[governance] RE: WSIS Forum 2011
Carlos A. Afonso
ca at cafonso.ca
Mon Sep 6 21:50:38 EDT 2010
... but it is an entirely new thread of discussion... :)
--c.a.
On 09/06/2010 10:43 PM, David Goldstein wrote:
> Carlos,
>
> I suggest you read this article by Nicholas Kristof to get more of an idea. To
> question where America is going is simplisitc - it's a very complicated country.
> Much like any other with good and bad. Anyway, the article is at
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/opinion/05kristof.html.
>
> David
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Carlos A. Afonso<ca at cafonso.ca>
> To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; Sivasubramanian M<isolatedn at gmail.com>
> Cc: Milton L Mueller<mueller at syr.edu>; William Drake
> <william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch>
> Sent: Tue, 7 September, 2010 11:26:32 AM
> Subject: Re: [governance] RE: WSIS Forum 2011
>
> To make things worse, some idiotic church in Florida has just decided to
> burn copies of the Quran on September 11... forcing an American general
> from the Afghan field to go on national TV to ask "please do not do it,
> it will put our soldiers in peril here...".
>
> I mean, where is that country going to???
>
> --c.a.
>
> On 09/06/2010 06:58 PM, Sivasubramanian M wrote:
>> Dear Milton,
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 2:42 AM, Milton L Mueller<mueller at syr.edu
>> <mailto:mueller at syr.edu>> wrote:
>>
>> I view the groundswell for Geneva on this list to be a bit
>> self-serving. Of course your Geneva-based orgs want it to stay
>> there. I don’t see why IGC should endorse that as a “pro civil
>> society” position.
>>
>>
>> The only argument of any merit is the visa difficulty issue – if, as
>> Tracy calls into question, that difference still exists.
>>
>>
>>
>> Europe is emotionally healthier than the United States. US, in its
>> paranoia, has become a destination for strip searches and it is becoming
>> increasingly unpleasant for the rest of the world to travel to the US.
>> Until this changes, US is a destination unfit for international events,
>> especially the ones that require International Public participation.
>>
>> Sivasubramanian M.
>>
>>
>> I have my own self-interest, of course, but it seems to me that WSIS
>> and IGF both are highly Euro-centric operations and it would be good
>> to move it away from Europe for at least once. Whether its NY or
>> Vancouver or Hong Kong or Panama matters less to me, although of
>> course NYC is most convenient to me.
>>
>> Wolfgang’s argument that there are more CS organizations in Geneva
>> seems false to me; there are probably more CS organizations in the
>> 300-mi radius of NYC (which includes Montreal and probably also
>> Toronto) than anywhere else in the world.
>>
>> As a strict empirical test of the “reduced participation” claim, let
>> me point out that the March 2004 WGIG-inspired meeting in New York
>> was more widely attended than any subsequent WGIG consultation. I
>> think you can count on a bang-up turnout, if nothing else, if you
>> hold it in NY.
>>
>> *From:* William Drake [mailto:william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch
>> <mailto:william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch>]
>> *Sent:* Monday, September 06, 2010 3:23 PM
>> *To:* Sivasubramanian M
>> *Cc:* Governance List
>>
>>
>> *Subject:* Re: [governance] RE: WSIS Forum 2011
>>
>> Hi
>>
>> Just read the ICC's statement, which states in part, "The WSIS
>> action lines Forum events in Geneva have drawn upon the fact that
>> many key organizations are located in Geneva, and the participation
>> of many stakeholders, business included, has been facilitated by the
>> fact that other WSIS related activities take place around the same
>> dates. This has enabled participation by many because it took into
>> account the limited time, financial and human resources of many
>> across stakeholder groups. Organizing the WSIS action lines Forum
>> 2011 in New York risks decreasing participation because it would
>> require extensive travel for those participating in the other WSIS
>> related activities in May in Geneva. Feedback from ICC BASIS members
>> and other stakeholders indicates that obtaining visas for the US is
>> extremely difficult for many particularly from developing countries.
>> This would in turn decrease the range of participants. ICC BASIS
>> supports having the WSIS action lines Forum 2011 hosted in Geneva,
>> or by the next lead facilitator, UNESCO in Paris."
>>
>>
>> http://www.iccwbo.org/uploadedFiles/BASIS/Documents/ICC_BASIS_stmt_re_WSIS_Forum_2011_venue_FINAL_6Sept10.pdf
>>
>>
>> Is this a reasonable position from an IGC perspective…?
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Bill
>>
>> On Sep 6, 2010, at 8:56 PM, Sivasubramanian M wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> 2010/9/6 William Drake<william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch
>> <mailto: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
>> <mailto:wolfgang.kleinwaechter at medienkomm.uni-halle.de>]
>> > Sent: Monday, September 06, 2010 11:33 AM
>> > To: wsis-info at itu.int<mailto:wsis-info at itu.int>
>> > Cc: governance at lists.cpsr.org<mailto: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
>> <mailto:william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch>
>> www.graduateinstitute.ch/cig/drake.html
>> <http://www.graduateinstitute.ch/cig/drake.html>
>> www.linkedin.com/in/williamjdrake
>> <http://www.linkedin.com/in/williamjdrake>
>> ***********************************************************
>>
>>
>
--
Carlos A. Afonso
CGI.br (www.cgi.br)
Nupef (www.nupef.org.br)
====================================
new/nuevo/novo e-mail: ca at cafonso.ca
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