<div dir="ltr"><div><div>Hi Parminder,<br><br></div>I have not discussed this with my co-organisers, but as the person who first came up with this idea and also the one to send the message to which you responded, I am happy to provide some answers. <br><br></div><div>Perhaps first a note on what we are trying to do here. As we all know, the modalities explicitly made the Review a government-led process. Also, details on the way in which the informal consultations with other stakeholders would be facilitated remained extremely scanty even eight months before the review was supposed to take place. Even when the Review process was formally announced, it wasn't clear to what extent inputs from stakeholders other than governments would be taken into account. This meeting is an attempt to be proactive in that situation, trying to amplify voices from our region to make sure that concerns from this region actually find resonance in New York - something that, seeing how far removed we are from there, isn't guaranteed at all. <br><br></div><div>The organisations that are co-organising this meeting are organisations that all got enthused by this prospect, and were willing to put part of their organisational budgets, of their staff's time and minds, or of all of these up to make this event happen. No funding was secured specifically for this meeting (though I tried). What this meant is that the funding pool was limited, and difficult decisions indeed did have to be made. What we aimed for was to have a balanced representation across Asia's sub-regions as well as a group that could address a mix of issues from a range of perspectives. A direct engagement with the WSIS+10 Review process over the past two years was definitely seen as a plus, but not a must. <br><br>As is bound to happen in such circumstances, there are indeed people who would be able to offer valuable inputs to the meeting but who we were not able to offer funding. Luckily, some of those are able to self-fund their attendance. In addition, we tried to alleviate the restrictions imposed by the limited funding by deciding to provide remote participation, so as to allow all those interested in participating to do so. The full modalities of how this will work is something that we are still working out: as this is intended to be a working meeting, ensuring that remote participation is substantive is not a given. We are doing our very best to try and pull off successfully what I think is a first in our region for a meeting of this kind. <br><br></div><div>Your claim that nobody from the Just Net Coalition has been invited is of course not correct. One organisation was on our shortlist from day one. Another is attending on its own force, and we are very happy that they, as well as others, have been able to draw on their own resources to attend this event and contribute to its success. <br></div><div><br></div><div>On APRCEM, thanks for the heads-up. I am glad to hear that they are now intending to work on issues related to science and technology as well, and that they are even engaging with the Internet Social Forum initiative on this. Though I am on an email list that is dedicated to discussing the Internet Social Forum, I don't seem to be able to locate that information there. Do please feel free to pass on the message about this event to them though. If any representative of APRCEM would be interested in attending, either in person or remotely, they are very welcome to do so, as are you.<br><br></div><div>Hope this clarifies.<br><br></div><div>Regards,<br></div><div>Anja<br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 31 August 2015 at 18:47, parminder <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:parminder@itforchange.net" target="_blank">parminder@itforchange.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
Dear organisers of the <b>Asian Regional Consultation on the WIS+10
Review,<br>
<br>
</b>With your permission I have some questions to ask you. I know
this is a treacherous territory, given an extra ordinary (and
completely inappropriate) sensitivity to being asked questions by
some groups, but my apologies, I cannot but ask them in pursuance of
my public interest work, however distasteful it may be even for me
to get into this thing....<br>
<br>
This is being called a 'consultation' and further an 'Asian
Regional' consultation, on what is a global governance process, and
so some questions arise in my mind:<br>
<br>
(1) who is funding this 'consultation'<br>
<br>
(2) on what criteria participants were determined, and invitations
sent, and by whom - were all concerned people invited (that, in my
view, would be a consultation)<br>
<br>
(3) On what criteria funding for participation was provided, and by
whom, and who decided it..<br>
<br>
Thanks for answering these public interest questions...<br>
<br>
I may declare that my interest got evoked from the knowledge that no
member of the Just Net Coalition has been invited... IT for Change
is among very few groups in Asia Pacific which has been engaged with
the WSIS process from the start, and very thoroughly engaged.
Further, there is in fact an <a href="http://www.asiapacificrcem.org/" target="_blank">Asia Pacific Regional CSO
Engagement Mechanism</a>, which describes itself as<br>
<br>
<blockquote>"APRCEM is a civil society platform aimed to enable
stronger cross constituency coordination and ensure that voices of
all sub-regions of Asia Pacific are heard in intergovernmental
processes in regional and global level. The platform is initiated,
owned and driven by the CSOs, and has been set up under the
auspices of UN-ESCAP and seeks to engage with UN agencies and
Member States on the Post-2015 as well as other development
related issues/processes. "<br>
</blockquote>
In fact the APRCEM also has an Science and Technology Constituency
which works as an active network (of which IT for Change is a
member) which has begun to work closely with the Just Net Coalition
(many JNC members also being its members) and the Internet Social
Forum initiatives, which shows its interest in Internet issues... As
far as I know no member of this network, or the network as a whole,
has been involved in this so-called "Asia Regional Consultation'
which being on a UN process this group would be natural
constituency... All of which makes me wonder, and so my questions..<br>
<br>
<br>
parminder <br><div><div class="h5">
<br>
<br>
<div>On Wednesday 26 August 2015 08:21 PM,
Anja Kovacs wrote:<br>
</div>
</div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div class="h5">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>Dear all,<br>
<br>
</div>
The Internet Democracy Project, Bytes for All, APNIC, the
Association for Progressive Communications, ISOC, Global
Partners Digital and ICT Watch are together organising an <b>Asian
Regional Consultation on the WIS+10 Review</b> from 3 to 5
September in Pattaya, Thailand. <br>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Asian Regional Consultation on the
WSIS+10 Review will bring
together experts from different backgrounds and from around
the
Asian region who are concerned about issues concerning ICTs,
sustainable
development, human rights and Internet governance, to ask: <b>what are the issues that our governments need to
squarely address in
the process of the review? <br>
</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The meeting is timed so as to be able for
the group to
comment on the non-paper that will have been released by the
co-facilitators of
the review process in late August (inputs into that paper can
be made by all
stakeholders and are due on 31 July).<span> The
group will take stock of the extent to which priorities for
the Asian region
have been reflected in the non-paper, and will work together
on formulating a
joint comment on the non-paper</span> (comments on the
non-paper will be due in
mid-September, and will be drawn on by the co-facilitators to
formulate a
zero-draft). <span>The
group will also
look forward to consider which further inputs could be made
or actions could be
taken strategically to ensure that priorities from the Asian
region are fully
taken onto board in the final WSIS+10 Review outcome
documents. </span>If there
are other processes the group believes this work could
usefully feed into,
these might be taken into consideration as well. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>The meeting is conceived as a highly
interactive working
meeting that is geared towards producing a joint submission
to the next input round on the Review outcome document. </b>Participants
will
be drawn from all non-government stakeholder groups, and will
have a wide and
rich variety of backgrounds, both in terms of professional
expertise and
geographical location. What unites all, however, is a shared
commitment to a
free and open Internet and to the use of technology to benefit
the development
and human rights of all in our region. <br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>We're very happy to let you know that
remote participation will be available. </b>For more
information on remote participation and the event in general,
please see the <a href="http://www.wsis10.asia/" target="_blank">event website</a>. Or follow
us on Twitter @WSISAsia #wsis10.<br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We look forward to your inputs into this
event. Do please let me know if you have any comments or
questions.<br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Warm regards,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Anja<br>
</p>
<br>
<div>
<div><br>
-- <br>
<div>Dr. Anja Kovacs<br>
The Internet Democracy Project<br>
<br>
+91 9899028053 | @anjakovacs<br>
<a href="http://www.internetdemocracy.in/" target="_blank">www.internetdemocracy.in</a><br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
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