[Chapter-delegates] OneWebDay 2009 - tomorrow 22 September

Mon Sep 21 09:05:54 PDT 2009

Hi Alejandro,

This is something that I have discussed with Siva from ISOC Chennai
just yesterday. Both us are active in OneWebDay and share your
concern.

Last year the theme was 'online political participation' and this had
attracted to the cause some political activists including, as
organizer in Washington DC, Nathaniel James.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanieljames

James was a coherent and effective voice as indicated by this
Huffington Post article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathaniel-james/onewebday-is-the-new-eart_b_127568.html

When, at the start of the year, founder Susan Crawford was co-opted
into the Obama administration, she was forced to step down from her
role at OneWebDay at short notice. She reached out to James to take
over the day-to-day reins, with the possibility that funding could be
found to make him fulltime Executive Director.

After some delay, in May, a small grant was secured from the Ford
Foundation, and Mitch Kapor agreed to serve as Chairman.
http://mkapor.posterous.com/new-leadership-for-onewebday

It took until July for James to really get going, leaving only two
months to organize this year's event.The theme was decided as digital
inclusion with "OneWeb. For All".    A ning site was set up for
networking and Kapor's people took over as webmasters.

It was understood that this year would be makeshift, but that the Ford
Foundation would monitor and consider major funding next year. James,
an admitted novice when it comes to Internet affairs has done his best
to run a coherent outreach campaign. As an activist - he used activist
language, this includes the boilerplate demagoguery to which you
rightly draw attention.

I myself protested last week when the OneWebDay PR template was
released containing the phrase:

"Originally imagined as a celebration of the World Wide Web – the
services and content the Internet carries – OneWebDay has grown into a
movement of organizations, citizens and consumers who are committed to
universal and equal access to the Internet."

I pointed out that this was an exclusionary phrase- directly opposed
to Crawford's concept that OneWebDay was a day when common people
could celebrate the Internet. "This is YOUR day" I have repeatedly
heard her say  in speeches.

I wrote a seperate Press Release for NYC, and was told it was
unnacceptable because an integrated approach to journalist was
required (I'll admit my piece was probably too long and rambling - I
retitled it 'more info')
See http://onewebday.org/nyc for both.

The point I made to SIva in our conversation was that while the
current regime was practically Stalinist in contrast to Crawford's
wide-open approach - that it's to some extent necessary to help
OneWebDay get a firmer footing. I think that things will swing the
other way, and it's up to us, particularly in ISOC, to engage and see
that it does. Also, Susan Crawford won't be locked up in the White
House for ever.

joly

On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 9:37 AM, Alejandro Pisanty
<apisan at servidor.unam.mx> wrote:
> Dear Sabrina,
>
> thanks for this reminder.
>
> Can someone among the Chapter Delegates kindly explain to me why we support
> OneWebDay while it circulates a "pledge against the digital divide" that
> contains wording which is directly hostile to ISOC, the IETF, and other
> organizations ISOC supports?
>
> I quote: "Right now, governments, corporate entities and technical elites
> decide the fate of the most powerful, inclusive communications platform ever
> created. They're making decisions about who will have access, at what
> speeds, and at what price. They're deciding how to invest in training and
> education in 21st century communications."
>
> What end is served by this conspiracy-theory-like language? Do we agree to
> have "technical elites" conflated with "governments and corporate entities"
> and lumped into one?
>
> Words of enlightenment will be welcome, as I am sure they will free my
> limited understanding.
>
> Yours,
>
> Alejandro Pisanty
>
>
> .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .  .  .  .  .  .
>     Dr. Alejandro Pisanty
> UNAM, Av. Universidad 3000, 04510 Mexico DF Mexico
>
> Tels. +52-(1)-55-5105-6044, +52-(1)-55-5418-3732
>
> * Mi blog/My blog: http://pisanty.blogspot.com
> * LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pisanty
> * Twitter: http://twitter.com/apisanty
> * Unete al grupo UNAM en LinkedIn,
> http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/22285/4A106C0C8614
>
> * Ven a ISOC Mexico, http://www.isoc.org.mx, ISOC http://www.isoc.org
> *Participa en ICANN, http://www.icann.org
> .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
>
>
> On Mon, 21 Sep 2009, Sabrina Wilmot wrote:
>
>> Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:34:01 +0100
>> From: Sabrina Wilmot <wilmot at isoc.org>
>> Reply-To: chapter-support at isoc.org
>> To: Chapter Delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>
>> Subject: [Chapter-delegates] OneWebDay 2009 - tomorrow 22 September
>>
>> Dear Colleagues,
>>
>> This is a reminder that tomorrow is the fourth annual OneWebDay
>> (http://onewebday.org/). Many Chapters have work hard to coordinate events
>> and activities for this day. We would like to encourage all participating
>> ISOC Chapters to share their OWD stories with us.
>>
>> Let the Chapter delegates know about our successful OneWebDay 2009 and
>> post details here or submit a contribution for the ISOC newsletter. You can
>> include links to webpages and photos of your events.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Sabrina Wilmot
>> ISOC
>> _______________________________________________
>> Chapter-delegates mailing list
>> Chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
>> http://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/chapter-delegates
>>
> _______________________________________________
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>

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