Information dissemination continues as WSIS-related goings-on help civil society organisations gear up for the Summit.

Two websites of the Thematic Working Group have been recently uploaded. The first one deals with patents, copyrights and trademarks. This link is at http://www.wsis-pct.org. This site was previously known as the IPR group and it can still be reached at its old URL at http://www.wsis-ipr.org. The Thematic Working Group, however, has decided to avoid using the term "Intellectual Property Rights" altogether. For further references, they are also recommending a related article by free software activist Richard Stallman at the following link: http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2914132,00.html.

The second website deals with scientific information and is now open at the following link: http://www.wsis-si.org. It was formally launched last 16 June 2003. A press team is being organised to cover the WSIS Phase One in Geneva, Switzerland this December 2003. The International Information Centre and Archives for the Women's Movement (IIAV) and its partners in European North American Women Action (ENAWA) are organising this team.

IIAV and ENAWA have a four-year programme entitled "Effective E-Feminism" which aims to train women in Eastern and Central Europe and the commonwealth of independent states (CIS) in using ICTs in their information strategies; and to disseminate genderised information during important international events both to people attending the event and to people interested in following the event. For the WSIS, ENAWA is inviting journalists from Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe to join the ENAWA press team at the WSIS in Geneva.

The press team will produce a daily newspaper for distribution at the WSIS. It will also make information available via websites and e-mail newsgroups. The goals of the daily newspaper are: to strengthen and integrate a feminist analysis in the information and media landscape in relation to social movements and the women's movement in the mentioned regions and in the world; to provide daily information to participants at WSIS; and to provide daily information to readership throughout the world.

The following are the tasks of the team:

• work full-time for the paper published by women's organisations during WSIS (10-12 December 2003)
• work as writers from September 2003 preparing articles, interviews, background information to be published in the paper during WSIS
• work together online between September and December to develop the editorial policy of the publication
• arrive in Geneva two days before WSIS to work together as a team to create the structure and way of working for the period of the publication
• determine the paper-version distribution policy (dependent on which form the publication will take)
• attend a daily editorial meeting (possibly in the Women's Space) and assign tasks
• attend and report on WSIS events
• provide copy on time
• assign one or two people every day to assist in the layout and assist in the distribution of the publication (if relevant)

The expected profile of those who want to apply are as follows:

• woman journalist, with at least five years experience in this profession
• experience in team work
• experience in coverage during big conferences or meetings, preferably with a knowledge of women and ICTs
• experience in press room (working with tight deadlines and coverage of latest news)
• experience in covering information with a gender perspective
• knowledge of English, as this will be the working language of the press team
• skills to write in at least one of these languages: English, French, German, Spanish

To apply, please write to Lin McDevitt-Pugh at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and describe your suitability and your motivation. Please include two references and samples of your own writing. Also, check the ENAWA website for more details at http://www.enawa.org.

Another WSIS-related conference will take place at the Monash University Centre in Prato, Italy from 15-16 September 2003. This is entitled "Many Voices, Many Places - Electronically Enabling Communities for An Information Society: A Colloquium Research Results, Lessons Learned, Policy Recommendations."

The Centre for Community Networking Research, Monash University in Australia, and the Community Informatics Research Group at New Jersey Institute of Technology in the U.S. are inviting researchers, practitioners and policy makers to participate in this conference. It is meant as a complement to provide an opportunity for practitioners, researchers and policy makers from research centres, universities, cultural institutions, and agencies involved in governance to discuss and reflect on the role and opportunities for emergent communities as constrained by physical, distance, resource, political, and gender barriers for effective participation in an Information Society.

The organisers of the conference are aiming to identify the structures and processes which enable collective memory, minority knowledge creation, and oral culture inclusive of all parts of societies and how these may be empowered to enhance effective social participation. The intersection of the discipline of community informatics with these dimensions of societal knowledge production (and the consequential empowerment and development of social capital) will also be explored. They are also looking to provide a forum where those involved can discuss, summarise, theorise and draw conclusions or lessons learned from some ten (10) years of practical work and research experience in applying Information and Communications Technologies to enabling (and empowering) emergent communities (virtual and physical) framed as a contribution to the WSIS.

Some possible topic areas to be discussed are:

• What are the "many voices" in the Information Society?
• What are their barriers to participation and what opportunities do they present to themselves and to others as communities?
• How are these many voices "sustainable"?
• Many voices as communities of interest (and of place)
• Sustaining these communities
• Strategies for innovation: What do we know and how can it be promoted
• ICTs and Local Economic Development at the margins:
• Do ICTs contribute to Poverty Alleviation and if so, how can this be replicated?
• What is the role of institutions of cultural memory in developed and developing countries?
• Oral to electronically documented: what is the process and what are the ethical and other issues?
• Telecentres-best practices; cost-benefit assessment; are they a solution for "universal access"?
• What contribution can ICTs make to building Civil Society?
• Communities, ICTs and Emergent Democracy
• What is the (appropriate) role of the private sector?

For more information, please contact:
Michael Gurstein
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Larry Stillman
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tel: (61-3) 9903 1801
Fax: (61-3) 9903 2564
Website: http://www.ccnr.net