I delivered the following statement on behalf of CONGO to the open consultation on the Global Alliance for ICT Policy and Development today (21 February 2005). Comment from Rik Panganiban, on behalf of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations on the proposed “Global Alliance for ICT Policy and Development” 21…
Category: Information Society
The UN Activist Gadget Guide
For those of us on the UN conference circuit as NGO activists, there are some essential geek tools that make our lives so much easier. Among the notable ones: Cell phone. This is an essential tool for any wired activist. Lots of options, depending on your budget. The cheapest solution is often to get a…
Proposal for a Global Alliance Collaboratory
The Internet Governance Project has put forward a proposal for transforming the Global Alliance on ICT Policy into a policy “collaboratory” facilitated by virtual collaborative technologies. While I am in principle supportive of the ideas and analysis, I think it kind of jumps the gun, since no one has decide on the what the point…
A new “Global Alliance” on ICT policy?
The UN ICT Task Force will soon be out of a job, which will be met by applause by penny counters at the UN, but with sadness by others who have participated in this innovative forum on ICT issues. In a couple of weeks there will be an open meeting on the creation of a…
WSIS Prepcom II and Tunisian “civil society”
It looks like I will be in Geneva for the next couple of weeks for the second Preparatory Committee of the World Summit on the Information Society. It will be a key meeting where we will see if much has advanced since the disastrous first Prepcom in Tunisia last year. Much will depend on what…
What are the despots afraid of?
I am at another “Table of Controversy” on building a new democratic world order sponsored by the Bridge Initiative at the World Social Forum. I am interested in the topic, but I must admit that I am more interested in the air conditioning in the tent. There are speakers from the World Bank, the 50…
The ODS and UN capacity
The ODS exemplifies how UN staff are often caught between idealistic expectations and meager resources. A couple of days ago I got a very informative and frank email from someone in the United Nations’ IT department regarding the UN’s Official Document System. On the practical front, he informed me that the IT staff had modified…
First reactions to the public ODS
The UN Official Document System went online publically recently. Here are my initial reactions to the new public interface. Back in the mid-1990s, when the web was in its infancy, I was working with WFM to try and get “publically released” UN documents out on the internet. UN officials were stubbornly resistant to the idea,…
The banality of UN commissions
Why can’t “independent” experts make more interesting recommendations? I recently was an unofficial observer of a panel of experts selected to advise the United Nations on the financing of information and communications technologies in developing countries. The so-called UN Task Force on Financing Mechanisms met a few times under the auspices of the UN Development…
“Newthinking” at the UN ICT Task Force
Returning from the UN ICT Task Force meeting in Berlin last week, I’m struck by how much the somewhat ad hoc arrangement has developed into an innovative policy and collaboration space in the United Nations. The UN ICT Task Force Meeting in Berlin last week, only the seventh in its history, has been evolving into…