The Tunis Conference will formally conclude the four-year process of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Civil society organizations from all around the world have participated lively in this process, building diverse networks and coalitions, strategizing, formulating contributions for the negotiations, and shaping its own visions of an Information Society that meets human needs.

Now, the main challenge is to ascertain that this process, which at WSIS proved to be instructive for all, will generate a sustainable follow-up. For civil society, major controversies and cornerstoones of this follow up - center around human rights, sustainable development and multistakeholder participation.

At this side event of the Tunis summit, the Heinrich Böll Foundation will offer a space for civil society to share views and discuss forward-looking questions and strategies such as

• What should a post-WSIS agenda look like in the different world regions?
• What strategic goals will help promote the triad of human rights, sustainable development and civil society participation in governance processes?
• What conclusions can be drawn from the civil society participation in the multi-stakeholder process of WSIS?
• Which arenas and perspectives open up for civil society involvement after WSIS?
• What programmatic goals can unite the different social movements and initiatives dedicated to freedom of communication, the safeguarding of the right to privacy, to open access to knowledge, free and open source software etc.?

At the end of the event, we will launch our new publication “Visions in Process II – The World Summit on the Information Society, Geneva 2003-Tunis 2005”, following up on the successful "Visions in Process I" that was published during the first WSIS summit in Geneva 2003.

Programme

9.00  Welcome
Olga Drossou, Heinrich Böll Foundation

9.15 - 10.30  Developing the post-WSIS agenda
Panel discussion with
- Anita Gurumurthi, IT for Change India
- Sally Burch, Agencía Latinoamericana de Información
- Gbenga Sesan, African Youth ICT4D Network
- Ziad Abdel-Samad, Arab NGO Network for Development
- Chantal Peyer, Bread for all, Switzerland
Chair: Rainer Kuhlen, Chair Information and Communication Committee, German Kommission of UNESCO

10.30 - 11.45 Civil Society @ WSIS: What was and what's next?
Panel discussion with:
- Claudia Padovani, University of Padova, Italy
- Karen Banks, APC, Great Britain
- Parminder Jeet Singh, IT for Change, India
- Geert Lovink, Incommunicado Network, Netherlands
- Chris Kabwato, Highway Africa, South Africa
Chair: Ralf Bendrath, editor www.worldsummit2005.org, Germany

11.45 - 13.00  Book launch
"Visions in Process II - The World Summit on the Information Society"
Roundtable with the authors:
Chantal Peyer, Claudia Padovani, Divina Frau-Meigs, Karen Banks, Rikke Frank Joergensen, Meryem Marzouki, Sally Burch, Viola Krebs, Anita Gurumurthy, Tracey Naughton
Chair: Heike Jensen, Heinrich Böll Foundation, WSIS Gender Caucus