(English)

Dear friends of the Methodology and Expansion commissions,

>>>This message is commenting and completing on alessandra message about belem expanded Paragraphs starting with >>> are those added to the original message

The aim of this message is to describe a little bit what was agreed in Belem during the meetings of the Methodology and Communication commissions and some issues still pending related to the proposal of "Belem Expanded", raised in Abuja IC meeting (read Abuja report in: http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/download/2008-04-Abuja_IC_meeting_report_EN_FINAL_DRAFT.pdf). "Belem expanded" concerns to the set of activities all over the world that would be carried out simultaneously to the 2009 event.

In Belem, it was mentioned that the main purpose of the "Belem Expanded" would be to assure that regions/groups that cannot travel to Belem have a mechanism to interact/be part of it. It is not a matter of launching a huge call, as it was done for the Global Day of Mobilization and Action, but of creating mechanisms that allow:

1) Making visible the set of initiatives like that being prepared around the world by the different organizations;

2) If possible, setting up online connections among these descentralized activities with those that will be carried out in Belem. For instance, teleconferences among the two activities or streaming of parts of a debate in Belem to a public grouped in other city. Experiences like this were already made in Brazil and require technical conditions for the conection in both places (Belem and the other venue) as well as, in some cases, interpretation.

Around these issues, what is already assured:
a- on the registration system that is being developed for the Belem event, there is a question on the organization form asking if it intends or not to organize an activity in another part of the world, simultaneous to the WSF in Belem;

>> so it is  very meaningful and recommended that all organizations that intend to organize a decentralized activity register themselves in the www.fsm2009amazonia.org.br site and answer “yes” in the item “ belem expandida”  -this will be done in wsf bulletin and in wsf2008.net

b- on the activities registration form for Belem event, there is a question asking if that specific activity intends to set up connection with an activity outside Belem (and which would be this activity)

c- many rooms in the WSF territory will have access to Internet (by cable or wireless)

>> during the belem meeting in July a working group was defined in the communication group of wsf2009, it is called fsm2009 interconnexoes , and will be in charge of accommodating interconnexions with belem during belem 2009  - it can be contacted in openfsm.net site

There are some issues that still need be worked by the Methodology, Expansion and Communication commissions, since they integrate different aspects of the WSF expansion process.

a) An explanatory text about what is the "Belem Expanded", describing its characteristic of including in the WSF process regions and groups that could not be physically in Belem, but who wish to organize activities in a self-organized way in the framework of Belem and of the goals defined for that event;

>> a draft of this text is being prepared….

b) Preparing a plan of countries/cities/regions, specially the areas for WSF expansion (Asia, Africa, Arab world), where an effort to assure that local activities be organized simultaneously to Belem should be made. It is a matter not only of preparing this plan, but also of identifying IC and commission's people and organizations, as well as initiatives of forums in those regions, that could be in charge of interlinking/stimulating their contacts in order to promote those activities locally, preferably, engaging many organizations around the same activity. I believe this is a key plan in order to take advantage of Belem 2009 to also expand WSF process in those regions.

>> Alessandra  is  referring to the experience of GDA where some active work was made in  middle east and Russia , this is in deed  a great opportunity – this is a distinct task from  preparing the interconnections per se  - and has to do with expansion of wsf process .There are groups inside openfsm that have been recently created  wg-expansion-asia   wg expansion arab  wg expasion russia

>>Another population that can be approached specifically is all those that  registered an action in wsf2008.net . A significant share of those actions could have been  decentralized activity in a forum process. So there is a possibility that they may be interested in renewing the experience

c) It is necessary to identify a mechanism for registering the activities outside Belem: there is already a proposal of very simple form for this (see attached). The systematization of registrations for Belem expanded could be done in a very simple, manual, way: the form would be available in the WSF webstites (Belem and others) and could be sent by email; the WSF office in Sao Paulo could be in charge of systematizing and publicizing the list of activities in the websites. This is a quicker and simple option that engages requires few resources. It is only a matter of finalizing the form, translate and spread it. Another alternative would be to build a website for the online registration of those activities outside Belem, taking advantage of some tool that already exists (like the www.wsf2008.net).

>> a third alternative that can be assessed  is developing the  registration form in the fsm2009amazonia website. This way,  organizations that will have been invited to register ,and express their will to set up decentralized activities can logically  access the form to fill, and be included in the same environment as the activities in belem, which will allow to give  a sense of unity  between all activities  when browsing the electronic program of wsf2009,

>> the form includes some more technical fields about connections, it is not necessary to fill them all at  the beginning, just think that they will have to be filled as time passes by.
There is a wide array of possibilities of connections  that has been reduced to 7 possibilities.  The main criterias are  internet or not, and  having a counterpart activity on “the other side” or not 

d) Finally, it would be necessary to set up a calendar of tasks and people responsible to issues connected to the Belem Expanded, what would include since the "registration calendar" for the activities simultaneous to Belem (that I understand should be similar to the registration for Belem event, that is, up to October or maybe a little bit more), as well as the adjustments and finalization of this specific set of activities, that equally should be publicized on the WSF 2009 website and, ideally, on the printed program for WSF in Belem.

>> tasks and calendar can be finalized in the space of the working group fsm2009interconnexoes – belem expandida  - that will be in charge of issuing a program of interconnections for wsf2009  

I believe that these are the main issues related to Belem Expanded; if there are another related issues, please, post them in these mailing lists. We should see among the commissions how to advance in each one of them. We could also try to organize a chat on skype exclusive about this issue.

>> a skype space has been created for hosting the chats ….. see here

Waiting for your comments on the issues above!

>> here are mines ( Pierre)

Warm regards,

Alessandra Ceregatti
WSF Office