Global CN Partnership 2002

Pattern number within this pattern set: 
127
Richard Lowenberg
Davis Community Network
Problem: 

The Global Community Networking Congress and Partnership, established in Barcelona in 2000, and convened in Buenos Aires, Dec. 5-7, 2001, is preparing for next years' meetings in Montreal, Canada (2002) and Rockhampton, Australia (2003). The Global CN Partnership is also preparing its input and participation, along with other civil society initiatives, to the ITU 2003 meeting in Geneva, G-7 DOT Force directives, United Nations and World Bank programs, and other top-down global efforts to bridge the digital divide and promote IT development. National and regional meetings are scheduled in preparation for larger annual Global CN working sessions and conferences.

Context: 

Governments and private sector players are involved in major decisionmaking, financing and action programs to mitigate the digital divide and promote IT facilitated education and economic development, especially in under-developed countries around the world. Many consider these initiatives to have underlying vested interests, to be less than well conceived, to not be representative of most of the critical and diverse interest groups already working with extreme dedication to these issues, and to not be inclusive of the people in the countries and communities to be served. Civil sector organizations representing interests in healthcare, gender disparities, local development, the environment, as well as community networking and bottom-up IT facilitated quality-of-life improvement, are among those organizing to provide recognized and effective input to currently scheduled and proposed global programs; the ITU: World Summit on the Information Society (Dec. 2003) being key among these.
These civil society initiatives are also attempts to network and more effectively enable local community programs, to share knowledge, resources and sustainable practices.

Discussion: 

An approximately 25 member Global CN Partnership Secretariat, made up of volunteers from Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, Australia and the Pacific and the U.S., is scheduling regional preparatory organizational, outreach and educational meetings during the Spring of 2002. U.S. Secretariat members Doug Schuler, Richard Civille and Richard Lowenberg, have offered to conduct a one day strategic planning session as part of the May DIAC program, as a way to involve and include others with similar interests and objectives, and to grow the U.S. involvement in upcoming works.

Solution: 

A one day Global CN Partnership: U.S. strategic planning meeting is proposed to be held within the CPSR:DIAC scheduled program. An agenda and background material will be prepared prior to the meeting. Contact: Richard Lowenberg (AFCN Board).

Pattern status: 
Released