[CS Bureau] Canada's Civil Society Views on the Geneva Plan of Action and the Prospects for Phase II

[Robert Guerra]

Dear colleagues:

Next week the Canadian Commission for UNESCO will be organizing a  
WSIS related conference. The details are below.

Arrangements are being made to stream the sessions. With it, those of  
you interested - will be able to observe  what a Canadian Civil  
Society WSIS conference is like ... I will post the details here as  
soon as the details are confirmed.

regards



Robert



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http://www.unesco.ca/en/activity/culture/wsis.aspx

[En français - www.unesco.ca/fr/activite/culture/smsi.aspx]



In preparation for the second phase of the WSIS, the Canadian  
Commission for UNESCO is organizing a conference entitled: Paving the  
Road to Tunis - WSIS II: Canada's Civil Society Views on the Geneva  
Plan of Action and the Prospects for Phase II. The main objective of  
the conference is to collect views on the Geneva Plan of Action from  
a Canadian civil society perspective. Participants will be invited to  
examine the status of major elements included in the Plan of Action:  
infrastructure, cost of access, community access centres, free  
standards and free software, adapted technologies, education,  
traditional media, freedom of expression in both traditional and new  
media, cultural diversity, preservation of indigenous languages,  
building partnerships with developing countries, Internet governance  
and applications. The programme will be posted on line soon.

The Conference will be held in Winnipeg from May 13 to 15, 2005, and  
will bring together approximately 200 people from all provinces and  
territories and the private sector, civil society, academia and all  
levels of government, federal, provincial/territorial and municipal.

The results of the conference will be presented at the Summit in  
November 2005 and at the 33rd UNESCO General Conference in Paris,  
France, in October 2005.

SPONSORS

The conference is sponsored by Foreign Affairs Canada, the Department  
of Canadian Heritage, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada,  
Industry Canada and the International Development Research Centre.