[WSIS CS-Plenary] I rest my case- speaker list issue

[Laina Raveendran Greene]

Sorry, I did not intend to open up a can of worms here. 

I understand there are many different considerations and pressure of time
that went into this speaker list, and was only hoping that IF change was
possible, we try to accommodate those who feel left out or have voices that
could be useful hearing from. I just thought I would try just since I saw an
opportunity for some changes to be more inclusive (especially with the
repeated slots persons and organisations with speaking slots) was an obvious
option for some leverage. 

Just understand, I will stand by this decision on the list of speakers,
especially if nothing constructive can be done between now and Tunisia,
...at least I hope we tried our best to be inclusive. I think we have an
opportunity here to walk the talk ourselves  and I truly have nothing
against the specific persons mentioned and any specific caucus, not
especially that of my own region. I am glad we got our voices heared too. I
trust they will help  set the vision for the Information Society of
tomorrow. 

I agree with Amir's suggestion in some earlier email discussion, that we
focus on being effective and united to make a difference. I do want to work
to be constructive here and was merely trying to see how we could do even
better.

Let's see how we can use ICT to work in unity as CS and truly set the vision
where possible for where we want the Information Society to be.

I hereby rest this issue from my side and will bring it up no further.

Regards,
Speaking very personally,
Laina 

-----Original Message-----
From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org] On Behalf
Of Laina Raveendran Greene
Sent: Tuesday, October 04, 2005 2:41 PM
To: plenary at wsis-cs.org
Subject: RE: [WSIS CS-Plenary] proposed list of speakers for Tunis

[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!
_______________________________________


Thanks Vittorio for responding to this issue. 

I agree that there should be a limit that each org should speak no more than
1 time at the least. Each caucus maybe 2 time max, if it is very involved in
relevant issues. I prefer to stick to once too, since there are not enough
spots as it is to go around but I am willing to recognise that some caucus
may have something more than others to say. Having said that, I never saw
the Asia Pacific Caucus for example meet, and yet this caucus was given many
slots. Being from Asia myself, I am disappointed that I was not able to
participate and yet I see there are many slots given here, and would like to
understand the basis for this.

Every caucus attended Geneva and bothered to be involved, because they all
had something to contribute and wanted to be part of the Information
Society, that CS claims to speak on behalf of. Take for e.g. Values and
Ethics, who some may think do not have anything relevent to say. Yet we did
submit statemtns which were compiled into the Chair's of SubCom A
compilation of comments. So we were not just there in name. Likewise, this
goes for many others caucuses and organisations.

I agree with you Vittorio, that this needs to be considered further,
otherwise there will be many discouraged about the CS not walking the talk
about "multistakeholder" "inclusive" or "transparent". I know we cannot
fulfil everyone's needs, but we can at least try to be as inclusive as we
can. I know CSB has been working hard as they can to ensure all this, but it
would be a waste if all this blows up, just due to pressures of time and
other factors. I do believe we have an opportunity to do things right, so we
also show the governments that we walk the talk and are all for a
multistakeholder Information Society ourselves. 

I truly appreciate everyone involved in CS are mainly volunteers and doing
their best under the circumstances, but as Vittorio suggests, there is still
an opportunity to do something about it and make it even better.

Laina

-----Original Message-----
From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org] On Behalf
Of Vittorio Bertola
Sent: Tuesday, October 04, 2005 11:49 AM
To: plenary at wsis-cs.org
Subject: Re: [WSIS CS-Plenary] proposed list of speakers for Tunis

[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!
_______________________________________

Laina Raveendran Greene ha scritto:
> Thanks Rik for responding with an explanation. I would mainly like to 
> hope that more caucuses will be considered, and also to register my 
> concern for some speakers speaking more than once or oneorganisation 
> represented more than once. Ithink we need to be multistakeholder and 
> inclusive ourselves too and will hope you will look into rectifying this.

Couldn't we have a principle in that every person, organization, caucus or
country cannot appear more than X times? Maybe with X=1 for people and
organizations, and X=2 for caucuses and countries.

Generally speaking, I am a bit concerned about how to proceed. I see
considerable criticism to this list of speakers, and while part of it is
natural (not everyone can be represented in such a small set of people and
those left out will always complain), I think it should be taken into
serious consideration.

In particular, I think that it should be the Plenary to approve a final list
of speakers, not the Bureau. If we don't have time to do it in Tunis the day
before the Summit, I would rather hold an online consultation to that
purpose.
-- 
vb.             [Vittorio Bertola - v.bertola [a] bertola.eu.org]<-----
http://bertola.eu.org/  <- Prima o poi...
_______________________________________________
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