[Privsec] new speaker for high-level roundtable

[Ralf Bendrath]

Hi all,

a brief update on the substitute for Simon Davies on the high-level 
roundtable tomorrow:

We tried today, with the help of the folks from CONGO, to get Cedric 
Laurant from EPIC in there. Unfortunately, the ITU did not accept this 
offer on grounds of insufficient "high-level-ness". Stupid criteria, as 
civil society reputation is not built around being a CEO, but on expertise 
and action. But that's the rules.

As we could not come up with anybody else on this short notice, Rik 
Panganiban from CONGO and I have therefore agreed to donate our speaking 
slot to John Perry Barlow from EFF (http://www.eff.org/~barlow). He is not 
exactly a privacy advocate, but a great visionary speaker and truly 
embodying our shared civil society principles. I have no idea at the 
moment if the ITU accepts this (just tried to call Rik without success), 
but this is the current state of affairs.

It's really sad that we did not manage to get a privacy advocate to speak 
here, but we tried really hard. Blame it on Simon Davies' dropout at the 
last minute, blame it on the lack of "Privacy CEOs" here at the summit, 
blame it on me and Rik if you want - or look forward to a great John Perry 
Barlow if it works.

Best, Ralf