Deirdre Williams's Blog (45)

It has been pointed out me that in the circumstances that I have submitted a nomination to be considered as a member of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) to the United Nations Secretary General on the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) for 2016, people may very well be looking for more up to date information about me and what I am doing. So here it is.

I live in the small island state of Saint Lucia, which has been my home since 1972. I have become familiar over the last…

Grace posted some interesting ideas on Multistakeholderism yesterday, on which I've just commented.

On Friday last week I read the article referred to below on the BBC website. I noticed what appeared to be an important omission if we're considering "stakeholders" and reaching a sound decision based on discussion which includes all available perspectives. I would be interested to hear what other people think.

On 10^th August on the BBC website I found…

Family name: Williams

First name: Deirdre

Gender: Female

Country of residence: Saint Lucia, West Indies…

Thanks to Mary for editing and the whole Diplo team for their support and encouragement.

This is what I said:

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow Members of Civil Society, Friends,

I come from a small island state called Saint Lucia, in the Caribbean. But then each of us comes from a small island state called – ourselves. We're all alone, all…

Last year in Bali the generosity and good will of the Diplo alumnae was really touching to see. In spite of the fact that none of us had funding from Diplo everyone rallied round to help.

This year I'm lucky enough to have funding to go to Istanbul, and I'm hoping that the same spirit will be there again among all of us who will be present in situ. This year my funding has specific tasks attached to it which will leave me with less free time. If you will be in Istanbul can you please…

I've just spent two long, tiring (my eyes are nearly worn out) but interesting days following the NETmundial meeting in Brazil. Thank you Marilia and all of the rest of the remote participation team for so efficiently making this possible.

This message is really a request. There are people belonging to this community from all over the world, and speaking many different languages. If you find commentary on the meeting in your language, in your local media, could you share it with us…

The message pasted below arrived this morning. Since many people in the Diplo group are also interested in education I'm taking the liberty of spreading the word here.

Good luck to anyone who decides to apply

Best wishes 

Deirdre

I just read Ginger's latest blog post. It reminded me of some things I have to share.

Let me warn you – jet lag is bad, but virtual jet lag is simply dreadful. However, jet lag you have twice at least, once going, once coming back; virtual jet lag you have once, for the whole meeting, but it's easily cured at the end by a good long sleep. Real jet lag has a way of…

Pre-registration for the Bali Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is now open here. Please note that it is possible to register as a remote participant and important that you should do this if you plan to follow any of the meeting online. The greater the demand for remote participation, the more energy and resources will go into improving the remote participation experience, so please help to show…

http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/component/content/article/121-preparatory-process/1288-2013-preliminary-call-for-workshops-proposals

2013 Preliminary Call for Workshops Proposals…

Freedom to Choose

Jovan suggested that I might expand and share the ideas on this topic that I proposed during his recent webinar on the early history of diplomacy. I had a nagging feeling that I had already done that. The blog post below is what I was thinking about.

The right to disagree

Is anyone else concerned about the erosion of our right to disagree, not to join, to be “different”, to say “no”? We talk quite a lot about diversity, and yet these rights,…

Just a reminder for those who may not have noticed that it is possible to register as a remote participant (if like me you're thousands of miles away) for the various meetings coming up in Paris - WSIS + 10, IGF planning and the MAG - over the next couple of weeks.

The deadline is tomorrow, 20th February, so you still have time.

It's a way of demonstrating how much we value the opportunity for remote participation, and how many remote participants there are.

And…

Before it gets cold …

I just attended the Diplo webinar Social Media and Diplomacy - the new normal. I’m interested to hear other people’s ideas on two of the issues that came up.

The first is that the speaker, Pete Cranston, suggested that the digital divide is being obliterated – or at least that is my understanding of what was said. While that may be true of the “elite” – his term – and so of the lateral divide, it seems to me that the divide still exists, and may be getting…

Is anyone else concerned about the erosion of our right to disagree, not to join, to be “different”, to say “no”? We talk quite a lot about diversity, and yet these rights, critical to the existence of “diversity”, are hardly considered. Instead we are swamped and carried away in the tsunami of insistence that we conform to the opinion and actions of the current loudest voice.

Is it that in a global population of 7 billion people we can no longer afford the luxury of diversity, but…

As an aside to my comments on Vlada’s blog post, and incidentally to Jovan’s language project I suddenly remembered a story by Rudyard Kipling. In fact it’s a story inside a story.

“And yet Suleiman-bin-Daoud was not proud. He very seldom showed off, and when he did he was sorry for it. Once he tried to feed all the animals in all  the world in one day, but when the food was ready an Animal came out of the deep sea and ate it up in three mouthfuls. Suleiman-bin-Daoud was very…

Someone asked for impressions of Baku and the IGF, so here are mine -

Baku – olive trees full of olives lining the streets, a city of fountains, friendly faces, nearly everyone blessedly able to speak English, a feeling of shame for my pitiful, poorly pronounced Azeri vocabulary, black (and coloured) London taxis - find a taxi with a meter or establish the price first  same as Lima, same all over the world? Roses blooming in November. Empty roads on Saturday morning at sunrise, a…

This post was published on Bytesforall today. Since many of us are also involved in research, the information may be useful.…

Just received this link to a discussion at Stanford about Online Learning. You may be interested.

For at least the last twenty years I have been aware of people talking about “paradigms” and “paradigm shifts” A paradigm is essentially a pattern ,” A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline.” (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/paradigm) The definition uses the language of seeing – “a way of viewing” - and…

This has nothing whatsoever to do with information and communication technology – or has it?

Some 400 years ago and 4000 miles away, a man, living in London, listened to a bell and used the bell notes as an image in a piece of writing. He had been very ill and would soon die. His name was John Donne. You can read his whole meditation here but this is the most famous part:…