ONLINE UPDATES OF CIVIL SOCIETY AND GENDER STRATEGIES AT THE WSIS

As WSIS participants prepare for more events that will lead up to the December 2003 Summit, various measures are continuously being undertaken by gender groups/networks and civil society organisations in order to keep the public informed of the happenings world-wide.

For this issue, we will enumerate certain sites that have been posting online bulletins, site reports and uploading documents pertinent to those who have been following or are engaged in the WSIS process. Since it is easy to get lost in the so-called information superhighway that is the Internet, we believe that pointing advocates in the right direction of useful and relevant information will help in further advancing people's rights in the WSIS and, more importantly, engendering the WSIS process.

We will also feature some mailing lists that are discussing WSIS concerns and other websites that could be of use to those who would like to discover different civil society efforts concerning the Summit.

Here are some of the useful sites:

www.prepcom.net
In order to make communication and reporting on PrepCom-2 faster and more up-to-date, this new site for civil society was created by the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO) which has been actively promoting the involvement of NGOs in the working of the United Nations. The site was created in February 2003 right before the second preparatory committee meeting was held. Several reports and other data pertaining to PrepCom-2 are now uploaded there.

http://www.genderit.org
Advocates should check this website often for updates regarding the WSIS NGO Gender Strategies Working Group's efforts in the different WSIS-related events. This group was formed at the first WSIS PrepCom Meeting in Geneva in July 2002 as one of the sub-committees of the Civil Society Coordinating Group (CSCG). Involved in this effort are: the African Women's Development and Communications Network (FEMNET), Agencia Latino Americana de Informacion, Association for Progressive Communication-Women's Networking Support Programme, International Women's Tribune Centre, and Isis International-Manila.

The latest insightful information to be presented in the site is as follows:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This is a mailing list where participants discuss issues about international media. The subscribers are from different parts of the world and are particularly interested to exchange viewpoints about WSIS here. Anyone who has the same objectives can sign up for this group by sending a blank email with the word "subscribe" in the subject line.

http://www.worldsummit2003.de
This is the site for the German WSIS Civil Society Coordinating Group created since PrepCom-2. The content is in German and English. Civil society documents presented at the recently concluded PrepCom-2 are already up on the site.