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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=171450213-13102004><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>Karin, (again still out of synch -
sorry!)</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=171450213-13102004><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=171450213-13102004><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>I love the idea of a manual for lobbying and policy
advocacy re communication needs. I think that for those of us working
closely with groups and organisations struggling to get needs heard and met on
the ground, there is a real need for capacity building and supprot/
networking.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=171450213-13102004><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=171450213-13102004><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>Telecentres are primarily about people - people's needs,
people's skills and people's dedication. Of course they are also about
money and political will and infrastructure. Hmmm. Anyway, I think
that there are so many different types of people needed to feed into a good
environment for telecentres, that is from the technical side, policy,
organisation and management, resource mobilisation and training etc.
Sometimes I read things about telecentres which make no sense to me, because
they are about technical side, but still doesn't mean that it is not
relevant. So, how can we work out a way where the different pieces of
the jigsaw are recognised and valued so that: a) </FONT></SPAN><SPAN
class=171450213-13102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>good
collaborative partnerships are the centre of effective telecentres/ programmes -
that both meet the needs of the people in the communities where they are based
and are the best possible quality service; and b) the different areas of
capacity and training needs are recognised and catered for.
</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=171450213-13102004><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=171450213-13102004><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>I think that this is happening to some extent anyway, but
perhaps there is a need for a group like this one to be really pinning down
where those areas are and how they link together so that the resources and
experiences already available can be shared more effecitvely? (Probably
just like somos telecentros is able to do at a regional
level?)</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=171450213-13102004><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=171450213-13102004><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>Hannah</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=171450213-13102004><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV><BR>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left>
<HR tabIndex=-1>
<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> telecentres-bounces@wsis-cs.org
[mailto:telecentres-bounces@wsis-cs.org] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Karin Delgadillo
Poepsel<BR><B>Sent:</B> 06 October 2004 23:52<BR><B>To:</B>
telecentres@wsis-cs.org<BR><B>Subject:</B> [SPAM] - Re: [Telecentres] working
group background, organizing principles - Email found in
subject<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV><FONT face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Hi to
everybody,<BR><BR>While I know that we are discussing what is a
telecentre. I want to share my insights of somos@telecentros and the Wsis
process that can contribute to clarify the role of the working group that has
been created the same to give insights to Elisabeth. Sorry for my spanglish. Do
not hesitate to make questions if you do not understand my
spanglish.<BR><BR>Somos@telecentros <A class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated
href="http://www.tele-centros.org">www.tele-centros.org</A> has been working on
the sidelines of the WSIS process. By sidelines I mean that we used the spaces
that has been formed specially by civil society. In fact we participated in the
declaration of Ministries in Bavaro and in the prepcoms in Geneva. Carlos Afonso
from RITS in Brazil has been working with the civil society closely in all
the prepecoms. As a product of our second regional encounter celebrated in
Quito, april 2003</FONT><FONT face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">, we did the
declaration for the prepcoms of WSIS in a consultation process with our
members. The url is </FONT><A class=moz-txt-link-freetext
href="http://www.tele-centros.org/comunidad/encuentros/regionalII/declaracion.htm">http://www.tele-centros.org/comunidad/encuentros/regionalII/declaracion.htm</A><FONT
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">, you also can fin in the WSIS web page.
This </FONT><FONT face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">declaration it is still
lying in a beautiful paper, websites and in some books that people and
organizations who are involved WSIS promoted and printed. So we are
still succeeding with failure in order that WSIS take in consideration some of
the needs of somos@telecentros network and I am still looking that the energy
that we invested in this process will attend the needs of our
constituencies.<BR><BR>However we used this process to develop a strategy inside
of somos@telecentros on how the practitioners of somos@telecentros could
influence in policies and regulations and do lobby. It has been a extremely hard
experience for the practitioners of somos@telecentros network, becauser se
realize that we need training. That is why we worked hardly in developing the
first online and face to face training workshops on policies, regulations and
advocacy of telecentres, concentrating very much on supporting the profile of
practitioners of telecentres in the national chapters of somos@telecentros
network for lobbying and advocacy. So in this way will be these leaders
who will advocate the needs of the telecentres practitioners and thier
communties. They will do the link from the ground level to the
national, regional and global level. So practitioners can be trained and
be in the places were the decisions are taking place in the national and
regional level. It is very important to define a regional agenda and participate
in spaces like WSIS in order to advocate their needs. Please see the summary of
this process in </FONT><A class=moz-txt-link-freetext
href="http://www.tele-centros.org/politicas/cursopoliticasonline.htm">http://www.tele-centros.org/politicas/cursopoliticasonline.htm</A><BR><FONT
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">A book and a cd is going to be printed very
soon, manual for practitioners of telecentres for lobbying and advocacy of
polices and regulations to advocate the needs of the communities that are using
telecentres will be launch at the end of this month. This process has been
supported by IDRC and ICA. We are still working hard in the training process of
the practitioners of telecentres to advocate, lobby and influence in policies
and regulations for telecentres. The second phase of this process is to
consolidate a regional team of influencing in policies and regulations of
somos@telecentros based on the national agendas of the telecentres. We are still
still search for support to strength this process.<BR></FONT><FONT
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><BR>One of my biggest concerns in the
creation of this list and defining a work group is that it still exist a
gap of those who are in the international scenarios such as in WSIS and the real
communities and practitioners of telecentres who are in the ground facing
challenges to survive. It is not linked the process of wsis with the real needs
and demands that practitioners of telecentres and their communities are facing.
It exist of course intermediaries that interpret their needs but the real
appropriation and mechanism of communication are not in place. So it would be a
role and responsibility of this group to find mechanisms to express the voice of
those who are directly on the ground.<BR><BR>In what way WSIS can be a platform
to advocate their needs and find strategies to full fill their demands by
establish methods and mechanisms from the ground level to the global
level? Elisabeth would be great if you incorporate in the workgroup that
you are suggesting, how it should be address this challenge?.<BR><BR>I am
thinking loudly in order to find common understanding of what are the real
issues that as telecentres should advocate based on the needs of its
constituencies and use the scenarios as WSIS or others in order to advocate
their needs and influence in policies.<BR><BR>I am a person that instead of
doing new things we should use the spaces that has been already created, make
bridges in order to have a better influence and brake the isolation, use the
capacities of organizations that are already working in this issues and define
mechanisms to have a stronger impact. I strongly belief on networks so I would
suggest to focus on the challenges of the past, our failures in this process and
find a common strategy based on the needs of our constituencies so
mechanisms are in place as well.<BR>.<BR>I would love to know what has been the
experience of practitioners of telecentres and networks that has bee
participating in the WSIS process. How are linking the needs of their
constituencies and what process was set up in place in order to have a better
impact.<BR><BR>This are my five cents.<BR><BR>Karin<BR>Board Member
somos@telecentres<BR>Latin American and the Caribbean community <BR>base
telecentre Network<BR><A class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated
href="http://www.tele-centros.org">www.tele-centros.org</A><BR><BR><BR><BR></FONT><BR>Michael
Gurstein wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE cite=mid004001c4a213$6b597680$6400a8c0@michael78xnoln type="cite"><PRE wrap="">Andy and all,
The Community Informatics Research Network (CIRN) with which a number of
those on this list are affiliated will be meeting f2f next week in
Prato, Italy. One of the topics of discussion will be a possible role
for CIRN in WSIS (while CIRN is not directly registered as a Civil
Society group within the WSIS context, several national representative
and other formally registered CS organizations are active participants
in CIRN and will be represented at the Prato meeting).
CIRN as a network of researchers and practitioner/researchers concerned
with enabling communities with Information and Communications
Technologies has a very strong and active interest in supporting the
development of Telecentres as points of community internet access. I
should mention as well though, that our interest goes beyond simple
access through Telecentres to working with communities to make effective
use of this access in support of locally based development including for
health, local economic and social development, environmental management
and others.
I'm sure CIRN's on-going relationship with this Network will be an
element in our discussions and I would guess that our conclusion would
be to actively support this initiative in whatever manner seems to be
most useful and generally productive.
As to a preferred organizational structure for this working group, there
seems no particular reason at this point to move towards a formalized
structure (but perhaps I'm wrong) and that it might be more useful for
the group to get to know each other a bit better first and also to
further explore the issues of concern to determine what the appropriate
nature of the "representativeness" for this group should be.
Best,
Mike Gurstein
(Interim) Chair: CIRN
<A class=moz-txt-link-freetext href="http://www.ciresearcher.net">http://www.ciresearcher.net</A>
-----Original Message-----
From: <A class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated href="mailto:telecentres-bounces@wsis-cs.org">telecentres-bounces@wsis-cs.org</A>
[<A class=moz-txt-link-freetext href="mailto:telecentres-bounces@wsis-cs.org">mailto:telecentres-bounces@wsis-cs.org</A>] On Behalf Of Andy Carvin
Sent: September 24, 2004 12:51 AM
To: <A class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated href="mailto:telecentres@wsis-cs.org">telecentres@wsis-cs.org</A>
Subject: [Telecentres] working group background, organizing principles
Stuart Mathison wrote:
>> - My suggestion is that we advocate on the two previous questions.
An issue,
>> however, is the mechanics through which the collective voice of this
working >> group can make itself heard. Are we "official"? Can we be
registered
as a
>> civil society entity? How do we appoint people to represent the
group? >>
In the simplest terms, yes, we are already "official." When the UN
decided to host the WSIS meetings, it was agreed that civil society
organizations could become accredited delegates, along with governments,
UN agencies, international donors, etc. This meant that civil society
organizations would have a voice in the deliberations, though not a
vote. Prior to the first WSIS meeting in Geneva, civil society
organizations began to organize, setting up caucuses and working groups
on a variety of issues, such as human rights, gender, education, youth;
there were also groups set up by region (Latin American family, North
American family, etc). Participation in these working groups is
voluntary, with each working group existing because there was critical
mass of volunteers to work in that area. Civil society also created a
plenary email list (<A class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated href="mailto:plenary@wsis-cs.org">plenary@wsis-cs.org</A>) for all working group members
to join, as well as a civil society bureau comprised of representatives
from each working group to represent civil society's interests when it
comes to logistical planning for each summit and prepcom, etc.
This June, at the CTCNet conference in Seattle, I co-hosted a meeting of
the North American group. During the meeting we discussed civil
society's wsis activities, and the role telecenter activists were
playing in the process. Some of us noted how the telecenter movement
could fall through the cracks because its interests were spread out
amongst various other working groups. So I proposed the idea of
organizing a new civil society working group for telecenters.
Following recommendations of members of the civil society bureau, I
proposed the idea on the CS plenary list, and proposed it during CS
plenary meetings in Tunisia at the most recent Prepcom meeting.
Participants were supportive of the idea, and there were no objections,
so I was encouraged to found the new working group. The bureau then
created the email discussion group for us on the official WSIS civil
society server (<A class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated href="http://www.wsis-cs.org">www.wsis-cs.org</A>) in late August, which brings us to
where we are now.
So to summarize: our group is an official civil society working group,
and we can offer input to the civil society plenary and participate in
other civil society activities. I'm the one who proposed and founded the
group, and so far I'm facilitating the group. If the group would like to
be more formal, we could have a discussion about who is serving as
chairperson, or "focal point," to use the civil society bureau
terminology. I'm perfectly happy to serve in this role, but would not
want to force myself upon the group either simply because I came up with
the idea.
Most other groups have a sole focal point serving as chairperson, but
others have co-chairs, or a chairperson and a couple of vice chairs.
Personally, I think this is a good idea, since it would allow for some
geographic diversity.
So I suppose we have three models to consider:
1. One person (I or someone else) could serve as sole focal point
(chairperson) for the working group.
2. Two people - perhaps one from the North, one from the South - could
serve as co-chairs.
3. One person as focal point, with multiple people (two or three others)
as vice chairs.
So I'd like to propose we discuss this. Does anyone have any strong
feelings as to how the group's leadership shall be organized? And are
there nominations for people to play any of these roles? As I said, I'm
perfectly happy to do this myself, but think it would be good to share
some of the responsibility with one or more people representing other
parts of the world, particularly the South....
ac
--------------------------------------
Andy Carvin
Program Director
EDC Center for Media & Community
acarvin @ edc . org
<A class=moz-txt-link-freetext href="http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org">http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org</A>
<A class=moz-txt-link-freetext href="http://www.edwebproject.org/andy/blog/">http://www.edwebproject.org/andy/blog/</A>
--------------------------------------
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