[Values-ethics] World Summit on the Information Society

[Claude Almansi]

Hi Michael

I hope Bahiyyih won't mind my answering you in a tangential manner: she will
answer you straight about accreditation to WSIS proper.

But since you also wrote:

<<I wish to be able to attend to meet like minded people who are concerned
about the inability of non-Western universities to afford ON LINE ACADEMIC
JOURNALS. Thus there is a monopoly on academic information in the developing
world: only the elites have access to this very valuable scientific
information. >>

you might be more interested in The Role of Science in Information Society
http://rsis.web.cern.ch/rsis/ that begins  on Monday 8 (till Tuesday 9) at
CERN, than in WSIS proper.  See the RSIS Declaration of Principles
http://rsis.web.cern.ch/rsis/02Declaration/Declaration.html : it markedly
stresses fundamental issues like Public Domain, right to access information,
etc., that have melted away from WSIS-proper official documents (Declaration
of Principles, Action Plan). You need to register, but not to have a summit
accreditation, for the RSIS conferences and workshops at CERN.

Moreover, RSIS will have a stall in the ICT4D Hall: there, registration is
not required: you only have to cough up CHFr 20.- to get into ICT4D.

The steep price is because the ICT4D (D being for Development) is
theoretically run by the Swiss Division of Cooperation and Development (of
the Federal Dept of Foreign Affairs), who entrusted the actual management to
a private firm, MCI: hence steep prices for exhibitors and steep entrance
price for the visitors.

Still, ICT4D will be worth a visit - They printed a huge whacking paper
catalogue but aren't all that good at entering the events in the official
reference site for the WSIS events: www.wsis-online.net , unfortunately.
"African Media Village", an exhibition that will last during the whole WSIS,
is one that remains blocked in the pipwork of wsis-online, but certainly
worth visiting:

<<WSIS African Caucus
ARTICLE 19 - Africa Program
Media Institute of Southern Africa - MISA
Southern African Communications for Development - SACOD
AMARC Africa - World Association of Community Broadcasters
Association for Progressive Communications - APC
South African Broadcast Corporation - SABC

African Media Village Stand 137 ICT4D Hall

The African Media Village is a multi media space that will showcase a range
of the ICT projects underway on the African Continent. You will see a web
casting community radio station, a telecentre, audio video screenings by and
about African ICT projects and news features being produced at WSIS by
African media for direct broadcast from Geneva to Channel Africa.

The village features life size photographs of African people telling,
through audio recordings, their stories of the intersection of ICT's and
their lives. These images and stories were gathered from African countries
in preparation for WSIS. The project, called 'Speaking for Ourselves' has
been driven by a partnership of southern African freedom of expression NGO's
in conjunction with the WSIS African Civil Society Caucus of over eighty ICT
and development orientated organisations working across Africa.

Your hosts at the African Village are people who work in ICT in Africa. A
warm welcome awaits you.>>

Perhaps even more worth visiting than the much-touted World Electronic Media
Forum www.wemfmedia.org , which will be in the area where you need
accreditation.

Then there is something called "Les professionnels des contenus s'attaquent
à la fracture numérique", organised by UNESCO Switzerland. As the info
arrived in a whacking big e-mail (777k) with 2 huge .doc attachments -
UNESCO Switzerland's* idea of a newsletter - one may harbour some misgivings
about the organiser's competence in "tackling the digital divide", but
still, here goes:

<<Les professionnels des contenus s'attaquent à la fracture numérique 9-13
décembre, Genève
A travers ce projet, la Commission suisse pour l'UNESCO proposera des
mesures concrètes visant à fournir aux archivistes, bibliothé­caires,
enseignants, journalistes et scienti­fiques des pays en voie de
développement des outils et des compétences pour une utili­sation efficace
des nouvelles technologies.
Ce projet est le fruit d'une collaboration entre la Commission suisse pour
l'UNESCO et de quatre grandes organisations professionnelles: le Conseil
international des archives CIA, la Fédération internationale des
associations de bibliothécaires et des bibliothèques IFLA, la Fédération
internationale des Journalistes FIJ et le Conseil international de la
science ICSU. Sa conception et sa coordination ont été assurées par M. Alain
Modoux, Consultant, ancien Sous-Directeur général de l'UNESCO pour la
communication.
Présentation du projet, en présence de spécialiste, notamment Mme Wilma
Patricia Escobar Salguero (Bolivie), M. Jude Martinez Claircidor (Haïti), M.
Hamad H. Omar (Tanzanie), M. Martin Musunka (Zambie) et M. Charles Batambuze
(Ouganda), à Palexpo, Halle 4 - stand 135, du 9 au 13 décembre - conférence:
salle 11, mercredi 10 décembre, de 16h00 à 18h00.
http://www.unesco.ch/actual-f/weltgipfel2003_f.htm >>

Cheers

Claude

Per la redazione di ADISI
www.adisi.ch
Claude Almansi
redazione at adisi.ch

* UNESCO Switzerland, I insist: UNESCO International people are
ICT-literate.