[governance] RE: WSIS Forum 2011

[Sivasubramanian M]

2010/9/6 William Drake <william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch>

> Hi,
>
> We can toss around ideas about where an ideal venue that causes the least
> hassle for the most people might be, but the WSIS Forum will be held in
> either New York or Geneva.   Lee is probably right about mainstreaming; the
> question is, on what/whose terms?  Personally, I have never noticed that all
> that many CS people actually attend the WSIS Forums in the first place;
> they're certainly not much in evidence on the panels, which are largely
> selected by ITU on an "expert" rather than "stakeholder" basis.  But to the
> extent that IG/ICT-oriented CS people do wish to attend, one would think
> there's probably greater synergies and cost effectiveness for them in
> keeping it in Geneva during the same two week bloc as the IGF consultation
> (assuming those remain in Geneva) and the CSTD.  For CS people working in
> the other areas that are in the UN NY's bailiwick, e.g. disarmament et al,
> NY is obviously more convenient, but would they be all that interested
> enough in the typical WSIS Forum topics to attend?  Unclear.  And I suppose
> one could widen the optic further and wonder whether this might fit in with
> larger discussions about the management of ICT-related activities connected
> to DESA…
>
> Should there be an IGC response to ITU's "Open Consultation" (means we can
> use their website, not enter the building), or would consensus being
> difficult to achieve?
>

If CS does not assert its stakes in WSIS process, the WSIS panels could be
engineered to lead to conclusions that the ITU desires, which would be a
step back from the progress that the IGF has made.

There needs to be an IGC response. Also, IGC could reach out to fair and
neutral international organizations to  object to and alter the process.

Sivasubramanian M



> Best,
>
> Bill
>
> On Sep 6, 2010, at 6:35 PM, Lee W McKnight wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > Speaking as an academic for whom I admit New York City is convenient and
> would lowering my personal costs and logistics hassles, we can agree that UN
> venue decisions have impacts that may vary depending upon where one is
> coming from. Geneva is a fine (expensive) city, New York has its virtues
> too.
> >
> > A move to New York for wsis 2011 would to me signal a mainstreaming of IG
> issues wthin UN system; as would establishment of a permanent secretariat in
> yet a 3rd (developing?) location.
> >
> > But Wolfgang, the argument that it would be more difficult to get
> media/public attention - in New York City -  doesn't make much sense to me.
> In principle it should be easier. There's certainly plenty of media outlets
> hanging around already looking for things to talk and write about.
> >
> > Anyway, as I suggested before, while civil society has some success at
> substantive issues around IG, venue/location decisions I am afraid remain
> power politics/business as usual choices.
> >
> > Lee
> > ________________________________________
> > From: "Kleinwächter, Wolfgang" [
> wolfgang.kleinwaechter at medienkomm.uni-halle.de]
> > Sent: Monday, September 06, 2010 11:33 AM
> > To: wsis-info at itu.int
> > Cc: governance at lists.cpsr.org
> > Subject: [governance] WSIS Forum 2011
> >
> > Dear friends
> >
> > I disagree with the argument that a move from Geneva to to New York of
> the WSIS Forum 2011 would improve outreach and bring WSIS implementation
> forward. In contrary I am afraid that a move to NewYork will weaken in
> particular the involvement of civil society and the academic community as
> important stakeholders in the WSIS process. A large number of civil society
> organisations, including represenations of organisations from developing
> countries, are based in Geneva or not far from Geneva. Moving the event to
> New York would create additional costs and logistic problems for them which
> would result in lower participation of civil society organisations. This
> would certainly undermine the multistakeholder nature of the WSIS
> implementaiton process.
> >
> > Another risk moving the WSIS Forum 2011 to New York would be that the
> important WSIS issues would be discussed in the shadow of more important
> political and security issues which dominate the day to day UN acitvities in
> New York. The WSIS Forum would be just "another conference" and would have
> difficulties to get the needed public attention.
> >
> > Finally I want to flag that in same week the European Union has its
> annual Future of the Internet Week meetings under the Hungarian Presidency
> in Budapest.
> >
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Wolfgang Kleinwächter
> > ____________________________________________________________
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> ***********************************************************
> William J. Drake
> Senior Associate
> Centre for International Governance
> Graduate Institute of International and
>  Development Studies
> Geneva, Switzerland
> william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch
> www.graduateinstitute.ch/cig/drake.html
> www.linkedin.com/in/williamjdrake
> ***********************************************************
>
>
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