Funferal

WSIS getting closer, groups swing into action

There’s an increasing buzz regarding the upcoming WSIS. That’s the World Summit on the Information Society, and its happening in Geneva in December. The Association for Progressive Communications and the CRIS Campaign (Communications Rights in the Information Society) have released a guide for NGOs and civil society. At the same time I received details, via Reclaim the Media, of the ‘parallel counter-activities’ which will accompany the summit.

“There is little doubt that access to information and communications technologies (ICTs) is expanding, yet this process excludes the majority of people in developing countries. Many who do have access are unable to use it freely to promote their social, economic and political interests. When people gain access to these technologies, it is mostly as consumers, rather than owners or creators. The growing concentration of ownership and control of ICT can limit its remarkable potential for social empowerment,” says APC in their new book launched last week at the third preparatory conference (PrepCom) in the run-up to the first ever United Nations world conference on the information society.
At the United Nations’ World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), to be held in Geneva in December, governments will agree on a declaration and action plan that could enhance or hinder access to ICTs for the vast majority of the world’s population. The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and the CRIS Campaign have been following the WSIS process and their publication – “Involving Civil Society in ICT Policy: the World Summit on the Information Society” – highlights some of the principal issues at stake.
“The information society, we are told, is a promise to all the peoples of the world of untold benefits and promises for our future however the reality is often much closer to a nightmare,” says CRIS Campaign Coordinator, Myriam Horngren. “As our mass media become more and more sanitised and commodified, our airspace sold to the highest bidders, our common knowledge and creativity get fenced off, we fear that the information society is solely promoting the expansion of corporate control at people’s expense.”
This is where intervention by civil society comes in. As detailed on Reclaim the Media, over the past months, activists and artists with different backgrounds ranging from indymedia centers to the noborder-networks, from the Free Software movement to community media, from grassroots campaigns to hacker collectives, have been discussing how to intervene in, outside of, counter to, or as an alternative to the agenda and organisation of WSIS.
Geneva-03 is an open, loose and temporary association of groups and individuals who are currently preparing a series of events around the WSIS. Its common goal is to create autonomous physical and network spaces for diverse tactical, grassroots, activist and community media actions and discussions in and around the WSIS meetings.
The event will work around these areas:

• A strategic convention before the UN summit in Geneva, comprising discussions, panels and presentations.
• A polymedia lab to share tools, skills, experiences, and knowledge.
• A three day netcast which will follow the revolution of the earth, streaming independent media activism and community media projects from across the globe.

There will be a further preparation meeting at the European Social Forum in Paris in November. For all people interested in the Geneva-03 project, there is an open working list and a website. The Geneva03.org website is an open publishing forum where you can post your proposals, ideas and contributions.