Milena Bokova, executive director of the BlueLink Information Network, a digital network supporting environmentalists and civil society in Bulgaria, had the opportunity to participate in PrepCom 2. She shares some reflections with APCNews as an East European civil society activist and a new participant in the WSIS process.

Spanish APC member, Pangea, has been at the service of the community of people and organisations that work for social change for more than a decade. It has dedicated itself to this by facilitating communication through e-mail and conferences, internet and web connections. On 9 March 2005 Pangea will commemorate this with a special conference attended, as distinguished guests, by Julian Casabuenas (Colnodo) and Dafne Plou (APC Women’s Networking Support Programme).

Creative Commons could be a very useful initiative in West Africa, but there are a number of challenges that need to be taken into consideration before we will see any significant African participation in the global movement. This was the general consensus of participants at a workshop held by the APC in collaboration with the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT in Accra, Ghana at the beginning of February.

The high cost of telephony and technical services is a principal barrier to ICT access for women networking against violence in Central Asia, as well as language, training, and gender stereotypes about women’s use of technology. Such barriers have motivated the Podrugi Crisis Centre to become a pioneer in combining ICTs with their struggle against gender violence. "The women at Podrugi decided if they wanted the situation to change, they’d have to do it themselves," comments Katerina Fialova of the APC Women’s Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP), after a recent visit to Kazakhstan to support Podrugi’s ICT work.

The African Regional Conference, preparatory to the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), was held in Accra, Republic of Ghana, from February 2 to 4, 2005. Participating in the Conference were representatives of African governments, delegates from many other countries and international organisations, and people representing African private sector and civil society, including members of the APC team.

The Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus presented this statement during PrepCom 2 of the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva. The Caucus expresses its support for the Working Group on Internet Governance’s multi stakeholder approach. "We believe that legitimate and successful Internet Governance can only be achieved if all concerned or affected groups have an opportunity to influence the outcome of governance processes."

The statement was read by Anita Gurumurthy to the general assembly on behalf of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Bread for All, the CRIS Campaign, Instituto del Tercer Mundo (ITeM), IT for Change and the gender caucus in response to the report of the Task Force on Financial Mechanisms given at the second plenary meeting of PrepCom-2 for the Tunis Phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) on 17 February 2005.

APC participated in the deliberations of the Task Force on Financial Mechanisms for ICTD, which was established at the World Summit for the Information Society in Geneva in December 2003. Anriette Esterhuysen, APC Executive Director, was appointed as a member of the Task Force, while Willie Currie, APC ICT Policy Manager, attended the two Task Force meetings as an alternate.

Instituto del Tercer Mundo (ITeM) and Third World Network (TWN) invite delegates and all WSIS stakeholders to a panel debate on the mechanisms to finance information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D). During the panel, the first outcomes of the ongoing research project by ITeM on the Southern perspectives at WSIS will be presented. It will be held on 21 February 2005 in Geneva.