[WSIS CS-Plenary] FW: Call for grassroots caucus to post in your respective Dgroups

[Gurstein, Michael]

This is not a direct response to to the questions posed below but rather
a bit of a "meditation" on these issues.

Last weekend in Winnipeg, Canada I attended and gave an invited
presentation to a meeting meant to prepare a statement "from Canadian
Civil Society" to WSIS.  The meeting was hosted by the Canadian
Commission for UNESCO (CCU), an agency which is for all practical
purposes an arm of the Canadian Government.  The funding for the event
came from the Canadian Government and the invitation list was prepared
by the CCU with no evident input from the broader interested community.

Those invited included among others the President of the Canadian
Association of University Teachers, the Executive Director of the
Canadian Library Association, the Vice President Communications of the
Information Technology Association of Canada, the Vice President Public
Affairs of the Canadian Newspaper Association etc.etc. Worthy
individuals one and all and representative certainly of the Canadian
Government's interpretation of who Canadian Civil Society might be...

And I have no particular dispute with this interpretation or selection,
having I should say no particular alternative perspective on who might
be representative of Canadian Civil Society (although there was a
notable absence of any groups with a position outside of a rather narrow
mainstream--as for example advocacy groups on behalf of the poor,
marginalized immigrant populations, marginalized rural populations,
First Nations, ex-offenders, and so on...

What was especially noticeable however, was the almost complete absence
of any of those who were actually working with ICTs in any ways apart
from as bureaucratic instruments/tools.  Apart from the panel that I was
involved with (organized after the fact and only as a result of rather
intense pressure) there were virtually no representatives of the 10's of
thousands of those working in local communities across the country to
see how ICTs might potentially be transformative for their life chances
in marginalized rural and remote areas, as unemployed immigrant
populations, as First Nations looking to realize in their communities
the opportunities that are taken for granted by other Canadians, as
means for achieving literacy, in regions peripheral to the metropolitan
industrial/knowledge hubs, as ways of having one's voice heard in the
corridors of power.

My sense is that it is this latter group that has the most to gain from
and the most to contribute to a WSIS process whether as "Civil Society"
or as "grassroots" or simply as those directly engaged in building an
"Information Society for all".

I think the question being posed in the context of a possible
"grassroots caucus" is what role, if any, there is for these latter
folks amidst all the learned discussions about DNS's and
multistakeholder this's and that's.

Mike Gurstein


-----Original Message-----
From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org] On
Behalf Of Vittorio Bertola
Sent: May 22, 2005 6:45 PM
To: plenary at wsis-cs.org
Subject: Re: [WSIS CS-Plenary] FW: Call for grassroots caucus to post in
your respective Dgroups


Renata Bloem ha scritto:
> Dear all,
> 
> FYI, I forward this to Plenary to make your own connections.

I am not sure whether we already have a procedure for the formation of 
new caucuses (in fact, I suspect that's part of the work that the 
Working Methods WG should be doing, though I haven't seen much happening

there lately).

However, my first reaction is that I'm not sure whether "Grassroots 
Caucus" is a good name, nor what kind of issues is the new caucus meant 
to address, nor who is it expected to involve. I don't understand the 
distinction between "grassroots organisations" (that, according to the 
proponents, are not currently represented) and all the other civil 
society participants (should I assume that they are all "astroturf"?).

I think that the caucus should definitely find a different name. Also, 
proponents should please remove from the charter any assumption that the

rest of civil society is not operating bottom-up or does not represent 
"real" problems. See for example this quote from the current charter:

"While we appreciate the efforts behind WSIS process, and the important 
role civil society has assumed in making the WSIS debate a very 
inclusive one, we are equally concerned about the little or no role 
played by the representatives of grassroots organisations and the 'real'

disadvantaged communities at large."

Thanks,
-- 
vb.             [Vittorio Bertola - v.bertola [a] bertola.eu.org]<-----
http://bertola.eu.org/  <- Prima o poi...
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