[APC Africa-ICT-Policy Monitor] [APCNews] APCNews - January 2004 - No. 49

Thu Feb 3 15:39:39 SAST 2005

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                     SPECIAL EDITION
                FIFTH WORLD SOCIAL FORUM
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           *APCNews, the monthly newsletter of the
      Association for Progressive Communications (APC)*
                - January 2005 No. 49 -
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-- NEWS FROM THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM --
-- USEFUL INFORMATION SOURCES --
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APC was among 155,000 people from 135 countries at the World Social 
Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil which took place from January 26-31. The 
WSF is the world's largest gathering of social movements, non-profits, 
and progressive groups who believe that "another world is possible". 
More than 2,000 activities took place in almost 300 
specially-constructed tents and 200 meeting venues.

Welcome to those of you who signed up with us at the forum who are 
receiving APCNews for the first time and a happy 2005 to all our readers!

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-- NEWS FROM THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM --

As usual APC collected and produced coverage of the debates, workshops, 
and stories that illustrate the use of internet and ICTs for social 
justice and sustainable development at the World Social Forum.

Prominent issues this year at the World Social Forum were open content, 
the concentration of media in just a few hands, the increasing 
visibility of social movement supporting communications rights and a 
call to civil society to use the World Summit on the Information Society 
as an opportunity to support Tunisians as they fight for freedom of 
speech at home.

The following articles are all linked to from our WSF site: 
http://www.apc.org/english/wsf2005/
Other articles primarily in Spanish and Portuguese are collected on 
APC’s Spanish site: http://www.apc.org/espanol/wsf2005/

Building a news-coverage agenda for social movements in Latin America

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, 01/30/2005 -- Tens of representatives from a 
variety of communications organisations came together on the morning of 
Saturday 29 January at the World Social Forum to take advantage of the 
rare 'face-time' to share information about the events that they believe 
are critical for the media to cover in Latin American and the Caribbean 
in 2005 and to schedule news coverage in collaboration. - APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=30564

CRIS Campaign statement to the Social Movements Assembly of the World 
Social Forum

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, 01/31/2005 -- The CRIS Campaign released a 
statement to the Social Assemblies of the World Social Forum putting the 
spotlight on communication rights violations in Tunisia, the host 
country for the 2005 World Summit on the Information Society. The 
statement also lays out CRIS’ support for proposals at UNESCO for a 
strong international convention to promote and defend cultural diversity 
– a step which could provide a legislative defence for nations 
contesting damaging international free trade agreements. APC is a member 
of CRIS. - CRIS Campaign
http://www.crisinfo.org/content/view/full/671/

The challenges of the WSF and the responsibilities of communicators

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, 01/28/2005 -- The first four World Social Forums 
-- from 2001 to 2004 -- were extraordinary moments of congregation, 
participation, debate and exchange amongst tens of thousands of 
activists from around the world, who transformed the WSF into the 
trademark meeting of civil society. - Mario Lubetkin, IPS
http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/wsf2005/viewstory.asp?idnews=83

What do communication rights mean to people on the ground when they are 
denied them?

PORTO ALEGRE, 01/28/2005 -- Activists from Tunisia, Italy, Paraguay and 
Brazil reported on conditions in their countries and the response of 
civil society. APCNews reports from the V World Social Forum. - APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=30525

Creating new means of communication

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, 01/26/2005 -- Presenters at the First World Forum 
on Information and Communication, discussed the possibilities of 
creating new methods of communication that are inclusive and have the 
potential of breaking down well-established communication patterns 
linked to the market and media corporations. - Dafne Plou, APC for Les 
Penelopes
http://www.penelopes.org/Anglais/xarticle.php3?id_article=1218

What was APC up to at the V World Social Forum?

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, 01/26/2005 – APC’s agenda along with other 
communications rights activists. APC offered a workshop on “Networking 
for change and empowerment: building a gender and ICT policy agenda in 
the women's movement”. Agenda in English, French and Spanish. - APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=30474

Internet governance: An opinion report on the UN working group leading 
the debate

“How many of you DON’T know what ICANN is?” the audience at a seminar on 
internet governance was asked. More than half present raised their 
hands. Carlos Afonso, former chair of APC and member of the UN body 
charged with coming up with a definition of what ‘internet governance’ 
should encompass gave attendees a brief but detailed overview of the 
US-based body that controls the servers that run the internet. Here for 
the first time his opinionative report on the first meeting of the UN 
Working Group on Internet Governance, November 23-25 2004, Geneva is 
published in English. Translation by APC.
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=30629 [English]
http://www.apc.org/espanol/news/index.shtml?x=29858 [Spanish]
http://www.apc.org/espanol/news/index.shtml?x=29860 [Portuguese original]

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) adopts digital content-sharing

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, 01/30/2005 -- The British BBC, one of the world’s 
major communications networks, recently decided to digitalise its 
gigantic archive. A campaign was launched on the internet and within the 
company for the archive to be freely available to the public to use as 
it wishes. Christian Ahlert, of the Oxford Internet Institute, managed 
to convince the company’s management and BBC documentary-makers to use 
Creative Commons licensing, which has different levels of free use. This 
report from RITS at the World Social Forum translated into English by 
APC. - RITS
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=30604

World Social Forum: Open Systems for Open Politics

LONDON, UK, 01/26/2005 -- The World Social Forum has open information 
systems in place to go with an open political ethos. All of about 1,000 
computers at the forum are using free software. The official website has 
been developed for the first time in 'php,' an open source language. A 
new translation system is also a free software tool. The Forum is hosted 
in Brazil, a nation whose government at the first phase of the World 
Summit on the Information Society held in Geneva in 2003, strongly 
opposed intellectual property on software, and succeeded in getting this 
omitted from the final resolution. - IPS
http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=27175

Meeting of illustrious “hackers” at the World Social Forum

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, 01/30/2005 -- “I’m a minister and a musician but 
I’m a hacker at heart” – Gilberto Gil, Brazilian minister for culture 
and pop icon. The roundtable on the "Digital Revolution" at the World 
Social Forum brought together some of the biggest names in the internet 
debate including Spanish academic Manuel Castells, open content and open 
source guru, lawyer Lawrence Lessig, and now Brazil’s most illustrious 
musician. This report from RITS translated into English by APC. - RITS
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=30602

"WSIS will enlighten my people" --Tunisian activist declares

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, 01/27/2005 -- Sihem Bensedrine, from OLPEC 
(National Council for Tunisian Freedom) believes that holding the second 
phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), in her 
country in November 2005, will help Tunisian people realise the 
importance of their right to communicate. It will also encourage work 
for changes in the communication field in our country, she added. - 
Dafne Plou, APC for Les Penelopes
http://www.penelopes.org/Anglais/xarticle.php3?id_article=1245

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-- USEFUL INFORMATION SOURCES --

World Social Forum 2005
http://www.worldsocialforum.org

APCNews/APCNoticias: Keeping informed about internet & ICTs for social 
justice at the Forum
A special bulletin focusing on debates, panels, workshops, and stories 
that illustrate the use of internet and ICTs for social justice and 
development.
http://www.apc.org/english/wsf2005/ [English]
http://www.apc.org/espanol/wsf2005/ [Spanish and Portuguese]

Choike: Giving visibility to Southern civil societies at the World 
Social Forum
Part of the Choike team covered the Forum's activities directly from 
Porto Alegre. For NGOs from the South, the Forum has become a place to 
make their voices heard and exchange experiences and ideas. This is the 
main focus of Choike coverage, in line with its aim of giving visibility 
to Southern civil societies. Choike is an initiative of the Third World 
Institute, APC member in Uruguay.
http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/eventos/10.html [English and Spanish]

AMARC World Social Forum Multimedia Initiative: Community Radio 
broadcasting at the Forum
Journalists and communicators from community media, networks and 
associations from Latin America, Africa, North America and Europe 
covered the event in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German and 
Italian. http://www.amarc.org/site.php?lang=EN&topic=wsf

TerraViva at the World Social Forum
IPS - Inter Press Service produced a daily newspaper TerraViva at the V 
World Social Forum. A virtual edition will be available on-line. IPS is 
a long-time partner of APC.
http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/wsf2005 [English and Portuguese]

News exchange - Ciranda: V International Independent Information Exchange
Journalists at Porto Alegre used the Ciranda (news circle) to share and 
exchange articles and features. This time using a new wiki interface for 
journalists - if you're interested in the initiative and not just the 
content, take time to visit the section on "how it works".
http://www.ciranda.net [English, Spanish, French, Italian, German and 
Portuguese]

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APCNews, in English, and APCNoticias, in Spanish, are
distributed monthly by APC, the Association for Progressive
Communications (APC), the international Internet community
for peace, human rights, development and the environment.
APCNews Archive: http://www.apc.org/english/news/apcnews/

CopyLeft. 2005 Association for Progressive Communications
(APC). Permission is granted to use this document for personal
use, for training and educational publications, and activities
by peace, environmental, human rights or development
organizations. Please provide an acknowledgment to APC.

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