Hello all,
I am writing to you to revive the issue of including more African CNs in the CNSIG, and to get your vote to create an African mailing list for the CNSIG.
A bit of background:
- As you may recall John Dada from Fatsuam and I participated in a workshop on CNs at the African Union Commission in June, this coincided with the African ISOC Chapter meeting where CNs were also further explored.
- In addition earlier this month Zenzeleni hosted the
African Summit on CNs in South Africa (ISOC and APC).
- Both events and many other interactions between CNs in the continent have led to a growing movement, interested, support and the creation of common/shared resources between CNs, support from awesome groups such as
AfChix and also politically.
- There is a growing momentum to support current and fledgling CNs and I believe that it would be very positive for the CNSIG to have input and interactions with African based CNs, and visa versa.
- I have previously proposed including another African CN and this request got very little feedback. After chatting about it in the SIG and individually with members it seems that there are two main barriers when it comes to working together cross regionally: 1) there are some language/ social barriers, 2) there are certain region specific contexts that only interest/ pertain to the region at hand. These barriers seem to hinder participation not because anyone is against it, but rather through lack of time, focus or understanding.
Proposal:
I would like to find a way to align the CN movement in Africa to the CNSIG. After chatting to Nico E it seems that a good way to start engaging with other interested members is through a mailing list - as with LAC. The mailing list (
africa@lists.cnsig.info) would be open to all, and focus on African CN based themes. What Nico and I agreed is that we must make sure that the regional mailing lists somehow feedback to the council so we can also gain from the global experience.
Kindly give your vote regarding the opening of the African mailing list for the CNSIG.
Thanks, Sol