Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

WSIS and Independent Media Centers

transmitter | 03.12.2003 19:10 | WSIS 2003

The UN world summit of the information society is approaching fast, it will take place between Dec 10 and 12. A World Forum on Communication Rights, initiated by the Cris Campaign, will take place at the same time. It will tackle issues that the WSIS dares not, linking communication with issues such as poverty, social exclusion, militarism, cultural diversity and human rights.

The "We Seize" initiative has organised a follow-up to the Hub-Project in Florence. A number of imcistas will report - read on for some background:

We Seize | Hub Project | PolyMediaLab | High Noon| Strategic Conference

WSIS - AN IMC ISSUE?

WSIS is an UN summit about the global commons. Big Network Providers and government representatives are meeting to map out the future landscape of information and communication. The WSIS debates affect the core of the indymedia project.
Today, the internet still holds the promise of forever multiplied shared knowledge. A space where you don't own, sell or buy knowledge, but share it. At indy, we are running about 130 indymedia websites, about 800 email lists and a twiki with more than 800 topics with a minimum of money. The coding doesn't cost us anything, and many tech volunteers are constantly working on it. We control our own servers.
This could change. If software is declared "intellectual property", and software patents are introduced, Free Software Development will become very difficult, if not impossible. According to Richard Stallman, developers will constantly run the risk of illegally including a patented bit of code.
The claim for internet privacy in combination with new tracking methods gives raise to repressive cyber-security regimes. The definition of "safe" and "unsafe" communication would be up to the state.
The dream of the internet as an anarchic place where everybody gives and takes is long gone anyway - most websites are for commercial purposes. Newspapers have started to charge for access to their online archives. Many companies are starting to set up their own, private networks instead of participating in the internet. Privatisation and liberalisation of the communications infrastructure leads to corporate control of the information channels. The internet as we know it might shrink. The right to communicate and access to a global communications network, so crucial for imc, might see serious restrictions.
WSIS is a major forum for governments and big business to come together and invent ways to control the global commons - of course for the best of the consumer. Civil Society in the form of NGOs is invited to watch the process, but excluded from the decision making.
We have yet to find appropriate forms of political articulation to make our voice heard in such an abstract issue. Few protests have been held under the banner of communication rights. Let's use WSIS as an experimental ground to explore creative use of our day-to-day IT-knowledge!

IMC-REPORTING IN CYBERSPACE

1. The event
WSIS is an unusual event for indymedia reporting. So far, not many street-actions are expected. Other than the usual summits, the WSIS organisers included big business and "civil society" in the preparations. Soon it became clear that participation of "civil society" was very restricted. As a result, a variety of "half-official" events was set up.

2. reporting what?
Reporting about WSIS could cover the debates, especially those outside the official event. Reporting can be an action in itself. Also, it is a chance to raise awareness for communication rights within the indymedia community and beyond.

3. reporting where?
imc switzerland has already started reporting, and imc Uk has set up a dedicated WSIS middle column. Imcs in Italy, France, Germany and more are also expected to report. You can also log on to irc.indymedia.org, #wsis and #sconf.

4. decentralised WSIS presence
You don't need to fly to Geneva to participate. Local screenings of the video stream (see High Noon below) could be organised. irc-ers, translators, writers, updaters are welcome in the irc-channels. The CielitoLindo Project is going to to stream-in from Madrid.

POLYMEDIA LAB - A MEDIA CENTER ON THE GROUND
Under the slogan "WSIS - we seize", three events will offer a fundamental critique of the summit, outside the official framework: High Noon, a V2V Video-Peer-to-Peer Webcasting Project, a Strategic Conference, and a Polymedia Lab. These interventions are coordinated on one email list (see LINKS). Polimedia lab is a space for practical experiments, skill-sharing, meeting, networking and reporting.
see http://www.geneva03.net/moin.cgi/PolyMediaLab

LINKS

WSIS - We seize:
Call: http://www.geneva03.org/display/item_fresh.php?id=1〈=en
Website: http://www.geneva03.org/
Wiki: http://www.geneva03.net
Mailing List: http://lists.emdash.org/mailman/listinfo/prep-l
High Noon: http://www.geneva03.net/moin.cgi/HighNoon
Strategic Conference: http://www.geneva03.net/moin.cgi/StrategicConference
Polymedia Lab: http://www.geneva03.net/moin.cgi/PolyMediaLab

POLYMEDIA LAB
website: http://www.hubproject.org/en/?l=en
wiki: http://www.geneva03.net/moin.cgi/PolyMediaLab
mailing list: https://lists.nadir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/wsis

register a workshop: http://www.hubproject.org/calendar/event_display_week.php?day=7&month=12&year=2003&isl=
workshop registration form: http://www.hubproject.org/calendar/event_display_add.php

PROJECTS
http://lola.d-a-s-h.org/pipermail/prep-l/2003-October/000355.html Tactical Maps of Geneva
Hub-mailing list: https://www.inventati.org/mailman/public/hub/

transmitter

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech