<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<TITLE>Message</TITLE>
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1400" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV><SPAN class=470002523-10032004><FONT face=Garamond
color=#0000ff>Amali,</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=470002523-10032004><FONT face=Garamond
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=470002523-10032004><FONT face=Garamond color=#0000ff>Thanks for
your message. There have been so many messages on our various lists, that
it is difficult for one to keep up with them all. I would be delighted to
participate in any effort to enhance the use of information and communication
tools to support the efforts to organize the distributed collaborative work of
the WSIS civil society. I have been working on such an effort since
September last year. As I have mentioned before, for the past ten
years, we have been studying the socio-technical infrastructure that supports
geographically distributed collaboration, particularly between developed and
developing countries. For the past six years, we have taught a global
graduate seminar entitled Globalization and the Information Society:
Information, Communication and Development between three universities in the US
and three in South Africa. We use advanced web conferencing tools to hold
weekly synchronous seminars. In these seminars, we have plenary sessions
for all of my students -- using live voice, video, PowerPoint slides, websites
and other digital media (all over IP, with a 28.8 modem connection).
We use the same tools to have break-out sessions each week with of our virtual
teams, comprised of students from all six universities. In addition, we
have had students and presenters participating in the seminar from as diverse
locations as the ECA in Ethiopia, to other locations in Africa, Europe, Canada,
and the Caribbean.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=470002523-10032004><FONT face=Garamond
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=470002523-10032004><FONT face=Garamond color=#0000ff>What I
have proposed would build on the lessons learned over the last six years of
conducting this seminar, as well as lessons that we have learned from working
with distributed groups of scientists collaborating across organizations, and
countries. The approach that we have recommended would build on the
technologies and organizational structures that we have already built up, but
would go further, by allowing us to </FONT></SPAN><SPAN
class=470002523-10032004><FONT face=Garamond color=#0000ff>hold real-time
distributed meetings, seminars on key themes, breakout rooms (which could be by
language, region, theme, or other designation), panel presentations, issue
debates, strategy and training, sessions, administrative business meetings, as
well as decision-making and voting tools.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=470002523-10032004><FONT face=Garamond
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=470002523-10032004><FONT face=Garamond
color=#0000ff>We are still interested in working with colleagues in the
WSIS civil society to make this possible. We have become convinced that
these tools and approaches to our distributed collaboration would have an
important impact on our work. The primary limitation in the current tools
that we have, is that the webconferencing package is limited to Windows machines
(or Mac machines running OSX). However, we have another tool that is
slightly less easy to use, but does accommodate Wintel/Mac/and Linux machines,
with much of the same functionality, and will be continuing to test this new
tool.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=470002523-10032004><FONT face=Garamond
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=470002523-10032004><FONT face=Garamond color=#0000ff>Thus, I
propose that those that we organize a small meeting in the next few days for
those that are interested in having a discussion about the possibilities of
using these tools. I promise you that we will be able to get most people
up and running in about fifteen minutes. I look forward to working with
those that are interested in planning these initiatives. If we can
organize this first meeting in the next few days, that would give us time for
more detailed planning before the UNICTTF Global Forum in a few
weeks.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=470002523-10032004>
<DIV v:shape="_x0000_s1026">
<DIV class=O
style="mso-line-spacing: '80 20 0'; mso-margin-left-alt: 360; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 122%"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 65%; LEFT: -9.97%; COLOR: #cc9900; FONT-FAMILY: Wingdings; POSITION: absolute; TOP: 0.49em; mso-special-format: bullet; mso-color-index: 4">n</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
class=470002523-10032004><FONT face=Garamond
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN></DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=470002523-10032004><FONT face=Garamond
color=#0000ff>Cheers,</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=470002523-10032004><FONT face=Garamond
color=#0000ff>Derrick</FONT></SPAN></DIV><!-- Converted from text/rtf format -->
<P align=left><FONT size=2><FONT face=gar><SPAN lang=en-us>Derrick L. Cogburn,
Ph.D.</SPAN> <BR><SPAN lang=en-us>Assistant Professor of Information</SPAN>
<BR><SPAN lang=en-us>and African Studies</SPAN> <BR></FONT></FONT><FONT
size=2><FONT face=gar><SPAN lang=en-us>The University of
Michigan<BR></SPAN><SPAN lang=en-us>Website: <A
href="http://www.si.umich.edu/~dcogburn">http://www.si.umich.edu/~dcogburn</A></SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT
face=gar size=2> <BR>Blog: </FONT><A
href="http://cogburn.blogspot.com/"><FONT face=gar
size=2>http://cogburn.blogspot.com/</FONT></A></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left><FONT
face=Tahoma size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B>
plenary-admin@wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-admin@wsis-cs.org] <B>On Behalf Of
</B>Amali De Silva<BR><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, March 10, 2004 6:18
PM<BR><B>To:</B> plenary@wsis-cs.org<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re: AW: [WSIS
CS-Plenary] Re: Requests/demands for CS participation in Tunis
phase<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>Robert </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond color=#0000ff></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Could you please in the name of our common world good:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>1. Connect with Andy and Derrick</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>2. Choose a "system" that requires the user to have the least amount of
technologically sophisticated paraphenalia at hand</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>3. Pick two dates and times for a virtual realtime meeting - so
that both halves of the world can make a connection sometime</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>4. Enable an archiving system so that those who miss it can access the
archives</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>5. Advertise / Advise plenary of the meeting times with good advance
notice ( say 4 days )</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>and moderate it !!! ????</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I would be pleased to develop an agenda for this process.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Amali De Silva - Mitchell <BR><BR><B><I>Andy Carvin
<ACarvin@edc.org></I></B> wrote:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">In
Geneva last December, we hosted an event for our Digital Divide Network
<BR>and had it streamed live over the Internet, courtesy of the Digital
<BR>Workforce Education
Society:<BR><BR>http://www.digibridge.org/id9.html<BR><BR><BR>The stream
allowed users anywhere in the world to log into the site, <BR>listen to the
audio of the meeting, ask questions via chat and voice, see <BR>still photos
of the event taken every 10 seconds, and access a whiteboard <BR>space. The
technology worked pretty well, though it was inaccessible to <BR>people
using Macs (which would have included myself if I hadn't gone to <BR>WSIS to
host the event). There's also the issue of accessibility to people <BR>with
disabilities, but the folks at ncam.org are developing tools to offer
<BR>closed captioning of streaming video, for
example.<BR><BR>thanks,<BR>ac<BR><BR>-------------------------------------------------<BR>Andy
Carvin<BR>Program Director<BR>EDC Center for Media &
Community<BR>acarvin @ edc .
org<BR>http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org<BR>-------------------------------------------------<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>Amali
De Silva <AMALIDESILVA@YAHOO.COM><BR>Sent by:
plenary-admin@wsis-cs.org<BR>03/10/04 12:41 PM<BR>Please respond to
plenary<BR><BR>To: plenary@wsis-cs.org<BR>cc: <BR>Subject: Re: AW: [WSIS
CS-Plenary] Re: Requests/demands for <BR>CS participation in Tunis
phase<BR><BR><BR>I support your inclusive ( input from all on the list via
virtual <BR>mechanisms ) approach Robert. I understand Derrick ( fyi ) was
also trying <BR>out a "system". Your suggestion however, may be accessible
by all ? <BR><BR>Amali De Silva - Mitchell <BR>President Vancouver Community
Network, Canada<BR><BR>Robert Guerra
<RGUERRA@CPSR.ORG>wrote:<BR>Wolfgang:<BR><BR><BR>why just physical meetings?
shouldn't we try to use ICT4s to help reduce <BR>distances and costs for us
all to meet, discuss and try to move forward?<BR><BR>a couple of
comments:<BR><BR>(1) IAMCR meeting:<BR><BR>Instead of the IAMCR meeting, i'd
suggest having the WSIS session at<BR>OURMedia IV, which is being held just
before IAMCR.<BR><BR><BR>Details:<BR><BR>Puerto Alegre, Brazil July
22-25<BR><BR><BR>(2) Ways of participating virtually should be on the agenda
as well. Not <BR>only for the meeting you mention, but days in
between.<BR><BR>Thus, i'd suggest having an virtual "informal" meeting
before the march <BR>UN ICT Task force meeting in New York. Planning ahead,
and devising an <BR>agenda and our own "road map" of activities would - be a
positive thing.<BR><BR>possible dates: March 19,20,21, 22 or 23<BR>where:
online - i can setup a IRC channel and a Java based applet so <BR>that one
can enter the virtual room with just a browser.<BR><BR>i'd suggest 1 or 2,
2-3 hr sessions where we'd conduct a virtual
<BR>plenary.<BR><BR>comments?<BR><BR>Robert<BR><BR>--On Wednesday, March 10,
2004 12:07 PM +0100 wolfgang@imv.au.dk wrote:<BR><BR>> dear
list,<BR>><BR>> to bring more balance into meeting places I would like
to propose to<BR>> use two forthcoming ICANN meetings in developing
countries (July in<BR>> Kuala Lumpur/Malaysia) and December in Cape
Town/South Africa) for<BR>> special WSIS coordination meetings and /or
regional meetings. A third<BR>> relevant world conference is organized by
the "Internaitonal<BR>> Association for Media and Communication Research"
(IAMCR) in July in<BR>> Porto Allegre/Brazil. The IAMCR will have a
number of smaller<BR>> workshops and a "big plenary", probably with high
officials from the<BR>> UN and from UNESCO, on itd agenda . Also here,
additional reigonal<BR>> meetings (in the local language) could be
organized to promote more<BR>> civil society interaction between North
and South.<BR>><BR>> best<BR>><BR>> wolfgang<BR>><BR>> --
Original Nachricht--<BR>> Von: Sasha Costanza-Chock <BR>> An: Nnenna
,plenary@wsis-cs.org<BR>> Senden: 09.03.2004<BR>> Betreff: [WSIS
CS-Plenary] Re: Requests/demands for CS participation<BR>> in Tunis
phase<BR>><BR>> Hi nnenna, thanks for your message. I hope you don't
mind that I CC<BR>> this to the Plenary.<BR>><BR>> I hope you could
see from what I wrote that I am not proposing<BR>> confrontation for
confrontation's sake, and that I also believe<BR>> holding the summit in
Tunis is better for Tunisians and for African<BR>> civil society in
general than holding it again in Geneva, NY, or<BR>> another place in the
'North.'<BR>><BR>> At the same time, I am also sure that we do not
want a repeat of what<BR>> happened in Geneva, where in political terms
civil society was<BR>> unorganized, took very few strong positions,
failed almost completely<BR>> to engage social moveme nts of the base,
missed many opportunities to<BR>> advance discourse, critique,
alternative solutions. We were organized<BR>> enough to produce a
wonderful consensus document, but not enough to<BR>> make demands for
basic necessities (for example, a dedicated physical<BR>> space to meet
and take decisions) or to make strong symbolic presence<BR>> felt within
the space.<BR>><BR>> The reality is that the summit _does_ need the
participation of CS: it<BR>> needs us for purposes of legitimacy. They
are desperate to find an<BR>> alternative to the 'global governance'
model that sees every meeting<BR>> of high level government officials
behind high fences, with thousands<BR>> of riot police gassing and
beating tens or hundreds of thousands of<BR>> citizens in the streets
below, opposing the current version of<BR>> globalization and proposing
alternatives.<BR>><BR>> They hope that by including 'civil society'
they can avoid this<BR>> situati on and make decisions seem
legitimate.<BR>><BR>> This means they must open the door, at least a
crack, to our<BR>> participation.<BR>><BR>> It then becomes our
task, not to be joyful for a seat in the peanut<BR>> gallery, but to make
our participation meaningful: to insist. To make<BR>> demands. To take
stands where we need to.<BR>><BR>> I only mean to say that I hope we
will be organized enough during this<BR>> next phase to avoid bestowing
the cover of legitimacy, unless we<BR>> receive more concessions than a
fistful of 'overpasses' so we can<BR>> take turns sitting in the back row
and listening to the powerful make<BR>> empty promises.<BR>><BR>>
Sasha<BR>><BR>><BR>> Nnenna wrote:<BR>><BR>>> Hi
Sasha<BR>>><BR>>> Thanks for your thoughtful message. The
Tunisian system is<BR>>> different.<BR>><BR>>> It is
different from the US, China, Nigeria or anynother country. I<BR>>>
do<BR>><BR>>> not judge systems the way some people did recently. I
would rather<BR>>> speak with those on the
ground.<BR>>><BR>>> I did speak with Tunisian CS members. I can
agree that that there is<BR>>> a<BR>><BR>>> possiblity that
all of them are pro-regime. You understand?<BR>>><BR>>> Then I
went to see ex-colleagues at the African Development Bank.<BR>>>
They<BR>><BR>>> are people with diplomatic status. They are not
afraid of the<BR>>> regime. They are still new to the system and they
can still see the<BR>>> difference. I was there the whole of Thursday.
I spoke with them at<BR>>> length.<BR>>><BR>>> And my
personal perspective is that what needs to be changed is the<BR>>>
system. But you don't change systems overnight. You lay the<BR>>>
foundation<BR>><BR>>> for it.<BR>>><BR>>> That is why I
belive tha the WSIS in Tunis should be a good<BR>>>
oppurtunity<BR>><BR>>> to help lay foundations for a better freer
Tunisia. Support and<BR>>> reeducation is needed, not noisemakling and
boycotting.<BR>>><BR>>> On a final note, the ITU SG made it
clear that the WSIS was a<BR>>> gorvenment<BR>><BR>>> stuff.
CS is only "invited"! We can only contribute. This is a<BR>>
good<BR>>> chance for the CS to make good use of the
oppurtunity.<BR>>><BR>>> Yes, I believe we should draft a
position paper, enjoining the<BR>>> Tunisian<BR>><BR>>>
government to enable a freer environment : political, social and<BR>>
economic.<BR>>><BR>>> That, I agree.<BR>>><BR>>>
Very best<BR>>><BR>>> Nnenna<BR>>><BR>>><BR>>
----------------------------------------------------------------------<BR>>
--<BR>>> Do you Yahoo!?<BR>>> Yahoo! Search - Find what you’re
looking for faster.<BR>>> <BR>>
_______________________________________________<BR>> Plenary mailing
list<BR>> Plenary@wsis-cs.org<BR>>
http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/plenary<BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>>
_______________________________________________<BR>> Plenary mailing
list<BR>> Plenary@wsis-cs.org<BR>>
http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/plenary<BR>><BR><BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>Plenary
mailing
list<BR>Plenary@wsis-cs.org<BR>http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/plenary<BR><BR><BR>Amali
De Silva-Mitchell MSc.<BR>Tel: 1-604-736-9012 & Email:
amalidesilva@yahoo.com<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>>W§j¼¦j)bž b²Óåzv«Ë "±Ë(®m¶Ÿÿ
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<P><STRONG>Amali De Silva-Mitchell MSc.</STRONG></P>
<P>Tel: 1-604-736-9012 & Email: <A
href="mailto:amalidesilva@yahoo.com">amalidesilva@yahoo.com</A></P>
<P> </P>
<P><EM><FONT face=Verdana size=1></FONT></EM> </P>
<P> </P></DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>