[bestbits] re thread on Call for Participation: Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest, 2015

Sat May 23 18:41:54 EDT 2015

The World Social Forum is coming to Montreal in August 2016 and I¹m involved
with others in discussions to consider McGill as an anglophone university
partner along with the francophone Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM),
the goal being to build an important cultural bridge/corridor in what often
feels like a divided city. The Forum might offer an opportunity to consider
working to build a similar bridge between approaches to civil society
participation in IG, i.e., to organize a civil society
convergence/workshop/encuentro, etc. on IG, similar to what Parminder might
be suggesting. 

Except on occasion, media/internet/telecommunications/technology/autonomous
media and related policy issues have not been featured prominently at the
Forum, but they could/should be (exceptions include F/OSS, with FOSS being
analogous to the WSF format of knowledge exchange
(http://stephanecouture.info/fichiers/2013_Juris_Caruso_Couture,_Mosca_FLOSS
_WSF.pdf), Creative Commons, the World Forum on Free Media
(http://www.fmml.net/spip.php?article135), and most recently the Internet
Social Forum (http://www.internetsocialforum.net;
http://bambuser.com/v/5380786), but IG per se, hasn¹t been prominently
featured, at least not yet.

>  
> As brief background: Information about the WSF:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Social_Forum
>  
> Video on the history of the WSF: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUwelQswa20
>  
> Other video material: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCii7TQwLwBSHtsBzk0EedJg
>  
> 
>  
>  

>  
> And here is the website of the remarkable francophone collective that
> succeeded in convincing the WSF to consider bringing the Forum to Montreal,
> which is the first time the Forum will be taking place in the so-called global
> north: 
> http://www.fsm2016.org/en/declaration-from-2016-montreal-wsf-collective-to-the
> -international-commitee-of-the-world-social-forum/. For information about the
> Media at McGill research delegation that attended the Forum click here:
> http://media.mcgill.ca/en/content/world-social-forum-2016-montreal-and-mediamc
> gill <http://tinyurl.com/kty3gub> .
>  

With this as background, there is an opportunity to apply for a grant that
could be used as a way to help fund participation in the 2016 WSF focusing,
as I would suggest, on the challenges and possibilities for diverse civil
society participation in IG that includes, but also goes beyond those
NGOs/INGOs with long histories in this field. It should be noted that much
of the organizing for the Montreal WSF was achieved by youth coalitions and
in the years I¹ve been teaching at McGill, I see a burgeoning interest on
the part of students to find pathways into this important but challenging
area of policymaking. I think we need to respond to that interest with more
deliberate strategies for pipelines into the IG field from a broad public
interest perspective.

For many seasoned IG policy advocates, the WSF may not ostensibly present a
strategic policymaking/crafting space, but it does offer a space to work on
building trust that can evolve into developing strategies and tactics for
interventions based on a shared set of values/principles. For that reason,
many on this list may not find this of interest if what is of most
value/concern is engaging/intervening in the immediate challenges presented
by the numerous IG policy forums discussed so often on this list. That said,
I¹m open to collaborating on a grant proposal with like-minded individuals
with an interest primarily in capacity building concerns, challenges,
issues, and questions. Here¹s the grant opportunity:
http://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/funding-financement/programs-programmes/connecti
on_grants-subventions_connexion-eng.aspx.

Proposed events may be:

* face-to-face or involve virtual interaction;
* discipline-specific, or cross-disciplinary and/or cross-sectoral; and
* open- or closed-invitation.

From the website: 

Participants or audiences, in Canada and abroad, for both event and outreach
activities, may include, among others, any of the following:

* academic researchers;
* non-academic researchers;
* policy-makers; 
* professional practitioners;
* representatives from organizations in the public, private or
not-for-profit sectors;
* representatives from community-based, local or regional non-academic
organizations; and/or
* students at all levels.

Also from the website:

Proposed outreach activities must be designed to engage the broader public
in humanities and social sciences knowledge through one or a combination of
the following: knowledge dissemination, transfer, brokering, translation,
synthesis, exchange, networking or co-creation. Proposed activities may
include, but are not limited to:

* adaptation (including translation, e.g., into French, English or
aboriginal languages) of texts or presentations for the purpose of broader
knowledge mobilization to different audiences;
* development of policy briefs, knowledge syntheses and scoping reviews;
* development of articles for print or online publication in newspapers or
weekly or monthly magazineswhether specialized or general interest;
* virtual networking;
* media events (such as television/radio presentations);
* public debates; 
* artistic exhibits, performances or festivals;
* development/use of interactive technologies, audio-visual products or
software; and/or 
* development/use of educational aids, instruments or equipment.

Note, however, that Matching Funds are required in this grant opportunity,
so perhaps that might be an opportunity for those better-resourced
organizations/networks to contribute to a capacity building
conversation/effort. We know that not all stakeholders in the BestBits
community have equal access to human and financial resources and that some
BestBits community members serve as re-granting organizations, so again,
this might offer an opportunity for them to contribute to a shared agenda
that a university partner (or two) can help convene. From the website above:

>  
> Matching Funds
>  
> 
> SSHRC will not fund the full cost of any connection event or outreach
> activity. Additional support in the form of cash and/or in-kind contributions
> (excluding registration fees), equivalent to a minimum of 50 per cent of the
> amount requested from SSHRC, must come from sponsoring organizations. SSHRC
> will consider only those funds stemming from sponsoring organizations in its
> calculations of matching funds.
>  
> 
> Applicants must demonstrate their ability to secure at least the minimum
> matching funding, by including letters of support from sponsoring
> organizations that clearly confirm the amounts and types of contributions the
> organizations are providing for the proposed event or activity (see SSHRC¹s
> Guidelines for Cash and In-Kind Contributions
> <http://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/funding-financement/policies-politiques/cash_inki
> nd-especes_en_nature-eng.aspx>  for more details).
>  
> 
> Applicants may draw on complementary funding from SSHRC research grants and/or
> other research funding agencies, but must make clear in their budget proposal
> that there is no duplication of financial support for the same budget
> expenses. While SSHRC funds may be used in this complementary way, these funds
> cannot be counted towards the 50 per cent requirement for matching funds.
>  

Please feel free to contact me off-list if you have interest in considering
this as a potential partner/collaborator/participant with an interest in
working together to articulate a shared set of values/principles in line
with the WSF¹s values/principles for capacity building related to civil
society participation in IG processes.

Best,

Becky

----------------------

Becky Lentz, PhD

Department of Art History/Communication Studies

McGill University

853 Sherbrooke Street West, Arts Building, W-265 (West Wing)
 Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 0G5

For deliveries, use Arts Building, 265 (East Wing)

Phone 514.398.4995

Fax 514.398.8557

Email: becky.lentz at mcgill.ca

http://www.mcgill.ca/ahcs

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