In a rare show of solidarity and unanimity, WSIS civil society groups have strongly recommended that Ms. Shirin Ebadi, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2003, speak on behalf of civil society at the opening ceremony of the WSIS in November. Ms. Shirin Ebadi is a staunch human rights defender in her country, its first…
Hit “enter” to exit
I had an interesting experience this afternoon helping an older woman navigate through the ngoevents.org website I had developed a few months ago. I was reminded that you can never tell where people will get tripped up by your site design. This is particularly true for a site being accessed by folks with various degrees…
What if you held a UN Summit and no one came?
Despite promises to the contrary, it seems likely that high-level attendance at the World Summit on the Information Society will be quite low, probably less than at the first summit in Geneva in 2003. This article in Infotunisie.com on 14 October notes that only 30 heads of state have committed to attend the WSIS, compared…
Dumb Bloggers Post about “UN Taking over the Internet”
I’m getting sick and tired of all these bloggers posting paranoid Black Helicopter visions of the United Nations “taking over” the internet. As if the United Nations was one monolithic superpower threatening to engulf the poor, beleagured United States. In fact the situation is the reverse. Among the ill-informed blog entries on the subject are:…
Ex-girlfriend Spam?
I keep getting cryptic messages from an ex-girlfriend’s email address with titles like “update” and “hi there.” They contain no message, just suspicious attachments like “message.exe” and “update.exe.” The mind reels. What could it mean? Have the spammers figured out the email addresses of my former girlfriends, knowing that I can not resist opening mail…
When Cultures Clash: NGOs versus Internet Community
On the WSIS plenary listserv there has been an ongoing debate between those arguing that only accredited NGO entities should be recognized as the primary actors within civil society at the WSIS and those that contend that individuals must have voice and a vote within our processes. Underlying this is a deeper and increasing tension…
WSIS Prepcom III Wrap Up Report
Here is a report I wrote for CONGO on Prepcom III that summarizes the main events and developments going toward Tunis in November. Who should manage the internet? How to coordinate the bridging of the “Digital Divide” across the United Nations system and beyond? Will the extraordinary multi-stakeholder model set by the World Summit on…
A Summit in Tunisia or about Tunisia?
In a bold and surprising move, Canada read out a statement in the name of 37 countries (all of the 25 EU members, plus Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia Montenegro, Switzerland, Norway, New Zealand, Iceland, Monaco, Australia, the USA, and Canada) that called upon the Tunisian government to assure that freedom of expression and other human…
Oww, my back!
When I packed for this conference, I had a choice between my more ergonomic but geeky backpack or my more professional and less ergonomic laptop bag. I chose the laptop bag, a decision I have been regretting for a week. I need to remind myself that I only have one back and that long term…
The Prepcom goes into night sessions, parallel sessions, drafting groups…
The official WSIS Prepcom is moving into an accelerated phase as governments try to finalize texts in the next days. Starting yesterday, the sub-committees have begun meeting not only during the regular work hours but also into night sessions from 6-9pm. And they begin parallel sessions today, with two sub-committees meeting at the same time…