[WSIS CS-Plenary] A note of thanks

[Garriott, Gary]

Per Lisa's "herding cats" comment, the award-winning "herding cats"
video by EDS was first played at the 2000 Super Bowl (US football
championship) in 2000. It is still available on a few websites (below)
and I have seen it used very effectively in presentations as a humorous
groundbreaker when discussions are likely to be contentious...

http://tvadverts.blogspot.com/2005/05/cat-herders-herding-cats.html

Gary

Gary Garriott
Innovation Program Officer
Digital Futures for Development Program
Winrock International
Voice: +703 525 9430, ext. 614
www.winrock.org

-----Original Message-----
From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org] On
Behalf Of mclauglm at po.muohio.edu
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2005 4:24 PM
To: plenary at wsis-cs.org
Subject: Re: [WSIS CS-Plenary] A note of thanks

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_______________________________________

Dear Rik,

If Robert, Francis, and Bertrand are the only 
ones that you've wanted to strangle on this 
listserv, I feel slighted;-)

Yes, what a long, strange trip this has been.

Thanks for your many efforts to "herd cats."

Regards,

Lisa



>[Please note that by using 'REPLY', your 
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>[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
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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

Mass Communication
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