[Reader-list] Communication rights, censorship, privacy issues: New discussion topics

[Kanti Kumar]

Dear Friend,
 
Greetings from South Asia. 

We now have a new topic up for discussion in our forum 'Information
Society: Voices from the South' on Digital Opportunity Channel. Your
contributions to the discussions on the first topic of 'Knowledge
Societies' had been immensely useful and have been added to our
report too. Please see the report at
http://www.digitalopportunity.org/fulltext/IS_summary1_knowledgesocie
ty.htm

The new topic is: "Issues of Rights, Freedom, Laws and Ethics: How
to address these for the development of Information Society in the
South?" We've split the topic into the following sub-topic so that
we can proceed in a systematic way and can bring in some fruitful
outcomes...

1.	Freedom of expression, censorship: How do these affect the
Information Society?
2.	Communication rights at Individual and Country level: examples,
case studies and experiences
3.	Privacy issues, data protection, and surveillance: How these can
be preserved?
4.	Intellectual Property Rights issues, Global Information Commons:
Do developing countries need to take these seriously?
5.	Free/Open Source Software: Can these be alternative to
development?

We request your valuable inputs to the forum where we trying to
configure the issues, challenges and opportunities related to
rights, freedom, laws and ethics that vary from country to country
in the South. You are best placed in putting in these ideas based on
your diverse nature of geographical representation. Please bring in
examples, views, notes, and opinions with regard to these issues and
take part in the debate and discussion. Based on the inputs that you
provide, we can design campaign ideas and advocacy with relevant
groups so that such issues are brought into the light of pressure
groups and decision makers. Even if you think, the topic isn't that
important for us, please express that too and explain why you think
so. 

If you are already in the forum, post your messages to
IS at dgroups.org 

If you have not joined the forum yet, please sign up at
http://www.digitalopportunity.org/discussion/signup   

Or, simply send a blank mail to join-IS at dgroups.org 

Hope to see you participate in the discussions in the forum at
http://www.dgroups.org/groups/IS 

Best regards and please feel free to contact us if you need any
clarification. 

Kanti Kumar
Editor, Digital Opportunity Channel
www.digitalopportunity.org
OneWorld South Asia

Partha Pratim Sarker 
Moderator, IS Discussion Forum 
Co-Editor, Bytes for All
partha at bytesforall.org