At this WSIS conference in St Petersburg it seems clear to me that “multi-stakeholder partnerships” are very much a foreign notion still. Various Russian participants explained how difficult was to gain entry into the policy-making processes of their own government, whether they be businessmen, activists or ICT experts. Indeed, the Soviet legacy appears to be…
Civil Society has Trust Issues
I am finalizing the points that I will be making during my session on “ICT Partnerships and Civil Society” at the UNESCO WSIS conference I attending now in St Petersburg. I have gone around and around on this, and think that I would like to focus on building confidence of NGOs in partnership arrangements. Here’s…
Where’s a Militsiya when you really need one?
Well I had hoped to be able to write something in my first entry from St. Petersburg about how wonderful it is here. On the positive side, it’s a lovely city full of cultural and artistic treasures like the Hermitage, numerous palaces and cathedrals, and a rich artistic tradition from Doestoevsky to Kandinsky. I was…
Gearing up for the GA Civil Society Hearings in June
We have an audience with the king, so to speak, so we better practice our speech and get our best clothes laundered. From June 23-24, only six weeks away, the General Assembly President will be convening “interactive hearings” with civil society. It’s difficult to keep your eye on the prize as we slog through the…
Why I Love Thee, CSI
I must admit, I am hopelessly in love with the television program “CSI” (Crime Scene Investigators) and its spin-off “CSI:Miami.” The show is just the perfect equation of nerdiness, mystery, and sex appeal that’s impossible to resist. Why do I love it so? you ask. The reasons are simple: Really Hot Nerds: The show features…
Googling the UN Document Server
The United Nations has added another search function to their two existing “simple search” and “advanced search” functions already on their Official Document System, and you get one guess where they bought it. For those who haven’t been following the news, earlier this year the UN publicly released their online archive of documents — including…
Cramming into the Kram for the WSIS
Francis Muguet of the Reseau de Connaisance et Societe de l’Information (France) sends out to other WSIS folks detailed information on the arrangements for the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis this November. He notes that “150 heads of state” are slated to attend, including President Bush. In addition, he warns that all…
The reluctant web developer
When you are known as the “techie guy” and you have little patience for complaining, you end up getting volunteered to do stuff that you really aren’t qualified for. Case-in-point, the web-based community calendar I am developing for NGOs at the United Nations. Not something I would have ever imagined coming across my desk, and…
Podcasting: ok, I get it
I have started downloading podcasts to my iPod mini to try out this new wave of broad-based internet radio. Getting stuck waiting for subway trains at 11pm at night, surfing through the podcasts on my iPod, I suddenly got the appeal of this weird technology. Before I thought, why is podcasting qualitatively different from existing…
Digital Solidarity Fund launched, cell phones for all!
Yesterday in Geneva the Digital Solidarity Fund was launched, with the support of 120 towns and cities, as well as France, Switzerland, Algeria, Marocco, Senegal, to bring the benefits of the information revolution to the developing world. Meanwhile, debate continues online about the digital divide and market-led solutions. The Digital Solidarity Fund the brainchild of…