[CS Bureau] Re: Renting facilities for CS side events in Tunis

Wed Nov 2 17:48:35 GMT 2005

Att: Civil Society Executive secretariat :
Renate, Viola, Philippe

C/C PCT group

Hello

Sorry, I have been too busy lately to raise again those
practical issues.

As a decision of CSB during PrepCom3, the techies from
the CSB were supposed to meet the people in charge of the technical setup
in Tunis, concerning networking.
I remembered I was given a list of contact point in Tunisia which
I do remember where I put it.

The key points of my suggestions that were agreed upon,
as a matter of principle were :

Unfiltered network with no proxy

routable IP ( routable means not adresses on a private network like
192.168.0.x ) adresses that can be used to effectively
access your machine from the outside.

We need routable IP both for each room of the parallel events
and for each office that has been affected to CSB groupings
as it was done in Geneva.

It would absolutely *unacceptable* that we have to pay to have
internet connection in the event rooms and the CS offices.

In Geneva, we had DSL connections with a decent bandwith
( do not remember exactly, but I guess T1 1 Mbit/s )
I have got information from people preparing booths within
French pavillion ( rather large 225 sqm2) that were able to get
( they have to pay for it, since they are exhibitors, that'OK )
only ADSL connections with a subminimal upload ( 128 kb/s ) bandwith.

I must recall that we had in Geneva routable IP for the Civil Society,
because I personnally worked with the service company to reconfigure
one by one each machine of the CS offices, while other people
were enjoying the party and the nice food offered by
the Swiss governement.
I do not wish to do this again. Enough is enough.

Concerning WiFi, it is true that in Geneva, the WiFi has to be paid,
but at this time, it was not the commodity it has become now.

However activists from the PCT group
brought a WiFi router and we
were able to install a free WiFi network for the area of
the CS office. It worked pretty well.
We intend to do the same (installing free WiFi )
for the CS offices as well as
for the events that we are organizing.
Let me underline that for operating a WiFi, we need
a routable IP for the WiFi router.

It the Tunisian organizers are providing free WiFi everywhere,
that would be an excellent idea, but since this was not done in Geneva,
we cannot demand it, just kindly ask for it.

More suggestions ( that were not debated during the CSB meetings ) :

Concerning the Cybercafé in Geneva, it was all GNU/Linux machines
and this was an excellent initiative.
Now that Microsoft is a partner of the Event, I would like to know
what is the equipment at the WSIS CyberCafé.

I believe the host country and the COSMI should be the first
to be commited to implement the WSIS Geneva recommendations
that include to "raise awareness of Free Software, Open Source
and Proprietary models" ( from the top of my head )
This recommendation must be fullfilled,
and if not, otherwise be denounced in public.
I am personnally flexible in the way this could be done :
1/ 50 % of Cybercafé machines running GNU/Linux
or
2/ all machines being dual boot
Windows - GNU/Linux

It is requested that all machines in the CS offices be dual-boot.

It is a paradox to underline that the host country is one
of the few country in the world that features a
*Secrétaire d'Etat auprès du ministre des Technologies
de la communication chargée de l'Informatique, de l'Internet et des 
Logiciels libres* ,
Mme Khadija Ghariani that I met once and who is a very nice person.
The Free Software community is deeply concerned that
Mme Ghariani and her state secretariat has not taken a more active
role in the preparation of the Summit, and we hope that
Mme Ghariani and her Free Software state secretariat would
be more involved now in the preparation to make sure that the equipment
at the Cybercafé and elsewhere in the Summit reflects the commitment
of Tunisia towards Free Software.

I request the CSB executive secretariat to transmit ASAP
our observations to tbe WSIS executive secretariat and
to provide us requested the technical informations concerning
networking in Tunis, to summarize :
1/ tech info on internet connections in events rooms
and CS offices
2/ unfiltered unproxied (non negotiable )
2/ routable IPs (non negotiable )
3/ WiFi over the all event area ( free or paid ? )
4/ Right of CS to install their own WiFi networks over
CS offices and CS events ( non negotiable )
5/ Equipment of CS offices ( dual boot )
6/ Equipment of the CyberCafé. ( dual boot or 50/50 )

Best regards

Francis

CONGO - Philippe Dam wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> Let me remind you that information is available on the Host Country 
> organising committee on renting all sorts of equipments for side 
> events to be organised during WSIS 
> (www.smsitunis2005.org/plateforme/detail.php?id=518&lang=en 
> <http://www.smsitunis2005.org/plateforme/detail.php?id=518&lang=en>). 
> You can hire power point facilities, video projectors and 
> interpretation services, interpretation booth, …
>
> You can check the respective websites:
>
> - GL-Events: www.gl-events.com <http://www.gl-events.com/>_ _
>
> - EQUIPFOIRES: www.equipfoires.com.tn <http://www.equipfoires.com.tn/>
>
> However, these agencies might be contacted very urgently (preferably 
> by Wednesday) to ensure that equipments could be made available in Tunis.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Ph
>
> *Philippe Dam
> **CONGO - WSIS CS Secretariat
> ****11, Avenue de **la Paix**
> CH-1202 **Geneva**
> Tel: +41 22 301 1000
> Fax: +41 22 301 2000
> E-mail: **wsis at ngocongo.org* <mailto:wsis at ngocongo.org>*
> Website: **www.ngocongo.org <BLOCKED::http://www.ngocongo.org>** *
>
> * *
>
> *The Conference of NGOs (**CONGO) is an international, membership 
> association that facilitates the participation of NGOs in United 
> Nations debates and decisions. Founded in 1948, CONGO's major 
> objective is to ensure the presence of NGOs in exchanges among the 
> world's governments and United Nations agencies on issues of global 
> concern. For more information see our website at www.ngocongo.org 
> <BLOCKED::http://www.ngocongo.org/>***
>

-- 

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Francis F. MUGUET  Ph.D
World Tour of the Information Society (WTIS)
muguet at wtis.org

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World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS)
Civil Society Working Groups
Scientific Information :  http://www.wsis-si.org  chair
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