[LINK] Internet enhanced meetings for post-Copenhagen

[Richard Chirgwin]

2c worth ...

Anyone can consider the "gab fest" a failure. All they need to do is 
define a set of objectives that the Copenhagen conference didn't 
achieve. "I want a cut to 200ppm, Copenhagen didn't deliver, therefore 
it was a gabfest and a failure".

But back to the idea of virtualising the conference ... I can't see how 
you would expect all governments, regardless of their current access to, 
or familiarity with, technology to suddenly become Web 2.0 delegates, 
just because a few people come from countries that are familiar with the 
concepts (and probably have relatively few people who are capable of 
effectively using the tools, ignoring whether the tools are or are not 
appropriate).

Such an approach would almost certainly exclude huge numbers of 
countries or, worse still, make their participation dependent on access 
to experts from (say) the US etc - in other words, it would have 
alienated the third world even more than happened. Suggestions that 
Copenhagen should have been conducted online are one-eyed - "because I 
can use these tools, everybody worthwhile can use these tools".

RC

Marghanita da Cruz wrote:
> Ivan Trundle wrote:
> <snip>
>   
>> It's also totally ludicrous to assert that it was a party or junket for those attending: or that it was merely a gab-fest. There are some countries such as Tuvalu or Kiribati that want action now and for very good reason.
>>
>>     
> <snip>
>
> But that is their position both before
> and after the gab-fest - but in the mean
> time, the sea level has risen.
>
> Marghanita
>