIS CS-Plenary] Additional Info Media Tunis

[Bernard Lang]

Hello,

This is a very impressive resume indeed, but it raises some basic
questions. Basically, how can a person that is so much linked to a
government and to the business sector (Dassault Systèmes being a
promoter of software patents) be the voice of the civil society which
comprises mostly small NGOs and individuals ?

Wouldn't a person coming from the grassroots movements fit better to
defend strong civil society positions without risks of governmental
interferences or appetence for softer compromises ?

Mr Bertrand de La Chapelle claims to be a member of the Board of the
NGO Bridge Initiative International. But the purpose of this NGO is to
serve as a conciliator between conflicting "multilateral organizations
and civil society".  As such it places itself outside both groups of
interest and cannot pretend to represent either.

Thus, it should be obvious to anyone supporting the positions promoted
by the civil society that they cannot be adequately represented by Mr
Bertrand de La Chapelle, and would only be watered down, and that it
would be a sham and a fraud for him to serve as representative of the
civil society.

It must be clear that I do not question the technical qualification
or character of Mr Bertrand de La Chapelle.  I simply consider that
civil society must be adequately represented by its own people, and Mr
Bertrand de La Chapelle does not qualify in that respect.

The civil society needs to have a seat in future multi-stakeholed fora
and decision bodies in ICT, and this is the position it must fight
for.

An the civil society has no lack of extremely competent people, well
aware of all issues, to adequately represent its views in all
fairness.

In my opinion, to have these views represented by someone like Mr
Bertrand de La Chapelle would simply be another proof, if more are
needed, that this summit has been rigged by private financial
interests from its inception to its very end.


Bernard Lang



* Bertrand de La Chapelle <bdelachapelle at gmail.com>, le 15-11-05, a écrit:
> Adina, please find a bio below.
>  Best. Bertrand
>   *Bertrand de LA CHAPELLE*
> *Co-coordinator*
> *CS Working Group on WSIS implementation and follow-up*
>    Bertrand de La Chapelle is a specialist and promoter of multi-stakeholder
> processes with a rare multiple experience as a diplomat, an entrepreneur and
> a civil society actor.
>  A french diplomat by training (as Head of the Mission for New Information
> Technologies of the French Foreign Ministry from 1998 to 2001, he was a
> member of the G8 DOT Force), he also enjoys nine years of private sector
> experience, particularly between 1994 and 1998 as a founder and President of
> Virtools ( www.virtools.com <http://www.virtools.com/>), a company providing
> the world's leading development environment for 3D interactive content. The
> company, now selling in 22 countries, has been recently acquired by Dassault
> Systemes. Bertrand de La Chapelle is a member of the Board of the NGO Bridge
> Initiative International and a regular partner of the Charles Leopold Mayer
> Foundation, and as such participated in several panels, including most
> recently in Brazil, Canada, Italy and China.
>  Previous assignments included Advisor to the French Minister for European
> Affairs (1987-1988). Bertrand de La Chapelle also conducted personal
> research in 2002 on multi-stakeholder governance mechanisms in his position
> as Special Advisor to the Director of Institut Français des Relations
> Internationales, the leading french think-tank on international relations.
>   Bertrand de La Chapelle has been actively involved in the WSIS process
> since its inception, leveraging the diversity of his experiences to promote
> dialogue between civil society, private sector and governmental
> representatives during the last four years. He is the co-coordinator of the
> Civil Society Working Group on WSIS Follow-up and the Director of
> wsis-online.net <http://wsis-online.net/>, the community platform for WSIS.
>  Bertrand de La Chapelle is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique (1981), the
> Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (1983) and the Ecole Nationale
> d'Administration (1986).
>   Bertrand de La Chapelle
> Tel : +33 (0)6 11 88 33 32
> email : bdelachapelle at gmail.com

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