<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">peter waterman</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:peterwaterman1936@gmail.com">peterwaterman1936@gmail.com</a>></span><br>Date: Thu, Jan 22, 2015 at 11:17 PM<br>Subject: [Networkedlabour] Fwd: Other News - Global Civil Society launches the Internet Social Forum<br>To: Debate is a listserve that attempts to promote information and analyses of interest to the independent left in South and Southern Africa <<a href="mailto:debate-list@fahamu.org">debate-list@fahamu.org</a>>, "<<a href="mailto:networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org">networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org</a>>" <<a href="mailto:networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org">networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org</a>>, WSFDiscuss List <<a href="mailto:WorldSocialForum-Discuss@openspaceforum.net">WorldSocialForum-Discuss@openspaceforum.net</a>><br><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-size:small"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Calibri"> </span><br></div><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div style="FONT-SIZE:12pt;FONT-FAMILY:'Calibri';COLOR:#000000"><div><div style="FONT-SIZE:small;TEXT-DECORATION:none;FONT-FAMILY:"Calibri";FONT-WEIGHT:normal;COLOR:#000000;FONT-STYLE:normal;DISPLAY:inline"><div style="FONT-SIZE:small;TEXT-DECORATION:none;FONT-FAMILY:'Calibri';FONT-WEIGHT:normal;COLOR:#000000;FONT-STYLE:normal;DISPLAY:inline"><div style="FONT-SIZE:small;TEXT-DECORATION:none;FONT-FAMILY:'Calibri';FONT-WEIGHT:normal;COLOR:#000000;FONT-STYLE:normal;DISPLAY:inline"><div style="FONT-SIZE:small;TEXT-DECORATION:none;FONT-FAMILY:'Calibri';FONT-WEIGHT:normal;COLOR:#000000;FONT-STYLE:normal;DISPLAY:inline"><div style="FONT-SIZE:small;TEXT-DECORATION:none;FONT-FAMILY:'Calibri';FONT-WEIGHT:normal;COLOR:#000000;FONT-STYLE:normal;DISPLAY:inline"><br></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><b><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">Global Civil Society launches the
Internet Social Forum </font></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><span><font face="Symbol">-</font><span><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></span></span><b><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">With a call to occupy the Internet</font></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><b><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="FONT-SIZE:16pt"></font></font></span></b> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>PRESS RELEASE. Geneva,
Switzerland, 22st January, 2015. </b></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">A group of civil society organisations
from around the world has announced the Internet Social Forum, to bring together
and articulate bottom-up perspectives on the 'Internet we want'. Taking
inspiration from the World Social Forum, and its clarion call, 'Another World is
possible', the group seeks to draw urgent attention to the increasing
centralization of the Internet for extraction of monopoly rents and for
socio-political control, asserting that 'Another Internet is possible'!<span> </span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">The Internet Social Forum will <i>inter
alia</i> offer an alternative to the recently-launched World Economic Forum's
'Net Mundial Initiative' on global Internet governance. While the World Economic
Forum (WEF) and the<span> </span>'Net Mundial
Initiative' convene global elites, the Internet Social Forum will be a
participatory and bottom-up space for all those who believe that the global
Internet must evolve in the public interest; a direct parallel to the launch of
the World Social Forum in 2001 as a counter initiative to the
WEF.</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">The Internet Social Forum will reach out
to grassroots groups and social movements across the world, catalysing a
groundswell that challenges the entrenched elite interests that currently
control how the Internet is managed. The Internet Social Forum's preparatory
process will kick off during the World Social Forum to take place in Tunis,
March 24th to 28th, 2015.<span> </span>The
Internet Social Forum itself is planned to be held either late 2015 or early
2016.</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><font face="Times New Roman"><span lang="EN-US">“While the world's biggest companies
have every right to debate the future of the Internet, we are concerned that
their perspectives should not drown out those of ordinary people who have no
access to the privileged terrain WEF occupies </span><span>–</span> <span lang="EN-US">in the end it is this
wider public interest that must be paramount in governing the Internet. We are
organising the Internet Social Forum to make sure their voices can't be ignored
in the corridors of power,” said Norbert Bollow, Co-Coordinator of the Just Net
Coalition, which is one of the groups involved in the initiative.
</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><font face="Times New Roman"><span lang="EN-US">The Internet Social Forum, and its
preparatory process, is intended as a space to vision and build the 'Internet we
want'. It will be underpinned by values of democracy, human rights and social
justice. It will stand for participatory policy making and promote community
media. It will seek an Internet that is truly decentralized in its architecture
and based on people's full rights to data, information, knowledge and other
'commons' that the Internet has enabled the world community to generate and
share.</span><span lang="EN-US">
</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">Somewhat similar to Web inventor Tim
Berners-Lee’s call for a ‘Magna Carta for the Internet', the Internet Social
Forum proposes to develop a People's Internet Manifesto, through a bottom-up
process involving all concerned social groups and movements, in different areas,
from techies and ICT-for-development actors to media reform groups, democracy
movements and social justice activists. </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">This year will also see the 10 year
high-level review of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), to be
held in New York in December. As a full-scale review of a major UN summit, this
will be a critical global political event. Since the WSIS, held in 2003 and
2005, the Internet, and what it means socially, has undergone a paradigm shift.
The WSIS witnessed active engagement of civil society and technical groups as
well as of business. However, currently, there seems to be an deliberate attempt
to sideline this UN-led initiative on governance issues of the information
society and Internet in favour of private, big-business-dominated initiatives
like the WEF's Net Mundial Initiative. The Internet Social Forum, while
remaining primarily a people's forum, will also seek to channel global civil
society's engagement towards the WSIS +10 review. </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span><font face="Times New Roman">The following
organisations form the initial group that is proposing the Internet Social
Forum, and many more are expected to join in the immediate future. This is an
open call to progressive groups from all over the world to join this initiative,
and participate in developing a People's Internet Manifesto.</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">Just Net Coalition,
Global</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">P2P Foundation, Global</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">Transnational Institute,
Global</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">Forum on Communication for Integration
of our America, Regional (Latin America)</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">Arab NGO Network for Development,
Regional</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">Agencia Latinoamericana de Información,
Regional</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">Alternative Informatics Association,
Turkey</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">Knowledge Commons,
India</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">Open-Root/EUROLINC,
France</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">SLFC.in, India</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">CODE-IP Trust, Kenya</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">GodlyGlobal.org,
Switzerland</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">Centre for Community Informatics
Research, Development and Training, Canada</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">IT for Change, India</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">Association for Proper Internet
Governance, Switzerland</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">Computer Professionals Union,
Philippines</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">Free Press, USA</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">Advocates of Science and Technology for
the People, Philippines</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">Other News, Italy</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">Free Software Movement of
India</font></span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span><font face="Times New Roman">Global_Geneva,
Switzerland</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span><font face="Times New Roman">Solidarius
(Solidarity Economy Network), Italy</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span><font face="Times New Roman">All India Peoples
Science Network, India</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span><font face="Times New Roman">Institute for
Local Self-Reliance - Community Broadband Networks, USA</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><font face="Times New Roman"><span><span> </span><b><i>Please contact us at
</i></b></span><span lang="EN-US"><a><font color="#000080">secretariat@InternetSocialForum.net</font></a></span><b><i><span> for further information or clarification.
</span></i></b></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><b><i><span><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span></i></b> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><b><i><span><font face="Times New Roman">Or the following
regional contacts:</font></span></i></b><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><font face="Times New Roman"><span>Europe<span>
</span>Norbert Bollow<span>
</span>Email: </span><span lang="EN-US"><a><font color="#000080">NorbertB@InternetSocialForum.net</font></a></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><font face="Times New Roman"><span lang="EN-US">Asia<span>
</span>Rishab Bailey<span>
</span></span><span>Email: </span><span lang="EN-US"><a><font color="#000080">RishabB@InternetSocialForum.net</font></a></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><font face="Times New Roman"><span lang="EN-US">Africa<span>
</span>Alex Gakaru<span>
</span></span><span>Email: </span><span lang="EN-US"><a><font color="#000080">AlexG@InternetSocialForum.net</font></a></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><font face="Times New Roman"><span lang="EN-US">North America<span> </span>Micheal Gurstein<span>
</span></span><span>Email: </span><span lang="EN-US"><a><font color="#000080">MichealG@InternetSocialForum.net</font></a></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><font face="Times New Roman"><span lang="EN-US">South America<span> </span>Sally Burch<span>
</span></span><span>Email: </span><span lang="EN-US"><a><font color="#000080">SallyB@InternetSocialForum.net</font></a></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></span> </p>
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<br></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: <a href="http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan" target="_blank">http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan</a> </div><div><br></div>P2P Foundation: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.net</a> - <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a> <br><br><a href="http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation" target="_blank"></a>Updates: <a href="http://twitter.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens</a><br><br>#82 on the (En)Rich list: <a href="http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/" target="_blank">http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/</a> <br></div></div>
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