Dear All When thinking on the formal organisation we need to make difference and decide what kind of organisation we are going to create
- civic group (individuals, interested in the world-wide telecentre movement) - alliance of interested organisations (not necessiarly representing telecentres) - alliance of telecentre organisations (representing telecentres in a country region, on country level, on regional level) - some kind of more sophisticated institution including all three types above in some way. In the third case, information about the world-wide telecentre situation (telecentre countries, projets, approx, number of telecentres, representing organisations) is very important. Depending on the basic goals the appropriate type of the organisation can be defined, and also a strategy and step by step process of creation. The basic question is, what kind of cooperation or/and organisation is the best for the telecentre movement to reach MDGs. Matyas Gaspar European Union of Telecottage Associations -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Michael Gurstein Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 10:50 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [Telecentres] working group background, organizing principles Andy and all, The Community Informatics Research Network (CIRN) with which a number of those on this list are affiliated will be meeting f2f next week in Prato, Italy. One of the topics of discussion will be a possible role for CIRN in WSIS (while CIRN is not directly registered as a Civil Society group within the WSIS context, several national representative and other formally registered CS organizations are active participants in CIRN and will be represented at the Prato meeting). CIRN as a network of researchers and practitioner/researchers concerned with enabling communities with Information and Communications Technologies has a very strong and active interest in supporting the development of Telecentres as points of community internet access. I should mention as well though, that our interest goes beyond simple access through Telecentres to working with communities to make effective use of this access in support of locally based development including for health, local economic and social development, environmental management and others. I'm sure CIRN's on-going relationship with this Network will be an element in our discussions and I would guess that our conclusion would be to actively support this initiative in whatever manner seems to be most useful and generally productive. As to a preferred organizational structure for this working group, there seems no particular reason at this point to move towards a formalized structure (but perhaps I'm wrong) and that it might be more useful for the group to get to know each other a bit better first and also to further explore the issues of concern to determine what the appropriate nature of the "representativeness" for this group should be. Best, Mike Gurstein (Interim) Chair: CIRN http://www.ciresearcher.net -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Andy Carvin Sent: September 24, 2004 12:51 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Telecentres] working group background, organizing principles Stuart Mathison wrote: >> - My suggestion is that we advocate on the two previous questions. An issue, >> however, is the mechanics through which the collective voice of this working >> group can make itself heard. Are we "official"? Can we be registered as a >> civil society entity? How do we appoint people to represent the group? >> In the simplest terms, yes, we are already "official." When the UN decided to host the WSIS meetings, it was agreed that civil society organizations could become accredited delegates, along with governments, UN agencies, international donors, etc. This meant that civil society organizations would have a voice in the deliberations, though not a vote. Prior to the first WSIS meeting in Geneva, civil society organizations began to organize, setting up caucuses and working groups on a variety of issues, such as human rights, gender, education, youth; there were also groups set up by region (Latin American family, North American family, etc). Participation in these working groups is voluntary, with each working group existing because there was critical mass of volunteers to work in that area. Civil society also created a plenary email list ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) for all working group members to join, as well as a civil society bureau comprised of representatives from each working group to represent civil society's interests when it comes to logistical planning for each summit and prepcom, etc. This June, at the CTCNet conference in Seattle, I co-hosted a meeting of the North American group. During the meeting we discussed civil society's wsis activities, and the role telecenter activists were playing in the process. Some of us noted how the telecenter movement could fall through the cracks because its interests were spread out amongst various other working groups. So I proposed the idea of organizing a new civil society working group for telecenters. Following recommendations of members of the civil society bureau, I proposed the idea on the CS plenary list, and proposed it during CS plenary meetings in Tunisia at the most recent Prepcom meeting. Participants were supportive of the idea, and there were no objections, so I was encouraged to found the new working group. The bureau then created the email discussion group for us on the official WSIS civil society server (www.wsis-cs.org) in late August, which brings us to where we are now. So to summarize: our group is an official civil society working group, and we can offer input to the civil society plenary and participate in other civil society activities. I'm the one who proposed and founded the group, and so far I'm facilitating the group. If the group would like to be more formal, we could have a discussion about who is serving as chairperson, or "focal point," to use the civil society bureau terminology. I'm perfectly happy to serve in this role, but would not want to force myself upon the group either simply because I came up with the idea. Most other groups have a sole focal point serving as chairperson, but others have co-chairs, or a chairperson and a couple of vice chairs. Personally, I think this is a good idea, since it would allow for some geographic diversity. So I suppose we have three models to consider: 1. One person (I or someone else) could serve as sole focal point (chairperson) for the working group. 2. Two people - perhaps one from the North, one from the South - could serve as co-chairs. 3. One person as focal point, with multiple people (two or three others) as vice chairs. So I'd like to propose we discuss this. Does anyone have any strong feelings as to how the group's leadership shall be organized? And are there nominations for people to play any of these roles? As I said, I'm perfectly happy to do this myself, but think it would be good to share some of the responsibility with one or more people representing other parts of the world, particularly the South.... ac -------------------------------------- Andy Carvin Program Director EDC Center for Media & Community acarvin @ edc . org http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org http://www.edwebproject.org/andy/blog/ -------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ telecentres mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/telecentres To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ telecentres mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/telecentres To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ telecentres mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/telecentres To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
