ISOC Belgium - Wallonia

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Christopher Wilkinson, honorary director of the European Commission and member of ISOC Wallonia (Belgium) Chapter, is the coordinator of the OneWebDay 2007.

[edit] OneWebDay 2007 in Wallonia

OneWebDay is an exhilarating concept that could galvanize the promotion and evolution of the Internet in many countries. The idea is a worthy successor to the Internet Fiestas, with which many of us became familiar in years past.

Organising coordinated events or manifestations on a single day, world-wide, presupposes a well defined strategy and objectives and months of lead-time for the necessary planning. Indeed, for 2008 it might be more practical to phase the event over a three or four week period, so that each Internet community could programme their initiatives, taking account of local opportunities and constraints.

Furthermore, following the explosive growth of the Internet in recent years, Internet use, and the related policy and social issues, are taking off in different directions among various user communities. Thus, it might become more difficult to identify common themes in the future than it was in the past, when the Internet was more narrowly defined, and the user communities less diverse.

In our Internet Society Chapter in Wallonia - the French speaking part of Belgium - we will plan for a high point in our educational and promotional activities in the autumn of 2008, and trust that this will synchronise with the activies of other Internet Society Chapters World-Wide and in Europe. Indeed, the public impact of OneWebDay in Europe could be enhanced by a coordinated regional approach involving not only Internet Society Chapters, but also other user and civil society groups, operators, as well as public institutions.

Meanwhile we extend our felicitations and every good wish to those Chapters that have been able to organise events in September and October 2007 and look forward to learning from their example and experiences for the future.

Also see ISOC Wallonia's website.

[edit] More Information about ISOC Wallonia

A few outlines about the Chapitre Wallonie (Belgique) de l'Internet Society (ISOC Belgium - Wallonia), created in 1998:

- Governance of the Internet ISOC Wallonia participates in or organizes activities in the area of Internet governance. Many members of ISOC Wallonia's executive committee took part in the WSIS and participate in the IGF. Marie-Anne Delahaut, ISOC Wallonia's president, presented a report (in French) to the chapter after Geneva 2003 and after Tunis 2005 (see online: [1]

ISOC Wallonia has participated in the conference "Foresight & Governance of the Internet" organized by the Destree Institute with Vinton G. Cerf as a keynote speaker. A book and a DVD-book have been published: [2].

- Conferences The conferences organized by ISOC Wallonia (2000 - 2007) are presented online: [3]

A detailed activity report for 2003 is here: [4].

- European Chapters of the Internet Society ISOC Belgium - Wallonia's past president, Jacques Berleur, was president of ISOC-ECC in 2001 and we organized a meeting of ISOC European chapters in Brussels and in Namur.

Christopher Wilkinson has been elected by ISOC-ECC chapters in June 2007 as a member of the next ISOC-ECC Board. We plan to organize an international meeting in Wallonia in 2007.

- Millennia 2015 Marie-Anne Delahaut, director of research at the Destree Institute, organizes the international conference Millennia 2015, "Women, actors of development for the global challenges" next 7 and 8 March 2008 in Liège: Anne-Rachel Inné, ICANN Regional Liaison for Africa, has accepted to present a contribution during Millennia 2015. The website is in development: [5]. Many ISOC chapters will participate in the conference.

More to come...