Thanks for this message John, and congratulations on your successful HK WSIS
NGO workshop! It is always good to hear stories about how our initial work
is really expanding in a concrete way, through the tireless efforts of
people like John...
ON some of your specific points:
> first of all, i would like to show my appreciation towards the work Al and
Angela is doing in representing the asian family.
> you two have my full support.
Thanks for the trust and confidence. It is a collective effort through, and
we just have different roles to play...
> i guess work has kept everyone in the communication list busy and
therefore not being able to respond as frequently as they should have been.
I perfectly understand, as I too have been swamped with work (nonWSIS and
WSIS!). The important thing is to continue to communicate and people I trust
will help when they can...
> i would like to report that the first roundtable of hk NGO re wsis went
very well.
> i am glad that eventually we have wsis attracting people's attention.
> we are organising a second roundtable (expanded membership) to deliberate
on wsis issues.
> people in the round table believe that even though we shall not be able to
attend prepcom 3 because of time.
> and even the hk NGO group congregate much later than other countries, it
is still meaningful because the wsis process is going to be continued till
2005 or beyond (we think positively).
Again congratulations. And you are exactly right, John--the first Summit is
just a gateway, an opportunity for us to do our work more effectively and to
network more. I of course will always remember that it is this process that
brought many of us together for the first time. There are still so many
arenas we can engage, both within and outside the formal process... There is
so much to do. If you need help, just holler. Manila is just $100 US from HK
now... (SARS era :-)
> it is very likely that we shall send a delegation to the geneva summit in
december to further participate.
> we have also apply to host a side event on digital inclusion for
non-english speaking countries.
> work is also being done at a higer level to touch base with the government
rep, who is going to be part of the Chinese delegation.
Great. Please keep us informed and tell us what people in the list can do to
help.
> if there's anything the "content group" needs to follow up on, do let me
know.
Please keep yourselves updated on the latest drafts of the summit documents.
They are in the websites often mentioned here (official and NGO). These
documents (Draft Declaration & Action Plan) are the instruments which will
be the center of lobbying work. It is content work, but now very focused on
"do-ables" and what we can get in. CS will be doing content & themes work,
but always in reaction/negotiation with the governments this time....
> for the tech/outreach function. what i volunteer to do is:
>
> for the purpose of prepcom3 communication, i can work out a simple website
(which i shall get my people to maintain) for whoever, such as Al and
Angela, to ftp files to.
> (AL, do you know how to ftp?)
> then the name of the files will be listed one by one with hyperlinking on
the website. i guarantee you the website will not be too pretty (i don't
have any art work people here with me) but it will be fully functional.
>
> Al if you are interested, do let me know, i shall be able to cook up
something in two hours.
Patcha, Hamada, Libay etc... what do you think. I will leave it up to you to
coordinate. There is an initial site up in www.wsisasia.org already. I will
be too busy to handle this so please discuss this online (on this list or if
it becomes too specific, please just communicate offlist.).
>
> also Al, i would like to add the two colleagues in the cc slot above to
the communicaiton list.
> thanks.
Hamada and Patcha--this is a request for you two :-)
Bye for now
Will keep in touch