[WSIS CS-Plenary] speakers list transmitted to the ITU

[Rik Panganiban]

Hi Vittorio,

I agree with you in principle, but I am unclear how we are going to  
police the speeches of "our speakers". The best we can do is  
encourage each speaker to share what they plan to speak about,  
ideally through their respective caucuses, and then get feedback from  
others on whether this best represents a wide range of CS views.

I would love it if every speaker put a draft on a wiki, and anyone  
could go in and edit their speech for them, and we could all sign off  
on every speech as coming from "global civil society."  But I know  
ourselves and our processes enough to think that this is unrealistic.

We're just not a monolithic entity that can force our will on  
anyone.  All we can do is recommend, encourage, cajole and convince.

Respectfully,

Rik

On Oct 11, 2005, at 2:03 AM, Vittorio Bertola wrote:

> Rik Panganiban ha scritto:
>
>> One easy way to do this is to include in the Annex the contact  
>> information for each speaker, so that once we know the final list,  
>> we can contact each person individually and make sure that they  
>> have the broadest possible view on their given subject area.  I.e.  
>> if someone plans to speak on telecentres, that they be thoroughly  
>> briefed on the privacy and security working group's concerns about  
>> data retention and surveillance.
>>
>
> I don't know what was the procedure in Geneva, but I expect that  
> all speakers who will have to make pre-prepared interventions  
> (i.e., not those who will have to participate to open discussions)  
> will agree the text with the relevant caucuses. Briefing is not  
> enough: I think we must avoid to have speakers that express  
> personal opinions that conflict with the positions taken by civil  
> society throughout the entire process; that, apart from being  
> extremely divisive, would only make ourselves ridiculous.
>
> > Beyond that, if there are emerging global civil society  
> statements on
> > given matters such as internet governance, we want to make sure that
> > as many speakers as possible mention this in their interventions.
>
> My specific concern on this is that, in a Summit in which one of  
> the main subjects of discussion is going to be the rearrangement of  
> the administration of the Internet, I don't see in the list anyone  
> who ever participated actively in the Internet Governance caucus.  
> This is weird but not bad per se - but implies the need for some  
> coordination :-)
>
>
>> Obviously, we respect everyone's right to speak their mind.
>>
>
> Well, no, these are people selected by the entire set of civil  
> society participants to represent them and speak on their behalf,  
> not in a personal capacity or on behalf of their organizations. I  
> don't think they have any right to express personal opinions when  
> speaking on behalf of civil society.
> -- 
> vb.             [Vittorio Bertola - v.bertola [a] bertola.eu.org] 
> <-----
> http://bertola.eu.org/  <- Prima o poi...



===============================================
RIK PANGANIBAN       Communications Coordinator
Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United  
Nations (CONGO)
web: http://www.ngocongo.org
email: rik.panganiban at ngocongo.org
mobile: (+1) 917-710-5524

* Information on the WSIS at http://www.ngocongo.org/wsis
* Information on Millennium+5 at http://www.ngocongo.org/mdg