<DIV>thank you Ralf! - Amali<BR><BR><B><I>Ralf Bendrath <bendrath@zedat.fu-berlin.de></I></B> wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">(Amali: Can you forward this to the North American Caucus list? Thanks!)<BR>(Frannie: Can you forward this to the CRIS USA list? Thanks!)<BR><BR>Dear all,<BR><BR>most of you will have been following the cs-plenary list and know<BR>already about this meeting. This email is intended to be a more formal<BR>invitation / announcement.<BR><BR>>From 10 to 12 June (Wednesday to Saturday) there is a big conference in<BR>Berlin on<BR>liberation movements in the information age, the "Wizards of OS 3"<BR>(WOS). For the preliminary programme and more info see the conference<BR>website at http://www.wizards-of-os.org. People participating, among<BR>others, will be Larry Lessig, Richard Stallman, Robin Gross, Robert<BR>Guerra, Veni Markovski, Jamie Love and of course a significant number of<BR>other German and European activists. As you see, a number of people also<BR>involved in the WSIS
are
there for this event anyway. There are also a<BR>number of meetings around this conference, like the EDRi (European<BR>Digital Rights) General Assembly, a Wikipedia meeting, a free WLAN<BR>meeting, a meeting on EU copyright policy and others. We are also<BR>working on having video conference facilities to link up with the free<BR>media conference in Freistadt/Austria on the same day (FM@dia FORUM 04:<BR>Connecting Free Media. Exchange within and beyond Central and Eastern<BR>Europe. http://www.fmedia.ecn.cz).<BR><BR>Therefore we (the German WSIS CS group and some other Europeans and<BR>North Americans) had the idea of having a European/North American Civil<BR>Society meeting on WSIS the day afterwards. Of course, it is also open<BR>to people from other continents. <BR><BR>This WSIS-CS meeting will be on Sunday, 13 June, also in Berlin. <BR><BR>We are working with the WOS organizers at the moment to get enough<BR>meeting space and will announce the details like meeting place
and
time<BR>as soon as we have them.<BR><BR>We hope that many of you are able to come and participate. The timing is<BR>very good, as it is only ten days before PrepCom 1 (23 to 25 June) in<BR>Hammamet/Tunisia. So we can prepare for the official kick-off of "WSIS<BR>II - the return of the summit". ;-) We are not planning a<BR>conference-type event with panels etc., but more an open meeting with<BR>discussions and coordination on anything WSIS CS people are interested<BR>in. <BR><BR>At the moment, we don't have any funding for travel expenses etc.<BR>besides for those who are speaking at the WOS conference anyway. But<BR>Berlin is quite cheap compared to other European capitals. We will<BR>probably be able to accomodate a small number of people privately, but<BR>there are also cheap hotels and hostels all over Berlin. And let me tell<BR>you: Berlin in summer is _definitely_ worth a visit anyway. :-)<BR><BR>I have drafted a preliminary list of topics for the meeting. We will<BR>di
scuss
and refine this at the German WSIS CS meeting on Saturday, but<BR>are of course very much looking for your input / ideas / proposals and<BR>involvement to make it a successful meeting. We will have a full day for<BR>this on the 13th June and probably also have rooms for break-out groups,<BR>if needed.<BR><BR>Topics to be covered should/could include:<BR><BR>Assessment of summit outcomes and follow-up<BR>- Summit Declaration<BR>- Action plan, implementation<BR>- Further development of civil society summit declaration?<BR>- What are we doing with regards to implementation? How to link it to<BR>national / regional initiatives?<BR>- own ideas for summit documents 2005 (Declaration / Report on<BR>implementation)<BR>- debriefing / discussion of activities since December<BR>- meetings on Internet governance in Geneva, Rome, NYC<BR>- informal bureau meeting in Tunisia<BR>- implementation conference in Nairobi<BR>- other recent events<BR><BR>Strategic Issues<BR>- lessons learned for
civil
society in WSIS phase one<BR>- How to position civil society in WSIS phase II?<BR>- How to link to other social movements? <BR>- How to engage more grassroots people?<BR>- How to engage WIPO, WTO, ITU and other important arenas? (Some people<BR>active in the "intellectual property" policy field will be in Geneva the<BR>weekend before and for the first time will attempt to have a significant<BR>NGO participation in a WIPO meeting. They will also be in Berlin for the <BR>WOS and our meeting.)<BR>- Inside / outside perspective for WSIS phase two<BR>- CS travel fund? (There is interest from the Ford Foundation to fund<BR>this if we "get our act together" and come up with a legitimate and<BR>workable structure.)<BR>- Next events<BR>- European Social Forum, London, November<BR>- ...<BR><BR>Transatlantic Aspects<BR>- coordination between European and North American civil society<BR>activities (North American Caucus, Public Voice, CRIS USA)<BR>- coordination with EDRi and other Euro
pean
initiatives<BR>- Interaction with EU officials / follow up on the links we have<BR>established in phase one<BR>- our common responsibility towards the CS groups from the South<BR><BR>Tunisia<BR>- how to deal with the government and the "very governmental NGOs"?<BR>- coordination with real Tunisian CS groups<BR>- coordination with human rights groups (the Tunisia coordinator of<BR>amnesty international Germany will participate and give us a briefing on<BR>the situation in Tunisia)<BR>- UN host country agreement with Tunisia? Can we be pro-active here in<BR>terms of offering them a privacy policy etc.?<BR>- secure communications infrastructure for us in Tunisia<BR>- Preparation of Workshops / NGO Pre-PrepCom before PrepCom 1 (see the<BR>discussion on this on the plenary list for more details.)<BR><BR>Add you ideas here!<BR>- ...<BR>- ...<BR><BR><BR>So: We hope to see you in Berlin in June and are keen to get your ideas<BR>before. More infos on this event and also tipps for
accomodation etc in<BR>Berlin will be posted on http://www.worldsummit2005.org in the "events"<BR>section as things evolve. But remember: the success of it depends on<BR>your participation and input!<BR><BR>All the best, <BR><BR>Ralf<BR><BR>editor, http://www.worldsummit2005.org<BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><BR><DIV>
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<P><STRONG>Amali De Silva-Mitchell <FONT size=1>AAT,BSc.(Econ)Warwick,MSc.(Int.Acc/Fin)LSE</FONT></STRONG></P>
<P>Tel: 1-604-736-9012 & Email: <A href="mailto:amalidesilva@yahoo.com">amalidesilva@yahoo.com</A></P>
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