[WSIS CS-Plenary] this list is in trouble...

Wed Feb 11 14:18:48 GMT 2009

Dear Charles,

Thank you much for bringing us up to date and being in the major mover group
holding things together, as well deserved by all here.

I would like to be considered as an active participant in the Civil Society
representative cluster going forward.  I was honored to be nominated by
CONGO for the GAID, and apparently did not make the cut on the final
decision -  still looking to such role and here would fit so well.

I am an older woman, active in U.N. and other multi-stakeholder civil
society domains including international but with a more diverse set of
networks than one very large organization, although I am pleased to be on
the Board and active Membership of the Communications Coordination Committee
for the U.N., one of the first and most sustaining civil society NGOS  -
 (LDMF perspective:) the CCC/UN having among other leader characteristics a
constituency chock full of early and ongoing visionaries and practitioners
in many venues of media related to cultural advances).

My work in ITC and society goes back to ARPANet, my job authoring the first
GML (Generalized Markup Language) later being the base of HTML.  Those early
days were anything but dull, quite exciting really with the new design and
function and education and maintenance challenges, and I remain actively
involved and excited about all the new perspectives in computing and
culture.

As a sidebar, one observes hierarchies emerging in more than one sub group
of civil society relative to online topics and concerns.  The unprecedented
huge and inspiring seeding networks of 'Netizens' from civil society (who
should not consider themselves or be considered by others as restricted to
early marketing phases) grew the whole garden.  Then it becomes harder to
manage of course as these things go, and a systems-wise natural progression
where initiators lose voice seems to inevitably follow.  We must have
voice.  Let the chorus be diverse, inclusive, sustainably creative.

Please forgive this self-nomination but you can check CONGO recommendations
in Google and an extensive involvement in civil society perspectives
relative to ICT over the decades. Or I can supply what you might wish in
documentation. (Any supportive notes sent to you by colleagues accessing
this note will of course be appreciated).

With cordial best wishes, and *Respectfully Interfacing* (My. U.N. Programme
to which all here are invited),

LDMF.

Dr. Linda D. Misek-Falkoff.

* Respectful Interfaces Programme*  of the CCC/UN.

Other affiliations including work on Internet law & social vlaues topics
online or accessible by search engines.

>
>
> Dear all
>
> Well, thanks to the "intruder" from Chandigarh we know now that this list
> is not dead!
>
> In the past, I sent all information about CSTD and the cluster of
> WSIS-related events to Philippe, who sent it to this list. I wanted to
> remain in the background, as I am not really "civil society" (at least not
> yet, I shall retire in November 2009 and maybe shall continue on some
> aspects of WSIS in my new capacity as a member of civil society...).
>
> There have been some changes in CONGO, and I shall discuss with CONGO about
> their future role in WSIS follow-up. If CONGO agrees, I shall continue, for
> the time being, to work through CONGO.
>
> There are some new developments here in Geneva. Regarding the cluster of
> WSIS-related events, ITU is taking over more and more responsibility, which
> is not a bad move, as I am retiring. ITU may not feel comfortable to send
> information to a "civil society list", but I think they would be ready to
> keep CONGO in the loop. This would alllow for better planning for those of
> you who intend to come to Geneva for the future clusters of WSIS-related
> events.
>
> Regarding the CSTD, the Secretariat did install last year for the first
> time a e-mail list for the members of the Commission, and I managed to get
> on this list also three persons from civil society, insiting on the
> multi-stakeholder character of WSIS follow-up (Ayesha from ICC is also on
> the list). The three persons are Philippe, Parminder and Anriette. There was
> no traffic on this list in the last few months,  but in the run-up to the
> next CSTD session (25-29 May 2009) I think that a draft resolution on WSIS
> follow-up may circulate again on this list, like last year. As Philippe is
> not anymore with CONGO, the draft resolution could be sent to this list by
> Parminder or Anriette (or a new person from CONGO). It is a good way to keep
> all of you informed, and you may also give feedback to those of you who are
> at Geneva attending the CSTD. CONGO has already contacted me (thanks to the
> "accident" on this list)  and we shall discuss what role CONGO can/will play
> in WSIS follow-up from now onwards.
>
> I use this opportunity to give you some advance information directly. It is
> not yet official, but very likely, that there would be a second round of
> open consultations in the run-up to the fourth annual IGF meeting in Egypt,
>  in the second week of May in Geneva, very probably on 13 May. The MAG of
> IGF would then meet on 14 and 15 May. ITU plans to hold a cluster of
> WSIS-related events (or whatever the new name may be) in the third week of
> May, in the ITU premises or in the CICG (behind the ITU) in Geneva. At
> present, it looks like as if the programme would be a mixture between the
> tradional Action Line Facilitation meetings and a meeting on themes (ITU is
> focusing this year heavily on child protection on the Internet). ITU and
> UNESCO will meet with the different Action Line Facilitators on 23 February
> and it is possible (but not sure, we are running out of time) that ITU and
> UNESCO would do a short online multistakeholder consultation afterwards.
>
> The 12th session of the CSTD is taking place from 25 to 29 May. Like in the
> previous years, the first day will be at ministerial level, with a short
> opening ceremony (hopefully, like in the previous years, with a speaker from
> civil society). Most probably we will have on Tuesday 26 May a day with
> multi-stakeholder panels, organized jointly with GAID. There is a good
> chance that one panel would be on mobile phones and poverty reduction, but
> the themes are not yet fully fixed.
>
> Regarding civil society participation, we organized last year a nomination
> process in order to invite some participants from civil society. This
> process was very time-consuming, as the information about the nomination
> process was not only sent to this list, but also to more than 3000 entities
> in consultative status with ECOSOC, and we received more than 100
> nominations from NGOs in consultative status with ECOSOC, but who could not
> show any relation to WSIS. We have therefore decided not repeat the process
> this year. We have some (few) money from SDC left to invite some (few)
> participants from civil society. Last year, Philippe and I had identified
> about 20 serious nominations for invitation from all over the developing
> world. We selected 9 persons, and 6 could finally attend (3 dropped out for
> different reasons). We shall therefore use the same list of nominations like
> last year, and concentrate on those names that we were unable to consider
> last year. We plan roughly for 2 invitees each from Latin America, Africa
> and Asia-Pacific. The invitees may partly be from the same organizations
> like last year, but would very probably not be the same persons. I shall
> keep the members of this list (directly or through CONGO) informed about the
> invitation process.
>
> With best regards from Geneva
>
> Charles Geiger
> Special Adviser to the CSTD
>
>
>
>
>
>   *karen banks <karenb at gn.apc.org>*
> Sent by: plenary-bounces at wsis-cs.org
>
> 11.02.2009 10:57   Please respond to
> Virtual WSIS CS Plenary Group Space <plenary at wsis-cs.org>
>
>    To
> anriette at apc.org, Virtual WSIS CS Plenary Group Space <plenary at wsis-cs.org>,
> Virtual WSIS CS Plenary Group Space <plenary at wsis-cs.org>  cc
>   Subject
> Re: [WSIS CS-Plenary] this list is in trouble...
>
>
>
>
> [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!
> _______________________________________
>
> hi everyone
>
> Thanks anriette for responding.. nothing to add from me..
>
> adam and i continue to check legitimate subscriptions when we can - but we
> provide no moderation (and to be honest - the list has never been moderated
> in the sense of moderating content - the list has always been self-moderated
> by the community of subscribed users).
>
> However, in this instance, we have removed the offending address.
>
> I am going to ask our technical support people to look into the possible
> hacking of subscribed addresses
>
> karen
>
> At 19:47 10/02/2009, Anriette Esterhuysen 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/*<http://wsis.funredes.org/plenary/>to access automatic translation of this message!
> _______________________________________
>
> Hello all
>
> Just to confirm what has been said:
>
> - APC is still donating server time and space towards hosting this list
>
> - Subscription is public, so anyone can subscribe, but the request for
> subscription is held for approval by the volunteer moderators who are,
> currently, Adam Peake and Karen Banks
>
> - However, the spirit of this list has been one of open and free
> participation, and it is in no way linked to WSIS accreditation;
> therefore the moderators are not under any obligation to spend too much
> time on checking who new subscribers are.. as long as they appear to
> have some interest in information society issues potential subscribers
> are likely to be approved
>
> - The purpose of the list has evolved, and while it is has been less
> active, it could still play a role in sharing information, and, as
> Charles Geiger has pointed out, to communicate specifically around the
> WSIS follow-up process which for many of us is still important
>
> APC is happy to continue to support this list, but we are not in a
> position to monitor it closely. That we leave to the participants.. and
> based on the discussion in this thread, you are doing a very good job at
> dealing with inappropriate content.
>
> Best
>
> Anriette
>
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