<div>Dear all,</div>
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<div>The Content and Themes meeting has decided to formally establish a Working Group to address the issues dealt with in Sub-Committee B of the PrepCom3, mainly the general post-Tunis framework for implementation and follow-up.
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<div><strong>Purpose</strong></div>
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<div>The main objective of the group is to help establish an efficient and flexible followup framework for WSIS, that guarantees the full and effective involvement of all stakeholders and particularly civil society at local, regional and international levels.
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<div><strong>Participation</strong></div>
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<div>The group is open. A mailing list has been opened to facilitate discussion and avoid cluttering of the Plenary list. Participation in the group is effective upon registration on the group's mailing list. Info and subscription to the list are accessible at :
<a href="http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/followup">http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/followup</a></div>
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<div><strong>Posting and Archives</strong></div>
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<div>Posting is done through the following address : <a href="mailto:followup@wsis-cs.org">followup@wsis-cs.org</a> .Discussions will be archived like other CS lists and the Archives are public. Posting is not moderated and list members are requested to make as concise comments as possible to facilitate reading in a period of intense communcation. Warning : Reply-To function sends reply message to the whole list.
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<div><strong>Missions of the Group</strong></div>
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<div>The group will : </div>
<div>- monitor discussions in the Sub-Committe B and report for actors who cannot be present in Geneva</div>
<div>- prepare statements and interventions and select speakers to present them in Sub-Committe B</div>
<div>- advocate CS positions to other stakeholders, including governments</div>
<div>- help define elements that could form part of future Civil Society declarations if the negociations do not evolve in a satisfactory way</div>
<div>- report every day on its activities, as appropriate in the Plenary and the Content and Themes meeting</div>
<div>- liaise with the Chair of Sub-Committe B on procedural matters and with the Internet Governance Caucus on potentially complementary issues</div>
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<div><strong>Facilitators</strong></div>
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<div>I have been designated as initial focal point and facilitator. A few additional facilitators wil be designated in the coming days to share the responsibilities of monitoring, faciltating drafting and advocacy. People interested in being facilitators are invited to contact me. They are expected to meet the following criteria :
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<div>- having participated in the WSIS process or in other UN summits for enough time to be fully aware of the different dimensions of the issues</div>
<div>- having actively participated in the drafting of various </div>
<div>- being willing to spend a significant amount of time in this activity</div>
<div>- being ready to facilitate the work of the group to allow consensus positions to emerge</div>
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<div><strong>Methods</strong></div>
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<div>In order to facilitate identification by auditors, public statements in the PrepCom will be made under the name "CS Working Group on Implementation and Follow-up". Working methods of the group will be elaborated and detailed further as work progresses. Modifications of the present document, considered as an initial Group Charter, will be decided by the group as the need arise.
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<div><strong>Duration</strong> </div>
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<div>The group is set up at least for the period leading up to the Tunis Summit but could continue its activities afterwards if it can help the concrete setting up of the framework that will be adopted in Tunis or if it can contribute to the emergence of a better mechanism.
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<div><strong>Acknowlegements</strong></div>
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<div>Thanks to Karen Banks for having set up the mailing list and hosting it.</div>
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<div>Looking forward to seing you on the group and on the list. </div>
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<div>Best</div>
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<div>Bertrand</div>
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