[n_america] Re: European / North American WSIS CS meeting, Berlin, 13 June

Sat Apr 17 06:07:22 BST 2004

Robert & Ralf  - what are your thoughts on Michaels proposal ? 

Actually, I could go down to Seattle. I would be really interested in seeing this happen.

Amali

Michael Gurstein <mgurst at vcn.bc.ca> wrote:
It may be of interest to note that CTCnet, the network of 1000+ Community Technology Centres in the US (and with limited international representation) is having its annual conference in Seattle on June 11 and 12. http://www2.ctcnet.org/conf/2004/about/index.htm

I'm organizing a Workshop there (although I may not be able to attend) but there might be space for some sort of link. 

MG

-----Original Message-----
From: n_america-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:n_america-admin at wsis-cs.org] On Behalf Of Amali De Silva
Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 3:16 PM
To: bendrath at zedat.fu-berlin.de; northamericalist
Subject: [n_america] Re: European / North American WSIS CS meeting, Berlin, 13 June

thank you Ralf! - Amali

Ralf Bendrath <bendrath at zedat.fu-berlin.de> wrote: (Amali: Can you forward this to the North American Caucus list? Thanks!)
(Frannie: Can you forward this to the CRIS USA list? Thanks!)

Dear all,

most of you will have been following the cs-plenary list and know
already about this meeting. This email is intended to be a more formal
invitation / announcement.

>From 10 to 12 June (Wednesday to Saturday) there is a big conference in
Berlin on
liberation movements in the information age, the "Wizards of OS 3"
(WOS). For the preliminary programme and more info see the conference
website at http://www.wizards-of-os.org. People participating, among
others, will be Larry Lessig, Richard Stallman, Robin Gross, Robert
Guerra, Veni Markovski, Jamie Love and of course a significant number of
other German and European activists. As you see, a number of people also
involved in the WSIS are there for this event anyway. There are also a
number of meetings around this conference, like the EDRi (European
Digital Rights) General Assembly, a Wikipedia meeting, a free WLAN
meeting, a meeting on EU copyright policy and others. We are also
working on having video conference facilities to link up with the free
media conference in Freistadt/Austria on the same day (FM at dia FORUM 04:
Connecting Free Media. Exchange within and beyond Central and Eastern
Europe. http://www.fmedia.ecn.cz).

Therefore we (the German WSIS CS group and some other Europeans and
North Americans) had the idea of having a European/North American Civil
Society meeting on WSIS the day afterwards. Of course, it is also open
to people from other continents. 

This WSIS-CS meeting will be on Sunday, 13 June, also in Berlin. 

We are working with the WOS organizers at the moment to get enough
meeting space and will announce the details like meeting place and time
as soon as we have them.

We hope that many of you are able to come and participate. The timing is
very good, as it is only ten days before PrepCom 1 (23 to 25 June) in
Hammamet/Tunisia. So we can prepare for the official kick-off of "WSIS
II - the return of the summit". ;-) We are not planning a
conference-type event with panels etc., but more an open meeting with
discussions and coordination on anything WSIS CS people are interested
in. 

At the moment, we don't have any funding for travel expenses etc.
besides for those who are speaking at the WOS conference anyway. But
Berlin is quite cheap compared to other European capitals. We will
probably be able to accomodate a small number of people privately, but
there are also cheap hotels and hostels all over Berlin. And let me tell
you: Berlin in summer is _definitely_ worth a visit anyway. :-)

I have drafted a preliminary list of topics for the meeting. We will
di scuss and refine this at the German WSIS CS meeting on Saturday, but
are of course very much looking for your input / ideas / proposals and
involvement to make it a successful meeting. We will have a full day for
this on the 13th June and probably also have rooms for break-out groups,
if needed.

Topics to be covered should/could include:

Assessment of summit outcomes and follow-up
- Summit Declaration
- Action plan, implementation
- Further development of civil society summit declaration?
- What are we doing with regards to implementation? How to link it to
national / regional initiatives?
- own ideas for summit documents 2005 (Declaration / Report on
implementation)
- debriefing / discussion of activities since December
- meetings on Internet governance in Geneva, Rome, NYC
- informal bureau meeting in Tunisia
- implementation conference in Nairobi
- other recent events

Strategic Issues
- lessons learned for civil society in WSIS phase one
- How to position civil society in WSIS phase II?
- How to link to other social movements? 
- How to engage more grassroots people?
- How to engage WIPO, WTO, ITU and other important arenas? (Some people
active in the "intellectual property" policy field will be in Geneva the
weekend before and for the first time will attempt to have a significant
NGO participation in a WIPO meeting. They will also be in Berlin for the 
WOS and our meeting.)
- Inside / outside perspective for WSIS phase two
- CS travel fund? (There is interest from the Ford Foundation to fund
this if we "get our act together" and come up with a legitimate and
workable structure.)
- Next events
- European Social Forum, London, November
- ...

Transatlantic Aspects
- coordination between European and North American civil society
activities (North American Caucus, Public Voice, CRIS USA)
- coordination with EDRi and other Euro pean initiatives
- Interaction with EU officials / follow up on the links we have
established in phase one
- our common responsibility towards the CS groups from the South

Tunisia
- how to deal with the government and the "very governmental NGOs"?
- coordination with real Tunisian CS groups
- coordination with human rights groups (the Tunisia coordinator of
amnesty international Germany will participate and give us a briefing on
the situation in Tunisia)
- UN host country agreement with Tunisia? Can we be pro-active here in
terms of offering them a privacy policy etc.?
- secure communications infrastructure for us in Tunisia
- Preparation of Workshops / NGO Pre-PrepCom before PrepCom 1 (see the
discussion on this on the plenary list for more details.)

Add you ideas here!
- ...
- ...

So: We hope to see you in Berlin in June and are keen to get your ideas
before. More infos on this event and also tipps for accomodation etc in
Berlin will be posted on http://www.worldsummit2005.org in the "events"
section as things evolve. But remember: the success of it depends on
your participation and input!

All the best, 

Ralf

editor, http://www.worldsummit2005.org

Amali De Silva-Mitchell  AAT,BSc.(Econ)Warwick,MSc.(Int.Acc/Fin)LSE

Tel: 1-604-736-9012 & Email: amalidesilva at yahoo.com

Amali De Silva-Mitchell  AAT,BSc.(Econ)Warwick,MSc.(Int.Acc/Fin)LSE

Tel: 1-604-736-9012 & Email: amalidesilva at yahoo.com

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