[MemberPubPol] [chapter-delegates] FYI - in the coming discussion of the WGIG questionnaire

Veni Markovski veni at veni.com
Wed Jun 22 03:13:35 PDT 2005


At 04:28 22-06-05  -0400, Gene Gaines wrote:

>Alejandro, with respect, this is not to say you are wrong, but
>rather to say you and Veni are approaching the WSIS/WGIG problem
>from two different directions.
>
>I support Veni because he consistently has been the clearest
>voice on the ISOC Board for more participation and more
>effective communication between ISOC and its chapters, and ISOC
>and the world.
>
>That voice is so badly needed!
>
>I hope that you and Veni will listen more carefully to each
>other.

Gene,
thank you for your kind words, which bring more responsibility on me 
to make sure I justify them!

For your information, me and Alejandro are also on the ICANN Board, 
and we'll see each other in a couple of weeks in Luxembourg. I 
suggested to Alejandro to have a special face to face meeting in 
Luxembourg, so that we can elaborate further.

For ISOC-Bulgaria the WSIS/WGIG debate is the most important issue this year*.
We are looking forward for the two months after the publication of 
the report to help our government, but also other governments to 
better understand both the report (18 pages) and the accompanying 
documents (another 80+ pages). We will be doing a sort of educational 
work, so that in September, when my government delegation goes to 
Geneva, they must be prepared with all relevant information we can 
provide them.
Both ISOC.bg and me, we have been doing this work without too much 
noise. We have been looking for different sources of funding this, 
because, unfortunately, ISOC didn't decide to have a common fund for 
supporting chapters participation at the WSIS/WGIG.
By the way, the first such funding was ensured in 2002 by Jonathan 
Robin from ISOC-France, and many chapters went to Bucharest, Romania, 
for the regional WSIS meeting thanks to donation from the Swiss government.
You are right - there are two approaches to the WSIS/WGIG. Each of 
them compliments the other. Statements by ISOC, IETF, ICANN, etc. are 
important, but sometimes some of the people from these organizations 
just forget that this is part of the civil society participation at 
the first WSIS preparation process, that makes such statements 
possible at all. For governments, to allow civil society into 
<i>their</i> processes at the UN-level, this was quite a challenge.

We are happy, but also must be very responsible, by the fact that we 
are part of the process. And, as it seems, in the WSIS/WGIG 
environment one can be part of the problem, part of the solution, or 
part of the landscape. I believe that ISOC-Bulgaria, as well as other 
chapters, are part of the solution, from the public policy side of 
the problem. I believe that ISOC is also part of the solution, but 
from the technical side of the problem. These two approaches are not 
against each other, on the contrary - they form one whole.

Best,
Veni

______
* - which, of course doesn't mean we've stopped working on the 
www.foss.bg project, or on the Bulgarian version of CreativeCommons, 
or on many of the other activities that ISOC.bg is doing - see 
www.isoc.bg/news_en.html for full information about this year's 
activities and last year's, too.  



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