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

Sascha Brawer brawer at dandelis.ch
Mit Mar 19 08:34:42 CET 2003


Hi Bradley, hi MJ,

MJ Ray <mjr at cloaked.freeserve.co.uk> wrote on Tue, 18 Mar 2003 15:42:59 +0000:

>I have been providing RMS with the information about WSIS that he requested
>and he is now in contact with Bradley Kuhn, FSF's Executive Director, about
>it.  If you are able to advise them more ably (because I find WSIS
>process very confusing), I suggest that you make sure bkuhn at fsf.org and
>rms at fsf.org know that they can ask you questions about WSIS.
>
>I am not yet clear whether FSF (NA) or FSFE will be dealing with this.


Alex Schroeder <alex at gnu.org> today has sent a message to RMS, which you
find below. I'm also sending a copy to team at fsfeurope.org because they
had previously received some messages on this behalf.

-- Sascha



Hi,

I don't know whether you heard about the UN summit in Geneva,
Switzerland at the end of this year.  Indeed, it would seem that the
world has more problems right now than a vision about the information
society.  The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is trying
to create such a vision.  As far as I can see, we have government
agencies pressing for more control of the information society, and we
have big business trying to push free software out of the picture.

Chantal Peyer wrote a summary of the current state of affairs on 26
February 2003, after the second preparatory meeting.  I am attaching
her article at the end.  Here is the key point for the FSF, as far as
I can see:

  There are a number of issues that are not welcome by many
  groups. For example, all mentions of "open source" and "free
  software" have been deleted completely in the current draft.
  "Security", which became a big theme in the recent months due to the
  US-led "war against terrorism" has got a whole section now, arguing
  for the need to "prevent the use of information resources or
  technologies for criminal or terrorist purposes".

It would be a big boon for the free software movement, if the final
document encouraged nations to actively promote free software in
education and administration.

Are you interested in having the FSF participate in this?

We are of course interested in the additional legitimation the FSF
would give our efforts.  So I could imagine that you just agree with
the general idea, we push for it, we present you with the progress we
make, and you can comment on how it goes.  This would also give you
and the FSF the opportunity for some publicity, I hope.

Perhaps FSF Europe, being closer to Geneva, could take over?

I could also imagine that we try to organize some side-show around
the time the summit is held, where you can put up a personal
appearance.

Anyway, let me know if you are interested.  If you are, we can send
you more info on where we stand, where this is going, what the
position of some of the NGOs are, etc.

Alex.


"Claude Almansi" <claude.almansi at bluewin.ch> writes:

> Hi Sascha
>
> FSF isn't in the WSIS list of participants either, I just checked.
> Chantal also sent the e-mail with the worrying text about Open Source
> being slashed from the official WSIS documents
> (http://www.worldsummit2003.de/en/web/237.htm ) to gnu at gnu.org . Now I
> wouldn't feel serious contacting them from Outlook to ask them to join
> WSIS. Nevertheless, I also forwarded Chantal's e-mail to 2 journalists -
> one from Nepal, one from Zambia - who were present at the
> UNESCO-for_WSIS roundtable in Lugano this week-end. Because developping
> countries have insisted several times on the importance of Open Source
> Software during PrepCom2 for WSIS in february.
>
> So for these countries, it would be very important if FSF were present.
> Would someone with more serious open-source credentials than me write
> them, please?
>
> Claude

Sascha Brawer writes:

> I cannot speak for the FSF, of course, but I really think that it would
> be a pity to miss this opportunity.  At least in my personal opinion,
> the Free Software Foundation should be represented at the summit.
>
> Does anyone know how to make this happen?
>
> -- Sascha Brawer, brawer at dandelis.ch
>    http://www.dandelis.ch/people/brawer/