• possible fsm wsf process event space diagram commented en

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by facilitfsm, modified June 3, 2019
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by facilitfsm, modified June 3, 2019

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Commenting on two diagrams about WSF process

About participants ownership, ways forwards for WSF processes, and overall WSF process facilitation


Introduction

EMERGENCE AND FORMALIZATION OF THE SOCIAL FORUM "FORMAT" ASSERTED AS A PROCESS FROM A FIRST EVENT EXPERIENCE

  • The social forum format was conceived in practice in Porto Alegre on January 2001, and formalized later in a charter of principles taken care of by an International Council established in June 2001. This charter affirms in article 1 that the world social forum is a process

THE WSF INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL AS CAREGIVERTO THE WSF PROCESS

  • The International Council can be considered as the caregiver of the political methodological pact that the charter and its signatories represents, to find ways to develop a process of intercommunication counter hegemonic against neo-liberalism and its configurations of alliances with other forms of domination existing in the various contexts national and cultural in a globalizing world.
  • In casablanca in 2013 this council has dedicated a brief moment to describe its own taskshttp://openfsm.net/projects/wsfic_fsmci/casa13-wsfic-tasks-tareas-taches-cifsm/#EN.The level of fulfillment of these tasks can be appreciated.This capacity of performing tasks rests also in the ability to create a "social forum process caregiving community" that goes beyond the people representing member entities of this council. council

TWO DECADES LATER

  • Almost 20 years later, the international political and economic panorama has changed and authoritarian political forms are developing that maintain a neoliberal agenda differentiated according to economic interblocks competition.Its description is not the purpose of this document.Awarenessis growing about the need to find ways to resiste and build another world that is increasingly necessary to face planetary challenges common to humanity.
  • The development of the social forum process described in the Charter of principles has been less than could be imagined in 2001, but the process continues to exist which is good news.And there is no alternative generic proposal that has emerged meanwhile.
  • exist.
  • The originality of the social forum as an horizontal process of intercommunication with counter hegemonic potential thus remains, This originality is more or less identified by millions of people accross the world. world
  • It can be argued that there has not been, from the international council that had good legitimacy and potential for this task, a persistent enough effort to disseminate the charter of principles and find ways to expand and make palpable an active community of facilitators / caregivers of the process. The gap between needs and capacities is more evident since the economic crisis of 2008.
PURPOSE OF THIS TEXT
  • In this context, the present input is proposed from a point of view of methodological formalization. formalization
  • This point of view is based on the assumption that if WSF proposal is taken seriously it is to be developped by its promoters to counter hegemonic size as an horizontal process-space process , a process made up of a diversity of processes that coexist and overlap in a mesh mode in time and sapce, that a growing community of WSF participants counscious of their participant identiy will use as a common organizing good, a common organizing tool with mutual visibility for resisting and for building other possible worlds. worlds
  • This replication and coexistence requires a common understanding about the principles prinicples and the formats of participation. Replication requires participation ,it requires replication with clear transmission of a generic process description.
  • This is why methodology is from the onset a strategic issue about WSF process. And this is what methodological discusion and experiementation is critical for the quality of this process process .
  • This document is thus mainly directed to entities involved in WSF process facilitation and also with a concern about overall cooperation to sustain an develop WSF process in general . As such it WSF. It can be of interest for WSF participants of course .
  • The document will :
    • A / Present and comment a disk and circle diagram as a vector for dissemination of the forum's understanding, as a graphic illustration of a generic SF process-space-event. process-space-event
    • B/ Present and comment a 6 rectangles diagram as a guide for thinking about how to make available generic acts of participation to wsf participants in a diversity of participatory web space and websites. websites
    • C/ Highlight some formats of participation in the social forum process, the implementation of which can offer perspective for those who want to further develop the process along its current principles , and mention possibilitie of horizontal cooperation i a facilitating community around wsf international council where reactivation of methodological discussion would be quite relevant.

globe-logo.pngA / Disk and circles Diagram : Generic description of a social forum process


GRAPHIC METAPHOR: FORUM PROCESS WITH PARTICIPATION CIRCLES AND OPEN SPACE DISC

  • This "disk and circles " diagram (see below) proposes a metaphor for a social forum process whose principles are explained in 14 articles that describe various facets of the process:http://openfsm.net/projects/ic-methodology/charter-fsm- wsf-en
  • This space-process described by the charter of principles is a shared political-methodological vision, which takes concrete logistic forms in websites, physical spaces and time segments, over time, since the beginning of the WSF process in 2001.
  • Forum process manifestations are social forum event processes thematic or geographic on local, national, global scales.(see some pagesWSF calendar of eventssince 2012), or extension dynamics (see the activities placed in dynex1FSMhttp://openfsm.net/projects/dynex1-fsmwsf/dynex1fsmwsf-chrono-list-activ)
  • The diagram reads as follows : participants (element 1 in the diagram) have 3 main forms of participation available: come in "common spaces of facilitated intercommunication (element 2), instituted by the facilitatros of the process ( facilitation is element 3 that is not visible in this diagram but is essential so that the process "works"), self organized "intercommunication activities" (element 4) that are of very different format (workshops seminars conferences assemblies, parties etc or auto promote "transformative initiatives" (element 5) .with public actions (symbolized by green arrows) that can have diverses size and type. be very diersa forms
  • The diagram is horizontal, everything is in the same plan of the "open space". The first Circle is the one of various intercommunication spaces (element 2) ; second circle are activities without reference to initiatives, third circle are activities with discussion about initiatives, Fourth circle is agora of futures intercommunication about initiatives, boundary of openspace. Fifth circle is all the public actions mentionned in all the initiatives discussed in the process, which make up the calendar of future. future
  • In the diagram there is a notion of "journey" with the arrow to travel the distance from the center to the periphery, but there is no notion of time: The time of a particular process is usually 18 month/ 2 years, and it is much longer than the time of an event (when there is one) that is a few days. days
  • discoFS-EN-fleche-70.png

AN "OPEN SPACE" POSITIONNED BY THE CHARTER OF PRINCIPLES

  • The Disk and circles diagram gives a representation of the "open space of the forum", (it is the light blue disk in the diagram that goes until the fourth circle named "agora of initiatives/futures), This space "rests on" and "is delimited by" all the "intercommunications related to activities" placed in the process by participants.
  • The open space, is ideologically, politically and axiologically located by the WSF charter of principles that prescribes the generic values and goals of participants in the process.From there, the space is open "to who is publicly considering himself as a participant in the process with these generic values and goals". So it is not "any space".
BOUNDARY OF OPEN SPACE : INTERCOMUNICATION ABOUT INITIATIVES AND ACTIONS
  • This open space, of conceptual nature, goes "until" moments of "agoras of futures", that can be self organized, or organized by the facilitating collective of a given process event,. Agora of futures is a space or an activity about intercommunications between participants focused in the initiatives. Initiative is an umbrela word for struggles proyects campaigns alternatives initiatives ... it is,declared each by a group of participating entities, with specific goal and tasks and which are planning some public transformative actions announced in the future. future
  • The actions are formally located "outside" of the "forum space" which is about "intercommunication" and is not an "action space". There is ample relevance in intercommunicating about initiatives and actions ( presentation, articulation, strategic planning, operative planning etc..)
  • These public actions, are of diverse and non violente nature : they can be categorized as reflaction, manifestaction, involvaction ,argumentaction, exposaction. They are requiring a more or less important commitment from the people who make them, and this is depending also on the size of the democratic public space that exists in the country where they are made. They reflect or carry a significant part of the medium term social and political impact and influence capability of the WSF process participants in their respective societies,

DIVERSITY OF POSSIBLE PROCESS FORMATS: WITH OR WITHOUT CENTRAL EVENT

  • This Disk and Circles diagram can be expanded in time and space: it is the same diagram, whether or not there is a prominent event in the considered process. Indeed various forms of process can coexist within the general WSF process. process
    • Process-event, local, national , world, thematic scale around a central event ( that can be mentioned in an WSF calendar of events). Withe a pre event and post event phase. the active spell of time for those process being one to 2 years. years
    • Process-kiosk, ie without event, but with a common online intercommunication space (kiosk), proposing to its partiicpants placement of local activities and initiatives, as in a process-event. Each kiosk is operated by a facilitation collective with a freely defined "presence area" and without territorial exclusivity. It is a place where participants can also be made aware of several event processes. processes
    • Process-extension dynamics , where local activities open to online participation are placed by participants asserting their basic relation to the WSF process. process
  • The development of the forum process in general can be made in a mesh format , by replications and coexistences, overlappings of these various formats of process in time and space, involving more people accross the world who are sharing the same principles and practices of what is an WSF open space, intecommnicating towards initiatives and actions inan effort to reach counter hegemonic "size" .

VALUING THE IDENTITY OF "WSF PROCESSPARTICIPANT"

  • This disk and circles diagram highlights the notion of "WSF participants".The people and collective entities that enter the open space through an online form referring generic values and goals of participants and basic rules of open space stated charter of principles . They receive information about what it is, "where" they are, how they can participate and use this open space .
  • They already have or come progressively to understand this participant identity and the nature of open space , in the light of the activities in which they participate and informal exchanges with other participants.
  • The dissemination of this simple disk and circles diagram can accompany the dissemination of the charter of principles among participants and stimulate discussions about how each participant understands the forum and intendes to participate of faciltate it.
  • The assumed and conscious identity of being a "WSF participant" can be regarded as a political counter hegemonic identity , that allows to participate more actively in a process of counter hegemonic intercommunication , in contact with entities and movements asserting their counter hegemonic goals and practices.

DEVELOPMENT OF ONLINE PARTICIPATIONIN THE WSF PROCESS

  • The small disks at the center of the disk and circle diagram that represent people / entities and the largest disks of the activities in the diagram are divided into two semi-discs: the darkest half correspond to the face-to-face intercommunication, and the lighter half to the intercomunication line. line
  • Participating online is becoming an increasingly accessible practice, and its dissemination is a necessary condition for the process to be sustainable and not relying only on face to face encounters. encounters
  • The counter hegemonic usage of social networks in the forum process, allows to define communities of WSF participants, people who act for another possible in the face-to-face world where they live, and at the same time can connect with each other in interlocal connections. connections
  • Inter-local connections are different from pyramidal connections between entity representatives who will meet face to face in an event.They contribute to a much more hands-on ownership of the wsf process by many more participants who do not have travel to a series of centric events to be visible and effective in the process. process

THE ARROW: GENERIC JOURNEY OF PARTICIPANTS IN THE FORUM WITH THE TIMES IT REQUIRES

  • The big arrow in this diagram from center to right periphery shows the possible "generic journey" of participants, persons or collective entities of civil society, in the "space-process-event" of a social forum, designed and facilitated according to the WSF principles. principles
  • The inclusion in the process is done in the center of the diagram after the act of self inclusion in theopen space. Then the generic journey goes from the center to the periphery of the "open space" disk and then beyond the boundary of open space towards participation in public actions.
  • The potential size of such actions when they benefit from a bottom up articulation synchronization can be very big as the size of anti iraq war global demonstration in 2003 testifies. testifies
  • This journey is something like "the promise" of participation in the forum".There are people who stop in the first circle of activities (activities unrelated to initiatives), others who go in the second circle (activities that mention and discuss initiatives), or in the third (agoras of futures focused on intercomunication about and participation initiatives)."After" these agoras there are people who get actively involved in public actions of various types linked to some initiatives that were intercommunicated in the agora while others don't.


MEDIUM TERM SOCIO POLITICAL IMPACT OF PARTICIPANTS IN A FORUM PROCESS

  • The outer circle of the diagram represents the " calendar of futures", collecting in a same shared document the public actions dates linked to the initiatives presented in a given forum-space-event process.Graphically, those actions appear numerous and diverse in size and in their qualitative nature. nature
  • These actions contribute to a "meta-strategy" of diversity 360 degrees in all sectors of social life.On the other hand, the relevance and coordination of some actions / initiatives can be worked in articulations of participating entities formed or reinforced in the forum, which share a same specific strategy.These are "coordinations from below", without facilitators of the forum giving priorities or guidelines. guidelines
  • Until now, this vocabulary of initiatives with actions is not part of the "generic conceptual software of the forum", owned massively by its participants, such software is limited to "activities", among which self-organized assemblies stand out.
  • This "shortage of available participation formats", partly explains the "temptation of the big assembly", felt by some process-event facilitating collectives. It consists in privileging some assemblies in relation to others, and placing there the participants in a "situation of consent " listening to "texts of convergence" drafted by only a few participants and signed by no one, that are like light and fast substitutes for initiatives timely and patiently "built from below". below"
  • A "methdology of initiatives", complementing a "methodology of activities", could develop around the usage of this format of participation in WSF processes. It is starting to be explored and implemented: see 2017 working group in international councilhttp://openfsm.net/projects/transitionci/descripcion-iniciativas-e-agora-informe-enand modest implementation of agora of futures in wsf 2018http://openfsm.net/projects/sobre-agora-dos-futuros-fsm2018/agorafsm18-articulo-de-presentacion-marzo-2019/#EN

    FACILITATION / CARE OF A FORUM PROCESS

    • In the "commented" disc and circle diagram (image below) "facilitation" (or "care" of the process)is mentioned as element 3. These are all the tasks that allow the process to proceed and the event to occur.
    • Facilitation/care corresponds to a collective initiative to create and take care of a specific forum process, with the conformation, of afacilitating groupthat takes up, as a service to the community of future participants in the considered process , the task of "giving concrete shape" to this particular forum process, which is included in the WSF process in general.
    • Facilitating / caring for a forum process consists in designing and implementing the formats of participation and organization of facilitation, based on the accumulation of WSF experience. This experience can be accessed in particular in proximity with WSF international facilitation council.
    • There is need for clear conscience that contributing to facilitation is not entitling to be leading in the production of contents in the open space that is facilitated. These contents (discussions, declarations, etc.) are produced in own name by the participating entities that are using the formats of self organized participation provided by faciltiation,They carry the political dimension of what happens in the event process.
    • The entities and people that contribute to the facilitationthrough committee, commissions, work groups, personal volunteering etc, take or receive their "facilitation tasks", Those tasks are focused on the formats of participation, the macro planning and online logistic of the process, physical and onine logistics, and macro programming of the event.
    • Faciiltators / caregivers to the process know how to separate these facilitation tasks from their own "acts of participation" in the event process that they contribute to facilitate.These acts are focused on their own participation goals, with the production of informative, educational and political content in their own name.
    • The facilitation / care community of a forum process,as long as it respects the prinicples, has the collective capacity/legitimacy to "shape" the open space and the "set ups" ( combining web sites, web spaces physicla spaces, online forms and social networks, online and face to face presence of volunteers) that implement the methodology defined in this caregiving community. community

    A LEXICON FOR CARING FOR THE ORIGINALITY OF THE SOCIAL FORUM PROCESS

    • The forum is a sui generis space and format that therefore does not fit into the current widespread language elements categories and vocabulary used to talk about networks and collective organizations. organizations..
    • Networks and organizations usually have modes of co-optation, decision, representation, The forum as a space does not have members but participants, does not decide anything ( the facilitating collective does, but not on contents in the forum) , does not represent anyone.( same for faciltating collective). collective)
    • Taking care of the vocabulary and language elements used to talk about the forum is thus important.itAllows to consolidate concept understanding and formulation in words .For this proposing and updating lexicon of words, including some diagrams such as those presented here with small texts and illustative links to concrete example can be very useful contribution . A recent proposal for such a lexicon is herehttp://openfsm.net/projects/metodologia/possible-fsm-wsf-lexicon-doc4-en

    globe-logo.png

    COMMENTED DISK AND CIRCLE DIAGRAM

    It comes with the appearance of the missing element 3: the facilitation, and more comments for each of the previous 4 elements 1 2 4 5

    • Element 1 highlights the relevance of asserting the generic values of the participants, and valuing the identity of " WSF participant". participant"
    • Element 2 highlights that common spaces are not deliberative , with light facilitation stimulation of self organized on line encounters which can be good preliminar discussions between specific participants before decision to prepare joint activities and formulate joint initiatives. initiatives
    • Element 3 introduces the notion of facilitation/ care of the forum. forum
    • Element 4 recalls the notion of entities political responsibility about self organization of activities. activities
    • Element 5 explains the relationship between announcements of initiatives, public actions, agora of futures, calendar of futures. future
    • wsf-disk-commented-journey-70-EN.png

    FROM EVENT TO PROCESS

    • The forum has appeared en 2001 as an event alternative to another event in Davos started in the 70's, and it is still largely perceived as an event.The charter of principles affirms however that the forum is a counter hegemonic "process".
    • The diagram highlights this permanent process dimension, because the notion of event does not appear in the diagram; diagram
    • The promise of the forum is a promise of medium term, In the few days of an event, the intercommunication that can be seen cas a reflection of the potentialities, present or not, in the intercommunications held during the process since months before this event.
    • If the process has been shallow with a weak level of previous intercommunications, the people who physically arrive at the event can not accelerate the time : the simple fact of meeting and recognizing each other takes time, and also they may arrive "alone", that is without having a clear delegation of their entities who stayed back home. Thus they are in less favourable conditions to be able work on articulations and convergences and issue strong commitments to concrete actions in the name of their entities. Also if there is no online participation in the event they have no time to convey and get feedback from their entities. entities
    • This can be summarized "as the event cannot substitute for the quality of the intercommunication process which surrounds it ". "

    CENTRIC EVENT OF A PROCESS EVENT FORUM

    • A particular forum process, whatever its form, takes place in a certain "geographical-thematic space" and a "spell of time". When there is a centric event the process is in relation to this "centric event", which will concentrate many activities in one place and time, and giving variable emphasis to "activities before the event", and activities after the event.
    • If a "central event" of a particular forum process is considered, which is an accumulation of activities in space and time,the "agora of futures" can be the form of a final moment of the centric event, where a "calendar of futures " becomes visible", as document shared among the participants informing about the post-event, Its existence does not imply that all the participants are supporting all the initiatives / actions contained in the calendar.
    • This is answering at the same time: the will to make concrete results of the process visible in terms of initiatives supported by explicit articulations, and showing the diversity and horizontality of the forum space, with the fact that "nobody speaks on behalf of the forum".See here theaccount of agora of future in fsm2018.See here the document CI working group oninitiative methodology .
    • When there is an event at the center of the process, in a context where the central event is given great importance, 3 subcommunication processes can be distinguished: distinguished

      • 1 / the intercommunication process before and after the eventbetween the people who will be physically present at the event(people focus the event, and "preparatory activities" and return activities). activities)
      • 2 / the process of intercommunication before and after the event betweenpeople participating in the process outside the event(in time and space): people approach the local and interlocal process through local activities open to participation online and in the online participation in the central event. event
      • 3 / the process of "delegating intercommunication" between the two groups of people 1 and 2 in occasion of local or preparatory activitiesor return for example, with the possibility ofdelegating / giving mandatesto those persons / entities, who attend the event on:
        • contents / activities / initiatives to present and work on activities and initiatives. initiatives
        • commitment of these delegates to specifically open activities in the event, to the participation and line so that their "constituents" can participate online with them. them


    PROMISE OF PARTICIPATION AND ACTS OF PARTICIPATION

    • The space of the forum is primarily a place of meetings, and popular education for its participants.The open spacecreates an environment that impacts a lot and sometimes changes people's lives. lives
    • Beyond this dimension present for all participants, "the promise" of participation in the forum corresponds to a "generic trajectory of active participation" symbolized by the arrow in the diagram.The promise can be expressed as "Moving from individual participation as a person or entity to the involvement in a diversity of collective actions of social transformation, co-assumed by diverse articulations of collective entities participating in the process".From individuals to collectives. From dialogs to initiatives. initiatives
    • This promise can be concretized through various "participation acts" that are equally accessible to all participants, some to others, to collective entities, using criteria that are inspired by the charter of principles: horizontality, diversity, expression in their own name and in explicit articulations, without speaking to the name of the forum that is not an organization but a space-process.
    • On this last point "FSM space or organization", we can read a recent contribution of a group of Brazilians who started the WSF process worldwide event in 2001. See here:http://openfsm.net/projects/wsfic_fsmci/salvador17-input18 /#IS

    globe-logo.pngB / 6 Rectangles Diagram : Generic "acts of participation" at the disposal of WSF participants

    PRESENTATION OF THE DIAGRAM

    • In addition to the previous "Disk and circles "diagram , this "six rectangles" diagram focuses on the generic autonomous "participation acts" of the participants in a forum space-process, made available accesible by their "facilitation instances" (facilitating committee, with its commissions, working groups, and volunteers).
    • The diagram shows in more detail the interrelations and possible sequences between these acts of participation that proactive participants can combine to advance in their journey towards their participation goals,. goals, .
    • The 4 elements present in the Disk and circles diagram are complemented with two elements: elements.
      • 1 / Facilitation acts (element 3) are included, which sustain the concretization of the process make the process proceed and all proposed participatory set ups operate.
      • 2 / The acts of internal organization of the diverse articulations that take initiatives (element 6) are also included.These are no longer in the "perimeter of the forum space" as defined in the disk and circle diagram. They allow "organizing and concretizing " in the daily social and political acting of the participants, the decisions and planning that they made in the intercomunications they had in the space of the forum.

      rectang-FS-EN-70.png

    COMMUNICATING AND DOCUMENTING FROM THE FORUM

    • It should be noted that the communication about self organized activities and initiatives is part of these same acts: see the verb "promote" in elements 4 and 5. And It could also be added "document" since documentation is a tool for making available to those who did not attend the counter hegemonic dialogues and contents created during the intercommunication activities in the forum process. Documentation is a prerequisite for dissemination. dissemination
    • From the facilitators perspective, there are some main tasks about communication: communication
      • Communicating disseminating what the forum is ( and the disk and circle diagrams could be disseminated in this perspective) and what facilitating community is doing to keep the process going,
      • Making sure that information about modalities for perfoming acts of participation and modalities for improving quality of collective on line and face to face intercommunication are properly disseminated among participants. participants
      • Stimulating acts of communication /documentation from the participating entities themselves, about what they do in the open space including among them the entities considered as alternative media.

    WEB SPACES AND WEB SITES

    • "The facilitation of the process-event" will define and implement, by consensus in its instances, these formats / acts of participation along with a macro-planning to invite and host online and face to face, the people and entities in the practical participation in the process-event.
    • During most of the timeframe of the forum process considered, the process-event website or a web participatory environment combining published pages , online forms and a structured set of interactive social network groups are the main visible concretization of the forum's intercommunication space.
    • It is also where participants announce. their main participation acts such as: inclusion in the process, declaring and describing activities and initiatives, merging activities, documenting these activities and initiatives - announcing dates of public actions, etc.
    • This "six rectangles" diagram can be relevant to inspire the design of a web participatory environements webspace or website of a forum process.

    globe-logo.pngCOMMENTED VERSION SIX RECTANGLE DIAGRAM

    • Element 1 highlights the importance of the self inclusion on line form, that can have a short basic version and an optionnal second half allowting to create a pubilc profile that other participants can browse. Also inviting to diferentiate inclusion in the process from registration in the centric event. event
    • Element 2 + 3 highlights that common intercommunication spaces are not deliberative , they come with light facilitation for information of just arrived participants and stimulation of self organized "on line encounters" which can be good preliminar discussions between specific participants leading to possible decision to prepare joint activities and formulate joint initiatives.
    • Element 3 highlights importance of informing the participants about the "time and space area of the considered process" and defining the online forms to announce and place activities and initiatives in the process. process
    • Element 4 +5 recalls the notion of articulation of severa entities for co organizing activities and initiatives. initiatives
    • Element 6 is focusing on the self organizing of lasting initiatives struggle projects campaigns etc. Initiatives that exist before the process seek reinforcement through the process and may have their own webspace. They can have "contact spaces" accesible in the WSF participants. Promoters of initiative emerging in the process may also be interested in using spaces accessible in the wsf process environment ( such as spaces accessible in

      www.openfsm.net).

      wsf-rectangles-facilitation-participation.png

      www.openfsm.net)

      wsf-rectangles-facilitation-participation.png

    globe-logo.pngC/ Perspective about future of WSF process and overal facilitation

    C1 LIMITATIONS PERCEIVED ABOUT BASIC WSF METHODOLOGY

    • ACTION DIMENSION From 2001 to the present, the global forum event process has essentially been based on self organized activities (element 4 In the disk and circules diagram). From the beginning in 2001 till 2006 there was some attempts to collect "proposals" emerging from activities, Then the focus shifted towards introducing in the macro program of events a diversity of 20/30 self organized convergence assembllies established in 2009 with exception of wsf 2018 which are documented here :http://openfsm.net/projects/convergences. the question of the format of a final moment of a social forum event has been on the table of internacional council since 2009 and not properly discussed throughout 2009-2017. 2009-2017
    • INTERCOMMUNICATION DIMENSION in practice, element 2 the notion of "common intercommunication space" with facilitation without incidence in content, has been object of little methodological discussion and implementation since 2001.In some events the thematic axes have shaped in a geographic common location of activities linked to the axes but with no common space welcoming intercomunication. In some events there have been "facilitated spaces" which were single room spaces where facilitation was acting on the content . The contents produced have been a "speech of everything and nobody," which has fed unsigned final statements final statements , very close in format to declaration in the name of the forum.excluded by the charter of principles.
    • INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL LOW METHODOLOGICAL ACTIVITY absence of continuity of methodological discussion, let alone progress, since 2009 has been made more serious with the stopping of methdology commission in the international council in 2011, leaving in practice methodology to adhoc groups and short plenary discussion moments . From then on only very few plenary discussion on event methodology have taken place.
    • FRUSTRATION AND FAST TRACK QUESTIONING OF CHARTER This lack of methodological activity has resulted in a feeling of stagnation of the forum methodology in design and practice felt by many participants who are legitimately concerned with political outcomes in the forum process and their public communication by facilitators in relation to article 7 of the charter of principles.
    • Lack of focused discusion and concrete colectively owned experimentations about WSF methodology has in turn transformed in some case in a "fast track" questionning of the notion of open space and the charter of principles.This can be viewed this way "The charter is charged in substance with the inefficiencies of its implementation". implementation" .

    C2 CURRENT PERSPECTIVES ON COMMON INTERCOMMUNICATION SPACES & INITIATIVES AND AGORA/CALENDAR OF FUTURES

    • The exploration of possibilities linked to elements 2 and 5 of the diagram represents a great potential for "qualitative development" of the practice of the forum, which in turn, combined with the development of online participation, can help its attractiveness its replicability and its " quantitative development ". "
    • ELEMENT 2 Common intercommunication spaces, for preliminary self organized encounters which might be incubatng self organized activities and initiatives. Developing practices of visible facilitating presence with good information invitation to participants and light impact on contents they produce.
      • Those spaces can be relevant at the beginning of a process , long before a centric event if there is one, they can also be implemented during a face to face event. This requires a reliable facilitating team that is self coordinating around a "comission for development of the process" which could be replacing the traditionnal "mobilization commission" which is expression of a process that is reduced to the event. event
    • ELEMENT 5 Announcement of initiatives with action dates intercommunicated public actions in agora of futures and made visible by futures calendar of future specific to each WSF process and updated some months .
      • in 2017 there was with one moment of discussion in IC plenary on basic WSF methodology "Question for a dialogue -how to integrate in the WSF methodology the actions of participants for the transformation in society andunder what form should the final moment of the WSF event be" - http://openfsm.net/projects/ic-extended/icextension-salvador17-16oct-evening-methodology-discussion-enwithout enough time to adress properly the raised issue which resulted in the creation of an adhoc working grouphttp://openfsm.net/projects/transitionci/descripcion-iniciativas-e-agora-informe-en .
      • The change from "proposals" to "initiative" stress the autonomy of the promoting groups for those initiatives , which are not proposals expecting approval of an undefined "third party". party" .
      • The formulation of one to three signiticant signitican action dates for each initiative is inviting the promotors of initiative to be concrete in what type of concrete public action they plan, and clarify the distinction between goals tasks and public actions -This explicitation tends to make discusion on the initiative more concrete and concreteand raise the quality of contents produced in intercommunication around the initiative.
      • Description of initiatives Finally allow to assemble a calendar of future as a collective shared as a product of an agora of initiatives. initiatives which is an action

    C3 INTERNATIONAL WSF FACILITATING COMMUNITY, HORIZONTAL SELF-SUSTAINED AROUND INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL

    OVERALL PROCESS FACILITATION DIMENSION LIMITATIONS

    • From 2009 the challenge of formalizing an horizontal overall WSF process has been visible : there was discussions in two international council meetings Casablanca and Montreal about "global year of action for 2010" involving many different process-events , and no practical methodology and project for a collectively owned webspace have emerged at that time.
    • From then on the international council has limited its work on overall process to censing verbally in each meeting the list of "events" in the preparation of which present members representatives were involved. involved
    OPEN QUESTIONS
    • How to manifest the general WSF process , understood as the diversity of non competitive process formats ,with temporary existence around events , and viewed together as diverses expressions of a common general process.These processes in general have a duration of two years under the responsibility of the same facilitating caregiving group. Then there is a practical renewal of this group as it is linked to another event context. context
    • How to maintain horizontality between the formats and expresion of the process and their caregivers while creating an environment of pragmatic cooperation between caregivers of various processes. It is not about creating pyramid or concentrating responsibilities of centralized common resources.The brief experience of a central budget development of the process in 2009-11 has shown the limitations of this scheme. scheme
    RECENT STEPS AND PERSPECTIVES
    • There was informative discussion of January 2017 in the CI on the subject of "IC dynamics "http://openfsm.net/projects/transitionci/transicionci-porto-alegre-agenda-3-groups-17-proposals-for-dynamics-of-icthere was no time to review the proposals and in the discusion the fact of being able to think let alone organized the facilitation of the overall process was questioned. questioned
    • The document advocated a lean IC secretariat and proposed a series of working groups working not with payed secretariat staff but with time contribution from IC member entitieshttp://openfsm.net/projects/transitionci/transicionci-porto-alegre-agenda-list-of-possible-ic-working-groups
    • An example of possible product of such cooperation in groups is this WSF calendar of events that is updated since 2012http://openfsm.net/projects/wsf2012-support.This could be done from a community facilitators / caregivers of forum processes, supported through a series of working groups that could emerge and be maintained in relation to a common caretaker entity such as the international council,
    • The fact that from 2018 facilitating committee of thematic or geographical forum processes are systematically accepted as member entities in the international council is a first step towards the possibility of developping intercommunication among such faclitating committees under the form of working group by the international council.
    • This would imply creating and maintaining under monitoring of iC secretariat a relatively simple web space set up with working groups and online meetings and the publication of missions and progress pages.Such a device can be inspired by ongoing experiences focusing on the development of the particular process-kiosk with zero budget. budget
    • Operating such IC related working groups would imply an explicitation of the capacity of contribution in time of people (representatives or not) linked to IC member entities - This could be done through an online form. form
    globe-logo.pngSome concluding considerations
    • This document has not been about actors active or less active and contents produced or not in WSF process in the context of authoritarian capitalism. it has been focusing of the formats of the based WSF methodology derived from WSF charter of principles and accumulated experience with the assumption that methodology is a strategic issue in an horizontal process.
    • This document is not considering fast track modifications brandished by some participants such as defining WSF as a movement with assemblies at the end of social forum event, or international council as a political direction of the process, reflecting in a modified charter of priniciples, on the ground that those modifications are distorting fundamentally the notion of "facilitated open space" which is essential characteristics of WSF process.
    • The WSF proposal /initiative still stands after nearly 20 years . If it is taken seriously it is to be developped by its promoters to reach "counter hegemonic size" as an horizontal "process of processes " made up of a diversity of processes, each coherent enough with WSF principles, so that it can coexist and overlap in a mesh mode in time and space,
    • Propose something alive long term propose the WSF process open spaces as counte hegemonic community spaces developing in the medium term where participants feel empowered to perform participation acts, and feel strengthended by their mutual visibility and interactive presence. presence
    INVITATIONS TO WSF PROCESSES FACILITATORS
    • METHODOLOGICAL WORK IN OWN PROCESS
      • Promoters of a specific processes have interest in informing properly a growing "community of "WSF participants" conscious to be such, and provide them with relevant methodological info about the process and relevant participation formats and set ups
      • Lack of collective care about the format and methodology of WSF basic methodology , con coexist with valuable effort made in some specific processes.
      • Developing hands on methodology in area of common intercommunication spaces and announcment of initiative as a basic participation format seem particularly promising. Disseminating and comment the" disk and circles" diagram to participants is also a way to promote such formats
      • Concrete faciltators goal is that participants will be willing to use "implemented WSF methodology" as a common organizing tool for collective self help in sustaining resistance and building other possible worlds.
      • Beyond "facilitators" , final ownership of the WSF process is by its participants. If there is methodological care and progress felt by participants in some of the process-events to come , word of mouth effect may appear for greater participation . Participants may feel empowered to perform participation acts, and feel strengthended by their mutual visibility and interactive presence
    • COOPERATION AMONG WSF FACILITATION AROUND INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL
      • Facilitators of each such WSF specific process can meet and talk on line in a series of online working groups around an inclusive and "facilitation focused" international council.
      • This would result in some coherence of views, inspiration from one process to another, and some pragmatic cooperation capabilty for visibility of the global process and for development and dissemination of its basic methodology .
      • if the WSF methodolgy remains collectively uncultivated and uncommunicated ,the process will be perceived as fragile and in decline both by certain facilitators and by participants .Alternative proposals with fast track solutions with incomparably less development potential than WSF will continue to be brandished.
      • Cooperatron of facilitators around IC is a manifestation of common care about the process and can be communicated and feed a positive image of the process to participants