[Wsfii-Dharamsala] [wsfii-coord] Re: wsfii-coord Digest, Vol 11, Issue 15

[Laird Brown]

On 18-Mar-06, at 12:00 PM, Julian Priest wrote:

	[snip]

> I totally agree that India and the region should be the focus of the
> event, but as we're merging wsfii.dharamsala with what was going to be
> wsfii.bangalore maybe I can give a bit of background on the
> international element that was planned for that event?

This is very helpful for those of us not that familiar with WSFII  
history.

> Wsfii as a grass roots summit process was conceived as a series of
> events to both focus on local needs and issues, and partly as a way of
> avoiding the excesses of the international conference format, limiting
> travel and expense.
>
> On the other hand it has always had an international element hopefully
> with some movement and linkages between events and at least a few
> people travelling to each one with a kind of relay idea.
>
> For this reason wsfii is described as the world *summits* on free
> information infrastructures - less one totalising mountain but more a
> range of hills!

With the exception of Dharamsala which is already in the mountains,  
literally speaking <grin>

> At wsfii.london we had long conversations about the need for a really
> international event once a year where people are brought together from
> all over the world - a more international summit and a successor to
> the series of annual events that preceded wsfii in berlin, djursland,
> london etc. We eventually agreed that it was a good idea to have one
> event this year where we could focus press and international
> attention.

On what, precisely?

> Since Djursland in 2004 it has been an ambition to hold this 2006
> event outside of Europe and the wsfii that we were going to have in
> Bangalore was meant to be this slightly more international 2006 event
> which would also encompass what is becoming an annual freenetworks
> meeting.

Understood.

> Now that we have merged it into your great plans for an event at
> Dharamsala from what I understand you are taking on this aspect of the
> event as well (though of course not all the organisation of that  
> side of
> things). I hope that is ok?

We [the Tibetan Technical Center] have our interests, and the core  
team from WSFII has its interests, as does OVF, the Dalai Lama  
Foundation, and various other partners. Depending on who you asked  
from which organization, you'd probably get many different  
perspectives on what the Air Jaldi summit was trying to achieve, and  
that's OK.

Everyone should get something out of this effort.

> I think what I am trying to say is that maybe you shouldn't
> underestimate the international attendance of wsfii.dharamsala.

Forgive me if I sounded dismissive or disrespectful of international  
participation. Quite frankly, I expected attendance from some folks  
previously associated with WSFII events, and I also imagine that some  
geeks and social justice types who've already been to Dhasa - and are  
looking for a cool excuse to return - will probably be attracted to  
this event.

> Wsfii is a process that has been building since 2004 and which is
> getting some great momentum from the Dharamsala event. Far from being
> something that no one has heard of - people have been planning to come
> to an event in India since 2004 so hopefully you will have a good
> international attendance. I think we'd roughly calculated around 100 -
> 200 international visitors depending on how much publicity is built
> around it.

Publicity is probably going to be the least of our problems.

> Hope this helps to give some context and looking forward to being one
> of the crowd making its way to Dharamsla later in the year.

We'd love to have you, and the rest of this gang too!

L.