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--></style></head><body lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"><p dir="ltr">The merits of the report aside, your point, Michael, is one I believe strongly to be true: the whole WSIS follow-up system is top-down, because the ITU took control of it. What's needed is national-level action plans, drawn up by all stakeholders, which can then be compared like-for-like as to results internationally so countries can learn from what works in other countries. The irony is that this model is how "Agenda 21" the climate change process from the first Rio conference works; sadly WSIS didn't pick this up despite it postdating Rio by more than a decade.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In the WSIS review, we should fix this. The digital divide is not going to be met in Geneva at one-annual "WSIS review" meetings where INGOs (however well-meaning) compare notes and report cards - it will be met at the grassroots level, with buyin from that level.</p>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">michael gurstein <gurstein@gmail.com> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--><div class="WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Anyone wondering why a grassroots/community informatics perspective is necessary in the WSIS and related ICT4D venues should take a close look at this corporate driven top-down techno-fantasy of what could/should be done with no attention being given to how it might actually be accomplished on the ground even after almost twenty years of similar pronouncements and failed (and hugely wasteful) similarly top down initiatives.<p></p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><p> </p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">M</span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><p></p></span></span></p><div><p
class="MsoNormal"></p><p> </p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><cite><span style="font-style:normal"><a href="http://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_releases/2013/67.asp">http://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_releases/2013/67.asp</a><p></p></span></cite></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p> </p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Broadband infrastructure, applications and services have become critical to driving growth, delivering social services, improving environmental management, and transforming people’s lives, according to a new Manifesto released by the Broadband Commission for Digital Development and signed by 48 members of the Commission, along with other prominent figures from industry, civil society and the United Nations. “Overcoming the digital divide makes sense not only on the basis of principles of fairness and justice; connecting the world makes soun
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commercial sense,” the Manifesto reads. “The vital role of broadband needs to be acknowledged at the core of any post-2015 sustainable development framework, to ensure that all countries – developed and developing alike – are empowered to participate in the global digital economy.”</span></span></p><p></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p> </p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Supporting Document<p></p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><p> </p></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.broadbandcommission.org/Documents/working-groups/bb-wg-taskforce-report.pdf">http://www.broadbandcommission.org/Documents/working-groups/bb-wg-taskforce-report.pdf</a></p><p></p><div><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p> </p></div></div></blockquote></div><br>
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