[wilhelmtux-discussion] Re: World Summit on the Information Society and Free Software

Chantal Peyer peyer at bfa-ppp.ch
Don Mar 27 09:23:20 CET 2003


Dear Alex,

For myself, I definitely think that it would be good  that:
1) Whilhelm Tux or people from the Free software movement, do write a short
statement, in United Nations language, in which you say what sentences you
want to be inculded in the Declaration and in the Action Plan. You find the
texts of the Declaration/Action Plan on the ITU website, they just released
a new version on monday.
That you transmit this proposals to:
- the swiss NGO platform (we do need a professional input if you want us to
include your demands in a more precise way )
- to the swiss delegation
2) If you do have time, it would be good that you join the work with the
swiss delegation. You shoud write a formal letter to the head of the swiss
delegation - Marc Furrer-, with a copy to:
- Mr Riehl (OFCOM)
- Mr Stauffacher (Amassadeur suisse au Sommet)

Especially, there will be a meeting on the 10th of April, from 13h30-17h00
in Bern, which will include people from civil society, governement and
private sector, in a wider way than usual. In my eyes, it would be good,
Alex, if you come along. The aim of the meeting will be:
- to discuss the creation of a swiss taskforce
- to discuss the swiss position for the 31st of may
- to discuss the swiss priorities for the Summit
I can forward you the documents if you are interested to come.

Best regards,

Chantal




----- Original Message -----
From: "Alex Schroeder" <alex at gnu.org>
To: <wilhelmtux-discussion at wilhelmtux.ch>
Cc: "Richard Stallman" <rms at gnu.org>; "Muthukrishnan Ramakrishnan"
<gnu at vsnl.net>; "Deepak Goel" <deego at glue.umd.edu>; "Chantal Peyer"
<peyer at bfa-ppp.ch>; <claude.almansi at bluewin.ch>
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2003 1:22 AM
Subject: Re: World Summit on the Information Society and Free Software


> (There is some Emacs related stuff at the end of this mail)
>
>
> Today I was at a meeting organized by the OFCOM and the SDC on the
> subject "ICT 4 D -- Information and Communication Technologies For
> Development".
>
>   OFCOM = Federal Office for Communications, aka. BAKOM/OFCOM/UFCOM
>   SDC = Swiss Agengy for Development and Cooperation, aka. DEZA/DDC/DSC
>
> Marc Furrer (OFCOM) did the opening and welcome, then we saw a video
> from the SDC about people in Sri Lanka talking about education via
> community radio, less risk for fishers due to weather report from the
> Internet, sometimes broadcast via loudspeakers to the entire village,
> and we saw a young team of people producing TV with a local
> perspective, including information in two languages and information
> about the peace process.  Nothing surprising in this area.
>
> Later, there was a panel discussion with some questions from the
> audience at the end.
>
> I was able to mention Free Software.  ;) People talked a lot about
> local content, and so I asked them what the strategy was to ensure
> local software; to ensure that people can and will contribute
> software?  This fit well with earlier statements made by others that
> we are talking about poor countries with no existing markets, such
> that big business will not be interested in the stuff, yet.  I then
> admitted that I was from the Free Software camp, and that I felt this
> was a valid strategy, and I asked them about their strategy with
> respect to WSIS.  There was no real answer, but one of the panelists
> later picked up the term Open Source again, and stressed its
> importance.
>
> In the afternoon, I went to a workshop where one development org
> explained their plan for train-the-trainers for IT in Bhutan, and
> there I was able to mentaion Free Software again.  ;) The speaker
> admitted that licensing costs for a school could use up the entire
> year's budget, and therefore this was an unresolved issue.  Even the
> orgs' representatives in Bhutan used pirated software.  I then asked
> him what he would write if he had one or two sentences to himself in
> the WSIS declaration, and he was unsure, and asked me back.  I once
> again admitted that I was from the Free Software camp, and that I felt
> this was the answer, and he agreed to that.  There was another comment
> about the importance of private sector-government partnerships, but it
> contradicted stuff said earlier in the workshop where the speaker said
> that eventhough they considered asking one of the local people working
> in a private school to provide support (for pay), they dropped it.
>
> Unfortunately, I did not volunteer to summarize the workshop and it's
> "main message" for the clossing session, and the person responsible
> botched it in my not-so-humble opinion.  She stressed the importance
> of private sector-government partnerships, believed open source
> software was important because it cost nothing, and believed that we
> should do away with all licenses.  Perhaps it was just a problem of
> the language, because surprisingly enough, all talks I heard were in
> English.
>
> Certainly the meme "Open Source" is very strong -- when I said
> something, I never said "Open Source", I always said "Free Software",
> but people always responded using the term "Open Source".  Oh well.
> That is my private little uphill battle.  :)
>
> At the end, I had one final opportunity to ask a question, and since
> we had just given lots of messages for the official Swiss delegation
> to take along to WSIS, I asked whether and how it would be possible to
> actually join the official Swiss delegation.  Marc Furrer said that
> there are still seats available, and that he'd welcome new people!  He
> told me to contact him, or his secretary, or Chantal Peyer if we
> wanted to go as part of civil society.  I told him that I knew her,
> and that I'd contact her.  This positive reaction surprised me, and
> contrasts with my dark suspicions when Marc Furrer stressed the side
> events at the summit in his opening speech.  There, I felt like NGOs
> where being kept separate from the "real" delegations and the "real"
> events.
>
> I was also able to talk to Chantal Peyer, and she told me that she
> would like to see a short and concise statement from Wilhelm Tux (the
> name of the association promoting Free Software in Switzerland) on the
> exact phrase we would like to see in the final declaration.  Other
> NGOs would then be able to use this as "words from the experts", and
> include it in their position papers.
>
> I was also contacted by Hassane Makki of the OFCOM because I had
> piqued his interest when I had mentioned the multilingual features of
> my favorite piece of free software, Emacs.
>
> I was also contacted by Loris Vettorel, Marketing & Sales ICT4D
> Platform, because of the multilingual features of Emacs.  When I
> mentioned these, I said that Emacs had shown me that we could get
> first bug reports, then suggestions, and finally actual code written
> by people in so-called developping countries, and as an example I
> cited Muthukrishnan Ramakrishnan's contribution to the Malayam
> language support (I hope I got that right?).  Loris Vettorel is
> looking for concrete projects, big or small, for an exhibition at the
> summit.  Perhaps we can get a machine running Emacs, there, and
> explain how this piece of free software can be used as a starting
> point for mulitlingual text editing, programming, etc.
>
> Ok, enough for now.
>
> Alex.
>
>