[WSIS CS-Plenary] A note of thanks

[Bill McIver]

Thanks Rik.

Best,

WJM

west wrote:

> [Please note that by using 'REPLY', your response goes to the entire 
> list. Kindly use individual addresses for responses intended for 
> specific people]
>
> Click http://wsis.funredes.org/plenary/ to access automatic 
> translation of this message!
> _______________________________________
>
> nice note Rik, all the best
>
> Amir
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rik Panganiban" <rikp at earthlink.net>
> To: <plenary at wsis-cs.org>
> Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2005 10:28 AM
> Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] A note of thanks
>
>
> [Please note that by using 'REPLY', your response goes to the entire 
> list. Kindly use individual addresses for responses intended for 
> specific people]
>
> Click http://wsis.funredes.org/plenary/ to access automatic 
> translation of this message!
> _______________________________________
>
> [I wrote this yesterday, but only got access this morning (Sunday, 20 
> November). - Rik ]
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> Yesterday afternoon, the smiling, broad face of President Ben Ali 
> appearing simultaneously on every flat screen display in the entire 
> Kram convention center signalled the final end of the World Summit on 
> the Information Society.  At nearly the same time Nobel Peace Prize 
> winner Ms. Shirin Ebadi was giving a live interview with the BBC.  
> What a strange and marvellous trip it has been.
>
> As one of the privileged few who has been observing and participating 
> in the process for the entire four years, I feel a mixture of 
> tremendous relief, elation at our successes, and a swelling sadness 
> that it's all over.
>
> I feel especially relieved that I don't have to deal with you crazy 
> people anymore, at least not on a constant basis as before.  I think 
> at several times I have wanted to strangle several of you on this 
> listserv (Robert, Francis, Bertrand, etc) ;-) .  Some of you have 
> probably wanted to do the same to me.
>
> At the same time, I feel so glad to have met so many of you over these 
> years (Robert, Francis, Bertrand, etc) , who I never would have met 
> and labored and argued and laughed with if this process had not been 
> in place.  It has been a tremendous honor to be associated with so 
> many ardent defenders of the rights to non-Microsoft computers, free 
> scientific journals, software for the blind, community wifi hubs, 
> untortured webloggers, and a myriad of other causes that I knew 
> nothing about before the WSIS.  You all have inspired me to keep 
> fighting through this process, even at its darkest hours (ahem, 
> Hammamet, ahem).
>
> So my heart is full right now.  I'm not exactly sure what I am going 
> to do tomorrow, but I think it will have nothing to do with 
> overpasses, different colored badges, or anything starting with the 
> letters "CS."
>
> At the same time, I know that the "next thing" quickly comes along and 
> sweeps aside the memories and emotions of the current battle.  So 
> before descending back into the trenches, where I am sure I will find 
> many of you again, I want to congratulate you all on a job well done.
>
> It is far from over.  We have at best simply put into motion what 
> might prove at some future moment to have been important forces and 
> structures in the development of a just, open, human-centered 
> Information Society.  I think we can say that we did more good than 
> harm.  And we shed light on some things that overs wanted covered.
>
> I fancy myself a pragmatic, nut-snd-bolts person.   So I will stop 
> philosophizing before I forget myself.  Just to say that I love what I 
> do, just for this moment I am in right now.
>
> With best, open, participatory, mult-stakeholder, transparent, 
> regionally -, linguistically- and gender-balanced wishes,
>
> Rik Panganiban
> _______________________________________________
> Plenary mailing list
> Plenary at wsis-cs.org
> http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/plenary
> _______________________________________________
> Plenary mailing list
> Plenary at wsis-cs.org
> http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/plenary



-- 
Bill McIver  
e-Government / e-Citizen Group
National Research Council Canada  Institute for Information Technology
e-mail: bill.mciver at nrc.gc.ca                  
http://iit-iti.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/r-d/e-government-gouvernement-e_e.html
http://iit-iti.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/r-d/e-government-gouvernement-e_f.html