[Wsis-pct] Re: [WSIS CS-Plenary] CS speakers from ITU for opening, roundtable and high level panel

[Dr. Francis MUGUET]

Dear Robert

> an alternate name, one that keeps the regional balance could be Mark 
> Shuttleworth from South Africa. He's definitely higher profile than 
> Marzouk and is also one of the key persons behind the Ubuntu linux 
> distribution.
>
This is a matter of principle, the guidelines that have been agreed upon
are :
Opening Session Speaker:
A person who has:
• Been actively involved in WSIS
• Is a good public speaker and will convey a clear image through the media
This speaker should deliver a text that is:
• An advocacy statement on key WSIS issues from the civil society
perspective
• That is drafted and agreed to on the Plenary list

High Level Panel Speaker
A person who:
• Has been involved in WSIS
• Is a good public speaker, can speak without making a prepared
statement, with interactive skill and confidence
• Able to speak with authority and confidence on the general theme ‘ICT
for Development’

Round Table Speakers
People who:
• Have been involved in WSIS
• Can speak well without a written statement and have interactive skills
and confidence
• Are able to speak with authority and confidence on implementation from
the civil society perspective

Plenary
• Been actively involved in WSIS
• People who have a general knowledge of the overall themes
• people who are at the top-level of their accredited organisations
• Can make salient points in the allocation for each speaker, of 3 minutes

Richard Stallman fills those criterions while Mark Shuttleworth does not,
despite his celebrity as a tourist astronaut,
his success as businessman ( Thwaite ) , and his support
of the Ubuntu GNU/Linux distribution.
Mark, is as Jean-Louis would said, is a "parachuted" person.
I believe that some persons in the Civil Society must cease to be
obsessed with celebrities,
"connocidos", we are what we are.

I would be glad to make an exception to those rules for the plenary
speaker, a
Nobel prize winner, but only in this *very* special case.

However, I will point out that in phase I, the guidelines were different,
"parachuted" persons were allowed. For Geneva, I asked within the
SI group if any of the 3 Nobel prize winners that belong to the SI group
were willing to be a nominee of the SI.
One, a swiss, responded positively in principle,
but this did not work out because of previous engaments.
This time because of the guidelines, we could only nominate people
that have been physically present at the WSIS.
I believe it woudl be completely unfair to lose a speaker
for Open Access, because others are not playing by the guidelines,
and playing the celebrity and name-dropping game.

Changing the guidelines, at the present time, would be unfair
to all the groups that have been following the guidelines
for their nomination.
This is a point of order.

Best regards

Francis

PS

> Note: I did propose the name early in the process.
>
> 8. To keep the regional and gender balance - then, let's take a look 
> at it from a North American perspective.

It was mostly a North American perspective, if we consider the 
nomination you did in the name of the North American/Europe family:
There are *two* nominees on the list :
John Barlow and
Robin Gross, all from the USA,
*Three* if we count
Viola Krebs, from Switzerland,
already the sole nominee by the Volunteer family
PS:PS
I wonder if John Barlow fills the criteria.



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Francis F. MUGUET Ph.D

MDPI Foundation Open Access Journals
Associate Publisher
http://www.mdpi.org   http://www.mdpi.net
muguet at mdpi.org       muguet at mdpi.net

ENSTA   Paris, France
KNIS lab.  Director
"Knowledge Networks & Information Society" (KNIS)
muguet at ensta.fr   http://www.ensta.fr/~muguet

World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS)
Civil Society Working Groups
Scientific Information :  http://www.wsis-si.org  chair
Patents & Copyrights   :  http://www.wsis-pct.org co-chair
Financing Mechanismns  :  http://www.wsis-finance.org web

UNMSP project : http://www.unmsp.org
WTIS initiative: http://www.wtis.org
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------------------------------------------------------
Francis F. MUGUET Ph.D

MDPI Foundation Open Access Journals
Associate Publisher
http://www.mdpi.org   http://www.mdpi.net
muguet at mdpi.org       muguet at mdpi.net

ENSTA   Paris, France
KNIS lab.  Director
"Knowledge Networks & Information Society" (KNIS)
muguet at ensta.fr   http://www.ensta.fr/~muguet

World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS)
Civil Society Working Groups
Scientific Information :  http://www.wsis-si.org  chair
Patents & Copyrights   :  http://www.wsis-pct.org co-chair
Financing Mechanismns  :  http://www.wsis-finance.org web

UNMSP project : http://www.unmsp.org
WTIS initiative: http://www.wtis.org
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