The WSF databases

Information is power.

Information about the World Social Forum, as is information about: - 15.000 NGOs (their details, address emails etc.) - 100.000 persons (their details, gender, passport numbers, emails etc.) - communication to the above - all the documents that have to do with the WSF it is a huge amount of information and hence powerful.

Free software (2)

Choosing Free software is not a question of technic, is a question of freedom. Free software provides to all fundamental freedoms and complies with the ethical principal of solidarity. Using proprietary software is immoral and the WSF cannot use proprietary software. Building of The Other World passes through a clear option for free software.

The WSF web sites and Internet communication tools. The WSF web sites and internet communication tools have to be democratic. Democratic and free web sites and Internet communication tools must operate using free formats, free protocols and free interfaces and ust allow all the NGOs to:

- post news and information; - freely use the materials available; - have space to inform the others about themselves; - have a place that allows everybody openly to participate, cooperate and interact with the others.

The WSF must move to be a permanent forum on line 24/365.

According to the above, Hipatia urges that all the databases, web sites, Internet communication tools, software and the complete Information Technology infrastructure of the WSF complies with the following principle:

1. privacy of the personal data

Every personal data collection, handling and processing should be made in accordance with the options made by the data owner; Every personal data collection, handling and processing should comply with the highest international standard of personal data protection provided by the most advanced legislations in this field; Anonimisation of the personal data should be the dafault rule; Personal data owner should be allowed to ask for publication of as much data as they like; Personal data retrival should be difficult for spammers; Nobody should be allowed to collect, handle or process anonimized personal data; Only persons who undertake to respect all the above rules will be allowed to manage databases containing personal data.

2. free software

In all the IT of the WSF should be used only free software.

3. Data to all

Every NGO and person partecipating in the WSF should be allowed to access all the data of the WSF which have not been anonimised by the data owners.

4. Democratic communication

The WSF IT infrastructure should allow persons and NGOs to interact cooperatively and point-to-point. Point-to-point communication should be possible even for the NGOs and persons that opted for having their personal data anonimized at all or in part. One-to-many communications should be minimized and subject to policies of transparency and pre-approval requirement.

5. Democratic WSF web sites and Internet communication tools The web sites and Internet communication tools of the WSF must operate using free formats (3), free protocols (4) and free interfaces (5). The web sites and Internet communication tools of the WSF should allow all the NGOs to have equivalent possibilities to access the web sites and Internet communication tools. All the materials put on the WSF websites should be published under a free licence (that allows everybody to use, to propagate and, as long as they are documentation, to modificate, the materials). Centralised and controlled areas of the WSF web sites should be minimised and are acceptable only if such control is clearly necessary for organizational reasons.

————————— NOTES

1. In all the document the world free has the meaning of freedom. Free as in “free speech”, not as in “free beer”. 2. Free software is a matter of the users’ freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software: - The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0). - The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this. - The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2). - The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this. A program is free software if users have all of these freedoms. 3. free format means a data format free of any privative right by any person for which a clear and complete technical description is publicly available. 4. free protocol means a communication protocol free of any privative right by any person for which a clear and complete technical description is publicly available. 5. free interface means a program interface free of any privative right by any person for which a clear and complete technical description is publicly available.