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Hi
Mark Ray suggested that I should forward the following proposal for a Polymedia Lab at the WSIS to these two lists.
The email that follows can be found on the web, together with an RTF version, at this address:
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-europe/2003-July/001309.html
I think that there is some overlap with the ideas of the FSF and this proposal and I'm sure that the people organising this would welcome input for the FSF.
Chris
PS sorry to join this list and then just forward stuff from elsewhere -- I'll now do some lurking :-)
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From: alien8 alien8@riseup.net Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 10:25:21 +0200 To: imc-europe@lists.indymedia.org List-Id: For organising a European IMC meetings and co-ordination <imc-europe.lists.indymedia.org> Subject: [Imc-europe] Proposal: Polymedia Lab
Media Lab 2/03: Polymedia Lab at WSIS 8-13 December 2003 - Geneva - WSIS
Information increasingly represents the ground on which authority is based and on which struggles are being fought out. Intellectual Property is becoming a major means of control, and the media-led battles for the thoughts and the consent of people are playing a central role in global politics - once again proven by the tales on weapons of mass destruction before the Iraq war.
As an intervention into the reorganisation of power, communication and information, we propose a media lab during the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
The WSIS - Background In December 2003 the United Nations will hold the first part of a global conference on information and communication: The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). WSIS will be the first in the recent series of global summits to deal with information issues. Just as the Rio summit in 1992 structured the politics of sustainable development, the WSIS may set the framework for how issues around information and communication will be perceived and dealt with in the future. Because of the dominant role of Northern governments and corporations, we can expect further moves towards neoliberalisation, the privatisation of knowledge, and repressive cybersecurity regimes, while development concerns will be swept aside by the spread of western technology.
Polymedia Lab at the WSIS We are proposing to hold a media and communication laboratory as a counter-event to the WSIS. Based on the experiences of the Hub in Florence in November 2002, and organised in close cooperation with the proposed media lab for the next European Social Forum in Paris, Polymedia Lab will be a temporary space of experimentation and confrontation for alternative and grassroots communication projects. It will serve as a platform to develop and experiment with horizontal communication, to share experiences and knowledge, to create networks of alternative communication projects, and present an alternative vision of information society.
Polymedia Lab will focus on horizontality, emancipation, openness, creativity and freedom, where WSIS will be about hierarchy, exclusion, and control. It will present practical projects by those who actually develop information society on a grassroots level. While WSIS will be busy presenting dry documents by those who use, exploit and repress the work of others, we will engage in an act of communications insurgency.
What would we envision? What could take place at Polymedia Lab? - - a big open Indymedia Centre with public access terminals - - pirate TV and pirate radio (local) - - video and radio streams (global, multidirectional, and in interaction with streams being produced elsewhere) - - presentations on issues around the information society: media concentration, intellectual property rights, infowar, ISP and media laws, etc. - - skill-sharing workshops on technological aspects of communication: Linux, pgp, WiFi, satellite transmission, hacking, streaming, etc. - - permanent workshops on non-technical aspects of communication: horizontal, non-hierarchical ways of communicating - - network meetings of groups and individuals involved with free TV, free radio, Indymedia, video, etc. to develop and facilitate cooperation
Who are we talking to? In addition to being platforms for exchange, experiment and networking, media labs aim to reach out to other communities and to publicise horizontal grassroots approaches. At the WSIS, Polymedia Lab will try to interact with "Civil Society" (as defined by the UN). Hundreds of NGOs and civil society groups are involved in the summit preparation process, around 700 members of civil society participated in the last preparatory conference alone. We will strengthen links and exchange with some of the more progressive civil society organisations, while at the same time questioning and criticising the role of NGOs in the UN process, the corporate takeover of the UN, and Corporatised Global Governance. We will demonstrate other ways to raise our voices than lobbying and gratefully participating in a global summit.
At the same time, Polymedia Lab will spread news and analysis about the WSIS to other parts of the world through polymedia reporting and multidirectional video and radio streaming, providing an interface for remote participation and for interactive workshops with those who cannot come to Geneva.
- From media lab part 1 to part 2 The WSIS media lab should become the climax of a month-long concerted alternative information society campaign, to be started at the ESF media lab in Paris in November. During that month we will educate ourselves and others about the WSIS and its possible impacts, counteract the summit agenda, and show the value of information and communication systems based on freedom, horizontality and cooperation.
Let's get started... As a next step we will need to form an organising group. Polymedia Lab will only happen if many people and groups join the effort. Please tell us if you would like to participate by sending an email to "wsis at nadir.org". That address has also been set up as a mailing list for organising the lab. In addition, we hope that many groups and individuals will prepare workshops, radio programmes, actions, etc. If you are one of them, please let us know via the same address.
Polymedia Lab was first proposed at a meeting on counter-events to the WSIS in April 2003. It will be part of a whole series of counter-events which also include the World Communication Rights Forum and a Make-World conference.
Polymedia Lab Initiative Group (individuals from European IMCs)
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