[WSIS CS-Plenary] declaration regarding the wireless access in WSIS from the Civil Society Bureau

[Esthert Joly]

Of corse I agree and I ask free wifi for us.

Esther

I shall arrive for wesnesday.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Veni Markovski" <veni at veni.com>
To: "Amali De Silva" <amalidesilva at yahoo.com>; "Rik Panganiban"
<rikp at bluewin.ch>; "wsis-cs-plenary" <plenary at wsis-cs.org>; <ct at wsis-cs.org>
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2003 9:43 AM
Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] declaration regarding the wireless access in WSIS
from the Civil Society Bureau


> Pls, see below the text we've sent yesterday to the organizers. I hope to
> be able to reach to the Swiss government today and deliver it personally.
> In the meantime, I personally will switch from using Swisscom to using
> Orange as mobile service.
>
> regards,
> veni
>
>
> The Civil Society Bureau to the WSIS strongly protests that there is a
> change in the established practices for ensruing wireless Internet access
> have been chaned for the actual WSIS. Until now participants in the WSIS
> were connected online during the PrepCom meetings at no price, while - to
> our astonishment - we noted that for the WSIS itself the wireless access
> will be paid, and at the very high business rate of CHF 0.90 / minute.
> Many of our members are coming from developing countries where one hour of
> such usage is equal to more than a monthly salary! That's a bad example of
> what the digital divide may be described as.
>
> While we are thankful for the existence of an Free and Open Source
Software
> (FOSS) cybercafe, we must state that many of the participants in the WSIS
> bring their own notebooks, equipped with wireless Internet access cards,
> and they rely on the accessible communications in order to fulfil their
> duties.
>
> Wireless access was not available during the resumed PrepCom (Dec. 5-6),
> but it is of vital importance to have it at acceptable conditions during
> the whole WSIS, as part of the effort to facilitate in the best possible
> way the work of the Civil Society, the private sector and the governments.
>
> Lack of wireless Internet access means that a huge portion of
> representatives of the CS is being driven away from the process, because
it
> will radically diminish their capacity to interact with each other and
> contribute with their knowledge to the whole WSIS process.
>
> We urge the local hosts to find a way to ensure that there will be free of
> charge wireless Internet access during the whole WSIS in Geneva,
> re-establishing the practices respected throughout the whole process of
> PrepCom meetings - in Geneva, as well as Paris.
>
> We use the opportunity to thank the government of Geneve and Switzerland
> for their efforts to perform in the best possible way in the WSIS, and we
> hope that this detail will be fixed as soon as possible in a way sutiable
> for all parties.
>
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