In case people missed this (Tehran meeting), here is the documentation and
links, posted by Parminder of ITforChange, who attended wiht Partha of Bytes for
All and Izumi Aizu...
I heard from Cheekay that there is another WSIS related meeting beiing planned
again for Tehran? Cheekay, if you are on this list, please update/brief...thanks
Al
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Date: Sun, 7 Aug 2005 22:35:39 +0530
From: "Parminder" <Parminder@ITforChange.net>
Subject: Regional Asia-Pacific WSIS meeting
IT for Change attended the Regional Asia Pacific WSIS meeting in June at
Tehran. The meeting was called the High-level Asia Pacific WSIS meeting and
was supposed to be the culmination of the regional WSIS process in the Asia
Pacific.
Given its high-flying title the meeting turned out to be a damp squib. India
didn't even bother to participate. And for someone who attended the meeting
that doesn't look like a very bad decision at all. (Though, it does show
that the Indian government doesn't really think much of WSIS or its regional
processes.)
The conference saw very superficial engagement with issues, if at all. The
quality of what went around can be judged from the fact that the official
website and documents freely used ICT development as the expansion of ICTD
rather than ICT for development, and the difference between the two phrases
didn't look like meaning anything to the conference organizers.
The civil society was given a raw deal, and the standards of CS involvement
at global WSIS processes were not at all observed. The civil society present
at the conference however did make enough noises to extract some promises of
more inclusive processes. The civil society also made important substantive
submissions on conference documents.
A report on the conference and the civil society statement is available at
http://www.crisinfo.org/index.php/content/view/full/911.
The official documents of the conference, including country statements, are
available at
http://www.unescap.org/icstd/events/WSIS_2nd_Phase/tehran_conf.asp
Regards
Parminder
_________________________________________________
Parminder Jeet Singh
IT for Change
Bridging Development Realities and Technological Possibilities
91-80-26654134
www.ITforChange.net