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KMDI-WSIS-Toronto

by Wsis NetiZen on 2004, February 5 - 1:24pm

Hey all: This is the forum thread for all who wish to continue the discussion from the Toronto panel on WSIS: A civil society perspective. We met in realtime 3:30 - 5:00 PM (Eastern Daylight time) on Feb. 5,
The event was audio - netcast live, is now online in audio video, and will be cut into clips soon. Now available here:
http://www.ecommons.net/~frax/wsis/kmdi/ Thanks to Fraser McAninch (byDesign eLab) and Gisela McKay (eCommons-Agora, and PixCode) for their help at our event.
30 of us carried on the discussion with maximum conviviality at SpaHa - looking forward to hearing from those there and others. Here are the instructions that I gave to all speakers: The format is informal. 10 minutes for each of these sections.
Introduction by KMDI executive director Dr Gale Moore
- Liss Jeffrey to introduce Wsis and its background, and discuss observations on process , and key results. (ppt coming)
- Then Leslie Chan to speak about process from his point of view, and then concrete results in the content area he took part in, science. (ppt coming soon)
- Then David Mason will discuss Wsis process and his content area, Canada's Pavilion in the ICT4d, and the topics of open source and free software. (comments now online later in this thread)
- Andrew Clement will discuss Geneva process, and his observations on the outcomes of Geneva. Topic area computer professionals for social responsibility (CPSR). He will then begin to shift the discussion to what comes after Wsis and what we expect/or do not expect as we move to Tunis. Professor Clement took the view of the "academic tourist."
- Liss Jeffrey then will cover plans as articulated in Ottawa at the Feb. 23 Canadian Commission for Unesco debriefing, and on the Civil Society Plenary discussion lists. [ Professor Marc Raboy (U de Montreal) has made an informal suggestion: OUTCOME the panel and meeting endorsed the suggestion that we ask Canadian government to support accreditation of all those who went to Geneva, and clarify the terms of accreditation for future CS groups and individuals. ]
That will take about an hour. (Report will be online Feb. 8-04)
We will then take questions and after the session finishes, will invite our audience to SpaHa for conviviality (an eCommons/agora trademark!)
This web space is our common platform and web site for Canadian civil society. Once you register you will see you can post whatever you like, in forums, in resources, and so forth. If you want others to go visit your links or take part in your events, please put links or comments on this site. (CPSR eg.)

http://wsis.ecommons.net

Throughout, from all of our talks, we intend to:
- clarify - what Wsis is, was, and what it meant from our diverse points of view and from a Canadian perspective
- demystify - make sure people have a sense of the process and experience of those who went to Geneva
- interpret - make sure people have a sense of the new role that Civil society *aspires* to in this process
- build the vital links - make sure that people have a sense of what happened and where they can get additional information (people, groups, the web sites)
- follow up - see how they can continue to be involved in Wsis process should they so choose (many options, the web site offers links to many)
- respond and dialogue - listen to and respond where appropriate to questions or comments in the time available

All panelists should address in their comments:
1. What was or was not accomplished in Wsis?
2. What should, could, might happen between Geneva and Tunis?
3. How can Canadians specifically get involved in whatever the speaker thinks is worth involvement?

Dr J

Thanks, excellent session

by Wsis NetiZen on 2004, February 6 - 11:25am

Thanks to all for making this such a great session.
We will post the netcast clips from our meeting Saturday February 7.
A key recommendation was endorsed by those present: we accepted a suggestion (informally received) from Professor Marc Raboy at University of Montreal (and long-time civil society scholar and actor) that we recommend to the Canadian government that those accredited to WSIS Geneva also be accredited for Tunis.
We then will work with those who may wish to attend in Tunis to inform them about what has taken place so far, to communicate regarding ongoing activities (thru means such as this web site at the national panCanadian level), and to ensure their participation. It seems to come of us very important to include those not yet involved in what I call this "invisible summit" in the next stages of the WSIS process.
A strong testament to our interest and success yesterday was the fact that about 30 persons joined us for the conviviality event at SpaHa in Toronto. (BTW Munchies were courtesy of McLuhan global research network, netcasting byDesign eLab, web site by eCommons/agora, and event KMDI and RCAT, U of Toronto).
We plan further activities, so if you wish to be informed, contact wsis-smsi@ecommons.net. A report on the meeting will be posted soon in this thread. - Liss J

Content of my brief talk: Diversity matters: Open source & free

by davidm on 2004, February 5 - 7:55pm

Free Software and Open Source at WSIS

I came to WSIS as part of the eLab project, the Foreign Policy Dialogue, for which I was lead developer. [FPD won the WSIS Canadian National award for e-government www.foreign-policy-dialogue.ca / www.dialogue-etrangere-politique.ca ].

The FPD platform was developed entirely using free and open source software, which was fortunate among other reasons because large parts of government and business infrastructure went down during the time our project was running, due to their reliance on one vendor's product [MS SQL], which was compromised due to a security flaw.

This same reliance on one vendor is also the cause of the myDoom virus problems we're all experiencing. Diversity is a good thing.

Free software and open source had a strong presence at WSIS, and although many felt it was being back-benched by the larger vendors, there was tremendous interest in its use by organizations around the world.

This was particularly true among disadvantaged countries that were seeking ways to empower themselves and work equally with others. I heard numerous examples about how enabling it was for a developer in a non western country to be able to customize software for their local needs. I saw how the usability and capability of free and open source software is on equal terms with proprietary software, and the “live” Linux CDs that were handed out illustrated this. You can boot off a CD and be in a fully operational, multilingual environment, with operating system, web browser, and an office suite, in minutes.

Contrary to what people may think, free software, open source, and related concepts are really about creating licenses that give clear terms for the use of works. Richard Stallman, who has defined Free Software [and was a key spokesperson at WSIS], makes simple, powerful points that resonate with many people. Unfortunately or not, he is a fundamentalist, and ended up working against "the cause" by insisting on using his own terminology. It's said that major statements that might have supported free software and open source in WSIS declarations were removed due to his own idea of correctness, for example, not using blanket statements like "intellectual property."

I would like to wrap up by saying that at WSIS it was clear that Free Software and Open Source are powerful movements, recognized by government, business and civil society groups as a way of removing barriers, providing a competitive, reliable and cooperative infrastructure suitable for worldwide communication systems.