Programme for Babels International Meeting: stage 2

PRELIMINARY REMARKS

When it was proposed, the aim of the International Meeting was to discuss among Babels members and other actors involved in the Social Fora as to Babels’ role and contribution in the WSF process, as well as to how to improve our contribution to this process.

Initial proposal for the meeting: click here.

This proposal was publicized in Babels’ forum for discussion, and several activities were proposed. The first deadline to propose activities was March 1st.

Since then, several discussions have taken place and it is time that we attempt a first grouping of activity proposals or, in certain cases, to divide certain activities into separate activities.

We have finished stage 1 of the program process as outlined in the initial proposal.

Now, we must go through stage 2. This involves networking and an initial regrouping of activities.

We have to do this for several reasons:
– logistic constraints, such as funds, location for the venue, and time: there is not enough money/time/space for an unlimited number of activities to take place in June.
– we should try to produce meaningful outcomes, not just give the opportunity for a small group of people to talk about their pet project without actually talking with other people.
– we should aim at providing maximum coherence to these activities, all the while promoting cross-fertilization between activities.

WHAT’S NEXT?

We urge the promoters of activities to start to talk with their new co-promoters. As of now, our aim is to start sharing experiences, proposals, etc. in order to draft preliminary working documents by May 1st. After the ’brainstorming’ stage, we must start to propose coherent discussions and proposals.

Participants in these discussions are urged to contribute to this effort by using the wiki, the chat, the forum... whichever tool necessary to come up with a set of documents which will be useful for all the *other* participants of the International Meeting. A more detailed document which will help you use these tools properly will be published soon.

It is essential that clear documentation be drafted in the next 6 weeks by these groups. This will determine the way the Program workgroup will be able to actually organize the physical meeting in June in Paris so that participants can go to *other* workshops than those they worked on until then. Let us not forget that it is essential that what each activity does is explained clearly to the others, as it will determine our work in the months/years to come.

GROUPING ACTIVITIES: PROPOSAL

The programme workgroup proposes that the following activity proposals be grouped together. For the sake of clarity, we are reproducing the titles and links of the original proposals.

Note: some initial activities appear several times in the following list. This means that we suggest that they ’divide’ themselves into several activities because their initial proposal is too broad or concerns several activities.

Activity 1 – Charter, autonomy, social territory...

Includes:
– functional organization that is non-hierarchical [mateo]
– Activity-EN/FR-Self-managing teams/Equipes auto-gérées [judith hitchman]
– Activity-EN/ES/FR-Babels’Charter/Carta de Babels/Charte [bettina]
– Activity-EN/ES/FR-Social Territory/Territorio Social [ljesover]
– Carta de Principios: Autonomía y Autonomía financiera [ivonne]

Activity 2 – How to mobilize and to establish networks

Includes:
– Babels Enlargement in the Balkans and in the Eastern Europe [AnLa]
– Sub-Activity-EN/FR-Creating new networks-TRAINING [David Leye]
– Activity-EN/FR/ES-Creating new networks of volunteers [David Leye]
– Sub-Activity-EN/FR-Creating new networks-SHARING [David Leye]
– Proposed activity - Translation and International Labor Comm [prophet]
– Activity-EN/ES/FR-Social Territory/Territorio Social [ljesover]

Activity 3 – Training and selection

Includes:
– Projet d’activité sit-prep/Proyecto de actividad sit-prep [Jesus]
– Modelo de preparación de intérpretes no experimentados [miguelsojo]
– Professionals vs non-professionals [jfk1]
– Optimización de selecci—n/nueva base de datos [miguelsojo]
– Transparency in the process of selection of volunteers [Silvia Leta]

Activity 4 – Written translations and lexicons

Activity 5 – Diversity of languages and experiences

Includes:
– projet sur la diversité linguistique [monica]
– Diversidad Lingüística y Políticas de Inclusión ES/EN/FR/PT [ivonne]
– Valorisation de l’expérience [steph]
– Sub-Activity-EN/FR-Creating new networks-SHARING [David Leye]

Activity 6 – Alternative equipment

Includes:
– EQUIPOS DE INTERPRETACIîN / INTERPRETATION EQUIPMENT [cruzma]
– Activity proposal - Recording a Social Forum [spyros]
– Activity proposal - Translation equipment [spyros]

Activity 7 – Electronic tools

Includes:
– Optimización de selección/nueva base de datos [miguelsojo]
– Electronic Tools / Alternative Interpretation Systems [yan]
– Activity-EN/ES/FR-Social Territory/Territorio Social [ljesover]

Activity 8 – Analysis of social forums

Includes:
– memory of social forums [nico]
– thinking/analysing social forums (FR - EN to come) [nico]
– Activity-EN/ES/FR-Social Territory/Territorio Social [ljesover]

NON-PROPOSALS

There are several proposals or ’discussion threads’ which either do not correspond to what the meeting is about, or they are too vague, or they actually correspond to what the *whole* meeting is all about. People who participated in these threads are urged to try to merge with the proposals outlined above.

– Wiki training at June meeting ? [lorraine]
– Proposta: Babels Art / Proposal: Babels Art [mnario]
– Organización de temas [Maria Fernanda]
– MANUAL DE ORIENTACIÓN PARA PARTICIPACIÓN DE BABELS EN FSM [miguelsojo]
– Activity-EN-Solidarity Action [AlexeiDrozdov]

For the program workgroup

Jeanne, Bettina, Yan